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46 www.canadianlawyermag.com FEATURE COMMUNICATION Molly Moseley explains why you need to devote just as much thought to communicating with those inside your organization as you do to communicating with clients COMMUNICATING WITH clients is a daily discussion by company leaders across the globe. What often doesn't get as much attention — yet can be equally important to business success — is communication between employees. Good internal communication has count- less benefits. It fosters a strong culture, improves collaboration, streamlines results and can even improve morale. In today's diverse business landscape, creating clear communication channels can help overcome generational, gender and cultural differences to create cohesive teams — and ultimately successful outcomes. Good internal communication doesn't just happen. It must be deliberate. Consider these five ideas to supercharge your communica- tion efforts. Build trust with small talk The daily banter around the water cooler is more than just casual Good internal communication doesn't just happen socialization. Company leaders can better know their employees by participating in idle conversation from time to time. A pleasant greeting and genuine interest about an employee's interests outside of work can provide amazing insight and bring teams much closer together. Be mindful Strive to be present and focused when in conversation. Listen more carefully so you can respond more thought- fully. It's important to think about who you're talking to even before your conversa- tion so you feel prepared and can minimize misunderstandings. Respect should be at the heart of all communication. Invest time in training Communication training is a worthwhile investment. Many nuances of communication are unclear, and specialized training will help all employees understand each other better while clearly laying out expectations. This is important when onboarding employees, but it's also valuable from time to time as a refresher for everyone. Cater lunch, incorporate some team exercises and make it fun. Use modern collaboration tools Most co-workers use legacy methods of communication, which can cause confusion — it's incredibly easy to misinterpret an email or text. However, emails, phone calls and texts make up 75% of all communications with co-workers, according to market research firm Technalysis Research. Bring teams together with modern communication tools such as Skype, Google Hangouts or other video conferencing tech- nologies. Even better, ask teams how they prefer to communicate and adopt the methods that work best.