Communication skills are some of our most valuable and useful abilities and ones that we would do best to cultivate and train in order to find success in any job role. For an organisation, having a team of staff all of whom are good communicators is one of the most important ways to ensure a productive and creative work force, as well as to avoid complications and mishaps and to ensure the optimum performance in a range of skills.
Of course communications skills means the ability to communicate with colleagues, but they are also much broader than that and mean the ability to communicate in a whole variety of capacities and to communicate with employers, employees, customers, clients, and the general public. Seeing just how many uses there are for good communication skills demonstrates at the same time just how important they are. Here we will look at a range of ways in which communication skills can be used in an organization.
Uses of Communication
Writing copy for websites, booklets, posters etc: Writing is of course a form of communication and a highly important one. Almost all industries and jobs require some form of copywriting, and the ability to do this well will enable staff to promote your business and your products and to avoid spelling mistakes and typos or bad grammar which can make an organisation seem unprofessional.
Giving talks and presentations to employers and colleagues: Giving a talk requires a certain amount of confidence as well as some mastery of the English language and the ability to communicate to large groups. It furthermore also requires you to be able to write the speech initially and this too takes a certain mastery of the English language if it is going to be coherent, entertaining, engaging and informative.
Talking through projects with colleagues: When you work in a team you will be required to discuss your projects with colleagues and this in turn means that you need to be able to both convey what it is that you mean, and to understand other people’s points of view. Otherwise you will find there are mistakes and mix-ups which will cause the project to not get done correctly or as quickly as possible.
Presenting and conducting yourself: The ability to converse and to speak fluently is something that is required in every facet of an organisation – and life in fact – where you are required to meet and interact with other people. The way someone presents themselves will largely depend on their use of the English language, so it’s important to ensure everyone has the communication skills they need in order to be able to reflect well on the company.
Talking to clients and customers: Staff who work with clients and customers need even more to be able to communicate well. This is firstly because they will be representing the business and helping clients to form their opinions about the organisation, but also because they will need to be able to understand the customer in order to ensure that they get them what they want/need and can convey any problems or details that the client might need to know.
Resolving conflicts: If there are conflicts within an organisation, or even between employees and clients, then the best way to resolve these is to be able to understand what it is that the other person is trying to communicate so that you can take measures to appease them. In fact many arguments will happen in the first place due to miscommunication.
Teaching and training other staff: A big part of being able to teach is being able to communicate a complex idea in a simple way. This requires an individual to be able to take that idea and turn it around in their mind before rephrasing it – so sub par communication skills will make this impossible.
Following instructions: At a most basic level, good communication is necessary to be able to follow instructions and to carry out roles. If a member of staff misunderstands what it is that they need to do, then you can rest assured that they won’t do it – and this will make them useless as an employee.