Effective communication

Effective Communication- The most common challenge for a supervisor

I receive a lot of requests from my clients inquiring about training programs for an effective supervisor.

They all agreed that their supervisors have excellent technical skills. However, they all share the same common problem with their employees.

Their employees do not know how to communicate effectively with their team.

For that reason, I will explain how bad communication can delay your business workflow and provide insight on how to improve the communication skills of your employees.

Lack of effective communication is affecting your company

Good communication skill is one of the most necessary qualities of an effective supervisor.

Lack of good communication leads to many serious personal conflicts, costly production mistakes, and complicated legal issues.

Here are some tips on how to achieve effective communication:

If you want complete information on this topic in Spanish, you can find it explained in more details for your first-time supervisors in the online program title SUPERVISOR EFICAZ (Effective supervisor).

What is effective communication?

Effective communication is when the message is received and clearly understood by the recipient.

Many times, we must use several tools at the same time to communicate the message properly. It also depends on who and what we are going to communicate.

To explain the above, here are some examples:

Let’s suppose that I give a warning to a group of people that there is a fire and they must leave as soon as possible.

Most likely, I will use a serious tone of voice, a short but straight-forward message on what they must do.

In a bigger crowd, I need to shout the message so that it can be heard by the bigger crowd and to show the seriousness of the matter.

I will use a siren if available and use my body language to emphasize that they are in danger.

Another example:

Maybe I must communicate certain instructions to my employees about a product that has to be manufactured fast. In this case, here is what I would do:

• I would use a firm, respectful tone of voice.
• My body language will say it is important to produce it immediately.
• I would also give them clear written orders with instructions.
• I would ask them if they have any questions or if they require something to carry out the order.
• And I would end up thanking them for their cooperation in that matter.

How important is your body language and tone of voice?

Body language is the first thing we pay attention to.

Subconsciously, we read the micro expressions of the other people, in their face, their posture, their eyes, hands, arms, etc.

These can make us feel trust towards them or untrustworthy, among other feelings.

The tone of voice is the second thing.

The tone of voice can tell us many things, no matter what words they use.

It is easy, in many cases, to tell if a person is lying to us, making fun of us, or respecting us, just by putting attention on the tone of voice.

How can you communicate more effectively?

In the online course in Spanish of an effective supervisor, we mentioned how crucial it is to listen actively with empathy and respect.

This helps increase the good communication, an important quality of an effective supervisor.

What blocks us from communicating better?

Some examples of these barriers could be our language, feelings, attitude, political preferences, self-esteem, and so forth.

As mentioned, an effective supervisor always learns how to communicate effectively with his team, and that makes everyone collaborate to achieve common goals.

It’s better to understand how we communicate, recognize what areas we must improve and then practice these techniques.

Also, we must detect and try to eliminate the blocks and barriers to improve the communication with everybody in our life.