Being able to communicate effectively is critical to your career. Almost every job requires you to communicate with others and build working relationships that can have a huge impact on your success at work.
If you can improve your communication skills and develop a strong communicative skill set, then you will propel your career forward and see the benefits in your work every day.
Here’s what you can do to improve your communication skills:
1. Be relatable
You should make an effort to participate in casual conversation with your work colleagues asking about them and sharing aspects of your own personal life. This is particularly important for leaders and managers who may naturally find themselves more detached from the individuals in their team.
2. Make sure that you are listening
This is one of the most important aspects of improving your communication skills and you’ll find that the best communicators are usually the best listeners as well. Listening is important in understanding other people and their views. If you listen properly, you will be able to offer a better and more meaningful response.
3. Adapt
Every person is different and is, therefore, likely to prefer to communicate in a different way. Try to observe how others in your team prefer to communicate and match their style when working with them. This will help you to work well together and achieve better results.
4. Be present
When engaging in communication with others be sure to give them your full attention. Get rid of any distractions such as mobile phones, laptops, etc. to ensure that you are able to work with them properly and make them feel valued.
5. Have a good sense of humour
Making people laugh is a great way to make yourself more relatable and to open up communication with your other team members. Humour can help to lighten the mood and diffuse a tense atmosphere while still getting your point across. Try not to go overboard or offend anyone though!
6. Respond quickly
Try to be responsive to everyone that you work with. Make an effort to answer questions and return phone calls as quickly as you can. This will make others think of you positively and you are likely to be rewarded with benefits like introductions, referrals and recommendations.
7. Use analogies
Analogies are a great way to be a more effective communicator as they can help to put everyone on the same page. This helps to create a united vision and ensures that a team is aware of the expectations.
8. Use repetition to emphasise your key points
When making a presentation or partaking in a team meeting, try to repeat your key points to make them memorable. Be sure to do this is a natural way, for example by returning to the key point at the end of an argument or at the end of that section of your presentation.
9. Make notes
When communicating with others either over the phone or in a meeting it is really useful to make notes that you can refer back to later because your memory is not always reliable. This can be really valuable when acting on the outcomes of your conversation.
10. Ask what people think
Making assumptions or interpretations about what others are thinking can be risky and you can never be sure that you are right. Sometimes it is better to just ask outright what they are thinking especially in more complex scenarios. Having their perspective will lead to better communication moving forward.
With these 10 tips, you will be able to improve your communication skills and get the results that you want out of your working relationships.
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