Your communication style sets the tone for your entire team. The higher up you are, the greater the trickle-down effect. So supporting your team with things like communication tips for managers is essential.
Not only that, but estimates suggest poor communication costs businesses between $9,284 and $30,000 per year. Totaling more than $2 trillion lost from the US economy because of ineffective communication. Ouch.
Yet fewer than half of managers receive any form of training when they’re promoted.
And the higher up you go, the easier it is to become detached from the everyday workings of running of a company.
Knowing what’s going on, and being able to communicate with your employees at every level, will help you create a more engaged, invested team, though. And you can only do that with effective communication.
So here are some communication tips for managers. Check out these ideas around how to boost engagement in the age of AI through more effective communication:
Don’t rely on AI
It doesn’t matter how much you train AI, it still has tells.
If someone works with you a lot, they’ll be able to tell when they get a message that wasn’t written in your voice. It’ll have an uncanny valley element to the writing of it. The recipient may not be able to tell what’s off, but something will feel off. And that’s enough to damage trust.
Run the message through AI to check for typos if you really need to (in more cases you won’t; an employee can forgive a typo in favor of authenticity) but otherwise, do the hard work yourself. It’ll help you develop your communication skills, forge better relationships with your employees, and understand what you’re actually talking to your team about.
In the age of AI, any list of communication tips for managers has to include easing off on relying on AI.
Actually respond when people message you
This is a weird one to include, but I have several friends who’ve experienced being blatantly ignored by colleagues and managers from other departments when they’ve asked them a question. Sometimes they’ll get a reply a few days later, if they’re lucky.
This isn’t just rude, it can stop someone from doing their job. A job that plays a role in keeping the company going. Otherwise you wouldn’t have hired them, right?
So one of the biggest communication tips for managers is to actually communicate. Reply to employee messages. It’s important for them as individuals, and it’s important for the success of the business.
Lead with empathy
We live in extremely stressful times. On top of what’s happening in the world, employees may have their own, personal problems to deal with. It’s easy for these things to eat into our headspace and make us less effective at our jobs.
That’s why empathy is key as part of our communication tips for managers. When you can lead with empathy, it’s easier to understand where someone is coming from and guide them through it.
Without employees, you wouldn’t have a business. So give them some respect and empathy — you might be surprised how much more you get from them.
It doesn’t take much. You could start meetings by asking people how they are or how their weekends were. Simple questions like this show you value their time and help create deeper bonds beyond daily tasks. So then it’s easier to get those daily tasks done and everyone is less likely to be ignored when they ask a question.
Listen more than you talk
A key, often underestimated (or intentionally forgotten) part of communication is to listen more than you talk.
Actually hear what the other person says, rather than considering how you’ll respond while they’re still talking.
If you’re talking in person or on video, try:
- Repeating back what they said, followed by a question to confirm you understood it
- Doodling or using a fidget toy to keep your hands busy so that your brain can focus on what someone is saying. This helps avoid the temptation to simultaneously scroll and miss what they’re saying because you’re also reading.
If you’re communicating in writing, try:
- Taking time to think through a response. Rushing it may lead to a reaction you’ll regret.
- Asking a trusted colleague, or even AI, if what you say sounds too harsh, passive aggressive, or otherwise doesn’t come across how you want it to. However, be mindful that most people and AIs will try to rewrite it in their voice, not yours. Someone who works with you regularly will notice this. The sweet spot is to take onboard the feedback while still making it sound like you.
Sometimes, one of the best communication tips for managers is not to communicate at all. Listneing is essential.
Train more than you think you need
Just because your teachers taught you to string a sentence together at school, that doesn’t mean they taught you everything there is to know about communication.
It’s far better to assume you know nothing and open your mind to all the things you can learn. Reading this article about communication tips for managers is a great start.
What might be an effective motivational technique for one employee won’t work for another. It might cause them to retreat into themselves because they feel you’re too harsh.
Or, you may not be pushing your high performers enough.
It’s a fine line, and you can only learn what it looks like from studying. It’s not a skill AI can teach. It might be able to suggest some tips, but it can’t hold your hand when you’ve upset an employee — or prevent you from doing it to begin with.
You need the human touch to learn how to juggle these interactions.
Use groups
97% of Gen Zers want to show personality at work. Employee groups are an effective way for them to do just that. They can connect with colleagues who have similar demographics or interests to them, knowing that it’s a safe place to do so.
Groups also help colleagues get to know each other beyond their daily work tasks, so then collaborating becomes easier because there’s already a bond. One of the best communication tips for managers is to establish this level of comfort.
Want to better organize your employee groups? Try Workrowd.
Send a survey
82% of employees say that poor communication increases their overall stress levels, while 76% have said that it decreases their job satisfaction.
If you want to get a true read on how your employees feel about your communication methods, a survey is a simple and effective way to get the answers you need.
You can find out if your employees are part of the 82%, and if so, collect their thoughts on what’s going wrong and how to fix it.
This is a key part of our communication tips for managers and the first step to improving it, and therefore job satisfaction and engagement, too.
Using Workrowd, you can send automated surveys to find out what your employees are really thinking.
Conclusion
Communication is a necessary part of every role, and it’s one AI can’t do for you effectively. Learning basic communication tips for managers like listening and respecting other people’s time and effort will go a long way to boosting employee engagement in the age of AI.
