WHY ARE COMMUNICATION SKILLS HIGHLY IN-DEMAND?

What makes communication skills the most in demand soft skill? As per the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey 2020 the top 3 skills valued by recruiters for MBA graduates are: Communication Skills, Strategic Thinking & Versatility.

80% of your career success depends on your communication skills. That is a tremendously high figure. Why do communication skills matter so much and what are communication skills?

WHAT ARE COMMUNICATION SKILLS?

Communication skills are of 3 types:

1. Oral communication skills — are about how you speak and present your ideas and thoughts. These can be further categorized into:
a) Presentation Skills
b) Elevator Speech
c) Interviewing Skills
d) Story Telling
e) Public Speaking
f) Facilitation/Meeting Skills

2. Written communication skills — are about how you write and present your thoughts and ideas. These are further categorized into:
a) Business Email Writing
b) Report Writing
c) Content Writing

3. Influencing communication skills — are how you influence the other person or people through your spoken and written word. These are further categorized into:
a) Listening Skills
b) Probing Skills
c) Feedback Skills

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS?

Whether oral, written or influencing, certain characteristics are common to all 3 type. These are a must have to possess good communication skills:

1. Assertive –Assertiveness is about being confident, forceful, respectful, collaborative, and explicitly stating what you want.

One extreme of assertiveness is being passive and the other extreme is being aggressive.

In contrast, an assertive communication is a lot more direct on expectations, action, impact and is willing to collaborate if help is needed.

Assertive communicators will:

• state needs, feelings, and wants clearly and appropriately
• use “I” statements
• listen well without interrupting
• not allow others to side-track, manipulate, or abuse them
• stand up for their rights
• address issues and problems as they arise
• create a respectful environment

The assertive communicator will say, believe, or behave in this way:

• “I realize I have choices in my life, and I consider my options.”
• “I speak clearly, honestly, and to the point.”
• “I can’t control others, but I can control myself.”
• “I place a high priority on having my rights respected.”
• “I respect others and myself equally.

If we are assertive, we take care of ourselves and others, which is necessary for a good mental and physical health and positive relationships.

2. Empathetic — Empathy means:

• Understanding and appreciating how others feel.
• Avoid hurting the feelings of others.
• Getting in touch, relating, and being sensitive to other people’s emotions and feelings.
• Respect other people’s emotions.
• Care about how others feel.
• Express the feelings and the facts from the other person’s view.
• Notice the unsaid — read between the lines of what the customer wrote.

Here are examples of words and phrases that are empathetic:

• I experienced the same.
• I really want to hear what you have to say.
• Give yourself some time to process.
• If I was you, I would feel the same.
• I wish things were different.
• I can imagine how that might have felt.
• I can see this is making you upset.
• You are frustrated.
• I know how you feel.
• That must be hard.
• I don’t know what to say.
• I can’t imagine what you must be going through.
• I wish I could make it better.
• It makes me really sad to hear this happened.
• Thank you for sharing with me.
• I’m glad you told me.
• This must be hard to talk about. Thanks for opening up to me.
• I’m here for you.
• That must have annoyed you.
• We really appreciate.
• I have experienced a similar issue.

“ Empathy works so well because it does not require a solution. It requires only understanding ”. John Medina.

3. Being Positive

Words are free. It is how you use them that will benefit or cost you. For good communication, you want to be positive in your sentiment and emotion.

In some cases when you must deliver bad news, you cannot force the sentiment to be positive. However, you can be less negative by using more neutral and moderate words.

Here are examples of negative words or phrases which can be said in a more positive manner.

Negative Words or PhrasesPositive Words or Phrases1WeaknessDevelopment2Constructive CriticismGrowth3NegativeArea for improvement4Past issueOpportunity5Made a mistakeNew perspective6FailureLearning7The problem is…Possible options or solutions8Bad newsThe situation is9Facing many hurdlesFacing challenges such as10ResistanceWe need to understand their perspective better.11Against usThey are playing the devil’s advocate.12It will never happen.It can happen if we get the right support.

WHY DO COMMUNICATION SKILLS MATTER SO MUCH?

In a business environment, 70% of your time is spent in communicating with others. Let us look at these statistics:

• ~50% is spent in reading, writing, and responding to emails
• ~10% is spent in meetings
• ~10% is spent presenting, one on one reviews, calls, etc.

For you to do well it is important you are effective in meetings, emails, reviews, presentations, calls. And all this comes under the gambit of communication.

To improve communication skills, we have 2 APPs uSpeek and kWurd for Oral and Written Communication Skills, respectively. We recommend you register and start getting personalized and contextualized feedback today. Within days you will see yourself improving and thus your career graph rising.

Go to kwurd.com and uspeeknow.com and improve your communication skills on the go!