Explore the main tasks, what you need to be able to do and everything you need to understand to achieve them effectively.
Day-to-day communication skills
- Establish a connection with others quickly and effectively, and make a good first impression
- Communicate a consistent message about you and your work, including your non-verbal signals
- Ask for help when you need it
- Develop a positive attitude to learning and seek out ways to learn from others
- Recognise that all people have different approaches in how they deal with others, and adapt your behaviour to accommodate this where possible and appropriate
- Maintain confidentiality of sensitive information in line with organisational procedures and data protection requirements
- Key technical language and vocabulary for your part of the industry
- How and when to ask questions to improve the way you work
- How to react appropriately and deal with negative comments
- How body language can influence your communications with others
- How to listen attentively and use active listening techniques
- How important it is to recognise and respect appropriate boundaries in your relationships with others
- How to recognise, learn about and respect the differences between people from different cultures or backgrounds
Communicate effectively with colleagues, partners and suppliers/freelancers
- Build relationships and communicate regularly with the people in your own department and in other departments
- Communicate with others in ways (such as active listening) that encourage mutual support and trust
- Communicate effectively and present information, your requirements and your concerns clearly and at the appropriate time
- Use appropriate approaches to help you work effectively with people you find it difficult to agree with
- Show sensitivity to internal and external politics and recognise and respect the roles, responsibilities, and priorities of others
- Demonstrate maturity in deciding when to use reporting channels to senior colleagues
- When and how to best communicate with others, including differences between face-to-face, Zoom and e-mail
- Communication channels and approval routes where you work and why these are important
- How to get your own point of view across even when communicating with more senior or experienced colleagues
- How to communicate effectively with colleagues and suppliers in different situations, different locations and countries and to find out what information they need to know
- Why it is important to recognise and respect the roles, responsibilities, needs, motivations, interests and concerns of colleagues, partner organisations and suppliers
Advanced: communicate effectively with clients or customers
- Behave ethically in your dealings with clients or customers and develop relationships that demonstrate trust, commitment, and cooperation
- Build a connection and communicate in a professional, timely, patient, and appropriate manner with clients
- Keep records of expectations, conversations and agreed actions.
- Make realistic promises, deliver promised actions to the agreed time and quality and communicate this to clients or customers
- Anticipate and proactively communicate unavoidable changes in agreements to clients or customers
- Use feedback from clients or customers to maintain the quality and consistency of your service
- Deal proactively with clients’ or customers’ complaints or problems.
- Feedback to others inside and outside your team on aspects of relationships that may be relevant to them
- The advantages and disadvantages of different ways of communicating with people, and how to communicate clearly both verbally and in writing
- How to positively communicate necessary changes to agreements, services or products
- The importance of clear and timely communication at all times to meet client and customers’ expectations
Advanced: present ideas and information to others
- Deliver oral presentations in a coherent, clear, confident, and interesting manner
- Make sure your key points can be clearly understood by your audience
- Use language which clearly conveys the topic, and which is appropriate to the audience
- Use suitable visual aids for your presentations to enhance your audience’s understanding of the points you are making
- Keep to time, length or other constraints from the audience
- Gauge audience reactions during presentations and adapt accordingly
- Give your audience the opportunity to find out further information or ask questions about the information you have presented
- Respond carefully to questions, making sure you provide the information the audience is asking for
- How to pull together and structure ideas and information to persuade and best get your point across
- Why it is important to establish a relationship with the audience, when possible
- The advantages and disadvantages of different ways of presenting ideas and information, including using visual aids
- How to summarise important features and key points effectively in both a written and oral format
- The effect your tone of voice, pace, volume and body language can have on your audience and their understanding of your key points during oral presentations
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