This question came in from a senior leader working to ensure their communication has a broad organization-wide impact:

“Hi Karin, We have a lot of moving parts around here. I’m quite sure my senior team is with me. They get it. They understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I’m concerned about the cascade, is our leadership communication making it all the way through the organization?  What advice do you have?” #AskingForaFriend

3 Master Techniques for Effective Leadership Communication

1. Speak the Common Language of “Why”

Ensure your senior team can articulate the “why” of your projects and the big-picture vision of your organization. When someone truly understands the “why,” they’ll make better decisions. It’s not just about them nodding along. You want to ensure that every member of your senior team is an expert translator– articulating the vision in terms of specific actions and behaviors. So if employees hear “EBITDA” from you or another leader, they understand “what I need from ya.” That’s the moment the abstract becomes tangible, vision becomes action.

In your leadership communication be sure to translate strategy into relatable actions and practical habits so that the entire team can connect the dots when they’re working. Then, check for understanding to hear back from them so you’re sure they are on board.

2. Turn Monologues into Dialogues

If you have a town hall or end-of-year meeting, don’t just use that time to talk about vision and strategy. Give them an opportunity to really work with your strategic initiatives. Be sure they get a chance to think and talk about how the strategy is going to work for their team. Give them a chance to share their ideas.

Have them to consider how the initiatives inform their own projects. And, don’t forget to make room for real talk. Give people a safe space to ask real questions and answer them with transparency and candor. Our clients will often add an “Asking for a Friend” Q&A to their all hands meetings. This gives employees an anonymous and fun way to ask questions, and the senior team answers.

3. VIP Invites: Bring a Friend Staff Meetings

Another effective leadership communication technique is “bring a friend” to staff meetings. In these meetings, your executive team can bring a high-potential employee to join the discussion. These “friends” bring additional perspective. It also gives people an opportunity to learn more about what’s happening strategically and how decisions are being made. Those managers then return to their teams with newfound insights and a deeper sense of belonging.

So there you have it – a deep dive into leadership communication that goes beyond the surface. Remember, leadership communication is not just about talking, but about creating understanding, alignment, and inspiration that resonates throughout your organization. And since this is an ongoing conversation…what would you add? What are some of your favorite techniques to ensure your strategic communication flows through your entire organization?

Ready to rally YOUR team for breakthrough results with Let’s Grow Leaders?

Establish a Courageous Culture of critical thinkers, problem solvers, and customer advocates in your organization with a Team Innovation Challenge or Executive Leadership Workshop. These strategic innovation events – in person or virtual – will help shape the culture of your organization, skyrocket employee engagement, and clear the path for increased team innovation.

Let’s Grow Leaders programs are highly customized to your organization’s needs, hands-on and interactive. Get ready for leadership development that sticks.

Check out this related article:

All-Hands Meeting: How to Ensure Yours is Amazing and Worth the Investment

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So what do you do when your well-meaning, enthusiastic team-member is just talking too much in meetings?  It’s tricky, particularly in virtual meetings.

“Hi Karin, I watched your #AskingforaFriend about how to encourage people to speak up more in meetings, but I’ve got the EXACT OPPOSITE CHALLENGE. I’ve got a well-meaning, really strong performer, who is talking too much. I don’t want to squash his enthusiasm, but I also don’t want him to shut other people down. What should I do?”

Three Ways to Get More Voices in the Room

3 Ways to Encourage a More Inclusive Conversation

1. Go directly to the employee who is talking too much

Of course, the obvious place to start is to have a caring, straightforward conversation with the employee. Ask them to help resolve the issue by taking some ownership around bringing more voices into the room. If this person is talking too much, chances are they are confident speaking up in a group and have some influence among their colleagues.

So, they could try using their voice to empower others versus stealing the show. If you need some pointers on how to initiate a challenging conversation read this article, How to Start the Conversation Everyone Wants to Avoid.

2. Reset expectations for the entire team

Inclusive and collaborative meetings are essential for driving innovation and fostering a thriving team dynamic. It’s not just that you want the employee who is talking too much to talk less….you want other people to talk more. You want everyone to have an equal opportunity to share their ideas so you can unlock the full potential of your team. Invite everyone to come prepared with one idea on how to make your meetings more inclusive.

You might go a step further and dedicate an entire session to idea generation to get the wheels spinning. Download our free I.D.E.A. Incubator Guide to hear less from the guy who is talking too much and hear more from the rest of the team. Using a structured facilitation technique will also make it clear to the person talking too much that you’re not interested in letting one person monopolize the conversation.

3. When people are talking too much, use the power of chat

To make sure everyone has the chance to speak up try using the chat feature or other technology tools. One way to do this is before you ask a question make it clear you want everyone’s input. Stop one person from talking too much by asking everyone to put their fingers on their keyboard and get ready to respond. Then take time to read some of the responses out loud to let your team know you’re paying attention.

You could also leverage technology tools to facilitate equal participation, especially in larger meetings or remote settings. Try programs like interactive polling apps, virtual whiteboards, or collaboration software to give your team alternative ways to share their ideas. This way the ones who aren’t talking too much have a chance to contribute, regardless of their communication style or level of extroversion.

Lastly, don’t forget to recognize and celebrate the contributions of each person on your team. Regardless of the size or impact of their ideas, they need to know that their voice is important. Create a courageous culture where people speak up and idea sharing and innovative thinking are normalized. By doing so, you promote a sense of collective ownership and inspire individuals to share their ideas.

That’s a start. What are your best practices for keeping one person from talking too much and making your meetings more inclusive? Please share in the comments below.

And, if you’re ready for your teams to accelerate performance and create sustainable positive culture change from within, download a free demo of our Team Accelerator manager-led program here.

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When you’re working in a remote or hybrid team, having a common agreement on your email best practices will save you gobs of time and frustration. Start with subject lines that tell the reader exactly what you need from them and when. Talk about who it makes sense to cc, and when. Create team norms for when to ditch the email and send a text for a quicker response. And, of course, ensure everyone knows when to pick up the phone or schedule a meeting for deeper conversation and decision-making.

In this article and the video below, I share some of the biggest challenges that derail email communication and best practices to prevent them.

5 Email Best Practice Tips For Teams

1. Create a subject line protocol that tells your reader exactly what you need them to do
2. When it comes to email less is more: Summarize, synthesize, and use bullets
3. If the topic is complex, contentious, or emotional pick up the phone or schedule a call
4. CC to share information, not for escalation
5. Slow down and read what you’ve written

And Avoid These Mistakes

I’m going to assume you’re way past email blunder basics: replying to all with snarky remarks, sending the note intended for your partner to your boss, or emailing when you’re angry, or after that second glass of wine.

Here are a few common email mistakes to avoid.

Mistake #1: Cryptic Subject Lines

The biggest frustration I hear from nearly every team I work with is cryptic subject lines.

• “I shouldn’t have to read three-quarters of the way down an email to figure out what it’s about!”
• “I just wish the subject line would tell me what I need to do by when!”
• “Sooo….I woke up this morning to fifteen emails that all just had the subject line that read ‘update.’ I have no idea what kinds of updates, so I have to read them all to figure out what they are about. I’m so busy today and I have no easy way to prioritize my attention.”

Email best practices tips for teams #1: Create a subject line protocol that tells your reader exactly what you need them to do!

Tips for Better Email Subjects: click on the image to download a PDF

Mistake #2: The Barrage Effect

Early in my Verizon days, I was preparing a very senior leader for an impromptu meeting with the CEO on an important subject she knew little about, and the situation was evolving rapidly. I wanted her to be as prepared as possible, so I went through my inbox and forwarded the relevant information one email at a time.

One email had data, the other trends, the other some commentary that would give her a sense of the political landscape. I carefully commented on each one to explain the context and forwarded it to her.

The phone rang. “Karin, I’m searching my inbox for your name and deleting everything that’s come from you. Now I want you to send me one email with concise bullets I can share at this meeting, nothing else. It would take me hours to dig through all of this and figure out what is going on.

Email best practices tips for teams #2: When it comes to email, less is more. Summarize, synthesize, and use bullets.

Mistake #3: Your Email Should Be A Phone Call

Has this ever happened to you?

My peer sent me an email. I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, but it was REALLY ticking me off.

I filled in the blanks of my confusion with assumptions. He returned the favor. We went back and forth three times before we got to the root of the matter. We could have easily spared one another the frustration and misunderstandings if one of us had picked up the phone.

Email can feel easy and less disruptive than a phone call, but often wastes time and drains energy.

Email best practices tips for teams #3: If the topic is complex, contentious, or emotional pick up the phone or schedule a call.

Mistake #4: Too Many CCs

I could feel my direct report’s anger burn through the phone. “Why did he cc you on this email? I’ve got this! I’m not cc-ing HIS boss!” To the manager working hard to resolve this situation, this felt like an unneeded escalation.

Be sensitive to who you’re copying on a note and why. If you wouldn’t draw them into a meeting or phone conversation on the topic, you may want to think twice. Even better, establish norms of who will be copied on project emails.

Email best practices tips for teams #4: CC to share information, not for escalation

Mistake #5: Sloppy spelling and grammar

My phone rang. It was the head of HR “Karin, how could you recommend this guy for a senior role? I know you say he’s good, but let me forward the email he sent along with his resume.” I was shocked at the grammatical problems: “there” instead of “their” “to” instead of “too.” This guy’s a great leader and knows grammar, but he was moving too fast. His excited response cost him the job and embarrassed me for recommending him.

Email best practices for teams #5: Slow down and read what you’ve written

The most important email best practice is to talk about it as a team. One good “how we could do things around here” conversation can save hours of lost time.

See Also: Stop Emailing When You Should Have a Meeting 

And if you’re ready to accelerate team performance for breakthrough results while improving communication, connection and trust…check out our team development program Team Accelerator.

The post Email Best Practices: How to Send a Better, More Effective Email appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

What is a Check for Understanding?

All communication involves a send and a receive. A check for understanding is a simple confirmation that the message you intended to send is what the receiver heard.

In other words, is your team picking up what you’re putting down?

You ask your team to repeat back what they heard you say in a friendly, non-confrontational way. When you check for understanding, you are taking ownership for the effectiveness of your communication.

For example, “Thanks so much for your time today. I just want to ensure we’re all on the same page for what we’re each going to do next. What are the three follow-up items we agreed to?”

Or…

“We covered a lot today. I just want to be sure my communication was clear so you can explain this new strategy to your teams. Who can recap WHY we’re changing direction here?”

Why is a Check for Understanding a Powerful Leadership Communication Best Practice?

Of all the leadership communication techniques we share in our leadership programs, the check for understanding always rises to the top as one of the easiest to do, while having the fastest impact. It’s why we include it as one of the 6 leadership competencies you can’t lead without in all of our foundational programs.

Why? Because we always make sense to ourselves (if we haven’t been drinking 😉 But it’s surprising how often the meaning of a message can get lost in translation.  When you can check for understanding, you ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Not Just For Leaders

The check for understanding is not just for leaders. Communication is a team sport. We encourage the leaders we work with to teach this technique to everyone on their team and empower them to use it.  It’s even more powerful when everyone in the organization uses this as a common language and technique. It creates clarity and saves A LOT of time.

How to Check for Understanding

There are two ways to check for understanding: actions and emotions.

Check for Understanding #1:

The action-focused check for understanding ensures a mutually shared understanding of the activity. It looks like this:

“Let’s do a quick check for understanding—what are we doing after lunch?” “Yes—we’re all taking out the trash.” “And why are we taking it out?” “No, it’s not because we’ve done anything wrong—it’s because we’ve got another group in here after us and it’s going to smell awful if we leave it in the trash—and that’s what we’d want them to do for us.”

Check for Understanding #2:

I learned the importance of this technique from one of my favorite bosses early in my career, Ray Davidson. 

I was such an enthusiastic gung-ho leader I would end my meetings with such a flurry of gratitude and excitement that it made it really hard for anyone to challenge me or express their concerns. “Oh my gosh, thanks so much everyone this project is going to be fantastic. I’m so excited. Let’s go do it!!”

He taught me that I could build greater psychological safety if I calmly checked in with what people were really feeling.

The emotion-focused check for understanding gives your team a chance to process what’s happening and surfaces any issues that might arise. It looks like this:

Leader: “Great meeting. I’m super excited about this strategy. Before we end, I’d like to ask, how is everyone feeling?”

Team member 1: “Well, I’m excited about it too, but I’m also worried about how we will do this considering our other priorities?”

Team member 2: “I’m feeling overwhelmed. These are wonderful ideas and I really want to do them, but I don’t know where to begin.”

Once you know these issues exist, you can help your team move through them, adjust expectations, or remove roadblocks.

Your turn.

What are some of your favorite leadership communication best practices?

See Also: Failure to Communicate: What to Do When Your Team Doesn’t Get It

The post Check for Understanding: A Leadership Communication Best Practice (Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

As we shared in 6 habits of highly effective hybrid and virtual teams, the best hybrid and virtual teams have this in common— they work at it. They don’t take their virtual team communication for granted. It’s an ongoing, proactive conversation about expectations, what’s working well, and what’s not.

And, they talk through any frustrations before they’ve had too much time to simmer. 

Because even well-intentioned, high-urgency, human-centered teammates can have widely varied opinions about what successful team communication looks like.

Perhaps you can identify with a disconnect like this:

• “If they knew this was important, why didn’t they send me an email with IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED in the header?”
• “Why would they let this sit in an email, and not just Slack message me? I always respond immediately on Slack.”
• “I turn off my Slack notifications when I’m doing deep work. They should know that if something is really important, they should send me a text.”
• “Ugh. This was important. Why didn’t they just pick up the phone? How hard is that?”
• “This is ridiculous. This was an in-office day. And, I’m IN THE OFFICE. If this was that important, why wouldn’t they just come by my cube?”
• “I get that this is important, but I’m working from halfway around the world. I was asleep when the email came and by the time I could contribute my input, the decision had already been made.”

Everyone AGREES this was a highly urgent conversation. And yet, there’s a whole lot of frustration going on about why THEY communicated it THAT WAY.

Establishing Norms and Expectations Around Virtual Team Communication

The idea is to use this tool to support a conversation about how you agree to communicate during different circumstances. And then, translate that into agreed team communication norms.

Let’s Grow Leaders Communication Matrix

click the virtual team communication matrix image to download a PDF of the matrix to use with your team

HOW to use the tool

An easy way to start the conversation is to provide the tool to each member of your team and give them time to reflect on what kinds of communication work best for various kinds of topics, discussions, or information, with a focus on whether you’re in a synchronous or asynchronous environment.

For example, your team may decide that if we’re working at the same time in the same location and there’s an important decision to be made quickly, we’re going to pull up for a quick team huddle.

You may agree, in that scenario, you’re not going to spend a lot of time on email threads or Slack channels. You’re going to get together, make the decision, and follow up with an email summary.

Or, you may agree that even if you are all in the office, you’re not going to interrupt one another with less urgent matters. Those will be handled via your Slack channel.

This conversation is particularly critical for virtual team communication across time zones.

If your team is in different locations at different times, and you have an important decision to make, you may agree that all the information will be communicated in a Slack thread so that everyone can weigh in and share their views during a 24 hour period, before making the final decision (for more about “who owns the decision” see our Manager’s Guide to Better Decision Making.)

This tool is just the start to get the conversation going about communication preferences, what’s working, and opportunities for streamlining communication and making it more accessible. From there, you can create norms for your hybrid and virtual team communication as you continue your growth as a high-performing hybrid or virtual team.

See Also: 5 Communication Mistakes Screwing Up Teamwork

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What are the rules you’ve created that get in the way of you and your team’s success? What if there were a better way?

In this powerful interview with serial-entrepreneur, New York Times best selling author, and LEADx founder, Kevin Kruse, we discuss the vast power of co-creation and the ownership you can build in your team (and life). Recognize that Great Leaders Have No Rules (the title of Kevin’s most recent book) and how to lead yourself and your team in a way that transforms outcomes, is more fun, and doesn’t drive you or anyone else nuts.

Oh, and there are a few bits of marketing wisdom and personal leadership examples too.

Links from the show:

More about How to Improve Your Team Communications – and the Checklist

Learn more about Kevin Kruse

Check out Kevin’s LEADx project and podcast

The post Great Leaders Have No Rules-Interview with Kevin Kruse appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

You’re a human-centered leader who cares about results and relationships. Having a deliberate process and cadence of team communication will save hours of lost time, productivity, and drama. And, help your team connect more deeply with one another and their customers.

If you don’t have a formal plan for team communication  it’s worth taking the time to communicate about communication. Gather your team together for a focused hour and talk about the questions below, and then build your plan. It’s helpful to revisit the strategy once a month to see how it’s working and determine if anything needs to be revised.

7 Questions to Improve Your Team Communication

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.“
-George Bernard Shaw

1. What’s working/not working?

If you want to improve your team communication, start with the basics.

• What is working well about the way we are currently communicating?
• Where is communication breaking down?
• What do we need to be talking about more? Less?

2. Who are our stakeholders and what do they care about?

Knowing what information your stakeholders want, and when they want it, helps you reduce their (and your). And when you stay in front of the need-to-know curve, you serve everyone.

If you don’t know what your boss (or her boss) really wants to know–ask. Also if you produce and distribute reports and updates, it’s often wise to ask who’s looking at them. I knew one manager who just stopped sending all the mandatory reports his team was producing for three months, and no one noticed! I’m not suggesting this approach, but a quick check-in may save you some valuable time.

3. What more information do you need from me?

A great way to improve team communication is to start by asking what they need. Then it’s good to go around the room and have everyone ask this question. Be sure you’re clear on what you need from each team member and what they need from one another.

4. How will we use email?

If you haven’t talked about this explicitly, start with expectations. We have a tool that can help you navigate this conversation well here.

5. When will we meet (in person or by phone) and why?

Every meeting should have a purpose (tied to improving results or relationships). If the purpose of some of your meetings is simply to update, brainstorm alternative communication strategies.

6. How will we ensure our meetings are effective?

Talk about the best way to monitor meeting effectiveness  Do you start each meeting with clear objectives and desired outcomes? Do you stick to the agenda? Are action items clearly documented with responsible parties and follow-up dates?

7. How will we resolve conflict?

Talking about how you’ll address conflict and disagreements before you have one can go a long way in improving team dynamics. Agreeing in advance that you’re open to feedback and the best way to deliver it will also help promote healthy dialogue. Introduce tools such as the expectations matrix to help structure discussion.

So many teams settle for good communication when it could be great. Or worse, assume miscommunication is just part of working in a team. Checking in on the process every now and then will reap huge dividends in future productivity.

2022 Update: More Recent Team Communication Articles

Click the image to download assessment.

If you’ve found this popular article, you’ve landed on an early one 😉

Here are some recent articles on team communication you might find helpful.

101 Remote Team Communication Strategies

Team Conflict: How to Surface and Discuss Simmering Issues

6 Habits of Highly Effective Hybrid and Virtual Teams (with a FREE assessment)

Ideas Your Ideas: Practical Ways to Ensure Your Voice is Heard

7 Ways to Encourage Creative Thinking on Your Team (SHRM)

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