3 ways to improve communication in your business

Whether it is family, friends, customers, employees, or suppliers communication can make or break a business, relationship, family, and friendship. It’s the one thing we have all done our entire lives and yet, it’s the one thing we all often make mistakes in. 

That’s why smart leaders and organizations, invest continually in their communication skills. Today, there are so many ways to communicate and so many ways to have miscommunications. Different platforms, channels, different emojis and stickers, oh and generations, cultures, slang, and regions make can make communication a minefield personally and professionally       

When businesses frequently have problems with processes and employee retention, it is found that communication barriers are high and the level of skills around communication is low. This leads to more problems, more meetings, more stress, low productivity, and this spills over into outside the organization as well. Low communication skills, inside the organization, leads to increased customer problems, reduces sales and customer retention, hinders the ability to attract and retain highly skilled and motivated employees, and it affects the company brand.                  

                                                                                       “Communication is an art” – Richard Branson

Here are 3 ways to improve your communication style (on and offline)

1. Body language, be aware of your body language when interacting with people, humans make decisions about someone within seconds of meeting them, so being attentive and focused on the messenger can be very beneficial to your interaction and their impression of you. Like, I am sure you are aware, we can sense when someone is giving you their full attention.
2. Tone, the tone of your voice says a lot about how you feel when speaking. If you are frustrated, angry, irate, or bored, that easily comes across through your tone. Try to keep your tone and pace, mostly even when speaking, that makes others feel that you are engaged in your conversation with them, calm, and approachable. 
3. Listening, recognized by many as the most essential skill in communication. We have so many interactions these days, it’s hard to really listen to what is being said, and most importantly what’s unsaid. The best tip to improve your listening is to listen without interrupting the person. Allow the messenger to communicate his full message before you respond. Interrupting someone when they are speaking is still considered by most to be rude by most people and it discourages people from talking to you in the future. 

Communication is the foundation of a thriving business, so if there are continuous and repetitive problems, in a business then a refresher in communication skills is needed for everyone in the organization. The biggest benefits of implementing effective communication strategies in your workplace. The benefit of great communication skills in the workplace is increased productivity. A positive atmosphere, greater innovation, and enhanced loyalty to the Company. And of course, increased customer satisfaction.

 At Success By Design, we conduct online effective communications video course to help leaders and teams use effective communication to increase productivity. Success By Design is not your average training business, we share relevant and useful information and tools to enable you and your business from the start. And we keep your attention with our style. Our course is based upon the transactional analysis theory, taken from psychoanalysis, and used in our Effective Communication course to help understand the mindset of the communicator and the audience so that communication becomes effective. Understanding human behavior helps to motivate, guide, and direct other communication interactions in a way that leads to the desired result, thus Transactional Analysis (TA), thus, facilitates communication . For more info on our effective communication training course go here.