“What is effective communication?”

If you’ve ever worked on a team that had a crazy amount of chemistry, you already know the answer. Everything they touched was gold, they produced more than any other team combined, and they had fun doing it.
Unfortunately, you know that that is not the norm. Most teams have people you don’t like, that one person that doesn’t do anything, one person who shows up always talking about their personal life, one person who thinks they’re better than everyone else, and you have to try and make it work.
So, what’s the difference between those two teams?

I would say it all comes down to how they communicate!

Good communication skills are at the heart of successful team building. A survey conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) reported that one out of five projects are unsuccessful due to ineffective communication. This underlines how essential communication is within a team, where each member must understand not only their role but also the roles of their team members, the team’s objectives, and how their collective efforts contribute to these goals.

Effective workplace communication goes beyond merely exchanging information – it’s about understanding emotions and intentions behind the information. Two studies by Watson Wyatt Worldwide were performed in 2003 and 2005 to identify which communication practices deliver the best return.

The studies confirmed what we’ve all suspected: good internal communication correlates to higher levels of employee engagement and lower turnover rates. This statistic underscores the importance of addressing poor communication issues if the common goal is team cohesion and enhancing overall team performance.

Show Notes: 5 Key Elements of Effective Communication