2023-03-22: Top Effective Communication Skills in the Work place

Communication skills are a set of activities that ultimately make a quality public performance and is very important both in the business world and in private life. There's nothing worse than miscommunication between individual staff and entire departments that causes utter chaos, frustration, lack of progress, missed deadlines, and quite possibly staff that decide to leave.

Communication in the workplace is important because it boosts employee morale, engagement, productivity, and satisfaction. Communication is also key for better team collaboration and cooperation. Ultimately, effective workplace communication helps drive better results for individuals, teams, and organizations.

To take it a step further, specifically as a manager, building good communication skills has profound short- and long-term benefits for your organization. An effective communicator is able to motivate their team to get more done with better results and fewer misunderstandings.

 

Benefits of Effective communication for your business and staff

• Reduced conflict.
• Increase in staff retention.
• Better problem-solving skills.
• Better decision making.
• Increased productivity.
• A healthy Workplace and Organizational culture.
• More streamlined processes.
• Increased efficiency.

 

1. Active listening

Active listening is a conscious decision, to actively listen to the speaker with respect and understanding without being judgemental.

In the workplace, overflow communication often leads to ambiguity. When you actively listen and pay attention to the speaker, you keep the conversation clear and compelling. The listening skills can vary from person to person. But the good part is that it is a skill and can be acquired with time and patience.

Active listening also helps you build trust, boost employee productivity, resolve conflicts and form healthy work relationships.

 

2. Open-mindedness:

Open-mindedness or being approachable is a source of growth and acceptance. While communicating, it is important to stay open-minded, or else we become insistent on our point of view. This brings ineffectiveness in the communication process. It is essential to look at a situation from different perspectives. Therefore hearing everyone’s opinion is very important in the workplace.

Try to enter into communications without having an agenda. Strong communications require an open mind and a commitment to understanding other people’s points of view. If you disagree with the people you are speaking to, try to reach a middle ground that benefits all parties.

 

3. Friendliness

Friendly traits like honesty and kindness can help foster trust and understanding when communicating at work. Try to communicate with a positive attitude, keep an open mind and ask questions to help you understand where they’re coming from. Small gestures such as asking someone how they’re doing, smiling as they speak or offering praise for work well done can help you foster productive relationships with colleagues and managers.

You can practice friendliness by remembering small, thoughtful details about your coworkers or past conversations. For example, if a coworker tells you their child’s birthday is soon and you connect with them again later, you might ask them how the birthday party went.

 

4. Confidence

In the workplace, people are more likely to respond to ideas that are presented with confidence. There are many ways to appear confident, including by making eye contact when you’re addressing someone, sitting up straight with your shoulders open and preparing ahead of time so your thoughts are polished and you’re able to answer any questions. Confident communication is useful not just on the job but also during the job interview process.

 

5. Responsiveness

Whether you’re returning a phone call or sending a reply to an email, fast communicators are viewed as more effective than those who are slow to respond. One method is to consider how long your response will take. Is this a request or question you can answer in the next five minutes? If so, it may be a good idea to address it as soon as you see it. If it’s a more complex request or question, you can still acknowledge that you’ve received the message and let the other person know you will respond in full later.

 

6. Clarity and Volume

When you’re speaking, it’s important to be clear and audible. Adjusting your speaking voice so you can be heard in a variety of settings is a skill, and it’s critical to communicating effectively. Speaking too loudly may be disrespectful or awkward in certain settings. If you’re unsure, read the room to see how others are communicating.

Another aspect of verbal communication is vocalics and tonality. This involves how your tone moves up and down, your pitch, your accent pattern and the spaces you place between phrases. Such details can be effective in communicating emotions and offer your audience insights into how your message should be interpreted (whether you realize it or not).

 

7. Empathy

Empathy is in being sensibly understanding others keeping yourself in their shoes. It is vital for good communication in the workplace.

When you empathize with the person you are communicating with, you automatically become non-judgemental. This helps in the flow of communication. You attentively listen to the person and understand the problems or the situation from their perspective. This enables you to take a calculative action towards it without getting biased or misinterpreted.

Managers/Leaders who are more empathetic towards their employees are more successful.

 

8. Respect

A key aspect of respect is knowing when to initiate communication and respond. In a team or group setting, allowing others to speak without interruption is seen as a necessary communication skill tied to respectfulness. Respectfully communicating also means using your time with someone else wisely staying on topic, asking clear questions and responding fully to any questions you’ve been asked.

 

9. Nonverbal communication

Some amount of communication happens through nonverbal cues such as body language, facial expressions and eye contact. When you’re listening to someone, you should be paying attention to what they’re saying as well as their nonverbal language. By the same measure, you should be conscious of your own attitude and demeanor when you’re communicating to ensure you’re sending appropriate cues to others.

 

10. Sharing feedback

Strong communicators can accept critical feedback and provide constructive input to others. Feedback should answer questions, provide solutions or help strengthen the project or topic at hand. Providing and accepting feedback is an essential workplace skill, as it can help both you and the people around you make meaningful improvements to their work and their professional development.

A great way to learn how to give feedback is to take notes from others on the feedback they offer you. When you come across a well-explained piece of feedback, take some time to observe and analyze why it was good, why it resonated with you and how you might apply those skills in the future.

 

How to Improve your Communication skills

• Seek opportunities to communicate.
• Practice improving communication habits.
• Observe good communicators around you.
• Ask friends for constructive criticism.
• Attend communication skills workshops.

 

Conclusion

Excellent communication skills is the key to a successful career.  The importance of effective communication cannot be overemphasized. As John Maxwell says, ‘Effective communication is a skill and not a natural talent’. Therefore anyone interested to develop these skills can do so without fear and hesitation. We at Eminentia Global Concept have a Comprehensive training programme on Effective communication that will help you acquire this skill. Reach out to us today and check our website for more of our training programmes.