Humans are communicative animals. From early on, you meet your needs by expressing yourself via audible cries or nonverbal gestures.
Throughout your life, communication affects your fulfillment levels. You can tackle arguments quickly if you’re expressing yourself well and listening actively to the other person. And you’ll enjoy deeper relationships if you can share openly and be vulnerable.
It’s no wonder workplaces prioritize strong communication skills when hiring. Employers want employees who express themselves well to ensure they’re being proactive about having their needs met and can handle workplace conflict tactfully.
When looking for a new job, don’t underestimate the importance of strong communication skills. In a recent survey by GMAC, corporate recruiters ranked oral communication skills in first place on a list of 25 professional skills that included analysis, creativity, and drive.
Listening skills came in second, written communication was fourth, and presentation skills rounded out the top five.
In the same GMAC survey, 81% of recruiters said that interpersonal skills (which include communication skills) were most sought-after, and 57% said the demand for interpersonal skills will grow over the next five years.
It’s clear: developing strong communication skills is a wise investment in your professional future.
What are communication skills?
Communication skills are the abilities that allow you to effectively share your thoughts and emotions and understand others’. People with excellent communication skills express themselves clearly and effectively interpret what others say.
In the workplace, effective communication is vital. If managers can’t communicate what they want or employees can’t succinctly describe a problem to coworkers, misunderstandings increase, as do mistakes and conflicts.
The 5 main types of communication
There are five main types of communication: written, oral (also called “spoken” or “verbal”), nonverbal, visual, and receptive.
1. Oral communication
This involves using spoken words to convey ideas. Politicians giving speeches, parents telling bedtime stories, and workers in Zoom meetings all use oral communication skills to express their thoughts and feelings and understand others’.
2. Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is everything that’s unspoken when someone’s communicating with others, including:
While nonverbal communication is most powerful in face-to-face contexts, such as in-person meetings and presentations, it also plays a role in remote work environments. Think about how closely you pay attention to people’s facial expressions (and Zoom backgrounds) in online meetings and webinars.
3. Written communication
Written communication involves using written or typed words (plus punctuation marks and emojis) to convey ideas. Unlike oral communication, written communication is typically asynchronous, meaning that writer and reader aren’t engaging with the message at the same time.
Because written communication is often asynchronous, receivers don’t get as many supporting cues as in oral communication. You can’t see the author’s facial expressions or hear their voice’s tone.
If you’re not extra careful to convey the right emotional tone in written communication, you risk being misinterpreted.
4. Visual communication
Visual communication involves expressing ideas and feelings through illustrations, images, and design. This type often supports other forms of communication. Infographics, for example, are a combination of visual and written communication.
5. Receptive communication
Receptive communication is the ability to decode oral, nonverbal, written, and visual communication. This is the half of the communication equation most people forget, but it’s crucial: what’s the point of writing a story or creating an infographic if nobody can understand it?
Why should you strengthen your communication skills?
Having the right communication skills for a job makes you a more attractive hire. If they’re looking for someone to correspond directly with clients, for example, your written communication skills will stand out.
But even after you get the job, communication challenges will surface in your professional life, like conflicts with a coworker or asking for a raise. To solve them, you’ll need to adapt your techniques and learn new ones constantly.
Strengthening different types of communication skills also helps you build and maintain working relationships, make more intelligent decisions, and motivate and inspire others. It could even increase your chances of getting a promotion since you’ll know how to communicate your value to your manager.
Adding excellent communication skills to your skillset will also make you a better leader. Transformational leaders show exceptional communication skills.
They can explain complex concepts using simple language, use powerful metaphors to make their messages stick, and unite people by sharing the company’s mission.
The top 7 communication skills for effective communication in the workplace
Here’s a list of the seven most crucial workplace communication skills with examples of communication competency in each and tips for developing them further.
1. Relationship building and maintenance
Human connection is fundamental to experiencing happiness, and genuine workplace connections improve one’s mental health. And the way you connect is by communicating with others: sharing your experiences, giving advice, listening attentively to show you care, etc.
Tips: Small talk is only small if you do it wrong. To enjoy deeper connections, try empathizing with others, asking questions, and using the FORD acronym (family, occupation, recreation, dreams) to brainstorm topics.
And to maintain these relationships, note small details about people (their childrens’ and pets’ names, things they said they were going to do, their food or drink preferences) and bring them up later. To repair relationships, learn how to apologize gracefully and sincerely.
2. Group facilitating
Facilitation is guiding a group of people through a process to achieve a particular goal. Having to chair a meeting, resolve a conflict, or lead a group discussion are all nerve-wracking. But good facilitation is a skill you can learn — and the better you are at it, the less talking you need to do.
Tips: Foster the right emotional environment to help the group reach its goals. When facilitating a brainstorming session, aim to generate positive emotions through praise and enthusiasm, as feeling good makes people more creative.
If you need to solve a problem together, channeling frustration can motivate people to find solutions.
3. Public speaking
Getting comfortable with public speaking will advance your career in leaps and bounds.
Public speaking helps you demonstrate leadership potential within your own company. It also builds your professional reputation, expands your professional network, and exposes you to cutting-edge advances in your industry through attendance at conferences and other professional events.
Tips: Even the best public speakers get nervous. Manage your anxiety before presentations by preparing thoroughly, breathing deeply, and practicing.
Consider asking for feedback on aspects of your nonverbal communication to make sure you radiate a natural confidence, warmth, and professional competence.
Though some people recommend practicing in front of a mirror, this might make you self-conscious. Instead, ask a colleague or coach to listen, or even deliver the talk to your pet.
If it’s an online presentation, check the technology in advance, make sure your background is professional, and look directly into the camera.
4. Storytelling
Storytelling is a popular form of written and verbal communication that’s especially effective for leaders. Research shows that leaders who tell great stories unite their workers under common values and even bring in more investment dollars.
Tips: When telling a story, start with a hook to draw your audience in. Many workplace stories are about solving problems, so your hook could be a brief personal anecdote about a time you found yourself in a sticky situation. Listeners will want to pay attention to learn how you got out of it.
To refine your storytelling skills, develop an elevator pitch: a compelling version of an idea or project that you can communicate in under a minute (i.e., if you’re in an elevator with someone, you have to convince them it’s a great idea before they arrive at their floor).
5. Giving feedback
The best professional environments have a strong feedback culture. To create that culture, you need to be comfortable giving all kinds of feedback: constructive criticism that helps people improve, praise, upward feedback to your boss, and downward feedback to your direct reports.
Tips: When giving constructive feedback, show respect for the other person by listening to them carefully. Make it clear that you empathize with their position before making comments that may be hard to hear.
Consider whether structuring the feedback as a “feedback sandwich” (positive feedback, then suggestions for improvement, then more positive feedback) would help the worker assimilate the message.
If you’re a manager, make sure you consistently show appreciation to your team, as this improves morale and performance.
6. Receiving feedback
Receiving feedback can be difficult, even if it’s positive. But knowing how to receive feedback well is just as important as knowing how to give it. Listening carefully to feedback helps you develop self-awareness, improve your performance, and take a more active role in your professional development.
Tips: When you receive difficult feedback, remember that the intent behind the words is to help you improve, even if hearing it makes you feel bad in the moment.
Try to regulate your emotions by finding commonalities between you and the other person or cultivating curiosity about the negative feelings you’re experiencing. If you receive confusing feedback, ask questions to clarify the steps you can take to improve.
7. Active listening
Active listening is an important factor of good communication.
When you listen actively, you’re not just sitting quietly and letting the words wash over you — you’re participating in the conversation by offering supportive verbal and nonverbal responses, asking questions, and paraphrasing what the other person says to show you understand.
Tips: To improve your active listening skills, eliminate all distractions and focus completely on the speaker. Ask open-ended questions to encourage your conversation partner to keep talking.
Avoid interrupting, but do use short verbal and nonverbal responses (“backchannels”) like “yeah,” “mm-hm,” and head nodding to show you’re listening.
Putting your communication skills to work
When applying for jobs, show off your communication skills by incorporating storytelling into cover letters and relevant examples into your resume and LinkedIn summary, as well as using the STAR framework (situation, task, action, result) to tell focused stories in job interviews.
Show recruiters and future team members you’re a good listener by paying close attention to what they’re saying in interviews, rephrasing key points they make, and sending nonverbal signals that you appreciate their point of view.
When you receive a job offer, keep demonstrating your skills by writing a great offer acceptance email. Then enjoy exercising and developing your skills in the new position.
Understanding yourself
Building strong communication skills makes you a great hire, friend, and family member. But it also means you’ll better understand yourself. You’ll notice when your body language has become defensive and can ease back, or when your voice’s volume is too soft for a large room and can amplify.
In the end, you’re learning more about your behavior to exercise control over unwanted habits and live a more authentic life — and that’s priceless.
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