Clear and confident communication is an important team development component – whether it’s communication from a team leader to team members, or communication between members of the team.
Communicating confidently is a key element for a team leader and for individual team members as well. It means that a level of trust has been established where team members are comfortable speaking clearly to the team about concerns, issues, solutions, and accomplishments.
What’s the fastest way to build confidence in yourself and others? Focus on success. Focus on accomplishments.
We’re sometimes told, when we’re not feeling great about ourselves for whatever reason, to “count our blessings,” as Bing Crosby once sang – or list our past accomplishments. This is a fantastic way to build confidence – except we rarely remember all of an individual or team’s accomplishments.
Instead, make a habit of writing down accomplishments when they happen – whether big or small, whether individual successes or team wins. Did the team meet its stretch goal three months in a row? Did Stacey come up with a faster way to process a customer help desk ticket? Write down the date that it happened, and the names of everyone involved. Mark it in a notebook with a pen, or type it into a spreadsheet on your laptop.
As a team member, keeping a record of your accomplishments and your team’s accomplishments helps them stand out from the day-to-day challenges. Many of those successes can be added to your resume, so having the details months down the road is a huge help. Even better is the knowledge that you and your team are achieving their goals, and that’s a great feeling.
As a team leader, that list of team and individual accomplishments is a marker of success. It can also be a good morale booster – for example, a monthly stand-up meeting where team and individual successes can be highlighted from the list provides a burst of motivation from proud team members.
Building confidence in the way teams communicate with each other is just one element of effective communication. Communicating clearly is essential to effective team development, and there’s a little more to this skill than just being confident. I’ve got a nearly foolproof method that will make sure you communicate your ideas to the rest of the team without being misunderstood. I’ll cover that in another post.
Excerpted from One Team, One Dream by Gregg Gregory
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