Tips to Improve Your Business Communication Skills

“That man, I tell you, is professionally pathetic, and I don’t want to get in touch with him for any task unless urgent.”

This is how your personality may translate to a person you were trying to be casual with, and that’s when the urgency of learning types of business communication skills arises. Unlike a common belief, business communication doesn’t always slip into the box of stern expressions and concise conversations. It is instead a suite of different dimensions that you should learn. Because communication skills help in career development, learning them becomes all the more important.

How to Improve Business Communication Skills?

Business communication skills are not about putting two or three items in your bag while going to the office. It is the entire mannerism that you learn with experience, fundamental etiquettes, and observations. For instance, won’t you feel good if you were treated respectfully? That’s how generic it is and, at the same time, pretty complex, including your intonation, facial expressions, etc. Let’s see the two most important business communication skills and how to improve them- Verbal and Non-Verbal communication.

Verbal Communication Skills

Verbal communication is one of the most crucial business skills one should possess. It includes oral and written communication skills, not just the former (as many think). When the question of “how to improve business communication skills?” arises, this is the first skill that comes bouncing by. Imagine having a conversation with your colleague, and s/he turns out to spew heated words after a disagreement. Would you consider them to be professional? No is the obvious answer. The same goes with you being on the other side when your choice of words is not contextual to the formal setting.

There are several subtypes of verbal communication; let’s see which one you are messing with-

Grammatical Construction in Business Communication

Understandably, Grammar Nazis have been slaying the ‘net-world,’ which might sometimes give you a hump. Although fretting about your grammar is not what you should do, staying vigilant while writing emails or presenting your ideas to the board of officials is essential. You can’t disregard the importance of communication skills; the same goes for grammar.

Learning Spoken English for Business Communication

Learning spoken English for your workplace communication may/may not be pivotal for you, and that depends on the country you are living in. However, on the safer side, it is good to have a hold on your English communication skills. It might look unfair to most people when a specific language is weighed more by the professional world; however, take it a step further to progress in the world where the majority considers having sound knowledge of English indispensable.

Staying Respectful and Watchful While You Talk or Type

Staying respectful towards one is not a choice in the corporate world but a requirement. Failing to adhere to having respect for your colleagues would not only make a dreadful subject but also would cut down on your career opportunities. After all, nobody wants to work with a venom-spitting employee.That’s why learning business communication skills are imperative. How long do you think you would make everyone understand your true feelings? Hence, you should measure your words while you talk or type a message.

Having Good Listening/inferential Skills

There are several types of people, professional or outside the scope of the professional sphere. Some of them are superb orators but poor listeners. Without listening to the matter, you can’t know the context, and without context, your response is irrelevant. Listening to others and drawing inferences is cardinal to business communication.

Staying Coherent While Communicating

Going A to B and jumping down to Y, followed by C. Did that make any sense compared to A-B-C? That’s how vital staying coherent in business communication is. A logical flow of ideas and their coherent quotation can simplify the most complex details. Hence, while writing an email (even if it is a leave application explaining all that you had gone through on the day you went missing from the office), or speaking to someone, DO NOT DIGRESS!

Non-Verbal Communication Skills

Non-verbal communication skills are as much as important as verbal communication skills. Think about a person pitching a product of his company in front of you, keeping up with all the aspects of verbal communication in mind but looking underconfident. Would you be convinced with him? No! People, who are not confident in their ideas, how would someone else bank on them? That’s precisely why non-verbal cues act as a soul of communication.

Being Confident While You Communicate

Confidence plays an inevitable role in communication, especially business communication. Not only does it strengthen your ideas/thoughts/suggestions in your conversations, but it also shapes the way people perceive you- A person with clarity in ideas vs. someone who seems tottering in their ideas.

Intonation in Communication

The intonation of your conversation speaks volumes about your thoughts, regardless of how good you are with your words. One can see through the depth of your personality or mood with how your tone seems to them. Often, you must have heard people talking about how a person seemed grievous just with the intonation of their voice. That’s how major a role your intonation has. The intonation in communication can also be guessed from how you write or talk to a person over the phone; however, it is more pronounced while talking face-to-face.

Body Language

‘She had an amazing intonation and confidence in her voice, moreover, she was a complete wordsmith. But, it was her casual swinging of the hands and hand gestures that we lost the deal.’
What can be inferred from the statement from Shruti’s boss, who mentors and observes her every time Shruti goes out for a presentation? The importance of body language.Your hand gestures, facial expressions, how you stand/sit, drooping shoulders, etc., have their language, which we call body language. Believe it or not, sounding confident and looking confident affects the other party differently.

Dressing Sense

You might wonder why dressing sense is a business communication skill. Well, dressing sense has a profound effect on contouring your business professionalism. There is a reason people prefer donning formal clothes on the day of the interview, in fact, every day. Unbuttoned shirts, fancy hairstyles, and funky clothes might allure you in your day-to-day life, but decency is foremost appreciated in the professional world.

You can’t turn your backs on these fundamental business communication skills. You would be called out someday or the other for missing any of these. Hence, the sooner you adopt (or adapt yourself to) these skills, the better.