As entrepreneurs/leaders, we sometimes fall victim to the curse of knowledge when we are running our teams. The curse of knowledge being that we understand what’s in our heads and expect everyone to know what we are thinking and what we need. Communication of specific goals is so critical to our team’s and businesses’ success. Effective communication is an easy way for to increase the possibilities that exist.
In Setting SMART goals , http://www.bnet.com/2422-13731_23-262557.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713 , Ed Muzio, President & CEO of Group Harmonics, talks about the need for setting SMART goals and the increase efficiency while also increasing the morale of the team as well. Being specific with your goal setting and sharing it with your team is a great way to foster buy in and to get everyone on the same time. There are too many instances where not everyone knows where things are headed and why and that leads to work gossip, poor morale and a lack of effort into making the project a success.
The leaders who struggle with this, do so because they don’t implement a good communication pipeline with their team. The reason for this is that they get busy and sometimes frustrated when they feel like they have to “overexplain” scenarios. The problem that occurs is that when things aren’t communicated up front, mistakes are made and it ends up making the situation more difficult not less. In this case goals are definitely not met and if they are they are not met in the previously allotted time frame.
Take a look at the communication style that you have with your team. Do a self assessment on how you are doing in this area and as an added and more important measure, ask your team how you are doing with this. Your great employees will let you know. Are you setting goals with your team and encouraging their input? What are some things that you have done with your business or in your leadership role that have been successful from a communication standpoint?