Top 18 Communication Skills to be Good Relating with People

Top 18 Communication Skills to be Good Relating with People

Communication skills are the qualities needed to make communication effective with diverse groups of people, thereby improving interpersonal relationship.

An effective communication is one that has a feedback. Without feedbacks, communication has not taken place.

Communication in the work place is the combination of both written and unwritten communication, as well as signs and body language that can aid in effective interaction with people.

In this article, we will see what communication skills are and the top ones needed both in the workplace and outside to make communication effective.

Communication is an indispensable tool in the business world. In the workplace, you need to stay in touch with clients or customers at all times to know what they want, when they want it, and how and where they want it.

Communication serves the purpose of relaying the desire of customers to a company or organization.

Communication skills are needed in the workplace mainly due to the fact that customers or clients demand the best at all times and can only make their feelings known through effective communication channels made available by the organization.

Communication skills are useful in all industries as every organization tends to thrive when there’s effective communication within it (coworkers) and outside it (customers).

Different industries have their minimum communication skills required of anyone within the workplace.

Some organizations might require higher qualities of communication due to its degree of importance to their goal, and as such may expect their employees to have higher qualifications in communications or in a related field.

However, communication cannot be effective without the necessary skills, just as different forms of communication may require different approaches to help achieve the best communication goal.

18 Communications Skills and Qualities to be Effective Relating with People

1. Clarity

For one to communicate effectively with an audience there is need for the message to be clear and be received by the audience as intended.

In other to achieve this, the speaker should be able to arrange his/her message in a manner that the listener does not struggle to digest the content of the message.

Another tip for clarity in communication is for the speaker to know his/her audience and how best to communicate to pass the message across to them. When communicating with your audience, try to know their knowledge base and take it up from there.

If your audience can’t understand a terminology and any issue raised in your explanation, then try to cite an example to create clarity in their mind.

Use real life circumstances to buttress your point. Customers feel happier and satisfied when they understand what you’re saying at every point in time.

2. Friendliness

Friendliness in communication can go a long way to making the communication effective. In a normal circumstance, messages are not well digested when the listener is under duress.

When communicating with your clients, ensure that you are friendly in your words and body language.

Avoid repulsive body languages and words that may sound offensive to the client.

Sometimes, customers complain about the harshness and disrespectful tones used by customer care agents of some companies and that in turn can affect patronage.

Friendliness can make a client who feels like quitting to have a change of mind. Always seek to be friendly with your clients and they will respond appropriately.

3. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is one’s ability to put his/her emotions on check or under control so as to communicate effectively and manage adverse situations, and also show some empathy towards others.
One of the challenges faced by people in their work place is how to keep their emotions in check, especially when faced with clients who find many faults in the services rendered by an organization.

This is where emotional intelligence comes in.

Know that an average client thinks about him or herself and not about the company they are patronizing, and as such may use inappropriate words or body language to express how they feel.

When communicating, you should be able to put your emotions in check as this will help you communicate better.

Also, assume the position of your audience and know how you will react to certain emotional stunts.

The importance of emotional intelligence cannot be overemphasized or underestimated. That’s why in many workplaces, employers look for people with this special skill to hire because they know the growth of their business largely depend on how the customers feel about their services and their response to complaints.

The business world is competitive and customers look for where they can be tolerated and not challenged. And as the saying goes, the customer is always right.

4. Empathy

Empathy is your ability to put yourself in the shoes of others. This is very important when handling complaints by your customers.

Feeling the way a customer feels is very important in having an effective communication with them. Customers like to be heard and understood.

When customers complain about certain issues, it is a good idea to put yourself in their shoes and know how they feel about the matter they are discussing with you.

Customers are very sensitive to this aspect of communication skills. They are more inclined to people that empathize with them.

When handling customer related issues, allow them to express their feelings no matter how they may sound.

No doubt, they may sound offensive because of dissatisfaction. Sympathize with them and let them know that you feel concerned about their alleged bad experience.

Such attention to customers has the ability to melt their hearts and cause them to listen to what you have to say.

5. Confidence

Showing confidence in your communication is also important. For you to communicate effectively there is need to be confident in delivering your message.

When you are not oozing confidence in your communication, convincing people about your idea becomes an uphill task.

In communicating with people in the workplace with hope of convincing them about your opinion, give them no iota of doubt about the workability of your idea.

When they sense lack of confidence, the chances of adopting your idea will be low

To help build your confidence, it is important to have adequate preparation on your presentation before time. Nothing kills confidence like lack of preparation.

Preparation will also help consider possible questions and reactions from colleagues or customers, as well as possible ways to handle all the questions and reactions.

However, confidence does not connote overconfidence. Do not exaggerate what you are not sure of, and do not give unrealistic hopes to your colleagues or customers.

This can backfire and have ripple effect on your confidence and your job in your workplace. Work on yourself and you will be alright in this regard.

6. Listening

Communication is not all about the speaker. It is important to note that communication is not complete until there’s a feedback.

Do not be too quick to dismiss other ideas either from your colleagues or your customers. When reactions come, it is wise to listen and apply empathy and friendliness before deciding your next line of action.

It is necessary to have listening skills as this will help you know how far you have communicated and know what someone thinks about the message you passed across.

Listening is a special quality you need to have in your workplace. Listen to ideas, complaints, and suggestions from your customers that come in form of feedback.

Be eager to listen at all times. This will help correct certain errors as well as prevent future mistakes in your communication.

Customers value people who listen patiently to them. In the process of listening, don’t give the impression that you are not interested through your body language. It matters a lot to customers that you show interest in them.

7. Respect

In communication, it is important to respect other people’s opinion. People might have a different opinion to yours, but you need to respect theirs.

Even when you feel the opinion or suggestion is not necessary, don’t hush or dismiss the opinion out rightly.

The act of respect is allowing people to air their views completely before deciding on what to do. This is not just a communication skill, but also a leadership skill.

Respect is a sign of empathy. Everyone wants to be heard and respected for their opinions. Customers want to be respected regardless of their financial statues, cultural background, and race.

If communication must be effective in the workplace, then the art of respect is an indispensable skill to have.

Respect can only increase the patronage of an organization. When customers are respected by employees of a company, they won’t have any reason to look for same service elsewhere.

It is important to respect customers at all times!

As earlier stated, customers and some colleagues can be annoying, but don’t throw away the principle of respect when handling situations that seem frustrating and annoying.

8. Open Mindedness

Good communication entails being open minded to other people’s opinion on any subject. No one is an island of knowledge and so you need to understand that no idea is the best.

Open mindedness gives customers impression that they are stakeholders in the organization and their opinion is needed.

And once a customer feels that way, he/she can make meaningful contribution to the growth of the company in one way or the other.

Being open minded is also a sign of respect, empathy, and friendliness. It gives the customer a sense of value as they always desire to be valued.

Open mindedness can help generate more ideas from colleagues and customers. Sometimes, you can deliberately solicit for suggestions and compare each suggestion with the others before drawing conclusions.

Open mindedness is also a sign of flexibility. When handling issues in the workplace, be flexible in your thoughts and actions.

Like stated earlier, no man is an island of knowledge and it is in his/her ability to be flexible that he/she can adapt to new changes and get around difficult situations.

9. Asking Relevant Questions

When communicating with people, learn how to ask questions. This can give a hint on how far they are following you.

When you don’t ask questions, it means you don’t care if your customers are following you or not. Asking questions also helps in making communication interactive and to some extent fun.

Don’t assume that your message is well understood. You can still solicit for questions and contributions from your audience.

Ask your audience what they think about what you said or how they feel about your message.

Failure to ask questions can leave you in a no man’s land because you can’t be sure how far you have communicated with your audience.

When you ask questions and responses are given, you will be able to know if you have to readdress a particular point or not.

Some points you made might need to be readdressed and that’s when you have asked questions.

10. Voice Control

This is very important for oral communication. As a speaker, put the tone of your voice under control to make sure it is neither too high nor too low; you should manage your tonality at all times.

As you communicate in your workplace, most of the reactions you get are as a result of the tonality of your voice.

Calmness is key in voice control. Before talking or communicating in your workplace, relax yourself and manage your breathing.

Don’t sound stressed up or tensed up. Don’t exude pressure and learn to apply confidence in your message.

When your voice is too high, the audience gets uncomfortable and might lose interest in what you are saying.

When it is too low, it can make the audience unable to hear you well. If your audience can’t hear you, then you are not communicating effectively.

11. Know your Audience

Knowing your audience can help you pull off good communication with them. Different audiences may require different communication approach.

Know for sure that in your workplace, you will meet people with different cultural backgrounds and orientation about work ethics, as well as different thought patterns.

Take cognizance of these factors and you will be able to manage your audience well.

People of different ages have different understanding capacity, so take note of the kind of audience you have and that will help you know the method of communication to use.

Also, knowing the educational backgrounds of your audience is important. Some terminologies may be appropriate for some people with certain level of education, but to others they may not.

So, take note of the educational background of your audience, including your customers so that you may apply the right way to communicate with them.

12. Know your Strength

As much as you need to understand your audience, it is also important to know yourself (strength). At every point in time, you should know your strength and the best approach to communicate with.

Don’t be tempted to copy another person’s methods in communication. You know what you can do better and how you can do it.

However, that does not suggest that you shouldn’t improve in your communication skills. Be eager to learn and practice what you’ve learnt.

Your strength can turn into your weakness over time if you don’t improve on it.

Learning few local languages can be an added advantage to you if you work with people from diverse backgrounds.

There’s no doubt some people feel more comfortable communicating in their native language.

So knowing few languages other than the one you are accustomed to can help make communication strong and effective.

And this can help you achieve your purpose in business or work place.

13. Simplicity

Be simple in your approach when communicating. Avoid ambiguous words that an average listener cannot understand.

Simple words make communication easier and in some cases fun. It pays to be simple in your approach in communication.

Simple words and simple body language can make a big difference in communication. The use of ambiguous or much technical words can make your audience feel lost in the process.

It might be a good thing to you to communicate using technical or uncommon words, but to your audience you have not communicated effectively.

When speaking, take note of the facial expression of your audience, that will help you know if they feel comfortable with what you are saying or not.

When their facial expression exudes negativity, it might be that there’s no simplicity in your communication.

Simple statements achieve far more results than ambiguous words.

14. Understand the Basics of Nonverbal Communication

As you communicate, your body language is an important factor in relaying your message.

Align your body language to the point of your message. Make sure your body language does not depict a different picture to what you are saying.

In fact, your body language is the spice in your communication.

Also, ensure that your body language reflects confidence, not fear or anything like that. Let your body language complement your words.

This is a big factor some people neglect. Even in job interviews, employers take note of body language to know if you are confident in yourself or not. Many lose out at this point.

Your body language does more conviction than your speech, note that.

Confidence affects body language and body language affects your output.

Practice how to make your body language do most of the communication than your mouth. If you can get this right, then you are good to go.

Body language matters a lot in every aspect of oral communication.

15. Make use of Key Points

Your written communication can be effective by using key points or bullet points.

Let your communication carry key points that your audience can remember.

Key points should start and end your communication; they are the most interesting aspect of a presentation as they can effectively summarize your communication.

Always ensure your key points actually hit the point and not go wide off the mark.

Your audience might not pick everything in your message, but they should be able to take home the key points from your message.

Key points are pointers to what the body of your message is all about, and they become strong when keywords are used to buttress them.

In making key points, look for strong keywords that will give your points the right meaning that describes your message.

Keywords are important in making key points, which makes the whole sentence meaningful and striking.

16. Time Consciousness

When making a presentation or communicating to an audience, it is important to stick to the allotted time.

Time consciousness is very important in communication.

It is better to use lesser time than exceed time allotted to you for a presentation. Customers and colleagues want to save time, help them do that.

When you use too much time to stress certain things, the communication becomes boring. When you exceed the time limit of your presentation, the audience might lose interest in the discussion or presentation.

To help deal with this, do not overstress some points that are not key to your message, it’s not worth it.

One tip to help you accomplish this is to practice time management and adequate preparation. When you practice how to use lesser than usual time, you won’t be a time waster in any communication.

This also suggests you prepare very well everyday against matters that may require time management. Practice it and with time you will master time management.

17. Use Practical Instances

When addressing people in the workplace, either customers or colleagues, focus mainly on what is obtainable rather than what you think should be.

Though it is not a bad idea to think outside the box, however understand that’s your personal thought and should not be imposed on others.

When trying to resolve customer related issues, try to use practical instances, cite examples and don’t exaggerate.

Practical instances are more convincing and easy to work with than exaggerated solutions. What customers want is proven method, not methods that are still in the thought process.

This engages the attention of the audience and prepares their minds for action. Stories can also be employed to get a clearer understanding of the message that you are trying to pass across.

Again, try not to exaggerate, be real and be realistic in your communication. It will definitely yield a positive response from your audience.

18. Archive Important Presentations for Future Purpose

In the art of communication, it is important to learn from previous works of people to know what made them communicate effectively. That can help you improve on your communication skills.

Have role models you can fashion your style after and know what made them exceptional in communication.

This will help improve your communication skills a lot faster than you can imagine.

That does not dent your originality but help you improve on what you already know.

Sometimes, ask people to assess your communication skills, know what their responses are, and where to work on.

As earlier stated, no one is an Island of knowledge; you should develop the habit of learning from people who are better than you, and you will certainly do better in your communication.

Document your progress and learn more. That’s the way to gain more confidence in communication.

Communication Skills for Resume

If you are making a resume for a job that requires communication skills, you can develop the above skills and qualities and use them in completing the core competence or skills section of your resume.

By applying the above communication skills and qualities in your resume, you will be declaring to recruiters that you possess great communication skills for the job, which will increase your chances of being invited to an interview and hired.

Conclusion

You need to develop good communication skills to be effective in relating with people either in your place of work or in the society generally.

If you work in customer service, marketing, or other position that interacts with customers and other diverse groups of people, developing effective communication skills will aid your career success.

This article provides the various skills you need to develop to have exceptional communication ability for excellent interpersonal relationships with other people.