Welcome back to another episode of Speak in Flow with your host, Melinda Lee! Today, Melinda dives solo into a crucial topic that can make or break team dynamics: The Power of Empathy in the Workplace. In our fast-paced work environments, misunderstandings can derail progress and damage relationships. Let's explore how empathy can transform your team’s communication and productivity.

The Story of Sarah, John, and Emily

In today's episode, Melinda shares a real-world scenario involving Sarah, John, and Emily. Sarah and John faced a significant miscommunication that led to a missed deadline and an unhappy client. However, Emily's empathetic approach bridged the gaps, guiding the team to successful project completion.

Key Takeaways:

- Miscommunications can have serious repercussions.

- Empathy plays a critical role in resolving misunderstandings and fostering collaboration.

Challenges in Team Communication

Melinda highlights the common challenges teams face:

- Conflicting Priorities: Different team members may have varying goals and priorities.

- Lack of Clarity: Unclear instructions and expectations can hinder effective collaboration.

- Ineffective Information Sharing: Difficulty in sharing information leads to missed opportunities to leverage diverse perspectives.

Effective Solutions for Better Communication

To overcome these challenges, Melinda suggests:

- Robust Communication Channels: Establishing clear and efficient communication protocols ensures everyone is on the same page.

- Regular Team Meetings: These meetings foster collaboration, clarify doubts, and spark innovation.

- Utilize Tools: Platforms like Slack or Trello streamline information flow and project tracking, reducing misunderstandings and keeping everyone aligned.

The Power of Transparent Communication

Melinda emphasizes the importance of transparent communication within teams:

- Encourage Open Dialogue: Creating an environment where team members feel comfortable voicing concerns and sharing ideas can prevent issues before they escalate.

- Proactive Identification of Pitfalls: Transparent communication helps teams identify potential problems early, leading to proactive solutions.

- Strengthen Team Cohesion and Morale: When team members communicate openly, trust and collaboration improve, enhancing overall team morale.

Join Melinda as she uncovers how empathy can transform your workplace, leading to better communication, increased productivity, and a more harmonious team environment. Learn practical tips and strategies to foster empathy and transparent communication within your team.

Stay fabulous,

Melinda Lee

About Melinda

Melinda Lee is a Presentation Skills Expert, Speaking Coach and nationally renowned Motivational Speaker. She holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology, is an Insights Practitioner, and is a Certified Professional in Talent Development as well as Certified in Conflict Resolution. For over a decade, Melinda has researched and studied the state of “flow” and used it as a proven technique to help corporate leaders and business owners amplify their voices, access flow, and present their mission in a more powerful way to achieve results.

She has been the TEDx Berkeley Speaker Coach and worked with hundreds of executives and teams from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Caltrans, Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and more. Currently, she lives in San Francisco, California, and is breaking the ancestral lineage of silence.

Website: https://speakinflow.com/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/speakinflow

Instagram: https://instagram.com/speakinflow

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

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Welcome, dear listeners to the speaking flow

podcast where we share unique experiences and strategies to

help you unleash your leadership voice. I can't wait to dive in

today. It's been a while since I've done a solo episode, and I

missed it. So today we're going to dive into communication, team

communication breakdowns, as well as effective strategies for

you to help you maximize your team's potential to get more

into a flow and synchronicity. Let's start off with an example.

Let's take a team and each member on a team. Imagine they

all have their unique zone of geniuses, their unique

strengths, they know it, they do it well. And yet, they miss

deadlines. Why does this happen? What is the root cause? It's

almost always misunderstanding of priorities, as well as

misunderstanding, communication, misunderstandings. There's a

team. Sarah, let's call her. She is focused on the team's

technical aspects. She's diving in getting into all the

technical parts. And she assumes that John is getting all the

regular client updates. While John is getting all the client

updates she gets she goes to John and says, We're the client

updates. And he says, I got them. And she looks at the data,

there's mismatch of data. And suddenly, the project has slowed

down, and they've missed a deadline. Things happen like

this all the time. Let's face it in our complex world, there's

change. There's complexity, there's tons of variables,

there's going to be misunderstanding. And then your

team looks bad, the reputation looks bad, the overall

relationships are broken. So how can we prevent this? Today, I'd

like to talk about three strategies, the first one being

have a robust communication channel. When you are first

starting off, or brainstorming new ideas within the project,

you need to have creativity, those meetings are best when

they're live. I think it's important that you get the team

together to develop a bond. There's nothing like being in

person together to create a sense of bond to feel each

other's energy as well as fuel for creativity, brainstorming

together, open ideas, open the channel have new ideas. That's

when creativity sparks. So getting together, especially

when you need to develop some innovative solutions. Then once

you have those you can meet regularly over Microsoft Teams

or zoom to have regular meetings in your calendar, as well as if

you're a leader meet with each individual regularly, and really

understand where they're at, and how you can support them. Once

you have your communication chat, oh, Slack and cello are

also great, too. That's going to help with instant messages. I

use Slack with my team, we have different channels for our

different projects. And so we can go to each channel. And all

of the messages for that channel for that project are organized

within slack. And you can get and you can send messages

quickly and the other person will receive it quickly. And

then once you have these channels created, have

transparent communication. Oh, open dialogue. That means every

person is truly seen, heard and valued. When people feel seen,

heard and valued, there's a bond. And when there's a bond,

they feel safe. When they feel safe, they're going to want to

collaborate, they're going to want to go the extra mile to

make things happen. So do what it takes. And transparency

doesn't mean that you spew out all of your emotions and

feelings and escalate the tension. Knowing how to have

transparent dialogue means that effective transparent dialogue

means that you are direct. You're honest, respectful to

each other. You really think through what is it that you

want, and you say it calmly and clearly without trying to

escalate the tension to him. much. And then you, you listen,

you listen for feedback, you actively listen to others as

well. So creating that environment where everybody's

seen, heard and valued, that's transparent communication. And

that is where you forge bonds. And that's when people will go

the extra mile. And finally, you put in empathy. Empathy is one

of the most overlooked skills that can be developed empathy,

because we're always in our head, we're thinking we're

analyzing, we're building we have structure, Empathy means

going into your heart. But to have empathy means you need to

have very good self awareness. Self awareness, is the key to

empathy. Self awareness means understanding our own biases,

our own feelings in every interaction, whether you're

talking to your manager for or a colleague, what is my

interaction or my feeling in this? Am I afraid? Am I worried

or concerned, as I'm talking to this person, and because you can

subconsciously project your own emotion into the interaction.

And then you've broken the connection, you've broken the

empathy, because you're in your own emotion and projecting that

onto others. Empathy means that you understand the other

person's perspective, without bringing your own emotion into

it, you are fully present for the other person, listening to

their perspective, and really getting all the details of their

perspective. And also, their emotion, their feeling, what are

their feelings involved without your own assumptions. That means

that you have clear self awareness about where you're at,

and knowing whether that's that that you are breaking or opening

up the connection. Using these strategies that we share today

around team communication, having a robust communication

channel, having channels that streamline communication, so

people get regular updates and know exactly where the team's at

having transparent, respectful dialogue, honest dialogue in a

way that allows everyone to feel truly seen, heard and valued.

And having empathy, really putting yourself in their shoes,

feeling what they're feeling, listening to their perspective,

while refraining from your own. So having very clear self

awareness about where you're at in it, and not projecting them

onto others. When you can have this type of communication, you

will rise above all obstacles. Because doing it together is

better than doing it in one. And when you're in sync, and in flow

with each other, you'll be able to succeed, achieve outcomes and

get to that mountaintop. And I hope that you have some

takeaways from this episode. And until I see you next time,

continue to speak in flow. Connect authentically and be

inspiring