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Communication is a powerful skill that can provide immense benefits to your personal and professional life. Individuals that develop their communication skills become better leaders, team players, and problem solvers. While we learn a lot about communication from every day interactions, workplace communication can feel a bit different, especially if you’re new to the work force or are in a different industry than you were before.
To improve your communication skills, you first need to identify the skills that contribute to effective communication. After they have been identified, you can then develop a strategy for improving them.
Read our related article to discover the benefits of professional development.
10 Ways to Improve Communication Skills
There are many different skills that contribute to becoming an effective communicator. Identifying and improving each individual communication skill will help you become a better communicator in both your personal and professional life.
The top ten communication skills to improve include:
- Active listening
- Audience awareness
- Body language awareness
- Tone awareness
- Familiarity with jargon
- Clarity and conciseness
- Empathy
- Preparation
- Thinking before speaking
- Giving and receiving negative feedback
Let’s take a look at each of these communication skills in detail to determine how they can improve your personal and professional development.
Read our related article to discover how to improve internal communications in the workplace.
Active Listening
Active listening involves giving your undivided attention to the person that’s talking. This helps you fully understand the speaker’s message and allows you to provide appropriate feedback.
Active listening is also a sign of respect to the speaker. When someone is talking to you, they need to know that you care about their message. To demonstrate active listening, you should avoid interruptions, ask clarifying questions, and acknowledge the speaker’s points.
Audience Awareness
Audience awareness helps you tailor your communication style to ensure it’s appropriate for your audience. This is especially true in the workplace, where a different communication style is needed when communicating with coworkers, bosses, or clients.
When you know your audience, you can also adjust your message to hold their attention. To demonstrate audience awareness, you should pay attention to your audience’s reactions, ask engaging questions, and encourage participation.
Body Language Awareness
Although body language is a silent form of communication, it sends a loud message. Speakers often rely on their audience’s body language to determine their level of engagement. If their audience is fidgeting, yawning, or looking around, then it lets them know that their message isn’t being heard.
As a speaker, being aware of your own body language can enhance engagement with your audience. To enhance your body language as a speaker, you should maintain eye contact, use hand gestures, and make sure your facial expressions match the tone of your message.
Tone Awareness
You should always make sure your tone is appropriate for your audience, especially in the workplace. When speaking to your bosses or clients, a higher level of formality is required than when speaking with your peers.
Being aware of your tone can also improve your audience’s engagement. To make sure you are using an appropriate and engaging tone, you should use positive language, vary your pitch, and be mindful of your pace and volume.
Jargon Familiarity
Jargon is the term used to describe words and phrases that are specific to an industry. Familiarizing yourself with industry jargon is important, as it will enable you to effectively communicate with other professionals in your industry.
To become familiar with industry jargon, you should identify words and phrases that you’re unsure of and ask a trusted coworker for clarification when it’s appropriate.
Clarity and Conciseness
As a speaker, it’s important to deliver your message clearly and to the point. This will guarantee your audience understands the message you’re trying to convey without losing their attention or creating a misunderstanding.
Ensuring your message is clear and concise involves staying on topic, delivering the facts, and avoiding rambling.
Empathy
Empathy is particularly important when handling conflicts and disagreements. When you empathize with others, you work with them to understand their perspective, thoughts, and feelings.
Developing your empathy will enhance teamwork, collaboration, and productivity. To do this, you should ask others how they feel about a particular situation and work with them to achieve a collaborative solution.
Preparation
Being prepared for communication is crucial when delivering a presentation, attending a meeting, or developing a strategy with your colleagues. Preparation not only helps you get up to speed with necessary information, but it also helps you stay organized and on topic during the discussion. You prepare for an interview, so why not make it a habit for other interactions with your boss and colleagues?
Preparing for communication involves reviewing what will be discussed, identifying important questions to ask, and keeping organized notes.
Thinking Before Speaking
When you think before you speak, you’re able to convey your message with clarity and purpose. This is helpful in the workplace when discussing important information, negotiating with clients, and overcoming disagreements with your coworkers.
Thinking before you speak involves taking a pause, identifying an appropriate response, and delivering the response clearly.
Giving and Receiving Negative Feedback
Nobody likes to be told they’re wrong, but giving and receiving negative feedback is crucial to increasing individual and team performance. When giving negative feedback, it’s important to use a positive tone, highlight the troubled areas, and collaborate on a strategy for improvement. It doesn’t always have to be super formal, but keep in mind that you’d give feedback to your manager differently than you would for a coworker.
Learning how to receive negative feedback is equally important. To do this effectively, you should actively listen to the concerns, avoid reacting emotionally, and take positive action towards correcting the issue.
Read our related article to determine how to find areas of improvement at work.
How to Improve Communication Skills in the Workplace
Similar to other professional skills, improving your communication skills in the workplace begins with a strong foundation in education. Although you can work on developing your workplace communication skills over time, getting a formal education will significantly accelerate the learning process.
Taking formal courses in communication skills enables you to get a full, comprehensive education in a structured learning environment. This removes the trial-and-error out of the learning process, and provides you with practical, hands-on experience instead.
REDC at Yavapai College offers a Communication Strategies workshop that teaches different methods of communication and how to make the most of each of them.
Let REDC Help You Become an Effective Communicator
REDC at Yavapai College offers the courses you need to hone your communication skills. Our courses are online and self-paced, meaning you can get the education you need without compromising your busy schedule.
Whether you need professional development courses to further your career or personal development courses to improve your daily life, REDC is here to help you every step of the way.