3 Ways to Improve Team Communication & Effectiveness

Have you ever been on a team where you didn't know it's actual goal? Even worse, have you participated with a team where there was no clear indication of who is leading? These situations are more common place than ever. There is a growing trend towards virtual teams with the flattening of organizational hierarchies and the expanded use of social and cloud technologies for team coordination. This virtual team reality presents a challenge to traditional team leadership in fast paced business environments.

I often lead virtual teams towards a sales goal or a specific sales pursuit. As a leader, I often run into difficulties in getting team members who do not report directly to me to follow my lead. From my own experience, I offer three suggestions that have helped me, and will hopefully clarify and improve team communication and effectiveness in your workplace. 

1. Communicate with more people. I'm sure you've heard the adage, "listen more than you speak." Well, that might be generally true to gain wisdom, but "writing more" might be making a comeback. A study by Glückler & Schrott showed "people were acknowledged leaders because of corresponding with more people."  Their study also revealed that leaders had more effective networks when they had a higher degree of non-redundant contacts than others. So communicate in more ways to more people to improve leadership.

2. Be the broker of team communication. Team members are more likely to be acknowledged as the leader if they broker dialog between the other team members. Brokering the dialog is also very applicable when organizational roles are not clear and work needs to get done. Leaders had much more efficient and effective use of email than non leaders in the Glückler and Schrott study.

3. Consistently communicate team goals. This recommendation may seem like a bit of motherhood and apple pie, but many teams in today's workplace lack a clear vision and goal for what they are trying to accomplish. When teams have a clear vision, it is much easier for participants to understand how they fit in with the team direction and what there specific contribution can be to achieve the overall goal. So even as a leader of a virtual team, you can create the vision and goal and communicate that effectively to the team. As you write your emails, reiterate the team goal. Get right to the point (goal, issue, problem) in our emails, team meetings and other communication.

These recommendations seem to culminate in the habit of a leader communicating often, with clarity and purpose, and with more people. This can be especially impactful in a sales or selling environment, but can have a positive impact in many business scenarios. Studies show that leaders can be effective, even when they do not have hierarchical power. As leaders, we can provide regular, detailed, and prompt communication with bosses, peers, and direct reports, articulating role relationships and responsibilities among the virtual team members, for maximum effectiveness.