How the Heck Do You Talk to Your Employees and Co-Workers?

It’s simple. You tell them what to do in no uncertain terms. If they don’t get the instruction you yell at them and ask them if they understand English. And then you yell your instructions again. Also, you can’t understand why employees are constantly quitting.

Well, duh! It’s your fault. Let’s look at some thoughts on how to better communicate your message to your team.

If you are giving a daily work plan, or doing an annual employee review here are some tips to help you communicate. And when you work this way, be sure to teach this to your foremen and managers.

• Be specific. No generalizations that can be misinterpreted or misunderstood.
• Give specific examples of what you need, or what your conversation is about. If you’re doing an employee review give supporting thoughts to your main thought. If you’re sending folks out for a day on the road, ask them about the jobs they are going on to make sure they understand what materials they need.
• Set goals. Have this job finished by noon and go to the next job. Or take better information and know what types of information will help you prepare a quote.
• Talk with your people, not at them. These are conversations, not orders.
• Use a conversational tone. Speak with people, not at people. Ask questions of your team and let them ask questions of you. This is the single best bit of advice to give any manager or foreman.
• If you need to reprimand someone, say something good, then mention the problem and close the conversation with something else that the employee does well. Ask how the employee can make the problem area more like the areas that are performed so well.

It’s simple, create a team environment and you will have greater success.

Speaking of a team environment, let’s go Nationals in tonight’s World Series game!