GOOD COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS MAKE A STRONG STATEMENT

There’s no doubt that technological advances have been a great help in the business world. Devices such as email, fax machines, text messaging and cell phones have all made life much easier for professionals in the workplace.

Lost Art

But through gains in technology, people sometimes also lose; they lose their ability to properly communicate during a face-to-face conversation, which is one of the most valuable tools anyone can have in the business world and workplace.    

Everything begins and ends with the ability to effectively express or present ideas, opinions, objections, emotions, directions, dissatisfaction and pleasure. While this is critical to success in business, it is very often the skill we most take for granted or assume we have, since we’ve been communicating with people and getting what we need or want virtually all of our lives.    

According to Don Straits, chief executive officer of CorporateWarriors.com, good interpersonal communication skills are paramount to success not only in the workplace, but for life in general.    

In his essay Living Through Communication, Commitment and Character, Straits, an authority on career issues as well as career development programs, emphasizes that the more you verbalize, the better you become at it.    

“Communication skills are an art,” he says. “The more we practice, the better we become at it. Break away from the television and computer and start talking to people. Get up, get out and get moving.”

Powerful Pointers

Among his suggestions for becoming a more adept communicator:

• Don’t be afraid to break the ice. Find a reason to draw people into conversation.
• Ask questions. Sometimes the best conversationalists do the least amount of talking.
• Be sincere. If your questions are hollow or you do not listen, then you are not sincere.
• Stay contemporary. Develop a breadth of knowledge and stay informed.
• Don’t be too quick to judge. Be open to new ideas, opinions and attitudes.

A potential problem is that business communication can be different than social discourse. In the workplace, we usually interact with a wider variety of individuals with different educational backgrounds, ages and experience levels than in our personal lives. And each has expectations about your job performance based upon your ability to express yourself effectively. Poor expression, diction and grammar are often cited among the major reasons for rejection in job interviews, according to studies.   

Among the suggestions experts give for improving your verbal communication skills:

• Don’t be afraid to express your ideas. Use interaction with your colleagues to sharpen your ability to think on your feet, use proper grammar and make points.

• Practice talking with friends or relatives about a subject that requires you to express ideas or emotion and talk in extended sentences. In a job interview, this ability to express your feelings and experiences in an enthusiastic manner is a critical skill.

• In discussions, practice using facts to strengthen a point of view rather than just stating your opinion. One way to do this is to read the paper for a week or two about a particular subject, whether it’s a political race or another important issue, so that you’re able to express an opinion and support it with facts. The substitution of facts for opinions in conversation is particularly important as a contributor in a business meeting.