Improve Your Communication Skills in 5 Simple Steps
The benefits of knowing how to effectively communicate are endless, but for entrepreneurs it’s essential for building, launching, and growing their business. Everywhere you go and everyone you meet is either a potential client or can introduce you to one. When everyone working with you in your business feels heard, there are fewer chances of tense confrontations as your team will spend less time fixing misunderstandings that happened because one person wasn’t actively listening or someone else was interrupting a meeting. This means boosted productivity and more time spent on meaningful business strategy.
When you and your partners communicate effectively across the board, you’re likely to improve your customer experience as well. You can meet client needs more efficiently when you can work through challenges with your partners and team together and can make sure there are minimal miscommunications that leave important tasks falling through the cracks.
Improving communication skills can involve many different elements. Whether you want to be a better listener or check in with your business partners or employees, there are several ways to communicate more effectively. Here are some easy ways to start bettering your communication skills.
Be an Active Listener
Are you intentionally listening? If you’re doodling away in a meeting, writing emails during a Zoom call, or interrupting with your own ideas or solutions, you’re not actively listening. There are plenty of ways to improve your listening skills to ensure those trying to communicate with you feel heard.
Make eye contact when others are speaking.
Put away distractions. You can take notes, but don’t doodle, send emails, or type out texts when someone is trying to speak with you.
Pay attention to the other person’s tone and body language.
Hold your thoughts until the person is completely done speaking. When it is your turn, respond appropriately and reflect the information just shared with you to show your attentiveness.
Nod and smile as appropriate while the other person is talking. If possible, try to avoid tugging at your hair, fingers, or other nearby objects.
Don’t plan out what to say next in your head. You can quickly become consumed by these thoughts and miss what the other person is saying.
Hold judgments and opinions to yourself. Avoid jumping to conclusions, and instead, let the person share everything they have to say.
Once the person has finished speaking, ask questions to clarify any points you are unsure about.
Hold Effective Meetings
If you just start adding meetings to the calendar every other day, you’re probably going to have a lot of groaning and grumbling, and probably ghosting too. Improving communication doesn’t mean hosting more meetings. The trick is to host efficient and meaningful meetings instead.
Determine what meetings are necessary, and which ones would be better off as emails. Wasting time in unproductive meetings leaves everyone with less time and energy to get their essential tasks completed.
Create outlines for each meeting. This helps keep everyone on topic, and you can divert back to the outline any time the conversation starts to stray.
Invite only the people who truly need to attend the meeting. While communication company-wide is important, it’s counterproductive to invite people to a meeting who have no need to be there. If there are a few points that pertain to someone, but they don’t need to be there for the whole meeting, invite them to attend and start with those points. Better yet, send it in an email.
Leave the meeting with defined action items. This helps make the meeting worthwhile.
Follow up with the team after the meeting. Send notes on what the meeting covered, and end with the action items expected of the team.
Explain the WHY
When you ask your business partner or team to start doing research for a new project explain why you’re asking them to do the task. You may ask someone to download reports or do research on something they worked on last month.
With no explanation, the person may worry that their performance was poor or not meeting your expectations when really you just want to apply the numbers to a new business initiative you’re working toward.
Regardless of the task and reason, share why you are asking for certain things. This can also help avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications among those working in your business.
Ask for Feedback
Communication is a two-way street. In addition to leading productive meetings and checking in with partners on their tasks and project progress, you should also welcome feedback on your own performance and the business.
This can happen during one-on-one meetings or offer regular surveys for clients/customers to fill out. Offer an option to submit feedback anonymously as well, which can help people feel more comfortable speaking up.
When you receive feedback, don’t just push it to the side and forget about it. Make an action plan to work on improving your own opportunities. If you receive feedback that applies to the business, make sure to share that information with your partners and team as well.
Communication is certainly a collaborative effort, but ensuring you are coming into a conversation with great communication skills will improve the chances of increased productivity, larger client base clients, and ultimately, more revenue.
Collaboratory Experience is more than a marketing agency, we’re an amazing collaborative experience.
Collaboratory Experience is not just our name, we’re a testament to the measurable impact we offer businesses and brands looking for an exceptional agency experience. Our collaborative approach removes the layers of typical agency bureaucracy offering one-on-one consultation between businesses and the award-winning talent it takes to execute strategies that get results. Check out the marketing services we provide to help transform possibilities into tangible results specifically tailored for your unique business.
Ready to Make Your Impact? Talk to us.