Good communication is a vital key in any environment with human interactions. However, effective communication in the workplace is an integral element of business success for both large and small organizations. Clients, customers, and colleagues all rely on communication in the workplace. It isn’t just about mitigating conflicts. Effective communication plays a significant role in client relationships, profitability, team effectiveness, and employee engagement. Recent research by US firm Gartner shows a whopping 70% of business mistakes are caused by poor communication. The benefits of effective communication in the workplace are endless, and it should be a primary focus for managers of all organizations, regardless of industry and size.

As Cisco managing director Alex Goryachev writes on Forbes: “People listen mostly to respond rather than to understand. However, digitization demands active listening to the ecosystem in order to survive and develop collaborative strategies with startups, partners and customers around the world.” So, how can you ensure you are communicating with your team effectively? Here are five strategies to help you improve communication in the workplace

1. Develop a communication strategy

The first and foremost step is to develop a strategy on how the company will communicate with employees. A development team will need to consider who needs to know, when they need to know it, and how it will be conveyed to them. This way, the organization can create a standard for business communication. To ensure effective communication, as with the most things in business, having a defined process is the fundamental key. This can be as simple as the secretary who takes meeting notes, sending a copy of the notes to a central communication person and that person shares these details with all employees. 

2. Clarity and completeness

One important thing to ensure effective communication is to know the audience for whom the message is meant. The message must be clear in the mind of the communicator. As long as you don’t understand the idea to be conveyed, you can never express it to your employees. Also, the message should be appropriate and define the whole purpose of communication. When conveying your message, you have to be truthful and transparent.

The message must be as complete as possible. You can tell the employees if there are details that you cannot share due to confidentiality. Employees will appreciate your honesty, and this way, they will be more supportive and engaged. As a team leader, you shouldn't wait until you have all the information. It is better to deliver the message at the right time. Otherwise, your employees will fill in the communication gap with assumptions, which can lead to distrust and productivity loss. Also, semantic barriers can alter the meaning of the real message.

So it is recommended to express the message in simple, brief, and clear language. The words or symbols must be appropriate to the reference and understanding of your employees or customers.

3. Repeat the message and explain the Why

Use all available forums, including email, newsletter, bulletin boards, business website, intranet, social media, staff meetings, town hall meetings, or text messaging. Remember, consistency across all communication channels is the key. The marketing rule of 7 proposes that you need to expose a potential customer seven times before they make a final buying decision. You can apply the same rule with employees. You can plan how you will repeat the message. The more frequently the message is conveyed, there are more chances that the employees will understand it and remember it. Often leaders come up with a great idea, plan it, implement it, and even convey it to their employees, but forget to mention why there was a need for this particular initiative. You have to take the time to think about how an employee will perceive the idea. You have to ensure that your employees understand why something is done and how it is related to the organizational goals.

4. Empower your managers

Managers are the voice of your company. They play the role of messengers between the upper management and employees. When you empower your managers with the right information and an effective communication strategy, they will deliver consistent messages to their team and will be able to answer all the queries. It is a better practice to hold regular meetings with your managers to update them on developing changes.

As mentioned earlier, you can use multiple channels to communicate your message to your employees. Likewise, you can use all those channels to get feedback from them. Significantly, your employees feel comfortable sharing their concerns and queries. Therefore, there should be a two-way communication. When you encourage feedback and listen to what your employees have to say, you show them that their opinion matter. Also, this helps the managers identify the areas that need improvement.

6. Use a VoIP phone

Because of the growing need for communication in a business, a VoIP system becomes a necessity in the office. These days, there's no reason for poor communication with employees. Even with virtual teams, managers are never more than a phone call or video chat away. A VoIP phone system can be integrated with existing phone lines. Axvoice or other communication tools help to make communication more effective. The features like enhanced voicemail and three-way calling help to bridge the communication gap between you and your employees. Axvoice offers low-cost business VoIP plans with unlimited in-network calling; therefore, you can communicate with your employees from anywhere without breaking the bank. It offers extensive outbound call features. Features such as three-way calling are practical for team meetings. With this phone service, the employees can make calls with a business number rather than their own number, and that too without having to worry about the phone bills. For small businesses, this saves cost. Besides, you get more features, including call forwarding, simultaneous ring, blacklist, and call log. A hosted PBX allows you to upscale your communication system, as your business grows, without requiring any additional hardware.

When it comes to your performance management process, a little communication goes a long way. By using communication tools, leaders can keep the conversation going year-round with all employees. Through clear and consistent messaging, you empower your entire workforce to do their best and take your business to the next level.

VOIP Expert

Clark Thomas is an expert in VOIP. He helps businesses both small and medium-sized, in implementing and adopting the best security methods for their organization and network. He gives great advice regarding and assists people in boosting the security measures for their website and business.

Almost everyone in our day and age needs a good pair of headphones. They are flying off the shelves all the time and are arguably the most common device people buy from time to time. But picking between different pairs can be quite the chore. Especially when you can’t decide which pair suits your head better.

That is why comfort is so important. Fatigue after listening to music for a long period of time is really annoying, so comfort is absolutely key. Today, we’ll help you sort through the most comfortable headphones in the market. You can also check out HPL for further info.

1. Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II

Honestly, it shouldn't be much of a surprise seeing Bose top the list. The name actually speaks for itself. These are one of the most comfortable headphones money can buy. The sound quality is pretty good. There are a lot of features such as active noise cancellation, Google Assistant and Alexa support and a lot of other stuff built in.

But most importantly, these are one of the most comfortable pair of headphones you will ever buy. They are pretty light on the head, have a good clamping force and the ear pads are really good. These are a delight to wear and deserve the top spot.

2. Audio-Technica ATH M50X

Go and have a look at some Youtube videos and you will find a tonne of professionals using this pair of cans. In terms of sound quality, the ATH M50X is a well-reviewed pair loved by many.

Apart from that, these also look and feel very good. The fit and finish with the matte black coating look stealthy. They also feel pretty good on the head. With a lot of padding around the headband and ear-cups, these feel like a feather on the head. For professional sound quality and comfort, these are a worthy recommendation.

3. Sony WH1000X M3

Looking for the absolute best pair of wireless headphones? Well, look no further. The only reason the ever-popular WH1000X M3 are lower on the list is that the Bose QC 35 IIs are slightly more comfortable. Apart from that, these are better in almost every way. They have a more enjoyable sound for music, intuitive touch controls on the ear-cups and loaded with a tonne of different features.

As for comfort, the padding and the ear cups are an absolute delight. The clever design makes this perfect to sit on most heads. If you want better comfort, go for the Bose headphones, other than that, these are well-reviewed for a reason.

4. V-MODA XS

We decided to throw in a pair of on-ear headphones into the mix. A lot of people love over-ear headphones for their exceptional sound quality but often dislike the weight and size. If you are one of those people you will absolutely love the V-MODA XS.

One thing to like about is despite their supreme comfort, the XS is built like a tank. They weigh about 190g, so they sit easy on the head and are really easy to carry. If you need a pair that is small, comfortable and really durable, these are a great pickup.

5. Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro

We’re going with a bit of a different recommendation with our last pick. The DT880 Pro is a pair of open-back studio headphones with amazing reference audio. If you need a pair of audiophile headphones with great comfort, these are the ones.

Of course, open-back isn’t for everyone. That’s why I advise you to check out these tiny earbuds as a last ride!

Gaming is one of the largest forms of entertainment because we all love gaming in one form or the other, and it is a great stress buster. When you are gearing up for the game, you want the best experience. It is now easy to pick the TV you play on and the console or PC you are most comfortable with by going through gaming rig best TVs for gaming review. The TV plays a critical role in providing the most pleasing gaming experience. If you are planning to buy a new TV to enrich the experience, you should know what to look for when you buy a TV exclusively for gaming.

4 Important features to look for if you're buying a TV for gaming:

Game Mode and Input Lag

Some TVs have 'game mode' specifically meant to enhance the gaming experience. TVs usually have picture processing features that might be good for improving the picture quality when viewing movies and TV shows. Sometimes it can slow down the gaming speed by introducing a lag between the time you push the button on the controller and the time it takes to display the action on the screen. Having the 'game mode' feature enabled is the way to prevent the lag and speed up actions that make games more thrilling. Luckily, the input lag of TVs of renowned brands is incredibly low in the game mode for both LCD and OLED displays. The benchmark for the most acceptable level of input lag is between 11ms and 22ms (milliseconds).

OLED or LED?

UHD or Ultra-high Definition TVs are available in OLED and LED verities, and there is always a debate about which is better. The picture quality of OLED TV, which is a successor of the plasma TV is superb. For the best performance, you need a light-controlled environment or dark rooms, and these are more expensive than LED models at the entry-level. On the other hand, LED displays to give the best value for money with a lower risk of developing image retention. However, low-end models tend to skimp on picture quality and the number of HDMI inputs.

Number of HDMI Inputs

How you want to use the TV and whether you use it alone or share it with others are factors to consider because it could entail swapping HDMI cables whenever you switch between consoles. For multiple users with different types of consoles, TVs with more HDMI ports would be the most suited. It can accommodate multiple users without the need for swapping HDMI cables.

Image Quality and Brightness

OLED TV panels can independently turn off pixels to produce high contrast images that impact all-round picture quality. OLED TVs are the best for gaming as it makes the pictures look as good as possible. However, the brightness of OLED TVs is less than LED TVs. To get the best from OLED displays, you must use a room that has facilities to reduce light by using curtains or otherwise.

Now that you know what to look for when buying gaming TV, the task should be far more easy.

A lot of you may wonder why you need to have the Kodi log files. Kodi is a fabulous media platter which is used by a lot of people throughout the world. However, it’s not completely perfect, and there can be times when you will face a few errors which can seem to be persistent. In these situations, you can try getting help from Kodi's official forums and Kodi experts, but the most common way to solve the problem is by accessing the log files from Kodi.

Certainly, you can view the “Check the log for more information” notification with your errors in Kodi. It is because this log file will have information about the specific error which can help you to find the most accurate solutions also.
This article will help you in learning how you can check your log on Kodi by manually locating the log file which is stored inside your device's memory.

But before proceeding further, you must remember to use a good VPN service to conceal your identity online when you stream on Kodi. This will help in protecting your privacy.

How to Check your Kodi log in a manual way:

You need to understand how you should check your log files on Kodi in a manual way. Your log file will be a basic text file, and hence you will be able to easily open it by using any text editor or viewer software like Notepad and Windows. You will have to first manually navigate and locate the folders in your device storage in which your log file is being saved. This route to your folder will be different for different devices.

In the following list, you will learn about the different routes to find the Kodi log file in different devices. If you are still unable to find the log file, then you can download special third party log finder add-ons from the internet to solve this issue also.

1. For Windows Users:

Windows users should follow the route below. First visit your boot drive, which is C drive in general cases, and then go to the App data folder and from there go to the Packages folder open the file which begins with “XBMC…” Then Click the Local Caches and enter the Roaming folder to find the Kodi log.

2. For Android users:

In Android, you must go to your device storage and then go to the Data folder from there click the file with the extension .kodi and then open files and go to the "temp" folder, and you will find the Kodi log.

In a lot of Android devices, your ".kodi" folder would be hidden, and you can unhide this by turning the "show hidden file" option on your file manager application. You can find the option listed in the “Display options” under the “Settings” section of your file manager application.

For more information on Kodi indigo error and to get a free VPN for Linux, you must visit the special forums on Kodi on the internet. Hopefully, you have got enough information on Kodi from this post. Subscribe on this forum for more information on Kodi and VPN.