What are Good Communication Skills and How to Convey Them?

Practicing good communication skills remains a core component to success in today’s digital age of texts and tweets. It’s great to communicate in today’s lines; to Snapchat, Like, Retweet and Tumble, but when it comes to the workplace, it comes down still to human interaction.

Good communication skills never go out of style. Good communication can help you avoid conflict, achieve goals, and enhance your reputation in almost every industry and instance. Armed with the right communication methods, you can use these skills to make a significant, positive difference in your life (whether for personal or professional gain).

A successful communicator is skilled in more than social media. If you’re wondering what are generally considered ‘good’ communication skills, here are six that top the list:

1. Confidence: A good communicator can build trust with an audience by displaying their confidence when communicating. One way to be confident in what you’re communicating is by being prepared and informed on your topic.

You’ll appear more knowledgeable about a subject matter if you’ve done your due diligence with research, and you’re less likely to be thrown off by follow-up questions if you’ve thought through the layers of what’s at hand.

However, don’t let your confidence be mistaken for arrogance. There’s a fine line in wanting to communicate clearly and confidently without coming off like a know-it-all. To combat that perception, use a stable voice tone, speak from the heart, express gratitude, employ humor, apologize and acknowledge others. Your body language can convey confidence as well, which brings us to the next important communication skill:

2. Non-Verbal Cues: Body language and nonverbal messages account for 55% of all communication, which means a skilled communicator can accurately interpret and use body language. Engage your audience by making eye contact, smiling, nodding and using hand gestures.

Be aware of how you’re standing, and execute posture “power poses” to earn your audience’s attention. Apply some context to body signals using the 3 “C’s” of context, clusters and congruence to avoid misinterpreting their meanings.

3. Clarity: Persuasive communicators know an audience’s attention is limited. Researchers have found that today’s attention span amounts to only 8.25 seconds, just under the attention span of a goldfish.

Ideally, communication should be a balance of being concise and detailed. Avoid long-winded explanations or emails with excess information. Know your audience’s understanding of the subject. Use specific data and examples to quickly make a solid case, and communicate a proposed solution or action items. Clear communication helps your audience cut through the cutter and focus on only your most important points.

4.  Listening: A communicator skilled at listening can more easily win over an audience. Listening shows others that you value opinions outside of your own and are open to new ideas. As a result, your audience feels as if you’re an ally and you can come to a solution that benefits the greater good.

To affirm you’re listening and willing to bridge any different views, be sure to allow pauses for interjections, repeat other people’s words and ask questions (such as “You believe we should do [this idea]. How would we implement [this idea]?”).

5. Positivity: The manner in which we communicate is intricately tied to how others view us personally or professionally. If the majority of your communication is negative, your audience will come to associate you with negativity.

Effective communicators know how to phrase negative thoughts in positive language to achieve an outcome. You can also achieve positive communication through showing respect and empathy to your audience, and looking for win-win solutions. And don’t forget to convey your joy with non-verbal cues.

6. Follow-Up: One of the most important—but often neglected—communication skills is effective follow-up. Successful communicators have learned to “manage up” their communication to superiors and executives to provide visibility into project contributions. Share meeting notes to remind others of what was communicated, update others on any progress, and remind team members about what needs to be done to achieve your goals.  Follow-up closes the communication loop and shows you’re being proactive to achieve a goal.

Translate each one of these tips into what works best for you; what fits for your personality. Incorporate these good communication skills into your presentations and discussions and you’ll see that you’ll not only have your audience’s attention, but their trust and respect also. And this works in almost every setting (online or otherwise).

Your comments: Clarity and Listening are the ones I still struggle with most.  I need to keep my message brief and to the point and make sure I pause to listen.   Which ones do you struggle with?  You can add your comment below.

Like this article?  Then help me share it on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc.

New to my site? then start here – How to Succeed like an Executive

I am always in your corner

Lei