List of the Most Important Communication Skills

In an increasingly digital world, good communications practices both in-person and online are more important than ever before.

Good communication can help you avoid potential issues, reach your goals and enhance your reputation both personally and professionally.  However, mastering this type of proactive, effective communication requires a very specific skill set.  This skill set is comprised primarily of “soft” skills (skills that are less tangible than “hard” skills like math and science skills)

Even if you have the best of intentions, your communication skills—like a muscle—can grow flabby over time without practice. The good news is that it’s never too late to flex your communication muscle and grow stronger in your communication skills.  What are some of the biggest communication “musts”? Here’s a list of the most important communication skills and soft skills you should have in your toolbox:

• Confidence – the ability to communicate in a self-assured manner to build trust with an audience. For others to have confidence in what you’re communicating, you’ll need to show self-confidence as you speak and deliver your message.  If you’ve done your due diligence and prepared, you’ll appear more confident and knowledgeable about a subject matter, and be less likely to be thrown off by follow-up questions.  To appear confident instead of arrogant, use a stable voice tone, speak from the heart, express gratitude, employ humor, and acknowledge others.

• Reading Nonverbal Cues – the skill to accurately interpreting and proactively incorporate body language in communication.  Body language and nonverbal messages account for 55% of all communications.  Therefore all good communicators need to have the ability to both read and use correct nonverbal cues. When reading body language, be aware of positive or negative body language, applying context based on what else is being communicated. To use proper body language, engage your audience by making eye contact, smiling, nodding and using gestures.

• Listening skills – the ability to actively listen and incorporate other views in your communication. Peter Drucker once said, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” Listening shows you value opinions outside of your own and are open to new concepts. If done successfully, your audience will view you as a proactive partner who can find mutually beneficial solutions. To be an active listener, allow pauses for interjections, repeat other people’s words and ask questions to show that you are engaged in the conversation.

• Writing skills – using concrete data and examples in written communication to build a case, and clearly communicating proposed action items. Written communication should be concise but informative. By keeping your communication brief and to-the-point, you help your reader focus on only the most important points. Avoid long-winded explanations or emails with excess information (if an email takes up more than a few bullet points or one screen, you’ll lose your audience’s attention).

• Verbal skills – the ability to successfully communicate information (ideas, thoughts, opinions and updates) verbally. Verbal skill is a soft skill that may not come naturally to everyone. In fact, this skill may take a good deal of practice to cultivate. Given most peoples’ attention spans are short, clear verbal communication should be short and specific. To become a good communicator, you should practice tailoring both your level of detail and tone to the needs of your audience.

• Interpersonal communication skills – ability to build trust and relationships with key stakeholders.   Interpersonal communication is another soft skill that allows you to maintain strong personal relationships with peers and mentors (which will benefit your own personal and professional growth).  Communication best practices show that finding common ground, displaying empathy, and building personal bonds will allow you to more successfully connect with others.

• Teamwork skills – ability to effectively communicate with others who may have different approaches and skill sets. Even independent workers will need to rely on others, both personally and professionally, to accomplish projects. To become a good communicator in a team setting, you need to be able to put aside personal differences and work toward a common goal with other team members or groups. For teamwork to be successful, you need to help all parties realize that the combined efforts are worth more than the individual contributions.

• Selling skills – the skill to influencing stakeholders to pursue an idea, decision, action, product or service. Selling skill is a “soft” skill that can be applied to all aspects of your life, and not just in a sales setting. To become a convincing communicator, you need to find a mutually beneficial or “win-win” solution by understanding an audience’s motivations and expectations.  In order to find this “win-win” solution, you will need to uncover what factors would be most influential and agreeable for the other party.

The manner in which we communicate directly impacts how others view us personally or professionally. If you succeed in all other areas of your life but fail to successfully communicate, you most likely won’t reach or exceed your goals. On the other hand, if you can be positive, proactive and informative in your communication, then you can win your audience’s attention, trust and respect.

Your comments: Which of these communication skill or soft skill are you particular good at?  Which of these are difficult for you and why?  Share your comments below

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