How can you help your team develop communication skills through leadership training?

Sometimes is best to strategically help them organise their thoughts. Once they can specifically convey what’s the issue they wanted to address, i think they will be able to communicate well to others

Team dynamics is a specialist area of focus. Using appropriate assessment tools and methods for individuals in understanding key traits, how they use them versus how others perceive them is key. Once this is achieved, and feedback provided, only then (in my experience) is it appropriate to look at a ‘team dynamic’ in order to develop communication, collaboration and leadership skills. We often find individuals with the poorest understanding of what and how to communicate, at the top of organisations !

Agreed. Sounds simple, doesn’t it. If it was that easy, every organisation would be doing it well. Let’s start with mission, vision and values: instead of forcing these from the board and expecting the workforce to buy-in, engage them in the process. Values are personal. Again, this is another area I spend a lot of time supporting organisations with.

Back to step one. If the environment isn’t right, the “behaviours” won’t be either. If the teams don’t have the skill and capability to communicate and listen (two ears one mouth) and they don’t believe you’ll listen or act in an appropriate way given feedback, achieving a ‘just culture’ will remain an aspiration.

Sometimes people refuse to communicate likely due to unable to understand someone else’s needs. Creating an environment with tools can like them understand each other. Or organise a workshop such as Lego Serious Play can encourage better understanding and collaboration.

100% agree. Yet, do you know who in your teams can celebrate success, who enjoys it (some people don’t - publicly) Who understands how to deliver constructive feedback (no such thing as failure, on,y feedback) one approach doesn’t fit all.

This requires rapport and complete trust in the objectivity of the feedback. Self esteem is the bedrock of all performance, without understanding how to do this well, the impact may not be as positive as you intended !

I have been at this for awhile and have had the opportunity to observe over decades the nature of communication in the technical field. I believe in getting teams past fear of being wrong and looking at the gains made by ruling out ideas and courses of action through discussion. There are often no right or wrong ideas, but good, better, and best. It is often the process of pulling a single thread that presents the best ideas. If we do not teach the concept of courage and the value of exploring multiple approaches to a problem, we can and do miss out on the best solutions. Many of the “bests” of my career were the result of the worsts. In my opinion the fear of being wrong blocks the best avenues to a successful outcome.