Good communication skills are essential to clearly relay vital information. There are fewer chances of misunderstanding and miscommunication happening, and better chances of selling a pitch, idea, product, or service.
That’s why we collected the top communication skills examples to help your teams excel in the most important soft skills to have in the workplace.
1. Active listening
Active listening enables you to focus on what the person you’re talking to is actually communicating. It lets the other person know that you’re acknowledging their needs, their ideas, and their feelings – which, in turn, can help you understand how to address their problem better.
That’s why active listening is a communication skill that managers often look to train their teams on. It’s applicable to everyone whether you’re rank and file or a C-level officer.
Mindful listening can help you address conflict or problems within the team. It ensures that you don’t miss out on important information from your meetings and one-on-ones. This also enables you to anticipate potential problems before they even happen.
This communication skill example is absolutely necessary for those in leadership positions. Your team members need to feel that their concerns are being heard and addressed. If they don’t, this could cause some unpleasantness within the team or at worst, lead to their resignation.
Check out this leadership and communication lesson from our library.
2. Giving constructive feedback
Feedback can be a tricky thing to give to fellow team members and especially to bosses. Oftentimes, giving constructive feedback is associated with things such as performance reviews or team assessments.
But, it can also be used for more casual meetings when you feel that there is a need for improvement with company processes, how a product can be improved, or if you take issue with someone’s behaviors.
Additionally, saying the wrong thing could cost you your relationship and trust with the people or teams concerned or even an HR complaint.
On the flip side, knowing how to properly communicate feedback can improve interpersonal relationships within the company. Your team or your boss will be grateful for your honesty when it’s given with care.=
You can check out EdApp’s Performance Management course to learn more about how to properly give constructive feedback.
3. Presentation / Visual communication
Presentation / visual communication is another essential communication skill example to include in your next employee training. Whether it’s pitching new products and features, having a sales call with a client, or even your average brainstorming, learning how to properly present information can take you a long way in life.
Research has found that 65% of the general population need to see information in order to retain it. Without images to aid you during your presentation, your audience will be less likely to remember or get sold on what you’re saying. Visuals add a component to communication that written and verbal methods do not: speed.
EdApp’s interactive learning feature is a good example of how tweaking your visual communication can help with information retention.
Lessons are presented in a variety of ways to your learners. Data can be compared side by side to see how they relate to each other. Expandable lists can segregate big pieces of information into smaller chunks so it’s digestible. Image way points highlight important details on a single image.
You can check out EdApp’s course on communication skills to learn more about improving your presentation skills.
4. Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is a communication skill example that is often neglected. However, gestures, body language, and facial expressions play a large role in communicating.
This type of communication complements and accentuates what you may be saying verbally. You can increase the impact of your message when you know how to properly communicate through gestures.
Not knowing how to properly communicate through body language can get you in a rough spot. You may say one thing, but your face may say another.
For example, you may sound interested when you’re listening to client concerns but give away your true feelings by slouching or looking around or generally appearing uninterested during the meeting. This could indicate that you’re not actually interested in what your client is saying – possibly creating a rift in your relationship.
Another example is when you’re unable to look people in the eyes. Eye contact plays a vital role in communication since it lets your audience know that you’re serious and you mean business. You’re more likely to feel a person’s sincerity if they can maintain eye contact with you.
HelpGuide goes into more depth for how to improve your nonverbal communication skills.
5. Written communication
In the digital age, most corporate communications go through written communication. This can be in the form of email, social media, or messaging apps.
Written communication doesn’t only mean internal company communication, but also how you engage with your audiences, partners, and customers. Press releases, product updates, and other announcements are released through social media and online news sites. You’re able to reach more people in a shorter amount of time through written communication.
Without a physical voice to convey the message, however, it’s easy to get lost in translation. One sentence could read as serious when you’re meant to sound engaging and conversational. Or vice versa. The message you’re trying to get across might not reach your audience, after all.
That’s why it’s essential to equip yourself with the proper training for written communication.
EdApp has a wonderful course to get you started on your written communication skills training.
6. Oral communication
Oral communication plays a big role in the trust and relationship between people and companies. It adds tonality to your words so you’re more effective when communicating important points. This is especially important for sensitive interactions, such as pay negotiations or conflict resolution, or technical topics such as hazard communication and radiation safety training courses, where this skill can help you tackle these topics as carefully as possible while avoiding misconceptions and confusion.
There are around 4 main types of oral communication: pitching, informal conversations, formal conversations, and speeches.
Pitching training teaches you how to get your point across in as short a time as possible.
Informal conversation lessons train you to be more empathetic and use context clues during interactions.
Formal conversation courses focus more on the tone of having such conversations.
Speech courses are for learning how to ultimately convince people to your side and communicate to people your message through imagery, examples, and emotion.
Each type requires different types of communication training for them. You can check out this course from EdApp to get you started.
7. Voice modulation
Voice modulation is adjusting the pitch or tone of your voice to help your listeners to clearly hear and understand your presentation or speech. People who need to speak to the public a lot need voice modulation training.
By mastering the art of voice modulation, you can make your pitches, presentations, and discussions more interesting and memorable to your audience. Even those who have a naturally sweet tone to their voice need to exercise their voice for modulation, variation, and professional success.
Part of what you can do to improve your voice modulation is to do voice recordings and listen to them afterwards. Recording yourself can help you pick up the variations in your voice so you can compare it with great speaker’s modulations.
8. Rapport development
Rapport development is a communication skill example that focuses on building and maintaining relationships through effective communication. As we all know, a stronger team delivers stronger results.
You could also use rapport building during client-facing interactions and inter-team relationship building. Partnerships and projects prosper when the foundation between parties is solid. Communication can become easier once rapport is properly developed between two parties, as well.
Some of the things you can do to develop this is to have small talk as an icebreaker and by injecting a bit of humor during your interactions.
EdApp’s microlearning lesson on connection and collaboration can get you started on developing rapport.
9. Storytelling
Storytelling is something that’s often considered limited to content creators and writers. But, storytelling can be a powerful tool to convey a message, to buy your product, and to listen to your pitch through imagery, connection building, and evoking emotions.
Storytelling enables you to more easily connect with other people. Storytelling skills are especially critical in roles that involve marketing to an audience or business development.
A good story can convince, inform, or entertain the people you’re trying to convince. You can use storytelling to persuade your boss to approve a new project during a presentation, create a brand identity for a firm, or assist customers in imagining how purchasing a product would enhance their lives.
Learn more about how you can improve your storytelling skills with EdApp’s story design course.
10. Negotiation
Negotiation is the bread and butter of business. That’s why it’s essential that everyone in the company gets this type of communication skills training. Without good negotiation skills, deals could falter or you may end up having the bad side of the bargain. Alternatively, you could get things to be more favorable to your side when you’re a good negotiator.
For example, business transactions, salary and benefit negotiations, and partnership deals will go better if you’re equipped with the proper negotiation skills.
Negotiation skills are also applicable for resolving conflicts within a team or organization. In any disagreement, people aim to achieve the best possible outcome for everyone in the party. Fairness, mutual benefit, compromise, and maintaining a relationship are the keys to a successful negotiation.
EdApp is a mobile learning management system designed for today’s digital habits, delivering more engaging and effective micro-learning directly to learners anytime and anywhere. They have courses ranging from healthcare to free IT training courses.
Check out EdApp’s communication skills example course here.
FAQs
What are 10 good communication skills? ›
- #1. Written And Oral Communication. Verbal communication is using words to convey information and it includes both written and oral communication. ...
- #2. Presentation. ...
- #3. Active Listening. ...
- #4. Nonverbal Communication. ...
- #5. Feedback. ...
- #6. Respect. ...
- #7. Confidence. ...
- #8. Clarity.
- Ability to Adapt Your Communication Style. ...
- Active Listening. ...
- Transparency. ...
- Clarity. ...
- Ability to Ask Open-Ended Questions. ...
- Empathy. ...
- Open Body Language. ...
- Receiving and Implementing Feedback.
- 9 Essential Communication Skills for any Workplace. ...
- Listening skills. ...
- Empathy. ...
- Patience. ...
- Positive attitude. ...
- Being honest and open-minded. ...
- Giving and receiving feedback. ...
- Body language.
This model has been built up upon ten clearly explained elements that are as follows: 1) Sender; 2) Objective; 3) Message; 4) Dispatching; 5) Time-Place Factor; 6) Medium; 7) Reception; 8) Receiver; 9) Understanding; and 10) Response.
What are the 10 C's of communication? ›Use the 10 Cs to improve your writing. Communicating with a target audience is the objective so keep writing clear, concise, correct, coherent, complete, creative, considerate, concrete, courteous & credible.
What are 12 ways to improve communication skills? ›- Start Listening: The importance of listening!
- By Improving Non-verbal Communication.
- By improving Verbal Communication.
- Know your audience.
- Over-communication and the art of timing.
- PIP Approach.
- By Improving visual communication.
- Body language matters.
- WRITTEN COMMUNICATION. Convey ideas and information through the use of written language.
- ORAL COMMUNICATION. Convey ideas and information through the use of spoken language.
- NON-VERBAL AND VISUAL COMMUNICATION. ...
- ACTIVE LISTENING. ...
- CONTEXTUAL COMMUNICATION.
- Verbal Communication. Verbal communication occurs when we engage in speaking with others. ...
- Non-Verbal Communication. What we do while we speak often says more than the actual words. ...
- Written Communication. ...
- Listening. ...
- Visual Communication.
- Active listening. ...
- Responsiveness. ...
- Understanding different communication styles. ...
- Empathy. ...
- Body language and non-verbal cues. ...
- Writing skills.
These basic communication skills are speaking, writing, listening and reading. The way you communicate with others and present your ideas makes a lasting impression on people. Are you able to get your point across succinctly?
What are the 3 main communication skills? ›
...
3 Main Types of Communication
- Verbal Communication. ...
- Nonverbal Cues Speak Volumes. ...
- Visual Communication.
Communication skills are another crucial skill as a part of four-core skill you can develop in the 21st century. Communication skills are thinking skills, writing skills, creative skills, design skills, technological skills, and also emotional skills and leadership skills.
What are the 10 types of communication at work? ›- Face-to-face verbal communication. Face-to-face conversation can be carried on when speaking to any member personally while present in the same place.
- Emails. ...
- Telephones. ...
- Written reports. ...
- Group meetings. ...
- Announcements. ...
- Texting. ...
- Listening.
What is Communication? Communication is a process that involves sending and receiving of messages through a verbal and non-verbal method. The sender sends a message, the receiver receives a message and sends it back with the feedback to the sender again.
What are the five principles of effective communication class 10? ›- awareness,
- responsibility,
- respect,
- trust,
- and creativity.
- Semantic barriers.
- Psychological barriers.
- Organisational barriers.
- Cultural barriers.
- Physical barriers.
- Physiological barriers.
Only roughly 10% of communication is determined by the words we use. The rest (~90%) is communicated through ambiguous nonverbal channels. The same words can be delivered in a way that mean opposite things.
What are the seven elements that influence the communication skills class 10? ›- Sender. The sender is the person who is trying to communicate a message. ...
- Receiver. ...
- Message. ...
- Channel. ...
- Noise. ...
- Feedback. ...
- Context.
- Take a Look at Yourself. ...
- Get Out There and Ask Questions. ...
- Think about How Well Your Organization Communicates. ...
- Rearrange Your Office. ...
- Keep Your Door Open and Schedule Time to Talk. ...
- Encourage Water-Cooler Talk. ...
- Discourage One-Way Communication.
Simple actions like using a person's name, making eye contact, and actively listening when a person speaks will make the person feel appreciated. On the phone, avoid distractions and stay focused on the conversation. Convey respect through email by taking the time to edit your message.
What is a good communication skill? ›
Be clear and concise
Communication is primarily about word choice. And when it comes to word choice, less is more. The key to powerful and persuasive communication—whether written or spoken—is clarity and, when possible, brevity. Before engaging in any form of communication, define your goals and your audience.
The communication process involves understanding, sharing, and meaning, and it consists of eight essential elements: source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context, and interference.
What are the 8 means of communication? ›- E-mail. ...
- Website. ...
- Phone Technology. ...
- Text Messaging. ...
- Web Chat. ...
- Social Media. ...
- Video Messaging. ...
- Handwritten Notes.
Communication can be categorized into three basic types: (1) verbal communication, in which you listen to a person to understand their meaning; (2) written communication, in which you read their meaning; and (3) nonverbal communication, in which you observe a person and infer meaning.
How many communication skills are there? ›There are four types of communication: verbal, nonverbal, written and visual.
What are the examples of communication? ›Examples of communication can include face-to-face discussion, emails, facial expressions, videos, and presentations. Communication is important for success in the workplace through networking and effective communication of ideas.
What are the 7 examples of communication? ›Using the 7 C's of communication, that is when you're clear, concise, concrete, correct, consider the speaker, complete and courteous, with your message, you will become an effective communicator and find more success in your interactions with people.
What are 5 examples of digital communication? ›- Email. ...
- Instant messaging and live chat. ...
- Websites and blogs. ...
- SMS/text messaging. ...
- Phone and voicemail. ...
- Video.
- Verbal Communication. Verbal communication occurs when we engage in speaking with others. ...
- Non-Verbal Communication. What we do while we speak often says more than the actual words. ...
- Written Communication. ...
- Listening. ...
- Visual Communication.
- Active listening.
- Adapting your communication style to the listeners.
- Friendliness.
- Giving and receiving constructive feedback.
- Confidence.
- Volume and clarity.
- Empathy and respect.
- Understanding non-verbal messages.
What are the 5 keys to communication? ›
- Choose your words wisely.
- Listen to what others say.
- Consider your tone, inflection and body language.
- Write less, say more.
- Know when to stop!
- Active listening. ...
- Responsiveness. ...
- Understanding different communication styles. ...
- Empathy. ...
- Body language and non-verbal cues. ...
- Writing skills.
...
3 Main Types of Communication
- Verbal Communication. ...
- Nonverbal Cues Speak Volumes. ...
- Visual Communication.
The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing or using some other medium and means of sending or receiving information.
What are the 12 tips for communication? ›- Be kind. Both you and your employees are humans with emotions, needs, and personal lives. ...
- Talk (and listen) professionally. ...
- Use proper grammar. ...
- Keep emotions in check. ...
- Choose your words wisely. ...
- Avoid being vulgar and crude. ...
- Notice your body language. ...
- Be real.
- Be succinct. ...
- Be specific. ...
- Be pleasant and approachable. ...
- Listen actively. ...
- Observe others who are good at communication - then copy them. ...
- Always enter a conversation with two things clear in your mind.
The communication process involves understanding, sharing, and meaning, and it consists of eight essential elements: source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context, and interference.
What are the four 4 types of communication *? ›After reading this guide, you will better understand the four main types of communication: Verbal, non-verbal, written, and visual.