It is through words, actions, body language, tone of voice, and other processes that you send many messages about yourself, about change, and about your organization. This is precisely half of the communication process. The second half is to verify that your message is received and interpreted in the way you intended it to be. Here’s a few tips on how to achieve effective communication.

• Adapt your communication style to your audience. Every employee’s motivations are different, so knowing how to tailor your communication is essential to influencing others and reaching organizational goals.
• Use multiple communication channels. There are many ways to communicate with your employees. Since individual employees will respond better to different methods than others, be sure not to rely on a singular channel. These can include one-on-one’s, emails, videos, social media.
• Be clear. Always speak in specifics. Clearly define the company’s goals, opportunities, and challenges and about what you want to see achieved.
• Keep an open body language. Communication isn’t just what you say. More than ninety-three percent of communication’s impact comes from nonverbal cues. Positive body language supports your points, helps you convey ideas more clearly, and avoids sending mixed messages. Good posture, good eye contact, good Zoom technique count!
• Be Transparent. By speaking openly about the challenges as well as the opportunities of change you can build trust amongst your team and foster an environment where employees feel empowered to share their ideas and collaborate.
• Practice empathy. The better you get at acknowledging and understanding employees’ feelings and experiences, the more heard and valued they will feel.
• Actively listen to the people with whom you communicate. Remember that, although you communicate in a way that seems clear to you, the recipient of the message has their own information “filters” which can distort the message received.
• Get feedback. Receivers of your message have selective listening: they hear and process certain information and neglect others. The only way to make sure you’ve created a common understanding is to ask others what they heard and what their reactions are.
• And finally…. get help! Admit it if you are not another Tony Robbins and you need professional communications training. A leader is someone who inspires positive, incremental change by empowering those around them to work toward common objectives. When good communication skills are lacking, important information can be misinterpreted, causing relationships to suffer and, ultimately, creating barriers that hinder progress. Communication skills, like all skills, need to change and adapt to current needs. Embrace the permanence of change and learn how to effectively communicate through it.