When part of a team, learning effective communication skills is essential. It’s a process that, though easy, is often overlooked in a business setting, whether during a meeting, presentation, or simply communicating with your team about projects. In this guide, we’ll explore 5 ways to develop effective communication skills in a business setting.
1. Listen More Than You Speak
When you are listening, it’s common to not think about what you’re going to say next. This is something that many of us fall into the trap of because we want to appear smart and have a witty comeback or something important to say. Actively listening helps you take the time to think about what you might say when the time comes, helps you respond to the other person when they’re finished, and helps the other person really feel like you care about what they’re saying. Communication is a two-way street.
2. Ask Questions Even If You Think You Know the Answers
Asking questions is not the same as questioning somebody. When you ask questions from an authentic place, a what or how question, trying to really understand more about what they’re trying to say or communicate, this speaks to a real level of interest if a person will respond by generously responding. If you ask questions that you already know the answer to or that are throwaway questions, you’re wasting time and chewing through goodwill in that relationship. You want to be authentic.
3. Understand Why You’re Communicating
Understanding why you’re communicating something is absolutely imperative before you even begin to speak or write. You’ve got to have a purpose, a point. You need to get to the point, stay there for as long as you need to, to make sure that you make your point, ask questions to make sure that everybody has understood your point, and then move off your point and listen to the responses. This needs to be done as concisely as possible. You may use written or verbal communication skills to get your point across. It doesn’t matter. Just get there, stay there, and get away.
4. Meet and Communicate in Person
Having meetings or any kind of communication in person is the most effective way for humans to communicate. You can use an email as a follow-up to a meeting or a conversation to clarify. However, when you’re able, use video conferencing or in-person. Humans read body language often, even if they’re not conscious of it. Pauses, stammers, facial expressions, body language, all tell you a story that you can’t read or see in an email or any other kind of written communication.
5. Build Rapport to Understand the Person
Take the time, enjoy a cup of coffee, get to know the person a bit better. You want to build goodwill with the other person and build rapport. This will come in very handy later, especially if conversations aren’t always ones that are easy and pleasant.
Build Effective Communication in your Teams
Looking to learn more about how you can apply your learning from today to your everyday business and produce better results? Explore our top communication training workshops, like Save the Titanic or Communicate Naturally.
