Improve Communication Skills at Workplace

Communicating effectively is an art and must be practiced effectively at workplace for better output and successful achievement of goals of the organization. It also helps in reducing the error rate, better understanding of work, better bonding among the employees as well as conflict management. Every employee must be very clear what his colleague wants to convey. He must accordingly be able to decode the information in the desired form and respond accordingly.

Let us try to now find out how one can improve communication skills at work place:

• Never conduct a meeting or organize a seminar at a noisy place. There should be pin drop silence during meetings, presentations and seminars.

• Avoid discussing serious issues at the employee’s workstations, front office area, cafeteria or playgrounds as noise acts as a barrier to effective communication and the message will never reach the recipient in its desired form. Always organize meetings, seminars or important discussions in the conference room, board room or any other meeting room where silence can be maintained.

• Before any meeting, the addressee must prepare the agenda of the meeting and do a complete research on the topic he wishes to speak on. Don’t just speak for the sake of it; instead do your homework carefully.

• The thoughts or the idea must be carefully put into appropriate words and carefully spoken in the correct accent to create the impact among the listeners. Don’t ignore even the minutest detail before preparing the content as questions can be asked anytime on any topic.

• You must first be yourself very clear before communicating with others.

• In business communication, the pitch and tone also plays a very important role in effective communication. An individual must try his level best to keep the pitch at an optimum level which is audible to one and all.

• The meeting or the presentation must be kept interactive for everyone to participate and take interest. One must keep in mind that even people on the last desk are also a part of the meeting, they also must be involved.

• Prepare lots of real life case studies so that the listeners are able to relate themselves with the presentation and some funny one liners, some light jokes can be cracked in between to break the monotony.

• Any business meeting must not be kept too long otherwise it tends to become a little monotonous and the participants tend to lose interest. A tea break or a snack break should be included in business meetings to make it more interesting, friendly and also to break the ice among the participants.

• One should always take the aid of whiteboards, digital boards, demonstrative charts, or simply notepads to scribble the important points in between for better understanding of the listeners.

• The participants should also never attend any meeting empty handed, instead carry a notepad and a pen or a paper to jot down the important points and queries to be asked later on. Words like ”Clear ?”, ”Am I audible?” Is everyone with me?” must be used in between for an effective participation.

• Don’t leave any topic in between, instead first finish one topic and then only start a fresh one. Eye contact must be made between the sender and the recipient for the bang on effect.

• Before concluding the meeting, the important points of the meeting must be discussed once again for everyone to recollect what happened in the meeting and the listeners must also clear all their doubts with the speaker before leaving. Don’t hesitate to ask even your smallest query, remember no one will laugh at you, instead will appreciate your attentiveness and willingness to learn.

• While sharing any important contact number, email id, always ensure to cross check with the recipient to avoid errors. It’s always better to exchange business cards rather than verbally dictating your contact details. Email ids must not be communicated in one go, instead, it must be spoken word by word clearly.

• At work place it is important to understand the recipient properly. Know your listener as much as you can and then only prepare your content. If you have to address the sales force, include some sales jargons, marketing tricks and so on to capture their interest.

  Communicate properly as haphazard sentences, abstract thoughts, confusing words only lead to misinterpretations and the outcome is a complete mess. Always keep your script simple, crisp and up to the point. Unnecessarily dragging a conversation also leads to boredom.

  In an organization, the team leader must first try to understand the thought process and the cultural background before assigning any work to his team members. Employees must be delegated the responsibilities keeping in mind their interest and comfort level. Transparency must be maintained at all levels in an organization and the employees must have an easy access to their seniors for an easy and effective communication.

Remember it is mandatory to effectively communicate at work place as it ensures the smooth and the correct flow of information from the first party to the second party. One can be a diligent worker, but if he does not master the art of effective communication, he will fail to create his identity and will be lost in the cruel corporate world.