What does good work communication look like? It’s clear and succinct. The recipient understands what is important, why, and what action they need to take. But the fundamental principle of all communication should be: respect the other party.
What does that mean in workplace communication? Communicating, whether with a colleague, a boss, or a customer, is not an opportunity to show how smart or superior you are — but it’s easy to leave others with the impression that’s all you care about. Effective communication is about the needs of the listener. While it may seem counter-intuitive, a “listener-first” approach will often help you structure the delivery of your message.
Here are 8 tips for developing your communication skills.
1. Think it through. There are many communications frameworks, but if you want to improve your communication skills, start by getting in the habit of thinking through these 5 questions for any communication you create:
- Why are you communicating?
- Who is the receiver, audience, or participant?
- What is your goal or objective? Common objectives of work communications include: to request (resources, participation, permission), to inform, to persuade, to connect.
- What do you want the recipient to do as a result of the communication? Common work actions include: send an email to approve or authorize; complete a task in a system; provide comments or data for a shared work product; sign up for an event; download a tool or resource; confirm or correct. Note: Even if your goal is to inform, try to think of a relevant and unobtrusive way for the other party to engage.
- What format will best accomplish your goal?
If you struggle to answer these five questions, it’s a clear sign that your communication effectiveness will benefit from putting in additional time thinking about how and why you communicate. Test your understanding with co-workers or your manager.
2. Give it time. Great communication benefits from having enough time to think it through. Plan what you want to say and review your communication to make sure it is actually doing the job you need it to. For written communications, especially, this means: revise, revise, revise. Remember, great communication might seem effortless, but it rarely is.
3. Make it easy. In the workplace, communication almost always has a larger goal. People are busy. Don’t make them work too hard to understand what you are saying and what you need them to do. In both written and spoken communications, this often means leading with your main point or objective. State your objective and main point in the first paragraph or in the beginning of a presentation so your audience knows where you’re going. Then fill in the details and complications.
4. Simplify. Focus on what is important. Trim away whatever does not serve. Eliminate jargon. While you don’t want to condescend or “dumb it down,” in everyday work communications, be mindful of not making the other party work too hard to understand. Give more attention to the one or two messages you want to convey. Plan for how you will get the message across and strip all other distractions away. Find a clear, simple phrasing to encapsulate your point. Repeat it at the beginning, middle, and end, and consider using a simple visual or metaphor to make your point clear and memorable.
5. Experiment and diversify. Work on developing different tactics for different communication needs. Focus on experimenting with one aspect of your communication at a time. For example, spend a week paying extra attention to how you structure informal communications. Then spend a week trying different structures for formal meetings or updates.
6. Practice and reflect. Be deliberate about reflecting on what goes well and what doesn’t in your day-to-day communications. Maybe an email to your manager didn’t go well: read it again. Can you see how it might have been misinterpreted? What would you do differently next time? Similarly, if a conversation with a co-worker didn’t yield the expected results, try to identify whether you clearly communicated what you needed.
7. Consider the full package. Consider recording yourself through a few interactions to gain insight into what your full package is communicating in your daily interactions with your team. Do you make eye contact? Is your facial expression relaxed and confident, or tense? As a leader, do you invite participation from others? Do you leave space for questions and clarification?
8. Seek feedback. Ask a few trusted co-workers and your manager to rate your communication skills. Start by asking them to rate (i.e., on a scale of 1-10) your written and spoken communication separately. Then ask these 3 questions:
- What one thing should I start doing to communicate better with you?
- What one thing should I stop doing in my communications with you?
- What one area or skill should I work on to improve how I communicate in this organization?