Who never took advantage of that coffee break or that meeting in the hallway to resolve a demand with a colleague, avoiding emails, meetings, eh? In these moments, it is also easy to understand the colleague’s body language: whether the colleague is having a good day or not – and you think twice to make some non-urgent request for a more opportune moment. These are signs that it is time to reflect on assertive communication in hybrid work: how to improve team communication at a distance.
Assertive communication in hybrid work: how to improve remote team communication?
It’s a different story from a distance. Of all the challenges posed by the pandemic, including the abrupt transition from the face-to-face model to the remote one, communication was possibly the biggest one.
Communication has never been challenging in companies like it is now. This perception was confirmed by the State of Remote Work 2022 survey (“State of remote work”, in free translation), carried out by Buffer, a British social media management company.
The study revealed that the biggest change for people working from home was the way they communicated (see sidebar). The survey, which heard 2,118 professionals from 16 countries, had reached the same conclusion in interviews carried out in the previous year.
From a distance in chats, for example, a misplaced word can sour the team’s mood. Not to mention the many distance communication tools that have emerged in recent years: Slack, Teams, Meet, Zoom, WhatsApp, phone calls, that it was confusing to know which one to use. Someone sends an email, then sends a
WhatsApp and write a message in the chat. Where does the caller respond? This overlapping of channels causes a mismatch of information and makes it difficult to create a history of the conversation.
Knowing how to express yourself has never been so important
Remote or hybrid work brought the need to set goals in a more structured way, with recurrence and rituals, to create a connection between people, even if they are distant.
The Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health in the Workplace survey, carried out by The School of Life in partnership with Robert Half, also indicates that the ability to communicate is in check: it is the most lacking competence in those led, absent in 32% of them, shows the study.
The perception of this gap is not only in studies – people have noticed the importance of communication for their careers.
Among LinkedIn Learning’s top ten most popular courses for 2022, four are related to the topic (see chart):
- interpersonal communication (third place),
- fundamentals of team collaboration (seventh)
- unconscious biases (eighth)
- Communicating with Confidence (Tenth)
Long-distance communication: 4 Challenges for companies in the age of hybrid work
Good communication is a skill that is gained with practice and effective measures.
1.Avoid infoxication
The term is more current than when it was coined by the Spanish physicist Alfons Cornella, in 1996. A mixture of “information” and “intoxication”, the neologism refers to the fatigue caused by an excess of content. Emails, chat messages, WhatsApp audios, intranet announcements, courses in the gym area, endless meetings via video call. Who can handle this data overdose?
2.Train middle leadership
Managers, supervisors and coordinators play a fundamental role in linking top management and the factory floor. They are the ones who listen to the team’s outbursts and, at the same time, transmit the messages that come from above.
3.Welcoming diversity
Companies want to form diverse teams, but they are not prepared to receive them. A non-violent communication training with a focus on diversity
4. Dedicate time and study
Gone are the days when communication was the prerogative of HR or a department focused on it. Today, it is an important element in all areas. But some leaders still do not understand its importance. An example of this are managers who leave an important presentation to the last minute or do not adequately prepare for a difficult conversation, such as a dismissal.
>> 💡 Take the opportunity to read: 15 Possibilities of GPT Chat for HR
How to avoid bottlenecks in long-distance communication?
1. Match the proper channels
Slack, Teams, Meet, Zoom, WhatsApp, phone call. There are so many distance communication tools that it is confusing to know which one to use. Someone sends an email, then sends a WhatsApp and writes a message in the chat. Where does the caller respond? This overlapping of channels causes a mismatch of information and makes it difficult to create a history of the conversation. It is important that the company signals to the employee what each tool is for. Combined is not expensive.
2. Speak, but also listen
Listening is the noun of fashion. With so many meetings, emails and messages, we think we already communicate a lot, when in fact we only transmit content. Communication is not just talking, but also listening. This is the only way to build relationships of trust.
3. Be direct and succinct
Remote work made life difficult for long-winded people. The meetings, which used to last an hour and a half, with half an hour of coffee and chat, now take 30 minutes. And people are more inattentive on the screen. In online interaction, it’s tempting to open a tab on the computer and scroll through Instagram while the slurred colleague goes round and round without getting anywhere. Before saying something, a good practice is to reflect: which content is synthetic and, at the same time, relevant to the other?
4.Train middle leadership
Managers, supervisors and coordinators play a fundamental role in linking top management and the factory floor. They are the ones who listen to the team’s outbursts and, at the same time, transmit the messages that come from above.
5. Embrace diversity
Companies want to form diverse teams, but they are not prepared to receive them. A non-violent communication training with a focus on diversity
6. Dedicate time and study
Gone are the days when communication was the prerogative of HR or a department focused on it. Today, it is an important element in all areas. But some leaders still do not understand its importance. An example of this are managers who leave an important presentation to the last minute or do not adequately prepare for a difficult conversation, such as a dismissal.
