Communication in a Team
I spoke with a friend recently who was a little frustrated after a one-on-one with his manager. The feedback he got was essentially that he needed to communicate more. That’s it. No specifics, no examples, just communicate more.
He came to me confused, and honestly, I get it. That’s a vague ask. If you’ve never been told how to communicate in a professional setting, the note lands flat. You’re left guessing what “more” even means.
To make it even more confusing, my friend already posts a standup and a standdown every single day. His manager asked him to do that. He’s been doing it consistently. And yet, apparently that’s still not enough. So what exactly is missing? Neither of them seems to know.
One of the things he brought up was that his manager sends messages in chat and he never knows whether he’s supposed to respond. Is the manager just informing him? Is something expected of him? He wasn’t sure, so a lot of the time he just… didn’t respond.
My advice to him was simple: always respond. Even if all you say is “got it” or “thanks for the heads up” send something. Silence reads as indifference or, worse, inattention. A quick acknowledgment tells the other person their message landed. It closes the loop. That’s it. It costs you five seconds and it signals that you’re engaged.
Why Communication Matters
This sounds obvious but it’s easy to undervalue until something breaks down because of a lack of it.
Teams work better when everyone has a shared understanding of what’s happening. That means updates when things change, asking questions when something’s unclear, flagging blockers early, and yes acknowledging messages. Communication isn’t just about sending information, it’s about creating a continuous thread of awareness between people who are working toward the same goal.
When someone goes quiet, it creates uncertainty. People start filling in the gaps with assumptions, and those assumptions are usually wrong in some way.
The Manager Perspective
If you’re a manager and you’ve told someone to communicate more, do yourself and your report a favor: be specific.
“You need to communicate more” without context is noise. What does “more” look like in practice? Should they send a daily standup message? Should they speak up in meetings? Should they respond faster in chat? Should they give you a heads up before they hit a blocker instead of after?
And if you’ve already asked them to do something specific, like post a standup and standdown every day, and they’re doing it, and you still feel like something is missing, figure out what that thing actually is before bringing it up. “Communicate more” on top of an existing routine they’re already following isn’t feedback. It’s frustration without direction.
Being vague with feedback doesn’t help anyone. If you can’t articulate what you’re actually asking for, your report can’t act on it. You’ll end up having the same conversation three months later and neither of you will understand why nothing changed.
Good communication feedback sounds like: “When I send you something in chat, a quick acknowledgment helps me know you’ve seen it. Even a thumbs up is fine.” Now there’s a clear, actionable expectation.
I’ll speak from my own experience at GhostJam. When I send something that someone absolutely needs to see, I tag them directly. No hoping the message gets noticed, no assuming they’ll scroll back. If it matters, I make sure it lands. I also make a habit of asking a question somewhere in my message when I need a response. It turns a statement into a conversation and gives the other person a clear reason to reply. It sounds small but it removes all the ambiguity about whether a response is expected.
I haven’t always been good at this. I’ve had my own communication gaps over the years and there were times I was on the receiving end of feedback not unlike what my friend got. Learning from managers I respected, and being honest with myself about where I was falling short, is what pushed me to get better at it.
Not Everyone Communicates the Same Way
It’s also worth acknowledging that some people are just wired differently. Some people are neurodivergent, some are introverted, some have never worked in an environment where communication was explicitly taught or expected. They’re not being difficult or checked out. They genuinely may not pick up on social cues or implicit expectations the way others do.
This is something both sides need to work on, but the burden falls harder on the manager. You’re the one with the visibility and the authority to set the tone. If someone on your team struggles with communication, dropping vague feedback on them and expecting them to figure it out is not going to work. You have to be blunt. Say exactly what you want, when you want it, and in what format. No hints, no suggestions you expect them to interpret. Just tell them directly.
That’s not micromanaging. That’s clarity. And for people who don’t naturally pick up on the unspoken rules of a workplace, clarity is everything.
On the flip side, some people just work best in a silo. Head down, minimal back-and-forth, and they produce great work that way. As a manager you have to recognize that too. Not every quiet person is disengaged. Sometimes they’re just cooking, and the best thing you can do is let them. Push for communication where it actually matters and don’t manufacture a problem where there isn’t one.
The Baseline
There’s a baseline of communication that keeps a team functional:
- Acknowledge messages, even briefly
- Ask questions when something is unclear
- Flag issues early, not after the fact
- Be specific when giving feedback or direction
- Don’t assume silence means understanding
None of this is complicated. Most of it is just being considerate of the fact that other people can’t read your mind. A little goes a long way.