Good communication in a professional environment is not just about saying “good words” to please the people around you. An employee with excellent communication skills is one who can fine-tune the way of interacting, receiving and transmitting information with different people, effectively. If you aim to develop communication skills to quickly integrate into the environment and take new steps in your career, do not ignore our following guide.

1. What are communication skills?

Communication skills are your ability to convey and receive different types of information, and then respond appropriately. Communication is essentially a general skill, necessary in both work and life. A person with good communication skills is someone who can exchange information clearly and effectively, is able to convey messages, and listens actively to achieve specific communication goals.

Ideas, feelings, and surrounding factors all influence how and how effective communication is. Therefore, communication skills are related to the ability to listen – speak, observe and empathize with both the subject and the object of communication.

The most common forms of communication are:

– Direct communication (face-to-face/face-to-face).

– Indirect communication via phone, email, chatbot,…

Jobs that use a lot of communication skills can be mentioned as sales staff, sales staff, translators – interpreters, customer care staff, telesales staff, purchasing staff, specialists. import and export,…

2. The role of communication skills at work

Communication at work is expressed in many aspects including communication via email, body language, verbal, written,… So the importance of communication skills in work can be shown. How specific?

– Is a tool for you to integrate and adapt to the working environment.

– Communication skills promote work performance. When communication is transparent and clear, information is transmitted, received, discussed and negotiated to come to an agreement that will promote accurate and fast work results.

– Communication skills create strong teams and groups in the company to develop together.

– Building relationships in the working environment and in the overall industry and field.

– Have more opportunities to learn and develop yourself in both professional skills and soft skills.

– Increased opportunities for career advancement.

In fact, there are jobs that require regular communication and interaction with colleagues, customers, and partners, while other roles that can work independently will be more appreciated but still need communication. How to improve communication skills, thereby working as a team, being loved by colleagues, trusted by customers, etc. is a question that is not easy to answer.

The importance of communication skills at work

3. How to develop professional and effective communication skills

To communicate well, behave skillfully in life as well as work and society, we need to note the following points:

3.1. Define communication purpose

Even in close relationships, we often tell a story or ask questions related to a certain topic. At work, you need to pay attention to the effectiveness of communication, so determine in advance what your purpose is – exchange to come to an agreement, change the project management process or communicate to change the project management process. Contract negotiations,…

Of course, with friendly, open conversations outside of work, depending on the level of intimacy, you can communicate simply with colleagues without being too serious about “purpose”.

3.2. Clear and easy to understand, no stuttering or stuttering

The clear and understandable expression not only helps to show confidence but also professionalism in the communication process. Words like “ah, um” should also be completely removed from your sentences. When conversing with others, always speak firmly, know how to pause in the right place so that others can understand what you mean and also to regain energy for yourself.

At the same time, in each different situation, you should also use different words and voices, preferably in the most coherent and understandable way. You shouldn’t always use overly technical words and need to be extremely careful with grammar. 

3.3. Communicate with focus and clarity on the information you want to convey

Many people have a “non-stop sports” way of communicating, just saying what they want without caring whether other people want to hear it or not or whether they receive it positively or not. Talking too much does not prove that you are a highly educated person. On the contrary, it will show people not shared and even imposed.

The essence of the communication process is to exchange information, two parties share common thoughts and concerns. So, if one party just fidgets with his thoughts, the other party will certainly feel bored and there will be almost no further discussions.

3.4. Recognize signals and adjust communication to connect with each other

As mentioned above, the purpose of each conversation and communication is for people to understand each other and share common thoughts. It would be a great thing to be able to find a companion who truly understands you and can share everything in life. This once again confirms the importance of listening skills.

Listening is not only to understand and to give advice but also to show respect to the other person and really understand the information they want to convey to make the most appropriate response.

How to communicate effectively, skillfully?

3.5. Listen and respect each other

Most of us talk more than we listen. What causes us to focus almost exclusively on what we are about to say and ignore almost completely the other’s thoughts? It may be because we do not really know how to listen and respect the opinions of others.

During communication, pause for a moment to listen to the other person’s opinion, words, tone of voice and pay attention to their body language. When the other person sees that you are really listening to them, they will feel more confident and will open up more. They’ll be even happier when you ask questions. The more you know how to listen, the more open the other person will be and the more interesting the story will be.

3.6. Speak your mind right, incorporate body language

The best way to show tact and professionalism in communication is to be honest, speak your mind right. If you’re feeling uncomfortable, let your partner know. If you don’t want to continue talking about a topic, you should say it too. Of course, it must be in a clever way so as not to upset the other party. Saying the right way of thinking seems easy, but not everyone can do it.

In addition, when communicating, you must not forget body language. Sometimes it means more than a hundred thousand words you say. Is your voice too harsh? Is your face showing disdain for what others say? Or your eyes are showing interest in their story. Body language will reveal all your feelings and thoughts, even your attitude towards the other person.

4. Instructions for demonstrating communication skills in job interviews

For the interview to go smoothly, you need to arrive 10-15 minutes early and dress appropriately. Next, demonstrate your communication skills in the following way:

– Greet, behave politely and professionally from the time of communication via email, phone with the employer (response to the interview invitation).

– Fresh and confident when coming to a professional interview.

Be prepared to present yourself confidently, convincingly and attractively.

– Answer interview questions correctly and enough in an interesting and engaging way, avoiding “talking like a machine” – being too rigid, or showing anxiety, low self-esteem.

– When you have the opportunity to ask the employer a reverse question, prepare in advance so that the question is reasonable, both to help you exploit the information you want to know and to build a positive impression on the employer.

– Always have eye contact, smile, voice loud enough to hear, clear and combined with body language throughout the interview.

– Greet (and shake hands if possible) at the end of the conversation.

– Send an email thanking the employer for giving you the opportunity to interview as well as taking the time to listen and discuss with you about the job and cooperation opportunities.

5. Top basic and most important communication skills

Communication skills are more than just speaking and listening or writing and reading and responding. To really develop your communication skills, you need to focus on relevant skills such as:

– The ability to listen actively.

– Communication skills such as greetings, manners.

– Presentation, persuasion and negotiation skills.

– Questioning skills.

– Problem solving skills / problem solving skills.

– Team work skills.

– Leadership and management skills.

People with good communication skills will have a smoother job

6. Factors affecting communication skills

Not only in terms of skills, skillful communicators are also often psychological people, sensitive to changes – even the smallest in attitudes, voices of people around and know how to react. appropriate communication with each communication object and specific situation. The qualities and qualities required of an individual with excellent communication skills are:

– Active listening.

– Adjust the speaking style to each listener.

– Friendly and open.

– Confident.

– Share, present information and receive feedback.

– Speak clearly, not too loud or too low.

– Have empathy.

– Respect your opponent.

– Understand the message of body language.

– Willing to give positive or negative feedback in a tactful, persuasive manner.

7. Errors to avoid in communication

In addition to suggestions on how to improve communication, you will also need to know about common basic communication mistakes to avoid making or correcting in time such as:

– Not patiently listening, often interrupting others. If you have to interrupt, “sorry” or “sorry” first.

– Frequently denigrating, slandering, judging others, showing an attitude.

– Communicating roundabout, humm, hesitant.

– Habit of crossing arms, watching the clock, biting nails.

– Squinting, staring, unreal smile.

– Scratching the head, scratching the neck, moving a lot shows inattentiveness when communicating.

– Provoking things others do not want to hear, touching self-esteem.

– Frequent use of the personal pronoun “I”, shows overconfidence and can be perceived as self-centered.

– Saying the wrong topic, the topic that people are talking about.

– Whisper to some people in a large group of people.

– Talk too loudly when it’s not necessary. Depending on the topic of communication, there are appropriate tones and intonations.

– Or wave their hands, dance their feet, show anxiety or are too happy when communicating.

– Can’t remember the other party’s name, even though they introduced it.

– Express your anger by being angry, hot-tempered.

8. What should introverts and quiet people do to improve their communication skills?

In fact, our personality traits and our school, family, and relationships determine our ability to communicate and our communication style. For those of you who are quiet and introverted, it will be more difficult to have a lot of communication with the people around you.

However, because communication skills are so important, even if you are not a natural communicator, you should still try to follow the following tips to develop yourself.

– Do not listen passively, only receive information without responding: The way to become an active listener is relatively simple because you just need to listen attentively to the other person and ask more questions. provide information or contribute ideas, accompanied by interactions with nods, expressions of expression and interest.

– Don’t force yourself to talk more than necessary: ​​Don’t pressure yourself to attend all the chat sessions, you only need to join when there is information you want to share or you feel the feedback is needed.

– Believe that your words have value: Introverts, quiet people often feel nervous when sharing their ideas and opinions because they are afraid of facing negative reactions from others. However, change to be more confident.

– Prepare in advance for meetings: If you feel uncomfortable facing the people in the meeting face-to-face, prepare in advance. You can make a list of things you want to say or jot down important information.

– Facing the fear of communication: Admitting that I am not confident in communication, not really skillful, … and gradually changing, being able to participate in soft skills training programs is also a good thing. good way you should consider.

How to improve communication skills for introverts?

Above is the “all” information on what communication skills are and guidelines for you to focus on developing your communication skills. Make the small changes and notes that we share above, after a while you will definitely see a positive change.