Even if you're on an individual job or part of a collective one, the way you interact with others is one of the key aspects of it. The communication is the trait that allows you to express yourself with others, relate to them and – on top of all – achieve your goals.
Let's see how to manage it inside a team.
Prevention is better than cure
Did you ever heard about this? This is my favorite personal rule and one of the best advices I'm able to give you, because it can be extended on each aspect of our lives. I'm used to apply it in my job in a very simple way:
When an issue shows off, raise your hand! 🙋
Yes, simple but effective. Especially in being part of a group of people, all coordinated to reach a common target. This represents one of your best weapons. Don't feel ashamed or worried in externalize your individual point of view. During different job processes related to different people, sometimes happens that something in it could encounter an obstacle. And that's the time the fracture in your framework could emerge in an easy or hard way during the work.
The best solution to fix it most of the times is to discuss about the issue with the rest of the team. Better all together – including your job supervisor – or to those related to your direct area of responsibility. They will help you as team member and your collaboration will bring you the solution naturally. Most important, you're acting in a caring way to your coworkers, your team leader and your objectives as well. And this is how a real job team works.
Don't hesitate: waiting is a killing enemy during this phase. Acting quickly will bring you the solving soon. At the same time, it proves your attitude to being reactive and ready to taking in consideration both your responsibilities and your team as well. Warn them, talk with your boss or job partner and place a dedicate meeting or discuss about it immediately. The choice is yours. Just be aligned with others availability and intentions.
Taking the initiative and act by yourself isn't the way, and someone could intend it as a red flag. Being propositive in your job is ok and essential as professionals, but remember that being part of a team means cohesion. Join forces with your teammates is your priority to solve the problem in the most convenient way for everyone.
I want to share with you a job example about how the communication could have been crucial if it would be used properly:
> During the development of a project, a colleague finds an inconsistency in the assigned blueprint. Basically, the approach chosen by the author wasn't compatible in a final environment. The colleague decides to apply its own workaround. Later, during the general revision, the leader finds the incongruence between the blueprint and the prototype, asking for a clarification. The colleague explains proudly about his actions, with great disappointment instead from his supervisor. His own initiative – took without a prior approval - forces the entire team to take their steps back and refactor the task in order to implement a different solution chosen by the leader. 🙇♂️
As you can see from this (not so) “funny” 😅 story, it's the result of a bad communication on both sides. The job role doesn't matter, because the final result depends by everyone.
This is a pill from my own career during my first experience in a team. Honestly, I'm not worried to talk about it, since that thanks to it and many other mistakes along the way, I definitely learned the true meaning of communication. As well as for my coworkers.
I talked about communication during bad job situations. But how to adopt it in a practice way, even not only in these scenarios?
Simple is better
If you want to start from the very beginning, try to make habit of some best practices that can really improve your job communication:
📝 Notes: when something comes to your mind, if you know that you'll inevitably have to report something to your coworkers, manager or so on, write it. During your job, keep always a notebook with you – physical or digital doesn't matter – in order to take notes of important things. This counts for simple ideas than meetings. Even discussions and all the situations in which you'll have to manage information of any nature, across your team and in your job generally;
♯ Comments: It's a common practice and at the same time one of the most underrated. Leave useful comments in your documentation helps you in the first place to have a better understanding of your own job. It helps you in your mind processes and even in your self-improvement. Last but not least, it's treasure for your collaborators in order to be always on the same page and joining you in your own tasks;
❓ Ask: Asking is so simple and represents an extreme resource for you and your job. It's never a waste of time to ask for clarification and about anything needed to do your work properly. You didn't understand a particular task? Ask about it. Your teammate forgot to send you specifications about his last implementation before sending it to you? Ask for them.
Many people are frightened about this last one for many reasons. They feel themselves stupid just for doing it, unconfident on how to approach others in their job and so on. But you're not stupid or clumsy. Simply you need to learn how to do it in an effective way. As introduced in my introduction post (read), the secret is to find the balance between our job and our wellness.
If you feel so, try to take your time first: before asking, meditate.
There are many way to meditate, the simplest one is based on breathing:
Inhale for 4 seconds;
Hold your breathe for 4 seconds;
Exhale for 4 seconds;
After that, make your question. You'll immediately see the benefits of meditation and how simple is making our job easier with these little strategies. 😉
Job: Utilities
In addition, here's a few well common digital tools that could literally make the difference:
💬 Slack (see): this application is designed to manage the internal communication of your team. It can be customized in different ways and supports many features. Available on desktop and mobile too;
✔️ Trello (see): the agile approach is well supported with this software, which brings the Kanban methodology (read) to your workflow. You can customize and control different related features both on single tasks than the team. From your browser, your desktop or mobile device;
🕰️ TrackingTime (see): it allows you to track every team member by his active working time. A dedicated calendar paired with a pool of various features helps you to manage the time of your team precisely. It's available for web & mobile too.
Of course there are different alternatives to these tools. Feel free to test them and use the most comfortable to you.
Remember, you're part of a team. You'll face many times situations like these in your job, but communicating never be a mistake. You have to trust your colleagues and their skills, as well as they have trust in you. The failure could be around the corner, but you must never be afraid about it. Failure means growth and your own personal growth will be value for the entire team as well.
Cheers to the next tip. 👋