A speaker recommends improving team communication by directly asking each team member (and regular contacts) for feedback on clarity, effectiveness, and frequency. The advice includes asking specific questions (e.g., "Do I communicate clearly?" "Do you need to hear from me more/less?"), recording individual preferences, and creating habits to check in appropriately so communication is neither too much nor too little.
I was thinking about the concept of team communication. How are we communicating? Not just how are we communicating? How well are we doing it? Are we proactive? Are we clear? Are we wasting people's time? Are we not doing it enough? Are we doing it too much? And this brilliant idea occurred to me. Ask them. Go to each one of the members of your team, your key people, as well as anybody else who needs to hear from you regularly, and ask them how you're doing. Do I communicate clearly? Do I communicate effectively? Am I communicating often enough? Do you need to hear from me more? Do you need to hear from me a little bit less? Then you may even put specific notes next to specific people's names, maybe about how they like to be communicated with or when, something that creates a habit for us to make sure we check in with our people.
