How Focusing On Communication Skills Can Improve Your Career Prospects
Publié le 12 October 2023
Take your professional life to a new level of success by understanding how focusing on communication skills can improve your career prospects.
How we communicate impacts how we present ourselves to those around us. There are many ways we can do this—verbally, non-verbally, physically, and written, for example—and each of these skills is essential to master.
The more we can improve the methods by which we communicate, the more efficiently we express ourselves and the stronger the connections we build.
This is no different in your career than in your personal life. So, whether you’re looking to climb the career ladder or develop your business, good communication skills can improve your career prospects.
1. Listen
Listening, particularly active listening, is an essential communication skill as it will help you pay close attention to those around you and respond appropriately. This will benefit you in almost every scenario, whether you’re applying for an entry-level job or the role of CEO.
Free-to-use image sourced from Pixabay
You need to find ways to listen not only to your colleagues but to your customers too, as their feedback can be essential in discovering ways to improve as well as gleaning insights for business decisions. For example, say you’re looking into various call center solutions for small business. By examining your customer’s feedback and opinions you’ll get a better insight into which one will service their needs better and improve your customer service.
Active listening is an important communication skill that should also help you collaborate more effectively and gain all the information needed for your job. Wouldn’t you prefer to work with someone who listens to your ideas? That goes for companies as much as colleagues!
Focus on active listening whenever you talk to anyone, making sure to pay attention to what they’re telling you and react and respond accordingly. This will help you improve your active listening skills and reap the benefits of better collaboration and an improved customer experience.
2. Be presentable
This applies to both you and your ideas. Most of our communication is through nonverbal cues. Using positive and open body language are important communication skills that will help you capture your audience during presentations and keep them engaged when sharing ideas or discussing projects.
Prepare what you’ll say in advance, and carefully curate your content. Organizing a practice run-through can build your confidence, and it’s a good idea to ask someone you trust for feedback before you go live with it.
When presenting, keep calm and take time to gather your thoughts as needed. Ensure the tone you use is appropriate too. For example, the way you speak to your friends at a bar on a Friday night might not hit the right note during a business meeting, but you don’t want to be stuffy or overly formal either.
It’s important to consider the quality of your audio and video when presenting and recording. You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money or match the top enterprise cloud call center software, but you may want to look into the best budget microphones for an idea of how you can make your work more professional.
3. Be inclusive
We need words to communicate verbally, but choosing the right words is also an important communication skill. Try using inclusive language to make sure those around you feel welcomed and involved. This may seem obvious, but ensure you don’t exclude any groups of people with your word choices and that the language you use avoids discrimination against groups, biases, and slang.
Being inclusive as an employer and business will help you gain insight from people belonging to lots of different demographics. It will also help those around you feel included and respected, empowering your company—and you—to build the positive reputation you deserve.
4. Be open to feedback
Receiving feedback is something every company and individual will experience in a professional setting, but it can sometimes feel a little critical. However, it’s nonetheless a tool to help you improve and adjust. Knowing how to receive feedback in a positive and useful manner is an important communication skill.
Getting feedback in the workplace is inevitable, so practice reviewing yourself to get used to it and to identify weaknesses and areas for improvement preemptively. Review practices within your workplace or potential workplace and prepare feedback for your employer/potential employer as well.
As an employer, receiving feedback is highly useful as it can help with business process improvement, so see it as a positive. If you can, make sure your employees know you’re receptive to it. This will give them the confidence to suggest ideas that could help you improve and expand your venture moving forward
5. Be confident
Free-to-use image sourced from Pixabay
Being confident in what you say can seal any deal. Confidence is challenging to master, especially in new or stressful scenarios like job interviews or presentations. Simple ways to help build it—or at least create the illusion of it—include maintaining eye contact and using a friendly but firm tone. Projecting confidence is a non-verbal communication skill that can help you make a good impression.
A smile can also help you come across as positive, receptive, and approachable. These are desirable qualities for any employer, so let your personality and positivity be reflected in your facial expressions.
Knowing the job description and its requirements should help give you the confidence to outperform other candidates too. It’s not a case of faking it till you make it; you should work to improve your skills to narrow any skill gaps and make sure you’re qualified to talk about remote support using RealVNC, or whatever the role throws at you.
Conclusion
Practice your communication skills, and the world is your oyster: apply for that promotion, gain new working relationships, and approach every task with newfound confidence. By understanding how focusing on communication skills can improve your career prospects, the power is in your hands. You just need to learn how to communicate what you want.
