10 min read
Nov 24, 2023
Imagine a situation where your employee notices that your website went down during the weekend. However, instead of tagging the dev team on Slack, they sent them an email, which went unnoticed for a long time. This is just one of the scenarios you can avoid with an effective communication strategy in place.
What are communication strategies?
A communication strategy is a code of conduct that describes how companies should communicate with their key stakeholders to deliver on the main business objectives. It relates to both customers and employees.
Let’s take a look at the different types of communication.
The three main communication types
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Verbal – as the name indicates, verbal communication includes conversations, speeches, phone calls, and other methods where you use your voice. That being said, context also plays a crucial role. How we speak – formally or informally, the tone, or where we do it – also affects how our spoken word comes across.
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Written – written communication is everything we communicate by text or in handwriting. It entails daily conversations like emails, chat messages, and content available to a wider audience (website copy, reports, or articles).
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Non-verbal – also known as “behavioral,” this type of communication includes everything you read between the lines. A person’s facial expression, body language, and even what they are wearing will impact how their message is understood. As we’ll discuss in the next section, there’s more to behavior and appearance than we might initially think!
Types of communication barriers
To get your communication strategies right, you need to be aware of the main communication barriers:
Language barrier – as people speak various languages, the language barrier is an issue that cannot be ignored. Multinational corporations or other businesses that employ people from all over the world must consider language fluency. Sometimes, it might be hard to express our thoughts or feelings in a language different from our mother tongue, which might lead to misunderstandings or even conflict.
Cultural differences – many seemingly harmless behaviors can come across as offensive to individuals from another culture. For instance, showing the soles of your shoes to a person from the Middle East might be considered an insult. These differences don’t end with how you sit or what you’re wearing. If you’re unaware of what’s considered taboo for the other party, you could be stepping on thin ice.
Psychological barriers – when we experience mental or psychological issues, we tend to communicate less effectively. Being depressed is just one such scenario. Employees who suffer from it are more withdrawn and aren’t too keen on sharing how they feel or what they think.
Character traits – it’s common knowledge that introverts and extroverts have different communication styles. While the latter is more open and chatty, the former is quieter and often less talkative. While there isn’t a golden rule as to the types of personalities that can clash while communicating with one another, chances are there will be employees who simply won’t be able to click due to character differences.
6 common communication mistakes
Below, we list the six most common communication errors. To make it more relatable to you, we give an example of each and discuss how you can avoid them.
Mistake #1: Interrupting
Effective communication should be a dialogue, not a monologue. Constantly interrupting the other person will lead to a one-sided conversation and discourage your conversational partner from speaking up.
Situation example: Your teammate who is struggling to create a marketing campaign approaches you and asks if they could run a few ideas past you. Instead of letting them explain what they came up with, you constantly throw in your own ideas. This prevents your co-worker from sharing their thoughts, and it’s not what they came to you for.
Communication tip: Let others say what they want to say, and you can express your opinion and ideas when they finish talking. You can even ask if it’s OK for you to share your advice now or if there is anything else they’d like to add.
Mistake #2: Failing to listen
It’s quite understandable that the person you talk to expects you to pay attention to what they’re saying. If you’re playing with your phone or looking around, you make it obvious that you’re not listening and aren’t interested in what the other person says.
Situation example: Your colleague sitting next to you in the office says they had a terrible weekend. They found out that their mom was sick, and they had to drive her to a hospital. Instead of being focused on what they’re saying and sympathizing with them, you’re scrolling through eBay for new headphones, which upsets your colleague.
Communication tip: Pay attention. To help you focus on your conversation, consider doing quick recaps or asking questions like, is your mom feeling better, or what did the doctor say? This applies to both professional and personal relationships. Repeating what others say and asking questions will help ensure you understand correctly.
Mistake #3: Expecting people to be mind readers
Unless you're a twin, telepathy is reserved for movies. If you want someone to do something, don’t expect them to figure it out; just say it out loud. What’s obvious to you, might not be as obvious to another person.
Situation example: Your office has a new office manager who’s just wrapping their head around how things work at your company. You notice that you’re running low on ink in the main office printer, but don’t tell the office manager about it as you assume they’ll see it. After all, they’re responsible for restocking office supplies and scheduling equipment maintenance. Unfortunately, the office manager doesn’t notice the alert on the printer and only finds out when a queue forms in front of the printer the following morning.
Communication tip: It’s always better to over-communicate than to under-communicate. In the above scenario, informing the office manager of the alert on the printer would have helped them out. If you don’t want to overstep and make other team members feel micromanaged, there are ways of informing them in a way that makes them feel grateful for your help. A simple “not sure if you’ve seen it yet, but an alert just popped up on the printer” would do.
Mistake #4: Letting emotions get in the way
When we are emotional we sometimes say things that we later regret. It’s best just to leave it for a while, and return to the problem when we are more emotionally stable. We will see the issue in a completely new light, and what initially seemed like the end of the world will appear way less scary to deal with.
Situation example: You submitted the first draft of an article that your boss asked you to write. You put in a lot of work; however, the feedback you receive from your manager is rather discouraging, and you disagree with some of their comments. Even though you're angry and upset, you respond to them immediately, using rather strong language, which leads to a conflict between you and your manager.
Communication tip: Wait for emotions to settle and deal with another task. You might interpret the feedback differently after rereading it, and remember that sometimes written communication might come across as harsher than intended.
Mistake #5: Bad timing
They say “timing is everything.” If you select the wrong time to discuss an issue, especially an important one, you might fail to get what you want.
Situation example: You want to approach your manager to ask for a raise that was promised three months ago. You accidentally heard them saying to their colleague that they had a very unpleasant meeting with the sales director, which clearly upset them. However, you are very impatient and decide to meet with your boss to ask for a raise anyway and they say no.
Communication tip: Wait for the right time. A day or two will most probably won’t make a massive difference to you, but might completely change the conversation's outcome. You could approach your manager after they found out that the financial results were amazing! They would be in a good mood, increasing your chances of getting that raise they promised you.
Mistake #6: Making assumptions
People often assume they know what another person wants to say before they hear them out. Wrong assumptions can create problems.
Situation example: Your company decided to create a new website. Your full-time designer created pixel-perfect designs and gave them along with specifications to a WordPress developer. After finishing the website, the software developer sends the designer the link to the new version and asks if they could both jump on a call the following day to discuss it.
Straight off, the designer sees that the coded website isn’t a perfect reflection of their design. On the call, instead of letting the developer take the lead, the designer begins complaining about the website's look, assuming it’s the result of the developers’ negligence. After ranting for ten minutes, the developer tells the designer that the final outcome is a result of technical limitations – something they were planning to tell them straight away on the call they proposed having.
Communication tip: Before drawing conclusions, make sure you know both sides of the story. Be it a situation like the one above or an employee taking quite a few personal days off (too many, in your opinion, upon first glance).
Different communication strategies you can use
Mute notifications and other distractions
It doesn’t matter whether you’re communicating with a group in a team meeting or on a 1-on-1 call. You need to give the person/people on the other end your undivided attention. Otherwise, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll miss important information and waste everyone’s time.
The number one thing I recommend is muting your phone or, better yet, getting it out of sight. The average US smartphone user receives 46 push notifications per day – if you add in work-related chat messages or calls, you can clearly see the scale of the problem! If you need to keep your phone on your desk, set an “in meeting” or “do not disturb” mode on your main communication channel. This way, you’ll make sure that anyone who decides to reach out knows that you’re currently unavailable.
Master the art of active listening
Does your mind ever drift away during a conversation or team meeting? Or, maybe, you’re focused on the conversation but tend to think of how you’ll respond before the other person finishes their sentence. If so, it means you have some active listening work to do!
A meeting or discussion isn’t about “winning a debate” so you don’t need to have a response to everything immediately.
Selecting the right communication channel
Depending on who you’re interacting with, you’ll need to choose the right channel. For instance, it might be the fastest to discuss project-related topics with fellow team members on your Slack channel, instead of emailing them. Or, deciding on the only channel you use to alert the rest of the team of a crisis situation.
Create a communication plan for information exchange
A communication plan creates a strict code of conduct for interactions with team members and any external stakeholders. Among others, it says who manages which discipline within the business, where each information type can be found (and filed), and how often various events occur. For instance, you’ll decide that all conversations with clients happen over email (for written) and Zoom (for verbal) communication.
Spot non-verbal signals
Particularly, if you’re discussing a controversial topic like a change in vacation policy, or how to resolve a dispute between the company and a client. If your team members (or clients, for that matter) start sitting with their arms crossed or avoid looking you in the eye, you need to restore their focus. For instance, consider engaging your clearly annoyed/stressed listeners by asking them questions and allowing them to share their emotions.
Effective communication strategies are key to good cooperation
To make sure that everyone at your business communicates effectively with one another, you need to follow a set of communication strategies. Among others, select the right channel for each stakeholder, pay attention to non-verbal cues, and detach yourself from your phone.
Most importantly, put all your rules into writing by creating a communication plan for internal and external interactions.
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