Ensure it is two-way. Many managers focus only on communications downwards – giving information to their people. However, for communication to be really effective it must be two-way. You need, therefore, to give information to others and to gain information from them by asking questions and listening to their replies.

Decide what to communicate. Many managers are too secretive. Whilst confidential information clearly has to remain confidential, some take the view that "information is power" and forget to impart to their team the key information needed to do a job effectively and efficiently. If you are keeping something from your team, ask yourself why. There may be a good reason but most issues relating to the business such as its performance and future plans should be shared. This will create a greater sense of ownership and involvement amongst your team and may lead to some really good suggestions as to how you can grow and improve the business.

Also think about what information you want from your employees. There are some practical things they will have to tell you about, such as reporting accidents and telling you if a machine is not working properly, but you should also encourage them to let you know if, for example, they have ideas about how processes can be improved or concerns they have about rumours they have heard.

Decide when to communicate. Communication should be timely. Sometimes it is appropriate to share information as things happen, whereas at other times it may be necessary to hold formal meetings to ensure that everyone you need to speak to is present and a consistent message is delivered to everyone. It's best to schedule formal meetings with your team at least monthly, however in some cases where you have important information to share, you may need to call a special meeting. You might also want to have regular one-to-one meetings with your direct reports.

It is important to consider carefully what information you will share immediately and what will wait until formal meetings. Sometimes, if you wait until next month's meeting, the information may be out of date, you may have lost the opportunity to gain input from others or the grapevine may already have done it's job so rumours are rife.

Decide why you are communicating. This will influence how best to do it. Is it to share information? Is it to persuade? Influence? Is it to gain feedback? Is it to prompt action?

Make it relevant to your audience. The art of good communication is to deliver the message in the way or ways that will ensure it reaches and is understood by your target audience. Consider, for example:

• what is their reaction likely to be?
• how much detail do they like to have?
• how easily and quickly can they absorb information?
• are they interested in hard facts, data and substantiation?

The best communicators are those who make the effort to get it right for their audience.

Choose your method. There are lots of ways to communicate and often using a combination, depending on the message, the target audience, the timescale and the sensitivity of the message will achieve the best results.

Here are a few:

Method	Pros	Cons
Telephone	Quick and easy Tele-conferencing can be a good way of linking international and remote teams	It can be difficult to gauge how the message is received as you can't see the body language People don't always absorb the entire message - either deliberately or not, they can ignore or mishear parts of what you are saying
Meetings	Good way of sharing the same information with many people Opportunity to explore and discuss Good for gaining consensus Good for building teams Allows time to prepare the message and anticipate responses	Takes time to arrange Reliant on the skills of the person chairing the meeting Takes the time of each participant Too many participants can make it difficult to manage the meeting and to make decisions
Letter	Provides the writer with the opportunity to draft, re-write and re-write again until it's right Allows copies to be taken and kept for the record	Slower than telephone or email One-way Can appear to be too formal Message is interpreted by the reader so care needs to be taken regarding tone and wording
Email	Quick and easy Information can be kept and stored Lends itself to communicating the same information to a wide audience	Relies on the technology being available Can lead to over-communicating eg copying everything to everyone Less personal Can be used as a substitute for face-to-face or telephone communication Message is interpreted by the reader so care needs to be taken regarding tone and wording
Presentation	Formal Can have great impact Communicates a consistent message to a wide audience	Cost Time Relies on the skills of the presenter
Informal chats	Quick and easy Timely – you can speak as and when things happen Requires little preparation	Can be disruptive Can exclude employees based elsewhere Messages can be inconsistent
Newsletters / bulletins	Good for business-wide communications Can mix business and people information Can engender a feeling of belonging and establish an organisation culture	Impersonal Cost and time of production Are often out of date by the time they are published
Notice board	Immediate Can have impact Reaches lots of people, including visitors	Impersonal Not targeted Relies on employees taking the time to look at it Needs regular updating

Review the effectiveness of each method from time to time, to ensure that you are using the most effective combination. For example, at the end of a team meeting, take five minutes to conduct a review – what went well? What could we do differently next time?

Good communicators make the message interesting by giving a human twist, telling a story, using analogies, giving examples…. etc.

The recall rate of the spoken word improves when supported by good visual aids, but is still only around 30%!