One of the crucial strands of effective project management is having successful communication among members of your team. When communication is improved, the overall understanding of the project improves, deadlines are completed on time and results start to occur more quickly.

Here are five simple habits that we encourage to help improve communication in your team:

1. Raise staff morale. Building in team events where your staff can get to know each other fosters better communication and higher morale, meaning they will work together more effectively in the workplace. There are plenty of ways this can be achieved, whether it’s organising a weekly get together every Friday after office hours, planning a keep fit event one lunchtime a week or working together to raise money in a fun way for charity.
2. Open door policy. Being approachable fosters an environment where individuals feel able to be truthful, honest and open. Managers setting a good example will help other staff to adopt this attitude of clarity and trust.
3. Be clear about roles and responsibilities. Staff need to know what is expected of them so that they can fulfil their job objectives. If you don’t tell them the expectations, they won’t perform what you expect them to. This may lead to their own frustrations as well as yours, with them feeling stressed and unclear about what it is they should be doing. Being clear from the word go is paramount.
4. Respect that communication is a two-way street. Just telling people things without giving them chance to respond is not a good road to go down. For example, if you tell your member of staff that their report is not up to scratch, expect them to be able to ask for constructive feedback and share back and forth how you can both move forward.
5. Use suitable forms of communication. Being clear with your staff and having a protocol of how you expect them to communicate is important. Do you expect them to use an online chat system to communicate between one another? Or do you have scheduled meetings where everyone can communicate openly every Monday morning? It may be a good idea to offer communications training to anyone who you think would benefit from it.

Successful communication is a crucial part of any work force and can massively effect the efficiency and success of any organisation, not just in project management!