Professional Communication Skills

In normal day-to-day communication, language (verbal and non-verbal) tends to be casual and informal. There's no need for ceremony, everyone's more or less familiar with one another. In work environments, however, professional communication skills are needed in order to provide formality and credibility to not just the company, but also to the employer and all the staff members.

Professional communication skills benefit business. Every organization works towards creating efficiency, maximizing resources and empowering personnel. All these goals require "sanitized" neutral communication; communication not subject to misinterpretation. After all, unmet business goals translate to loss income.

While internal communication can be informal, external communication should always be professional. External communication may come in the way of company statements to customers or individual dealings with private clients or suppliers. Oftentimes, the company has regulation regarding the content and form of these communications and compliance is strongly observed.

The level of professional communication required by an individual depends on the position and the type of responsibility the individual has in the company. Front liners often interact with customers or suppliers whose needs and expectations are different from employees getting their appraisals from a management officer. The higher you are in the chain of command, the more sophisticated your professional communication skills should be. Regardless of position, however, some basic rules apply. Courtesy, clarity and active listening should be practiced at all times.

Management level employees should be concerned with team development, motivation and feedback. It's essential that the company as a whole see their effort as contributing to a single purpose. Good teams mean more ideas and solutions to various problems.

A lack of communication skills on the part of the manager, on the other hand, runs the risk of having inefficient employees and tolerating animosity amongst them. Management serves to oversee employees to make sure the work process is orderly, and people become self-starters and independent thinkers. Strong professional communication skills also mean motivating staff to perform at their optimum. This translates to positive acts to inspire individuals, such as praises for a job well done, and giving constructive advice whenever necessary.

On all levels, it's important to maintain a certain amount of distance in the tone of communication to make sure that emotions don't get involved that might distract from and compromise the business.

Limit the amount of self-disclosure. It's often inappropriate to disclose feeling or thoughts against co-workers, superiors, or the business to other employees or third persons. With that in mind, there's no excuse for gossiping, especially in the workplace. There's a difference between polite small talk and over-disclosure. This covers face-to-face conversations, phone calls and emails.

As stated earlier, the best way to interact with others is with courtesy, clarity and active listening. Courtesy is the best way to deal with other people. Keeping in mind respect for others often means self-regulating how you portray yourself to others. Clarity in language is essential. Mean what you say and make sure to provide the needed information. Lastly, it is important to listen to others with an open mind. It's necessary to lessen barriers to communication in order to maximize the contribution of others and make people feel relevant and involved. Build on these basic professional communication skills and you're on the road to a productive and harmonious work environment.