Communication skills help to build and inspire people to work towards organizational goals; in this article, we’re going to highlight the most important communiaction skills that each worker should possess

Empathy

Several workers leave their companies for a more humanitarian environment, there’s a big incentive for companies to focus on empathy skills at the earliest possible time to keep their staff within the workplace. This quality gives the ability to an employee to look at things or problems from other people’s point of view and to understand their emotions.

Empathy, is more than just a simple concept mentionned in manuals of communication skills, it’s one of the most important keys that should be developped to achieve  interpersonnal relationship. According to Businessolver’s 2017 Workplace Empathy Monitor report, 96 percent of employees surveyed believed it was important to demonstrate empathy within the company, so whatever your statut (boss or employee), I think these questions probably turn in your mind : ” Am I showing more support to other employees ? And how can I do that ? ”

If you don’t really have a very specific answer, don’t worry about this, in this article, I will give you a few simple ways to take into consideration :

Being interactive with coworkers : You have to make sure that your speech doesn’t just focus on what you say; talk less and listen more gives others the opportunity to express themseleves and it helps you to understand, deeply, thoughts and feelings from their point of view.  

Show empathy through your body language : How you stand or sit spreads a strong message about how you feel. For example, if you are talking to someone and you have your arms crossed over your chest, this shows feelings of being annoyed or perturbed.To make a better connection, you should have your arms open, nod, smile, give a word of acknowledgement occasionally as you listen.

Don’t hesitate to take action : as a manager, if you know that an employee is going through family problems, don’t hesitate to give them a few days off so that he can resolve his problems and stabilize his mood, this decision will also have a positive impact on his productivity.

Don’t forget that, many people approve of the effectiveness of this attitude within organizations, Henry Ford said : “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own”.

Written communication

Written communication refers to any type of interaction through writing. Written communication requires a lot of effort. Communication is the pass to any business implicating more than one person. Written communication is essential in the modern world and is becoming more so as we engage in what is commonly called the information. In fact, written communication is the most common form of business communication. It is important for small business owners and managers to develop effective written communication skills and encourage them in all employees. Take the example of a report that we want to present: we must first collect all the necessary information, organize it in a logical order, and then write it down very carefully. This is not always the case with other forms of oral communication. Letters and reports reflect the image of the organization.

Public speaking

Public speeches can cover a wide variety of different topics. The goal of the speech may be to educate, entertain, or influence the listeners. Often, visual aids in the form of an electronic slideshow are used to supplement the speech and make it more interesting to the listeners.

Over the years, public speaking has played a major role in education, government, and business because words have the power to inform, persuade, educate, and even entertain. Forbes mentions that the single most difficult hurdle in many professionals’ lives is the ability to deliver a memorable speech. Public speaking is a necessary skill in a wide range of business positions .The ability to be persuasive is essential for a business professional. Delivering meaningful and effective presentations to any audience, whether business executives or the public, may require understanding different presentation strategies and how to communicate across national and language barriers for more efficient business communication ,it is also critical to understand the communication methodologies that are best used with groups and the techniques that are more effective with specific group compositions; that’s why public speaking has a crucial role in the process of building a business communication that has a huge impact on teamwork and connectivity between the executives and the workers. Finally and as an example of how a good speaker should be, we can mention Steve Jobs as a previous Apple CEO and Donald Trump as a great key exponent of the modern tenets of public speaking because his unique style defies all rules of classical rhetoric, yet he manages to connect with and rouse audiences on an emotional level.

Listening

James Cash Penney  once said that “the art of effective listening is essential to clear communication and clear communication is neccessary for management success “, so in order to maintin effective working relationships among employees and  management, active/effective listening is  key, for one  to be a good communicator one  must be an active listener and that could only  be acquired and developped with practice.

Active listening involves paying close attention to what the other person is saying through asking clarifying questions, taking notes, rephrasing what one hears by expressing the same message in different words with shorter forms, for instance : During an intra-company training session  on the use of a new software, when one’s supervisor is explaining actively listening to the information will affect positively on  productivity especialy when the trainees  have to do these  tasks by themselves using the new software. It is common to check your understanding by asking to the point and specific questions or use some expressions such as « so, what you are saying is..or so, it sounds to me as if… ».It’s also important that the active listner shows that he or she is involved  by combining  smile and nods of head to affirm that messages   are being listened to and understood, using eye contact and other non verbal signs are highly recommended .

Active listening has countless benefits in the workplace among which are building trust between the company  and its employees as well as between employees themesleves, resolving conflicts, reducing misunderstandings and creating a culture of respect by appreciating  each other’s perspectives before responding; all these benefits of active listening fosters a healthy work experience.

Non-Verbal Communication

When we talk about communication, we often mean the word that we use to express ourselves, as matter of fact it also includes implicit messages, which are expressed through non-verbal behaviors. According to experts, a substantial portion of our communication is nonverbal. Every day we respond to thousands of nonverbal cues and behaviors, including facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, gestures displayed through body language and the physical distance between the communicators.

Here are six types of non-verbal communication: First of all, Facial communication. The look on a person’s face is often the first thing we see, even before we hear what they have to say and they are similar throughout the world for all cultures. Gestures are an important way to communicate. Movements and signals can be related to each culture next Paralinguistic, and it refers to vocal communication that is separate from actual language. This includes factors such as tone of voice, loudness, inflection, and pitch. Communicating through touch is another important nonverbal behavior and it’s called Haptics. Harry Harlow’s classic monkey study demonstrated how deprived touch and contact impedes development and how touch can be used to communicate affection, familiarity, sympathy, and other emotions. Last type is the Appearance which is the most important way to communicate. Our choice of color, clothing, hairstyles and other factors are affecting our appearance as the culture, which is an important influence on how our appearances are judged.     

Authors

• BOURHILI Sabah
• BOUAZZA Rachida
• CHAMI Abderezzak
• EL BOUALAMI Fatima Ezzahra
• BRITEL Houda

Resources

• https://www.askspoke.com/blog/support/workplace-empathy/
• https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/EmpathyatWork.htm
• http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-communication/written-communication/written-communication-meaning-advantages-and limitations/70195?fbclid=IwAR0UQodHG8J8lGQzQqaUHaDUvoTRZVcDsm0nhPi6DcVUwWYYYyBmhOaLOmY
• https://www.verywellmind.com/harry-harlow-and-the-nature-of-love-2795255
• https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html