Good communication skills in the workplace are crucial, whether you’re the CEO, a comms manager, or a marketing executive. In today’s competitive environment, good communication can make all the difference to your company’s success.
What does this really entail? More importantly, how can you improve your communications skills so that you’re able to get ahead of both employees and clients?
Read on for essential tips on making good use of email and communication platforms, developing listening skills, and responding effectively.
Communication Skills: Essential Tips
How do you make sure that you’re communicating effectively? One key tip is to be absolutely clear in your own mind about what it is that you need to say. Once you get this right, it will be much easier for the other person to understand what you mean. This is true for any communication channel, whether it’s face to face or on an electronic message on a company intranet like Simpplr.
Here are a few tips for making sure that your message gets through successfully:
Be concise:
Be direct and don’t beat around the bush. A good tip is to start with a crisp summary of how you feel, and then expand on your reasons for feeling this way. This approach can really help other people to get where you’re coming from.
Be clear:
Make sure that your wording is crystal clear and use specific examples of the areas that you want to stress.
Be specific:
Try to be more targeted in your language, and don’t use vague words like “most”, “quite a few”, etc. Narrow your focus and try to be as specific as you can. (For example, rather than saying that there are many possibilities for expanding the business, say how you want to expand the business and how this will benefit others.)
Use Emotional Language:
When it comes to writing an email, it’s important to remember that people communicate on several levels. You need to get across your objective or goal while also creating an emotional connection by using words that have positive connotations.
Increase the Impact of your Message
There are several ways that you can increase the impact of your message so that it feels more compelling.
Here are some tips for this:
Emphasize key points:
Consider setting out a few key points at the beginning of your message to make sure that people know exactly what it is that you’re trying to say. When people know what’s expected from them, they will be more prepared to take whatever action needs to be taken.
Summarize:
Sometimes it can be a good idea to summarize your message in a list format. You might start with a few key points and then go through them again at the end of your summary to emphasize them further.
Assertion:
You can also use strong positive statements instead of negative ones to really make your point. If you’re asking someone to do something, make this point clear by beginning with an affirmative statement about what you want to achieve. For example, if you want someone to get more involved in work, tell them that you want them to be more involved and how they can do this now.
Effective communication is a vital part of business. Whether you’re talking to your team about an exciting new project or trying to impress a prospective client during an important pitch, your ability to get your point across will determine the success of what you’re trying to achieve.
