With the start of a new year, you’re likely to see more people heading to the gym to improve their fitness. Maybe you’ll observe some individuals with nicotine patches trying to kick their bad habit. New Year’s resolutions are commonly associated with personal goals, but it’s also important to set objectives for your professional life.

Think about what your "workplace" looked like before the COVID pandemic. Did it look ANYTHING like how it does now?

If your organization is like most, the answer to that question is likely "no".

When it comes to where employees get work done, how they communicate, and what the typical workday entails, there have been monumental shifts in many companies across most industries. 

This shift presents a unique set of challenges:

1. Many employees are on different schedules
2. Not all team members can communicate fully face-to-face
3. It's difficult to convey tone and emotion using many remote communication channels that are being used more and more

It's crucial for you as a business leader to find ways to overcome these challenges, and keep your remote or hybrid team communicating clearly and effectively

Fortunately, there are some simple tools and strategies you can use to improve your team communication despite these challenges. 

According to a study performed by Watson Wyatt, businesses with effective communication practices are over 50 percent more likely to report that their employee turnover levels were below the industry average.

It’s not a secret that effective communication training increases productivity and employee morale. And yet, doesn’t it seem like communication skills are often taken for granted or overlooked?

These communication skills are even more important in managers. 

Don’t expect your employees to come with perfect communication skills “built-in”. Instead, train them to become great communicators.

Peter Drucker says, “The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.” This isn’t to say that no responsibility lies on employees, but that performance and productivity gaps can often be remedied by improving managers.

Conflicts happen in every workplace. They can start with a simple disagreement and often escalate into an argument that impedes the productivity of a team.

Although conflicts themselves are common – effective resolution of those conflicts tends not to be. Even though it may not always be possible to avoid conflict completely, It’s important to be able to recognize common causes of workplace conflict to help stifle them early on.

High-performers who are ambitious and want to grow tend to be top-picks when it comes time to promote someone to manager.

When it comes to communication between a manager and their team, there is always room for improvement. Improving workplace communication across your organization should be a goal for every business leader, and one that brings increased productivity to your team. When it comes to being a manager, having the ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important skills to have. 

Billionaire businessman Warren Buffet told a classroom of business students that being an effective communicator doubles your value in the workplace. Buffet said that he would give $100,000 to any student in the room in exchange for 10 percent of their future earnings. And if the student was an effective communicator, he would increase the bid by 50 percent because the investment had more value.

Why to Delegate

Most leadership roles involve a variety of tasks that — simply put — cannot all be completed by one person. Sometimes leaders feel they must take up the reins of all of these tasks themselves to ensure they are done properly.

On the contrary, delegating some of these tasks to employees can improve task efficiency and benefit the organization in ways that aren't obvious at first. A study by Harvard Business Review determined that delegating can actually increase the income and overall efficiency of organizations. Not only does delegating empower others in the organization, it helps optimize the performance of the group. The more members who are included in the ownership of projects, the more efficient your organization will become.

Don’t know where to begin? Let's walk through delegating from start to finish. Feel free to download the delegating template to help you follow along with this blog.

Why you should care about reducing employee turnover

You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase “people don’t leave their job, they leave their manager.” Companies around the world are learning how true this is, and are making concerted efforts to decrease employee turnover by improving their managers. In Gallup’s study, State of the American Manager, 50% of workers surveyed have left a job to “get away from their manager at some point in their career," and "at least 75% of the reasons for voluntary turnover can be influenced by managers."