Team Dynamics

Team Communication

Communication consists of expressing the ideas or transmitting information from one team member to another. People communicate in many different ways according to their age, cultural background and language. Team members often have communication problems and conflicts that are rooted in simple differences. A team is only as good as each team member's skill to communicate effectively. A team without fine communication will not have consistent level of performance over time.

Most of the people think they are good communicators and yet miscommunications still occurs in the teams. Poor listening and defensive reactions lead to the miscommunications. When challenges occur and personalities conflict, insufficient communication skills will be noticeable in weak problem solving abilities.

The quality of the communication in the teams is always important and it becomes more important in the difficult times. The penalty of miscommunications could be instant or sometimes it takes longer for the negative cost of bad communication habits to become evident (Walters, 2004). During a crisis, successful communication is essentially important to management effectiveness. Whether it is in a crisis or just everyday problems occur in a team, the less effective the communication is, and the less effective the result is.

Individuals from different backgrounds are expected to have different communication styles. Miscommunications can occur when the team members fail to accommodate for multiple communication techniques among the members. When the members of the team are unsure about the specific role they are expected to play and confused about the responsibilities of the other team members, communication is expected to suffer.

Superior communication is the key to keeping the team on track. Understanding communication can improve the quality of the team. Effective communication requires the team members to learn how to communicate effectively and develop together for a common goal. The main factors to the communication process are the source of the message and the receiver, and followed by the feedback from the receiver