Communication plays a key role in professional life, whether you’re having a video meeting call or working on a site project. Today, we’ll discuss how to improve communication skills.
Why Communication Skills are Important for Success?
Communication skill impacts how you connect with your friends, family, and coworkers. Some of the main reasons why communication is important are as follows;
- Career Prospects. Communication allows you to participate with it in various formats like visual, non-verbal, written, and verbal. Most importantly, it allows you to find your desired job and advance in your career by exploiting opportunities.
- High-Demand Skill. The demand for strong written and verbal communication is always there in the market. It is easier for others to work with a good communicating person, who won’t sweat on the big project and could become a good team player.
- Important in the Workplace. Communication is a very important skill in the workplace environment. Because it’s not only an initiating point for developing the relationship with friends and coworkers but also helps you in meeting your goals and expectations. However, a small misunderstanding in the communication would make you miss out on important working projects and won’t meet the deadlines.
How to Improve Communication Skills
Some of the ways how to improve communication skills are as follows;
Improve your Verbal Communication
When it comes to improving your verbal communication, you should keep in mind that it’s not what you say, how you say it matters.
Observe Yourself
- Notice how communication is happening in the workplace environment; pay heed to its positive and negative aspects
- Coworkers that are enjoying the conversation with someone
- Why
- When they’re reacting more negatively than others, you can point out why they’re doing so
- How people are reacting to you
After being keenly observant, you should focus on the content of your discussion. You would be familiar with the boring and frustrating situation when someone takes a lot of time to get to the point.
Know What You Say Before You Say It
- State the purpose and objective like you want to amplify the ad spending by 10%
- Move to the reasoning and rational stage like the upcoming holiday season is the peak time to target your audience
- Review the possible result like you could amplify the sales from 20-30%
It’s a very good strategy for a formal presentation. When you know what you’re going to say, gather proof and facts to defend your arguments.
Pitch to Attract Audience
- You should employ a wide range of cadence speech styles, and don’t bore the audience with monotone. Otherwise, they won’t pay heed to the content of your communication message
- Become silent and take a pause to attract the attention of the audience, and then reveal the main thesis sentences
- A lower pitch tone of voice is the communication of dignity and experience, breathe deeply, and speak from your diaphragm to lower your tone of voice
Improve your Non-verbal communication
The first thing to improve your non-verbal communication is to pay attention.
Observe Yourself & Others
- How people are reacting to you
- Change in attitude when you talk to different people
- Position of your body while talking with others
- You’re making eye contact consistently or not
- The particular type of people that make you feel heard
- The actions of others that make you not talk to them
- Any particular unpleasant person that you don’t want to talk
- The actions of others that make you like it
You should observe the traits both in terms of positive and negative aspects. If there is a particular person that makes you feel good or bad, you should know why it makes you feel that way. If there are some positive and good things, then you should copy them, and avoid the negative things.
Better at Non-Verbal Communication
- Don’t react to the stressful and difficult situations, respond calmly, and keep your emotional level low
- Feel confident in your space, when it comes to it, don’t minimize, instead, you should relax in your space. Be intelligent, and don’t stop others from sitting comfortably in their space
- Intelligently make eye contact; if you’re driving people home, focus on them. When you’re talking or listening to people, then try to make eye contact with them
- Don’t play with your hands, feet, or fingers; you should remain to calm and still, and it would show that you’re in control of yourself.
When you don’t make eye contact in a stressful situation, then you should ensure to make eye contact while speaking.
Improve your Listen Skills
The process of communication can’t complete without being an effective listener. The most important element of communication is carefully listening. While communicating with the other person, you aren’t only listening to the words of the other person, you should also pay heed to the non-verbal cues.
- Is the person playing with his hands/feet/fingers?
- Open or close body posture
- Avoid making the eye contact or doing it
Be a Good Listener
- Ask follow-up questions and sum up the theme of discussion for clarification, it would help you to clarify any miscommunication immediately
- Focus on the non-verbal cues and then listen to their words
- Look away from your computer screen
- Put down the face of your phone
- Pay full attention to the speaker
You should follow the abovementioned advice, engage with the other person while communicating, and affirm in a positive gesture that you have listened to them.
Improve Your Written Communication
Your grammar and spelling should be perfect in written communication. You can take the help of various online tools in order to correct your writing and avoid grammar and spelling mistakes. AI is good but it is capable of making mistakes, and you shouldn’t completely rely on the tool.
Re-read Everything You Write
- Often people overestimate their subject specialty and expertise in terms of how much they know. While writing, you should include sufficient details, and you don’t have to write a novel
- Cover in-depth details relevant to the subject
- Check if there are any mistakes, missing points, and improperly linked items
- Use appropriate tone for the setting
Formatting
- If the thing is critical, then underline it
- If you have got a lot of text, then highlight the main points
- Break up the message into paragraphs and use bullets if needed
- While formatting, make sure that your writing is readable
Tips for Written Communication
- Clear state your assumption and it would help you to avoid miscommunication like “I assume”
- Whether you’re writing the message or a novel, you should read often in terms of whether you like what you’re reading
- In order to make your point, use framing like what’s in it for me or them, and point of view of them
- Read your writing out loud, and it would help you to find your mistakes
- Use examples if needed and avoid too much jargon
Improve Your Visual communication
If it is necessary to employ visual presentation, only then you should use it. It’s an unprofessional way to over-stuff your presentation with visual aids, and it distracts the attention of your audience. However, if you’re using visual aids, then you should employ them properly. You should present the data in the form of clear charts, graphs, and sketches so that your audience could understand it.
While designing graphics, you can take the help of professional tools, and plan good-looking visuals. Most importantly, your focus should be on the message, and not the visuals, fonts, or colors.
Tips for Improving Communication Skills
Some of the main tips for improving your communication skill are as follows;
- Develop Soft Skills. Some of the soft skills like open-mindedness, teamwork, adaptability, and empathy play a direct role in improving your communication skill. When you specifically focus on improving these soft skills, it would help you to sharpen your communication skill.
- Ask for Feedback. You should pay heed to both verbal and non-verbal cues while speaking. For instance, whether the person is nodding his head in agreement or looks confused.
- Learn to Manage Your Emotions. Effective communication allows you to react and manage your emotions appropriately. You should learn to communicate with yourself and manage your emotional development.
- Record and Evaluate your Communication. Whether you’re working on a project, presenting a speech, or having a video conference, you should record your performance and then watch it later for improvements.
- Be Brief and Specific. While communicating and delivering, you should be brief and specific in terms of message and content. Over-communication and speaking more than needed would help you to keep the attention of your audience.
- Be Positive with a Smile. Your facial expressions are equally important along with the verbal and non-verbal content. You should maintain a calm tone and smile on your face, it sends a positive signal.
