Someone left their dirty dishes in the sink again, the coffee grinds are still swirling around the bottom of the mug with a teaspoon covered in old milk. Your fists curl up and your teeth clench. Why can’t anyone do their own dishes, why did their mothers not teach them how to clean up after themselves, you angrily think as you slam the dishwasher shut.

Stop there.

Pet peeves are always going to be a part of our lives. Mine personally is the crunched up cereal at the bottom of the packet, I can’t stand it, nor can I eat it.

What I’m trying to get at here, is that one thing that annoys you, doesn’t annoy another person and the only way to compromise is to COMMUNICATE.

Communication is important in any context. The essential meaning of communication is:

“The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium.”

To get a message across, you must firstly exchange it to the person you want to receive the message. But of course, it’s not always that simple.

Grievances in the workplace are bound to come up, but how you deal with them shows how good of a communicator you are. Acknowledging the problem by talking to the person is always the best first step. From there, the person might not have even realised they were causing any issues and change their behaviour, others might be willing to negotiate.

Here are Five Top Tips on how to communicate successfully in the workplace:

1. One on One

Pull someone aside to talk to them. This ensures that their focus is on you and if you maintain eye-contact, it will enable the message to be transferred successfully.

2. Listen

Listening is probably the most important part of communicating. If you stop to listen to what your team members are saying, they will feel more valued and trust you to help them out.

3. Develop a communication strategy for your workplace

Every workplace will be different. Develop a strategy that will work the best for your company by figuring out who talks to who, where to find out correct information and how information is presented to everyone.

4. Nip issues in the bud straight away

To prevent conflict in the workplace, look to solve any minor issues before they become something unbearable. Encourage everyone to talk to each other on the basis of an open-door policy. This allows everyone to freely talk about issues and know that there is no judgement.

5. Give feedback

All humans like to feel they are acknowledged. If someone has done great work, tell them, if someone needs a little direction, let them know. Effective criticism allows people to learn and positive criticism allows people to feel valued in the workplace.

In Kuvio Creative’s case, communication is a whole different story as we all work remotely, but some of the same tips can still apply. We talk to each other over Google Hangouts and Slack, which are great apps to communicate with and we can solve many communication issues using these apps.

Currently, we’re also looking at our communication process, to ensure that it’s the smoothest it can be and to give our team the ability to communicate effectively. Since we’re all in different time zones, we’ve looked into different team members only needing to communicate with one person to ensure the message is passed along correctly.

Of course, every workplace will be different. Look at how your team communicates and see what needs improving and what is working. Talk to your team to get feedback and implement the changes needed. You’ll definitely notice a difference in your interpersonal relationships as well as work productivity!