Communication is a fact of life, especially in the workplace, where teamwork, technology and remote work are increasingly common. For a business to thrive, meet deadlines and exceed goals, solid communication systems and relationships must be in place.
When stress, unmet expectations, relational breakdown, low morale, dissatisfied clients, family problems, health concerns and a smaller bottom line become chronic workplace issues, poor communication could be at the root of the problem.
For example, High-stress levels in the workplace are a huge sign that there are communication problems.
Poor communication can create a feeling that everything on your to-do list is urgent, causing you and others to hurry, feel tense, overworked and have little-to-no sense of humor.
Effective communication is important in every organization. It is something which helps the managers to perform the basic functions of management Planning, Organizing, Motivating and Controlling.
Importance Of Communication In An Organization
The importance of communication in an organization can be summarized as follows:
1. Communication promotes motivation
By informing and clarifying the employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the mark.
2. Communication is a source of information
It help the organizational members for decision-making process to identifying and assessing alternative course of actions.
3. Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individual’s attitudes,
i.e., a well informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual. Organizational magazines, journals, meetings and various other forms of oral and written communication help in moulding employee’s attitudes.
4. Communication also helps in socializing.
In today’s life the only presence of another individual fosters communication. It is also said that one cannot survive without communication.
5. As discussed earlier, communication also assists in controlling process.
It helps controlling organizational member’s behaviour in various ways. There are various levels of hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines that employees must follow in an organization. They must comply with organizational policies, perform their job role efficiently and communicate any work problem and grievance to their superiors. Thus, communication helps in controlling function of management.
Problems Leaders Face In Communication With Staff:
Communication skills whether written or oral form the basis of any business activity. To practice effective communication in an organization, There are some problems leaders face in communication with staff:
1. Lack of Listening
Only one person on your workers recalls being told about a new procedure or a need that you’ve addressed several times. This happens quite often. Or, employees complain that they give information to you or to others, as asked, and are told that it wasn’t received.
This act destabilized leader’s objective. The information passed by the leader in a given situation maybe be relevant for smooth running if the organization.
However, the solution to lack of listening in in leaders communication with subordinate in an organization is that leader should ensure everyone have something to say, and very often, make sure that they wait for their turn to speak, instead of listening to what’s being said. Emphasize the importance of active listening, and be sure that they practice it by themselves.
2. Overloaded Communication
With so many ways to communicate, from person-to-person to texting, being in the business world can feel like information overload. Between leader and workforce in business communications, it seems as if there’s a constant onslaught, and the only reasonable solution is to disengage.
Employees that have pressing deadlines will ignore texts and phone calls, and many don’t check their email. Important messages about meetings, statistics and problems are sent but not seen.
How a leader can solve this problem in an organization is to encourage streamlining for all communications. These days, most business communication is via email.
It’s vital that everyone have separate personal and business email accounts, and that they maintain a business-only policy for their business email account.
This may involve unsubscribing from communication not work-related in their business email. Instruct everyone to put the most important point of the email in its subject line for easy scanning.
3. Lack of Concentration
In fact this is very common in some organization; most workers pay no attention to information conveyed even when they know such information may be responsible for the success or failure of the organization.
A leader may have been satisfied with the information he disseminate to his or her workforce.
After meetings, including important meetings, people often don’t seem to know what was said or what action they need to take. It’s almost as if they weren’t even at the meeting.
This problem can lead to low productivity and less specialization in an organization. To solve this problem, a leader while communicating must make sure that the attention of the audience or workers are call up to action to keep them alert and aware of the conveying information.
Leader can also motivate the workforce with refreshments to keep the communication atmosphere and also to maintain some degree of social interaction.
4. Bad Tools or Noise
Outside interference in communication is also known as noise. A bad phone connection can interfere with communicating effectively over the phone. If the Internet is down, it can keep an email from reaching another person.
Another type of noise involves the communication channel you use. Talking on the phone can cause communication error because the sender and receiver aren’t able to see the expressions on the other person’s face.
This entire problem can lead to ineffective communication by the organizational leader.
5. Emotional Breakdown
Anger, joy, resentment and sadness are a few examples of emotions that can interfere with the adequate information or message. If any member of the workforce just experienced a funeral, such person may be too sad to grasp the message or information conveyed by the leader and accept that life goes on or things will get better.
Anger is a particularly interfering emotion. A couples worker who are angry with one another should wait for another cannot assimilate whatever his or her boss is discussing at a particular time until he or she overcome such emotions.
It is hard to successfully receive and passed message when ones emotion is not rightly placed. If a leader have unpleasant emotion, such leader would rather commit fallacious statement when communicating with his or her subordinates.
How To Get Rid Of These Problems:
Here, are the steps to get rid of the Problems Leaders Face In Communication:
1. Leader should maintain mutual Relationships
To get rid of the problems leaders face in communication with staff, effective communication must be practice to building relationships between leader, staff members and between levels of employees, both on a professional and social level.
An atmosphere of open communication makes it safe for employees to express their ideas; as a result, you will have the benefit of your staff’s combined experience in coming up with innovative solutions.
Communication prevents employees from feeling isolated, builds teamwork, and creates a more collegial atmosphere in the office.
When leader fair played, the relationships become strong in such a way that employees make the leader responsibility less tedious and they become better able to trust one another and work together more effectively.
2. Leader should entertain Clarity
In an organization, confusion and ambiguity can create negative feelings and a tense atmosphere. By making roles and responsibilities clear to every staff, you can give your employees the information they need to get their jobs done; this is particularly important when your employees are dispersed or come from different backgrounds.
In doing so the leaders work would be tension or pressure free. Communication reduces misunderstandings and cuts the costs associated with mistakes.
3. Exercise Collaboration
Leader should exercise collaboration and cut short an image of superiority, I know the problem of superiority is common in Africa but if a leader really wants to experience industrial revolution he or she must try to cut short imagination of superiority.
Effective communication can help your employees collaborate effectively, which will make for a more-productive team overall.
When you have multiple departments who are working on different facets of the same project, communication can streamline the process and improve the end result.
When your staff talks openly to each other, they can communicate potential issues, requirements and feedback that can make the result stronger.
Communication can ensure that everyone is on the same page and prevent problems down the road. Effective communication is required at various levels and for various aspects in an organization.
