How To Improve Communication Skills In The Workplace

how can you improve your communication skills as a professional in the workplace that's what this video is going to be about I'm going to share with you six tips that you can utilize that will help you improve your communication so stick around as we talk about this hello my name is Oyinkan Akinmade I'm a speaker and a workplace coach I teach people how to be confident how to communicate effectively at work and form those connections that would help you as a professional in the workplace in today's video I'm talking about six tips that would help you improve your communication skills as a professional at work so let's get right to it first of all let's go over a brief review on what communication is it's a conversation or communication or interaction between you and someone else or between you and a group of people and for communication to be effective it's important that people hear you and understand what you mean and at the same time it's important that you hear them and you understand what they mean so let's get right into the tips the first thing is to be clear with your message it's not another person's job to infer what you are saying it it's not the other person's job to figure out what you're trying to see you must be clear with your message state your opinions clearly express your likes or dislikes clearly express your opinion on a project or whatever it is you're talking about clearly you can't just wish that they knew what you meant you can't just hope that they get what you mean you have to be clear in your message and to be clear your message you have to try as much as you can to put it in a context that the other person can understand putting the experience the exposure and the background of that person into consideration when you are expressing that opinion the second thing is you have to listen when you are in a conversation or when you are in a meeting or when you're a group it is essential that you listen to what the other person is saying don't get caught up in your own world where you're thinking of the next thing you need to say without listening because you want to pick up on the cues that the other person is giving through the intonation the expressions whatever they do you want actively listening to the other person to understand fully what they mean the third thing is you want to utilize body language and what do I mean by this when you're communicating with somebody you do not want to feel close to you don't want them to think you're closed up you don't want them to think you don't really care about what they're there to say what they're there to express you want them to think and to know that you're open to them and you're listening to them and you care about what they think because it's a joint effort we're talking about the workplace here and not a personal thing yes you're expressing your opinion you're expressing your print or view but your opinion and your point of view is about the workplace it's about them as well so make sure that you're confident when you speak make sure that your body language is open and your it looks like you're interested in what they're saying because that makes a lot of difference when you're communicating with people you wouldn't want to communicate with someone that doesn't seem to have your time like you know putting their shoulders across doing something else when they're talking to you how will that make you feel you would feel like they're not there to listen to you so it's important that when you're communicating with them or interacting with them you pay full attention to what they're seeing you suspend your writing except you really need to take a quick note but take the quick note and give your attention back to them you also want to take into consideration the body language of those who you're communicating with listen body language will give you a lot of cues verbal communication would not give you do they look worried do they look concerned of a look unhappy do they look like they disagree with what you're doing for example if you're in a presentation and as you're going along you notice people start to scratch their heads or look confused or look like they have a question that may be a good time to either pause and ask if they have any clarifications they want you to make or just to ask any questions really like is there anything you want me to clarify or sometimes it may give an indication where you're going too far maybe you're giving an opinion on something and you feel like the person isn't receiving it well that may be a good idea to back off and just take your pause and gather yourself again before you speak so watching the body language of the other person gives you a cue should I ask more questions does this person need more clarification am i going so far I'm not going far enough it gives you an indication of the next step you should take if you can just cue in into it the fourth thing is to control your emotions listen it is so easy to get all emotional when someone says something to you that feels personal but that is the most important time to demonstrate your professionalism and to maintain your cool yes you may need to correct some misperceptions yes you may need to correct some wrong things but you need to do it with a cool and calm demeanor don't let your emotions get the better of you because what happens with the emotions is if you allow your emotions to control the conversation you may get out of hand it may ruin your personal reputation for example someone says something to you and you go in a fit and you look like an angry person and they are wondering ugh is this really who we want to work with you know it may give the wrong perception of who you are if you allow your emotions to take charge especially those emotions that are negative anger frustration emotions like that even when you're excited depending on the group you don't want to be overly excited you know you want to give an equal response to the group or to the person that you're speaking with now talking about the last two tips the last 2 tips I've been told by my clients have been very helpful to them learn background information what do I mean by this find out everything you can about the people you work with and when I mean everything can don't go into their private business no but just find out the things their perception their perspective how they think about things because that would help you any relate with them that will help you in your gathering facts that will help you when you're preparing for your presentation then be cautious of the emotions that if they've recently gone through for example if they've gone through a recent loss or they actually gone through and reset success if they've gone through any recent loss or loss obviously there'll be more apprehensive they may be more critical of your work so when you know some of those emotions that they've gone through as a result of an experience you will be able to prepare as you interact with them let me give an example you want to present the need for your organization to invest in a new software if they are had a bad experience with another software before of course when you're about to present your own ideas there will be more apprehensive they will be more critical they will you know bring up everything why it may not work so if you know that ahead of time you can get all the facts about the success you can research the companies or the organizations that have used similar software and how it is helped them and then when they're asking these questions it feels less of a personal attack sometimes it feels less of oh they don't want this to work they're not interested in my idea you would understand that they're coming from an angle of loss and you are better prepared for such scenarios last one is speaking the language of your audience this is a very vital or crucial key speak in the way that would resonate with the other person over the other group you speaking with if you have a group of clients find out the background of the client are they doctors are they're lawyers just get a that's part of getting a brief background and getting to know about their background look at the things that generally gets them excited look at the phrases or the wordings that resonates with them if you're talking to someone you know is into financial planning or into accounting they like you know profits they like income you know they like reducing deficit if I you are talking with an HR professional you talk about things about employee retention and job satisfaction onboarding cost you know look for the things that makes them perk their ears up when they hear you speak and you will get their attention in that way don't just go to someone and say like hey I got an idea this is a great idea you know yes that's good but give them a little more specific details that would get them interested to hear you hey I got an idea that would decrease the cost of onboarding I'll send you an email and we can set a time where we can discuss it is that okay with you of course to an HR professional when you tell them that you have something that would decrease the cost of onboarding they are eager to hear what you have to say they're really open they're excited to hear your ideas so when you're speaking with people find out those things that resonates with them find out those things that don't just come up with an idea that sounds good to you but make sure it sounds good and has a benefit to the person you're speaking to let me go over the tips once again be clear about your message listen actively utilize body the language open up show that you are engaged with your audience and also look out for their own body language control your emotions land background tips and speak in the language of the audience so I have more videos on body language on personal branding on things that would help you as a professional so make sure you check those out as well

Channel: Bold Professionals

Views: 3,801

Rating: 4.9459457 out of 5

Keywords: How To Improve Communication Skills In The Workplace, improving communication skills at work, good communication skills at work, how to communicate effectively at work, oyinkan akinmade, how to improve communication skills, communication in the workplace, workplace communication, Effective communication skills in the workplace, effective communication in the workplace, workplace communication skills, effective communication skills in the workplace

Id: Sh9yWrmOtDo

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019