It nearly feels like a century since the last time I’ve wrote a blog post.  Perhaps it’s been that long which means I’m out of shape.  Sad but true unfortunately.  With a hectic work schedule and a personal life to upkeep I’m sure that you can relate.  Something that peaked my interest recently due to unfold of certain chain of events was the importance of internal communication in the work environment.  Something that many of you have most likely stumbled across in your career at some point or another.  After paying close attention to coworkers in both their verbal and non-verbal language I was able to identify certain behavioral patterns that signaled interesting observations.

Adequate communication in the business environment serves of utmost importance particularly when dealing with coworkers and clients.  A challenging hurdle that employers attempt to overcome consists of identifying the variant communicative styles of their employees.  Believe me when I say this from the bottom of my heart (and i’m sure some of you may agree) that it’s quite the challenge in itself.  It comes down to semantics, logistics, compromise and collaboration.  In the grand scheme of things mastering each of these areas takes a lot of time, energy, patience and behavioral adjustments that can be easily classified as stressful.

Improvements of Internal Communication

It’s quite unbelievable actually that internal communication has a lot to do with workflow, productivity and interaction.  When it comes to communicating internally it’s probably one of the most important places that you need to focus on improving.  Most employers don’t realize this as they’re typically busy working on other things and way too preoccupied.  Truth of the matter is that having the ability to communicate effectively with your staff says a lot about business functionality and practices.  Accomplishing this can be in the form of daily/weekly meetings that discuss current client-base and progress status.

Listen When You’re Spoken To – Take Notes

Getting completed disoriented and sidetracked in a meeting can be accomplished easily.  The typical distractions are either your laptop that’s blowing up with e-mail, your mobile phone going absolutely bananas or the office line happens to ring non-stop while in a meeting.  I know it’s probably bad to say this but the reality of the matter is that these types of distractions should be avoided to ensure efficiency and proper message delivery. Oh, and before I forgot!  If you haven’t had your morning coffee/breakfast I would strongly suggest that you do so for the sake of being focused.  There’s nothing worse than lack of energy, alertness and complete disorientation.  It can make a meeting redundant in a matter of seconds.  Pay attention when spoken to.  Taken notes if necessary so you can review at a later time.  However, avoid using your computer simply because it will contribute to absolute disorientation and lack of focus.

Be Considerate and Attentive of Others

A work environment isn’t exactly the easiest thing to handle.  Even though there’s the laughs, giggles and anecdotes we’re all here to get some work done.  It’s what we get paid to do, right?  In the reality of things it can be difficult at times to communicate considerably with other coworkers.  This type of behavior will easily create a misconception amongst fellow team members not to mention possibly reflect on an intrusive behavior.  We’ve all been there at one point or another.  You’re having a bad day!  The boss is completely incompliant.  It’s raining outside and the only thing you have on your mind is a quick nap.  Whatever the case may be we all get sidetracked and loopy from time to time.  We’re all human beings and human error is to be expected…a given.  These types of occasions call for extreme consideration and awareness to other team members.  It’s important that you don’t cause a sense of panic or uncertainty with others due to your own behavioral changes.  At times, an apology or a follow up with a team member can contribute to the upkeep of a healthy working relationship.

Internal Communication takes a lot of work and perfection.  Typically within the average work environment it may take months perhaps even years to strengthen.  A large contributor to improvement of this area is a good team dynamic and chemistry.  It’s not uncommon to stumble across such issues either.