I’m often asked by leaders what messages they should be communicating to their teams.
The purpose of leadership communication is to inform, inspire, engage and unite your team. And with this in mind, I believe the most important messages to communicate are those that:
- Connect your team with the big picture
- Instil a sense of confidence
- Foster a culture of collaboration
Last time we spoke about messages that instil a sense of confidence. Today we’re looking at messages that foster a culture of collaboration.
Fostering a culture of collaboration means breaking down silos and sending messages that replace a “them and us” mentality with the feeling that “we’re all in this together”.
Open lines of communication
To do this, you first need to open the lines of communication…or the channels of communication between:
- you and your team
- within and amongst your team, and
- between your team and other stakeholders.
These lines of communication should be a healthy mix of:
- one way, two way and multi-way communication
- one-to-one, one-to-few and one-to-many
- online and offline channels
- formal and informal channels
Creating a shared sense of experience
With the lines of communication open, you can begin sharing – and encouraging others to share – messages that foster and highlight collaboration…and nothing fosters collaboration like stories that convey a shared sense of experience! So start sharing stories from your team:
- Success stories – examples of people in your team bringing your purpose to life!
- Stories that help team members get to know each other
- Stories that demonstrate key learnings or best practice
- Stories of the good, the bad … and the ugly!
- Stories that highlight behaviours that support the vision or personify the values of your team…and when you see your team acting on those suggestions, acknowledge their behaviour and share their story.
The inspirational power of ‘we’
As you share these stories, remember to be inclusive and inspiring – “here’s what we have accomplished together…imagine what else we can do!”
If you are passionate and inspired by the stories, your team are more likely to be so too.
By opening the lines of communication and encouraging your team to share information and stories, you show transparency, demonstrate trust, break down silos and unite your team with a culture of “we’re all in this together!”.