Struggling to Communicate Weekly with Your Team? Try these Tips

Author

Nengi Krukrubo
September 09, 2023

In 2005, I was an individual contributor in the Sourcing Organization of a large public company. It was run by an executive who did a phenomenal job communicating and he had a simple way of doing it I want to share with you this week.

How did he do it? Simply, he reflected weekly on the organization and shared those reflections with the entire organization. In doing so, he continuously enrolled the team in this vision and shared progress along the way.

Although I was rarely in discussions or meetings with him, I felt like I knew so much just because of how consistently he did this. I also realized anyone in a leadership role for large teams could do the same so I copied it as I grew my own career.

In a world where team members want more information to be engaged, I’ll share how I’ve adopted this practice in my leadership roles as I’ve grown in my career, By adopting this practice, you’ll build goodwill with your team and increase your luck surface area in terms of engaging everyone in the organization.

The big challenge is most leaders think they do not have enough to say weekly so they miss a great opportunity to engage their teams.

Hopefully, this will help make that process easier.

To Communicate, You Need To Communicate 😄

Below is the approach I take to weekly communications which may be helpful to you.

  • Recognize teammates celebrating anniversaries during the week and thank them for their dedication to the business.

  • Provide context for any company updates you or they may have seen during the week. It is important to ensure as a leader you are translating your company leadership messages to your team.

  • Where possible and relevant, provide context of team results both good and the ones not on track.

  • Provide context for any current events(e.g, natural disasters) your team members may be supporting.

  • Identify and Recognize teammates for “Run the business” wins. These are small wins or big wins in how the day-to-day metrics are moving. You’ll find these examples from huddles or meetings.

  • Identify and Recognize teammates for “Improve the business” wins. These are small wins or big wins in how your processes are being improved over a long period

  • Identify and Recognize teammates for “Delivering the Financials” wins. These are small wins or big wins in reducing costs or improving revenues

  • Identify and Recognize teammates for “Developing your people” wins. These are small wins or big wins in steps to train team members and build capability.

  • Thank the team for their commitment to a larger uplifting journey as you face the next week.

Below is an weekly email template which may help

Subject: [Team Name] Weekly Update – Week Ending [Week Ending Date]

[Team Name],

This week, we want to recognize [Teammate Name] for their [X]-year anniversary with our team. We only succeed because of the contributions for team members such as[Teammate Name]. Thank You!

In case you missed the update on [company update], here’s what it means for our team; [provide context so your team knows what the news means or does not mean for them].

In our team, we had some notable successes, such as [mention a specific achievement], but we also need to address [mention a specific setback] which we’re focused on addressing moving forward.

I also wanted to recognize [team members and teams] who are supporting some [current events situations]. Thanks so much for your support.

Moving on to team results, I wanted to recognize [Teammate Name] for [mention a specific action they took] to improve [mention a specific daily metric outcome]. Really Fantastic

We'd like to acknowledge [Teammate Name] for their efforts in [mention a specific process they streamlined]. Your dedication to long-term improvements is making a substantial impact on our efficiency.

Next, I want to call out [Teammate Name] for their role in [mention specific cost reduction or revenue increase activity]. Really appreciate the focus in this area. This week, [Teammate Name] did a great job with [mention a training or skill capability they helped with]

Thanks for your efforts to make our mission a reality and have a great week.

[Your Name]

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

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