How to Spot Communication Issues in Your Team

For project success, team communication must always be effective. Project managers should be able to recognize common warning signs of communication breakdown and address them right away. Lack of trust is a significant cause of communication issues, and this can be seen through behaviors such as avoidance, lack of morale, and negative assumptions. Managers can foster trust by encouraging honesty, vulnerability, and example-setting. Ongoing team communication is essential in resolving conflicts, which can be identified by cliques or sub-groups, missed deadlines, poor work quality, and bullying. Team members shouldn't ignore or ostracize each other; instead, they should have equal workloads and a supportive environment. However, managers need to prevent team members from getting too comfortable and creating an echo chamber of groupthink, where diversity isn't valued.