Employee Management and communication

Part of business management involves learning how to communicate with your employees. Managing a variety of personalities can often be challenging and frustrating for a lot of people and it can lead to your demise as a manager if you aren't careful.

What does employee communication mean?
If you take a look at all the satires on television and in the movies about office communication, you will see that quite often a small miscue will cause a large problem. Email is a great way to communicate with your employees but if you aren't careful, you could end up confusing your employees and this will lead to greater problems within the company.

When you communicate with your employees, don't just bark orders at them. Take time to talk to them and listen to what they have to say. Have a discussion with them instead of just a one-sided conversation. When you wait for a response to your questions, you and your employees will get along better and things will run smoothly.

When you are watching all the shows making fun of office communication, learn from it. You don't want to have your office run as dysfunctional as these shows or else you can pack your bags as you may be on your way out the door.

How to communicate
As we have discussed you must be able to talk and to listen. Learning how to communicate can be challenging for a lot of people so the first thing you need to do is stand up and walk around your office. Walk by your employees desks and visit with them for a little bit. Locking yourself in an office all the time sends the message to your employees that you really don't want to be bothered with their problems. While you don't always want to worry about dealing with problems, you do need to open up your door so they know they can come to you any time they need to.

If you know you have a hard time with communicate, create an anonymous feedback survey and ask your employees for their honest opinion. Feedback is a great way to find out if your management techniques are working and if your employees enjoy working for you.

Part of good communication comes down to holding regular employee evaluations. Your employees need some feedback as they need to know how they are doing. When managers don't compliment their employees and they don't provide them with feedback, a lot of people become confused about their job responsibilities and they aren't sure if they are doing their job correctly.

How to lead
Once you learn how to communicate with your employees, you need to work hard to lead them. In order to lead your employees, you must have a few important qualities like integrity, honesty, trust, respect, and humor. People like to work for a manager they know they can trust. Do not lie to your employees as this will destroy any bonds you have been able to build with them. If you lie once, your employees will have a difficult time believing anything else you tell them.

It is important to laugh with your employees. Humor helps to break tension that may be building with your employees if you are facing tough deadlines and important projects. Laughter also shows a sensible side to yourself and this will help to strengthen your relationship with your employees. They will feel you are approachable and they can come to you at any time for clarification or just for a general conversation.

You can continue to learn more over time from your employees the longer you are in a management role. Keep an open mind and be open to feedback from your employees as this will help you become a stronger manager.