How to communicate better at work?
“Communication is one of the top 5 leadership competencies desired in the leaders of top organisations across the world.” – Harvard business review. Never before communication skills have been considered so important for the advancement of careers. It is the most preferred competency across roles and by communicating better, one stands out from colleagues immediately. Still communication at the workplace is mired in a lot of myths and a lot of working professional suffer from poor communication skills due to lack of information or guidance. So here are 6 things you can start doing now to improve your English communication skills at the workplace including communicating effectively in meetings, and become a superstar in your organization.
Fluency in English
Nowadays, the preferred language of communication at workplaces is English. Being fluent in English helps in a lot of ways. It helps you create a good impressions, share your point of view confidently and navigate tricky workplace situations with ease. One needs to become as fluent as possible in English speaking and writing to do better in career. There are lot of free courses on the internet and you can also try teacher driven online English speaking courses in India as well to improve your English fluency. You can also work with Speechify where you can find a suitable online English tutor in India to help you practice and improve your fluency.
Don’t hide behind Jargons
Everyone loves to use jargon in the workplace, however, overuse of them makes it difficult to get your point across your colleagues. Most of the jargons can be easily replaced by simple laymen terms that are easy to explain and easy to understand. Make life easy for yourself and your colleagues. Stop over using jargons!
Don’t be afraid of asking questions
‘No question is stupid’ – this advice is as relevant to school kids as to working professionals. It is always a good sign to ask questions if you don’t understand something. It creates an impression that you are a good listener and are actually interested in learning. Plus, it has actual benefits. A lot of us end up making mistakes because we were too shy to ask questions. Don’t be shy. Next time, go ahead and ask questions!
Stay on topic
Workplace meetings are notoriously considered time wasting exercises. Running an effective and efficient meeting is a very difficult task and requires effort on all the stakeholders. However, one small initiative can make these meetings much more effective – Stay on topic. Clearly identify the topic/issue pertaining to the conversation/meeting and make sure that you don’t diverge from it. This is the key to running efficient meetings/conversations in workplaces.
Rephrase the feedback
Feedback is an important part of our work life. We are constantly providing and receiving feedbacks on our performances, projects, career choices and so on. The ability to receive and provide good feedback is essential to becoming a good communicator. One simple tip can help. Every time you get feedback from someone, rephrase it in your own words. This will make sure that both parties are on the same page and can avoid miscommunication. This is one of the best ways to tackle people who give general feedback which does not add value to your work life.
Stop comparing. Start contrasting.
Today’s workplaces are extremely competitive. It’s easy to get discouraged by the above par performances of your colleagues, managers. This ever-present comparison hinders your communication with them and hence impacts your performance even more. One way to counter this is to find similarity in communication styles with these high performers. This will help you in identifying with high performers and communicate more effectively with them.
If you take care of the above, you can be a master communicator at your job and open many doors. To know more about workplace communication skills, try a free lesson at Speechify -the best English speaking course online in India.