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Is Bad Communication Costing Your Team?

Aug 10, 2017 | Blog, Brevity, Business, Leadership

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Bad communication skills affect the bottom line in ways that are easy to overlook when compared to items such as the cost of materials, labor or payroll.
You may not consider your employees’ bad communication skills a critical part of your company’s profit and loss statement, but you should.
A Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) article spelled it out:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

  … a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees. Debra Hamilton asserted, in her article “Top Ten Email Blunders that Cost Companies Money,” that miscommunication cost even smaller companies of 100 employees an average of $420,000 per year.

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Bad Communication Costs Time and Money

Improved communication skills are a great way to help any department to be more effective and productive. But, how do you know if your communications skills are subpar? No one wants to tell someone that they talk too much, write poorly, consistently miss the point, or send emails that are TL;DR. Eventually, people realize that they must ask the right questions to get to the bottom of what you’re trying to say.
Poor communication — or miscommunication — usually takes the form of:

1. Meetings that last longer than necessary

2. Too long / too many emails

3. Complex presentations

4. Long or unclear status reports focused on activities rather than outcomes

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It doesn’t have to be this way! If you or your team experience any of these things on a regular basis, sign up for BRIEF Team Updates: Two Free Lessons to Cut Progress Reports in Half. In 10 minutes, you’ll learn two new tools to cut and clarify team updates.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1502377220493{margin-bottom: 25px !important;border-top-width: 25px !important;}”][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” icon=”mk-li-micro” icon_anim=”side” url=”” target=”_blank” align=”center” bg_color=”#00b7e0″]YES, GIVE ME TWO FREE LESSONS![/mk_button][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The Benefits of Brevity

Here are six benefits you’ll experience when brevity is built into your organization:

1. Everyday communication that is clear and concise

2. Meeting times are cut in half

3. Shorter, and fewer, emails

4. Critical initiatives are accomplished

5. Everyone in your organization is aligned around common objectives

6. Employees are engaged and productive

BRIEF Team Updates: Two Free Lessons is based on the award winning book BRIEF: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less. It’s the same methodology we teach to elite special operation units like the Navy Seals and fortune 500 leadership teams.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1502377237568{margin-top: 25px !important;margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” icon=”mk-li-micro” icon_anim=”side” url=”” target=”_blank” align=”center” bg_color=”#00b7e0″]YES, SIGN ME UP![/mk_button][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]About the author: Joe McCormack is on a mission to help progressive organizations master concise communication. Joe works with Fortune 500 companies and elite special operations units, is the founder of The Brief Lab and author of Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less. Follow us on Twitter @TheBriefLab[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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