To handle the challenges thrown at you over the last 18 months there’s no doubt, you and your team had adapted and pivoted out of necessity. That’s great, but there were consequences.
When things are supposed to be getting more back to normal, teams have an overall sense of discord. Teamwork, culture, and turnover issues are bubbling to the surface.
When work environments adjusted to survivor mode, what happened was the task list became the focal point of much, if not all, of team communication. A to-do list does not form a good relationship.
Team connections have depleted.
For many, the long-term effects of heads-down survival mode lead to impersonal and transactional discussions. Conversations solely surrounding the facts and data don’t help you reach your team for long-term success. Your team is looking to you to build trust with them.
The primary communication of running through a list of tasks has broken down collaborative communication needed for a fully functioning team. This breakdown of communication chips away at the trust your employees have in your organization.
Building trust creates a culture of genuine communication with your team. More than ever in our hybrid world, gaining back trust is important.
It’s tough to build trust in a virtual atmosphere. Start by intentionally leaning into consistent interaction with your team. Shift your conversation focus to ideas, opinions, and genuine discussion.
During this type of conversation, invest the time in listening to your team on a more personal level to better understand their point of view. Steer away from only talking about tasks and data, then dismissing the meeting.
Your team wants to be heard and understood.
We are now living in a more virtual environment. The hybrid office is most likely here to stay. Collectively the workforce is demanding something different in their pursuit of work-life balance. Leaders must lead differently.
Without open communication, your team feels left behind and in the dark. Remote workers, even before pandemic conditions, have often expressed a feeling of not being able to “read the room” and being excluded from the rest of the team. Real conversations will cut through this feeling and bring about true engagement.
Learning how to communicate more effectively after being in survivor mode for so long will benefit both leaders and teams. If you are feeling the effects of discord within your team, it may be time for a connection tune-up for your office. Schedule a complimentary consultation to see if our Communication Impact Workshop is the right fit for your organization.
The first secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you work with so that you can make use of their strengths.
Peter Drucker
