A guest consultant from the Association for Consulting Expertise addresses a familiar business challenge by first asking, “Who needs to know?”
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Q: How do I to communicate successfully with a team?
ACE Advises: Communicating effectively with teams is challenging, particularly for busy managers. A key component in building and maintaining an effective team is the communication of appropriate information consistent with team members’ skill sets and job responsibilities.
Whenever planning to share new information, a manager should take the time to first consider this question and encourage her team members to do the same: “Who needs to know?”
Then the message must account for these other questions:
- What are your team member’s job description and primary responsibilities? Is the information relevant to her primary function?
- What is each team member’s skill set in relation to the information to be shared? Information not directly related to a team member’s job description or responsibilities can be helpful if the information is a challenge appropriate to existing skill sets, furthering his experience and career; or it can be helpful for the team member but cause loss of the focus on his primary task.
- Which communication tool will be the most effective?
- Coach the team to think about “who needs to know” when they are preparing to disseminate information.
Finally, to pull it all together, hold periodic team meetings in which each member provides a brief summary about what she is doing so all are kept informed.
With information flowing across the team at appropriate times, team members are appropriately challenged, job expectations are fulfilled and the team is made stronger and more efficient.
Felicia Garant, owner of Garant Consulting LLC (garantconsuling.com) in Portland, can be reached at 207-232-4832.
