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5 Tips to Effective Communication While Working from Home

By | Andre Oentoro

With another wave of COVID-19 strikes, working from home has become an unavoidable situation for many companies. Although it’s been a few months since most employees shifted to work remotely, there is still a bunch of miscommunication between team members at work. 

Working from home is indeed a challenge for both employees and companies. For those who aren’t adapted yet to this situation, getting into remote work can be daunting. 

When delivering assignments, communication is critical to achieve effective and seamless delivery. Without it, you’ll find it hard to delegate tasks and often get in the loop of constant misunderstanding.

Here are some tips you can use to improve your communication skills while working at home. 

1. Make your intent clear

When delegating tasks to your member, please remember that no one understands your intention without you speaking it out loud. In addition, working on remote assignments often gives room for misinterpretation, especially if team members work from different places and time zones. 

Make sure that you give clear instructions to others to avoid misperception. For example, you need to adhere to the 5W1H method when assigning tasks before sending the team a message. This approach allows you to deliver clear information.   

2. Set expectation from the start

You should know that people can’t assume what you mean from the get-go. So before delegating tasks or discussing an important meeting, make sure that your team members are on the same page as you. 

That being said, you need to set the expectation before commencing the assignment. Let your team members know what outcomes you expect from the meeting or task. By allowing other members to understand the goal, you can then work on the assignment much easier.

3. Use the right communication tools

Working from home can cause so many misperceptions and be much harder without crystal clear communication than it seems to be. 

Today, there are many communication tools you can use to improve your connection with other team members. However, you may need only a few to deliver seamless communication. 

You probably need a project management tool, like Asana and Trello, to delegate and communicate the tasks better. Or use online software to make different types of video content to present an important proposal to your clients.

Find out the right communication tools that will help you communicate with your clients and team members more effectively. 

4. Ensure your availability

Sometimes, you’re too occupied in a sudden meeting with clients to forget another appointment with your team members. Once or two missteps are okay. However, regularly being vacant without clear communication can cause a misunderstanding.

Let your team members know when you’re available to communicate. If you’re away from an unexpected situation, be sure to inform the others that you will be off for a moment. 

By letting others know, you make their jobs easier as they understand who they can reach up to when you’re busy. 

5. Keep the office culture alive

When people are out of office, they become their true selves where nobody is going to ask for professional talks outside. With working from home becoming an ongoing event, you may end up losing your professionality a bit. 

Talking informally with your colleagues is fun. You don’t need to always tone down your voice when sharing about work. However, this can be a backlash for both of you and your team members. As people are becoming too friendly, assignments can sometimes be left out.

Before everyone points fingers at each other, it’s essential to keep the remote work situation like in the office. This allows everyone to be professional while working from home.

Takeaway

Communication is a vital element in ensuring productivity within a workspace. Whether you’re working from a coffee shop or home, having clear communication with your team members will help you deliver tasks effectively. 

Sometimes, communication can be challenging when you’re miles away from other team members. Unfortunately, using the communication tool alone doesn’t solve the problem you face when delivering words. This list helps you find the best tip to improve your communication with other remote team members.


Author Bio:

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order). 

Twitter: @breadnbeyond

Email: andre@breadnbeyond.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreoentoro/

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