Communication is an effective tool in any work environment, applying effective communication with your colleagues will set a cordial atmosphere at work. Effective communication minimizes misunderstandings at work and also maximizes work efficiency. Communicating with your colleagues also produces healthy working relationships that allow you and your coworkers to resolve issues collaboratively; this will in turn create more fun and less stressful work environment.
For effective communication to occur, everyone must trust and respect each other. To build trust with your colleagues, you must act consistently and with integrity. To earn their trust, communicate, collaboratively, and confidentially with them while showing them respect. Clear and concise communication will allow your colleagues to understand and then trust you. As a result, there will be more cooperation and less conflict in the workplace. Your main objective for communicating with colleagues is to lay the foundations for trust.
Listening actively shows that you’re interested in what your colleague has to say and that you respect them. Listen to them closely, orienting your body towards them, and look at them directly as they speak. While they’re talking, don’t interrupt them. You’ll only be able to understand what they’re trying to say if you listen to them closely and wait for them to finish speaking before you reply. Then ask questions to clarify any issues you may have. Most importantly, don’t email or text while someone’s talking to you.
Get to know your colleagues better by talking about your personal lives during breaks or after work. This is also a good way to build trust. However, you mustn’t get too casual in your conversations, especially in the office, as it might make the other person uncomfortable. Make sure that all communications, including your work emails, phone calls, and meetings are professional, and avoid using offensive language in the office.
Don’t expect your colleague to listen to and read everything that you’re trying to tell them because there are just not enough hours in the day. Try to avoid giving them complex explanations and recommendations with the expectation they will understand everything straight away. It’s best to keep your communications short, simple, and direct.
It’s also advised that you keep emails to one or two paragraphs to prevent people from becoming bored and skipping over the most important part of the message. If you do have a lot of information to cover use bullet points or subheadings to make the email easy to scan for recipients.
Speaking with discretion prevents any misunderstandings with your colleagues. Face-to-face communication helps with building trust and openness, and it enables you to sense and understand someone’s viewpoint and feelings. Also, talk face to face to resolve disagreements or fix complex problems, and use clear, friendly, and polite language.
Some people like communicating via email while others prefer talking on the phone, texting, or using social media or instant messaging. Use the method of contact that the other person prefers. If someone doesn’t answer a call but responds quickly to an email, then use email to contact them. However, using email and social media makes it hard to determine the tone of a message. To avoid misunderstandings, it can sometimes be better to speak face to face.
If you won’t be in the office for a long time, set up an automated message letting your colleagues know that you’re not in the office and when to expect a reply from you, or who they can contact when you’re away.
CONCLUSION
Overall, when communicating with your colleagues you should maintain confidentiality, and treat them as you’d like to be treated. It’s also important to have open lines of communication between colleagues to better serve each other.
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