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Welcome back to another episode of Speak in Flow with your host, Melinda Lee! Today, Melinda dives solo into a crucial topic that can make or break team dynamics: The Power of Empathy in the Workplace. In our fast-paced work environments, misunderstandings can derail progress and damage relationships. Let's explore how empathy can transform your team’s communication and productivity.
The Story of Sarah, John, and Emily
In today's episode, Melinda shares a real-world scenario involving Sarah, John, and Emily. Sarah and John faced a significant miscommunication that led to a missed deadline and an unhappy client. However, Emily's empathetic approach bridged the gaps, guiding the team to successful project completion.
Key Takeaways:
- Miscommunications can have serious repercussions.
- Empathy plays a critical role in resolving misunderstandings and fostering collaboration.
Challenges in Team Communication
Melinda highlights the common challenges teams face:
- Conflicting Priorities: Different team members may have varying goals and priorities.
- Lack of Clarity: Unclear instructions and expectations can hinder effective collaboration.
- Ineffective Information Sharing: Difficulty in sharing information leads to missed opportunities to leverage diverse perspectives.
Effective Solutions for Better Communication
To overcome these challenges, Melinda suggests:
- Robust Communication Channels: Establishing clear and efficient communication protocols ensures everyone is on the same page.
- Regular Team Meetings: These meetings foster collaboration, clarify doubts, and spark innovation.
- Utilize Tools: Platforms like Slack or Trello streamline information flow and project tracking, reducing misunderstandings and keeping everyone aligned.
The Power of Transparent Communication
Melinda emphasizes the importance of transparent communication within teams:
- Encourage Open Dialogue: Creating an environment where team members feel comfortable voicing concerns and sharing ideas can prevent issues before they escalate.
- Proactive Identification of Pitfalls: Transparent communication helps teams identify potential problems early, leading to proactive solutions.
- Strengthen Team Cohesion and Morale: When team members communicate openly, trust and collaboration improve, enhancing overall team morale.
Join Melinda as she uncovers how empathy can transform your workplace, leading to better communication, increased productivity, and a more harmonious team environment. Learn practical tips and strategies to foster empathy and transparent communication within your team.
Stay fabulous,
Melinda Lee
About Melinda
Melinda Lee is a Presentation Skills Expert, Speaking Coach and nationally renowned Motivational Speaker. She holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology, is an Insights Practitioner, and is a Certified Professional in Talent Development as well as Certified in Conflict Resolution. For over a decade, Melinda has researched and studied the state of “flow” and used it as a proven technique to help corporate leaders and business owners amplify their voices, access flow, and present their mission in a more powerful way to achieve results.
She has been the TEDx Berkeley Speaker Coach and worked with hundreds of executives and teams from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Caltrans, Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and more. Currently, she lives in San Francisco, California, and is breaking the ancestral lineage of silence.
Website: https://speakinflow.com/
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/speakinflow
Instagram: https://instagram.com/speakinflow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpowerall
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Welcome, dear listeners to the speaking flow
podcast where we share unique experiences and strategies to
help you unleash your leadership voice. I can't wait to dive in
today. It's been a while since I've done a solo episode, and I
missed it. So today we're going to dive into communication, team
communication breakdowns, as well as effective strategies for
you to help you maximize your team's potential to get more
into a flow and synchronicity. Let's start off with an example.
Let's take a team and each member on a team. Imagine they
all have their unique zone of geniuses, their unique
strengths, they know it, they do it well. And yet, they miss
deadlines. Why does this happen? What is the root cause? It's
almost always misunderstanding of priorities, as well as
misunderstanding, communication, misunderstandings. There's a
team. Sarah, let's call her. She is focused on the team's
technical aspects. She's diving in getting into all the
technical parts. And she assumes that John is getting all the
regular client updates. While John is getting all the client
updates she gets she goes to John and says, We're the client
updates. And he says, I got them. And she looks at the data,
there's mismatch of data. And suddenly, the project has slowed
down, and they've missed a deadline. Things happen like
this all the time. Let's face it in our complex world, there's
change. There's complexity, there's tons of variables,
there's going to be misunderstanding. And then your
team looks bad, the reputation looks bad, the overall
relationships are broken. So how can we prevent this? Today, I'd
like to talk about three strategies, the first one being
have a robust communication channel. When you are first
starting off, or brainstorming new ideas within the project,
you need to have creativity, those meetings are best when
they're live. I think it's important that you get the team
together to develop a bond. There's nothing like being in
person together to create a sense of bond to feel each
other's energy as well as fuel for creativity, brainstorming
together, open ideas, open the channel have new ideas. That's
when creativity sparks. So getting together, especially
when you need to develop some innovative solutions. Then once
you have those you can meet regularly over Microsoft Teams
or zoom to have regular meetings in your calendar, as well as if
you're a leader meet with each individual regularly, and really
understand where they're at, and how you can support them. Once
you have your communication chat, oh, Slack and cello are
also great, too. That's going to help with instant messages. I
use Slack with my team, we have different channels for our
different projects. And so we can go to each channel. And all
of the messages for that channel for that project are organized
within slack. And you can get and you can send messages
quickly and the other person will receive it quickly. And
then once you have these channels created, have
transparent communication. Oh, open dialogue. That means every
person is truly seen, heard and valued. When people feel seen,
heard and valued, there's a bond. And when there's a bond,
they feel safe. When they feel safe, they're going to want to
collaborate, they're going to want to go the extra mile to
make things happen. So do what it takes. And transparency
doesn't mean that you spew out all of your emotions and
feelings and escalate the tension. Knowing how to have
transparent dialogue means that effective transparent dialogue
means that you are direct. You're honest, respectful to
each other. You really think through what is it that you
want, and you say it calmly and clearly without trying to
escalate the tension to him. much. And then you, you listen,
you listen for feedback, you actively listen to others as
well. So creating that environment where everybody's
seen, heard and valued, that's transparent communication. And
that is where you forge bonds. And that's when people will go
the extra mile. And finally, you put in empathy. Empathy is one
of the most overlooked skills that can be developed empathy,
because we're always in our head, we're thinking we're
analyzing, we're building we have structure, Empathy means
going into your heart. But to have empathy means you need to
have very good self awareness. Self awareness, is the key to
empathy. Self awareness means understanding our own biases,
our own feelings in every interaction, whether you're
talking to your manager for or a colleague, what is my
interaction or my feeling in this? Am I afraid? Am I worried
or concerned, as I'm talking to this person, and because you can
subconsciously project your own emotion into the interaction.
And then you've broken the connection, you've broken the
empathy, because you're in your own emotion and projecting that
onto others. Empathy means that you understand the other
person's perspective, without bringing your own emotion into
it, you are fully present for the other person, listening to
their perspective, and really getting all the details of their
perspective. And also, their emotion, their feeling, what are
their feelings involved without your own assumptions. That means
that you have clear self awareness about where you're at,
and knowing whether that's that that you are breaking or opening
up the connection. Using these strategies that we share today
around team communication, having a robust communication
channel, having channels that streamline communication, so
people get regular updates and know exactly where the team's at
having transparent, respectful dialogue, honest dialogue in a
way that allows everyone to feel truly seen, heard and valued.
And having empathy, really putting yourself in their shoes,
feeling what they're feeling, listening to their perspective,
while refraining from your own. So having very clear self
awareness about where you're at in it, and not projecting them
onto others. When you can have this type of communication, you
will rise above all obstacles. Because doing it together is
better than doing it in one. And when you're in sync, and in flow
with each other, you'll be able to succeed, achieve outcomes and
get to that mountaintop. And I hope that you have some
takeaways from this episode. And until I see you next time,
continue to speak in flow. Connect authentically and be
inspiring
