Communication - A Two-Way Process
Read this article to understand the importance to two way communication in your business. Know how the higher management should engage with their employees by keeping different channels of communication open and what benefits you get from two way communication.
Did you know that the employees highly engaged in their work perform better? As a leader, it's one of your responsibilities to help employees stay engaged in their work. How can you do that? With two-way communication.
Put yourself in your employees' shoes. What would motivate you more: an hour-long speech by your manager about the next year's goals or an active verbal communication where you get to share your points? Most would choose the latter.
Using different types of communication positively impacts employee engagement. Communication itself means a two-way process of exchanging ideas, information, and thoughts.
Still, many leaders and managers continue to hold communication that is just information. That's why the industry experts highlight the importance of 7 Cs of communication to ensure effective communication. The best communicators know that communication is a two-way processWhat is two-way communication?
Communication is a two-way process to exchange ideas. We communicate in order to elicit some type of response. Some examples of a response could be requesting for more knowledge, a specific action, or some type of emotion. Communication on the other hand also plays a vital role in personality development. An individual with a pleasing personality is appreciated and respected by all.
Have you ever played tennis or badminton? If so, you would know how serving is as important as the back-hand volley. Every great match is filled with great serves and volleys both.
Similarly, effective business communication is an exchange of dialogs.
How do you ensure your business communication is effective and fruitful? How do you ensure you are heard? We have some quick tips:How to Use Two-Way Communication in the Workplace
1. Understand your audience and what's important to them
This relates to your employees' wants and needs at the workplace. Know and provide what your team wants and needs to succeed in their jobs, whether it's more clarity related to projects, training, additional resources, or anything else.
This should be your top priority to hold effective two-way communication. Next time you host a meeting or conference, try to find out the most important thing employees want to know. How can you encourage dialogue from your employees? How would you make them most comfortable for sharing input?
2. Choose or create channels
Once you have done the homework about your audience and work environment, find out the best ways to engage employees in a two-way conversation. Here, you will have to choose the right communication channels or even create new ones.
Need some examples? You can try some formal channels such as asking questions. Make it informal and more fun like "managing by walking around". The communication channels depend on the purpose of communication.
Remember, choose the way that will put your employees at ease to share their views and ideas openly.
3. Encourage and act upon feedback
You visit a newly-launched restaurant in town. You like the ambiance and food quality. The taste is just too exquisite. However, the service was very slow. While paying on the counter, you give nice detailed feedback along with some improvements.
You visit the same restaurant a few months down and you notice no improvement in service. At the time of payment, the manager again asks for your feedback. How do you feel at that time? It's the same feeling employees get when you ask for feedback every often and they see nothing has changed.
Your actions on the gathered feedback speak volumes to your employees. When leaders respond to the questions or ideas, it shows that they value their team's inputs. This encourages employees to be more committed and engaged, thus improving their performance.
You've now got many tips on how to channel a two-way verbal communication. What about the other types of communication such as written communication? How do you make sure you are actively listening to your team's ideas and inputs? How can you be a better communicator?
All these questions have one simple answer–learning essential frameworks such as ABC of Active Listening and Rule of Three to make messages effective and memorable.
The role of communication is vital in any part of our life. In working place, school or house the role of communication is important. Clear communication should be given for better results. Many people in the superior level give half baked or haphazard communication to subordinates and later if any mistake happens, they scold or accuse them. To give a simple example, when we board into an auto or taxi, we should clearly mention where we want to go so that the driver can decide the route etc. to reach the destination without any confusion.