PowerPoint presentation Unit 333 (M&L 11): Manage team performance Team communications

Aims and objectives The aim of this lesson is to: provide learners with the knowledge on how to manage communications within a team. The objectives are for you to: understand how to explain to teams the lines of communication and levels of authority understand how to communicate individual and team objectives, responsibilities and priorities understand different communication methods that are appropriate to the topics, audience and timescales.

Re-cap – Priorities and system changes Monitoring Task method Work allocation – BALM Timescales Equipment and supplies Training Team improvement technique

Communication – Why? Communication to employees is vital to any organisation or team for effective team performance management. Communication with employees will: gain commitment empower team work coaching and mentoring improve motivation and team skills leadership. Communication with employees is key in effective team performance management in: Gain commitment through employees understanding the organisations vision and strategy, understanding their own teams objectives, targets and performance objectives. Enabling empowerment and involvement in performance improvement. Enable more effective team working through greater cohesiveness and the sharing of ideas with all members of the team. Enable coaching and mentoring to take place to improve the skill set of the team as a whole. Improve motivation among individuals and the teams. Provide a stronger sense of leadership. Communication is vital if employees are to understand their own, and their teams, roles within the organisation. A lack of communication will create barriers, misunderstandings and could lead to a loss of customers.

Communication techniques Organisations will use different communication techniques with their employees, this will be dependent on different factors: Locations – the geographic spread of the employees Complexity of information Organisational practice Feedback Communication techniques: Locations – A large organisation such as Holiday Inn may need to inform all employees world-wide of a change of policy or procedure. They may chose to use a system of passing the information through their management chain, they may also consider using an internal email system to ensure all employees receive the information. Many large organisations that are geographically spread will have their own intranet for communication purposes. For example, British Army, Sony, Microsoft… Complexity of information – If the information that is being communicated is complex it may be necessary to have this provided in a written form, this will enable employees to check that they have understood the information and also to return to the communication at a later date if required. Organisational practice – Organisations will employ their own policies on how communication is delivered. Whilst some organisations will use an electronic format to provide and an information route, other organisations may use a written paper based policy. Larger organisations tend to employ more electronic communication to save on costs and time. Feedback – The type of information that is being communicated may require feedback, in this case organisations will need to decide if verbal or non-verbal feedback is required. Verbal feedback will speed up the process of retrieving the information, however non-verbal will provide a record of the feedback. Some organisations now use third party software to receive feedback from their employees such as Survey Monkey.

Effective communication For communication to be affective it must be: Given at the right time Clear and specific In a language that can be understood by the receiver Overcome barriers Given at the right time Providing information at the right time is vital to a teams success in achieving its targets and objectives: A clothes retailer decides it is to hold a flash sale of its products and communicates this via emails to all managers on the morning of the event. However one of the store the mangers is off work with sickness, this outlet does not receive the information in time, as the deputy manager is busy on the shop floor, and therefor does not meet its daily target. Clear and specific Information that is not clear and specific will undoubtedly cause the recipient to misunderstand the communication. This may cause a delay or a failure to meet the requirements set by the organisation. In a language that can be understood by the receiver When sending any form of communication it must be remembered who the recipient of the communication is. Does a shop floor assistant in an electrical shop require to be an expert on all the technical information of the 30 irons in that store. Or should this information be available from a a technical support advisor who is a specialists in this information? Overcome barriers There are many barriers to effective communication, these must be overcome for any communication to be effective. Barriers include: Language Values and beliefs Noise Distractions Level of understanding Physical barriers

Feedback Effective communication is confirmed by the recipients providing feedback that the information provided was understood.

SMART objectives When communicating any objectives they must be: Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound

Types of communication Organisations will use different types of communication to inform their employees: Verbal Team meetings Individual interviews Non-verbal Posters Written contracts Written policies Risk assessments Safe system of work Non-verbal communication methods allow organisations to confirm their employees have read the, through signing of the documents, and also allows employees to clarify anything they did not understand in the first place.

Lines of communication Lines of communication are employed: for an effective internal communication for employees to understand who they need to speak to to prevent managers from being inundated with information. Lines of communication would normally follow the Line of authority in an organisation. Team leaders are empowered to make decisions for their team, however they may need to communicate with their manager to receive authority in certain matters. A team leader may not have the authority to provide a cash refund to customers, they will need the authority of their manager to do this. A line of communication is key to the internal workings of any organisation. If all employees could go directly to the Managing Director then they would have very little time to look at the strategy, their job, of the organisation.

Organisational communications Section Head Team Leader Team Member Organisations will have defined lines of communication with roles, responsibilities and authority levels. Communication within an organisation is key to effective management, good communication will: empower employees through involvement enable better team working through the exchange of ideas within the team enable commitment through the communication of the organisations vision, values, aims and objectives support the coaching and mentoring process within the team improve the motivation of individuals and teams improve communication within an organisation and provide for a stronger sense of leadership.

Summary Why communicate Effective communication Feedback S M A R T Types of communication Lines of communication

Assessment

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