Effective Communication in an Online World

By now, we’ve all (hopefully!) made a fairly successful transition to remote work. Now it’s time to fine tune all the small details.

One of the most important aspects of being a successful leader, remotely or not, is communication. Ironically, as an INFJ myself, I tend to lean towards more communication rather than less. However, more is not always better!

Effective communication is the ability to convey your message in a direct, concise way. This is especially important in an online world, where communication exists in various mediums. With all the various modes of communication, things like texts, emails, Slack messages, DMs, etc. can easily get lost in the shuffle if we’re not organized and concise. 

Sometimes, we tend to think over-communication = effective communication.

But that is not the case! For example, as a leader or business owner, it’s much more effective to give your team instructions for their next project, in one place, say over a company meeting, rather than giving those instructions in multiple parts, over various channels of communication. 

It may sound simple, but as leaders and business owners, sometimes we forget that not everyone else’s brain works like ours. No matter what your MBTI type is, if you own a business, there’s a good chance that you are both extremely busy and handling many projects simultaneously. 

Sometimes it can be difficult to remember that not all employees respond well to less formal leadership. This is where MBTI type comes in handy!

Now, if you’ve got a team member that thrives off of a “go with the flow” work environment such as an intuitive perceiving person, by all means, cater to that! The great thing about MBTI is that there is no right or wrong way of doing things, it only helps us cater to each individual to amplify their success.

But on the other hand, let’s say you’ve got a team member that is detail oriented, and loves to plan their projects and tasks out weeks in advance, quite likely someone with a sensing-judging preference. You won’t be able to truly maximize your success in your business if you don’t take a different approach to leading that team member, such as creating a workflow or other organized system.

And it probably won’t be very fun for either of you if one person is always bringing up new projects and never finishing them, and the other is focused on finishing one before starting another.

The bottom line is - effective communication is an extremely important part of great leadership. Truly effective communication means understanding who you are communicating to, and how to get your message to them in a meaningful way. Because communication is the core of doing business, once you have an understanding of the different communication styles within your organization, everything else will fall into place.

Here's To Your Success,
​Kate