So you think you’ve got good communication skills? Well, you wouldn’t be alone.
Almost
everyone lays claim to having ‘excellent communication skills’, and
every job requires them – but what does it really mean? And what does it
mean to have these skills when it comes to your job?
Most jobs
need good communicators, people who can express themselves clearly and
positively, both verbally and in writing. It’s one of the key
ingredients of success, so it pays to understand what’s involved – and
there’s more to ‘good communication’ than the obvious.
The problem
is that ‘good communication skills’ is a phrase so overused, and so
broad, that it’s hard to know what it’s really saying.
Having good
communication skills in the workplace is all about being able to convey
information to people clearly and simply, in a way that means things
are understood and get done. It’s about transmitting and receiving
messages clearly, and being able to read your audience. It means you can
do things like give and understand instructions, learn new things, make
requests, ask questions and convey information with ease.
It also
means that you can adapt yourself to new and different situations, read
the behaviour of other people, compromise to reach agreement,
have difficult conversations with ease, and avoid and resolve conflict. In fact, a large part of good communication is about
being empathic,
so you can understand how others will interpret your words and
behaviour. And don’t forget that communication is a two-way street, so
being a good listener is vital.
Good communication skills are some
of the simplest, most essential and most useful tools for success you
can possess. In fact, they are probably the number one ability sought by
employers. So if you’re lacking in this department, you might like to
keep the following in mind.
Keep your head up
Open hands,
good eye contact, plenty of smiling, good posture, respect for others’
personal space: these are all part and parcel of good communication.
They all display your positive attitude and help present you as reliable
and open. Having
good body language establishes trust and rapport and means people will not only have
more confidence in you, but will want to listen to and work with you.
The gift of the gab
Good
language doesn’t necessarily mean that you need the oratorical skills
of Winston Churchill, and doesn’t just mean being proficient in English
(although it helps – a lot). It also means that your diction is clear
and audible, your sentences are concise, your thought processes are
logical and your delivery is flowing. Being a confident and amiable
speaker establishes trust with your audience and helps you elicit
information and make introductions. This helps to maintain strong
relationships at work with co-workers and clients.
Speaking well
also requires you to adapt your speech to suit your audience, involving
changing your word choice and tone for different scenarios. You have to
be flexible to communicate effectively and use lingo that’s appropriate
and understandable to your listeners.
Be a wordsmith
Ever
received a text that was over-abbreviated, or an email that just didn’t
make sense? Communicating well also means being able to write well, or
well enough to get your message across clearly. This doesn’t just mean
spelling, grammar, sentence structure and punctuation, but also being
able to read quickly, use email, attach documents, and send and respond
to messages in an appropriate timeframe. And, like speaking, choosing
those words that are just right for the situation.
Mind your milieu
The
appropriateness of your language in different contexts is crucial. Your
effectiveness as a communicator is entirely contingent on how you adapt
your messages for different situations, different environments,
different audiences and different purposes.
How you communicate at
work also depends on the job. If you’re a teacher, for example, you
need the whole gamut of communication skills – written, spoken, body
language – because you’ll be talking to a multitude of individuals and
groups. You need to be empathic, but also commanding. Morphing these
signals to match the scenario is partly what will make you a good
teacher. These skills would be balanced differently for, say, a
corporate lawyer or a retail salesperson.
On paper and in person
Your resume and
cover letter are
the first glimpse an employer has of who you are. And while it doesn’t
take much to write ‘I possess excellent communication skills’ in your
cover letter, the truth of the claim quickly becomes evident when you’re
face-to-face with the interviewer.
With a cover letter, a
prospective employer can immediately assess your writing skills – your
ability to spell, construct a coherent sentence and proofread your own
work. If you want to be taken seriously as a contender, you have to
ensure that both your resume and cover letter are grammatically sound
and devoid of spelling errors.
Your application also gives the
employer the chance to assess your ability to read accurately and
carefully, based on how well you address the job requirements, and how
well you expand on and illustrate specific points. Because so much is
revealed by your resume and cover letter as the first step in your
communication, arming yourself with a top-notch package should be your
top priority.
Once you make the cut and make it to the interview,
the employer is privy to all your communicative quirks, and this will
have a large bearing on your suitability and prospects. They will check
out your body language, speaking skills, your confidence, your word
choice, your tone – the whole shebang. Good communication skills here
will be hard to fake, so it’s worth practising answering
potential interview questions and doing as much preparation as possible.
In
the interview, you could be asked to give an example of when you have
exercised good communication skills in the past. You could pick from a
host of situations: a time when you deftly avoided conflict, or resolved
a conflict; or the time you sold a product to a hesitant customer or
pitched an idea to your boss. In all cases, you can approach it from
several angles at once, highlighting your capacity for empathy,
understanding and diplomacy, your ability to adapt to the situation, and
how your direct approach saw something resolved sooner rather than
later.
Regardless of what field you’re in and despite the apparent
hollowness of the term, honing your ‘communication skills’ will pay you
back many times over. If you get it right, you’re guaranteed to have a
much smoother path through life and your career.