Talk it Out: 4 Essential Tips for Better Business Communication

Communication between teams, departments, and outside partners is essential for effective business oversight and future success. If a business cannot break through communication barriers, workforce performance and output can suffer greatly. Here are four essential tips to improve business communication.

Hone Your Business Writing Skills

In the past, most businesses understood that clear and concise business writing was a powerful tool. Nowadays, however, with all the technology and market changes transpiring around the business world, the tool seems to have been lost. Business writing, however, remains a timeless device that can be leveraged to gain more consumers, increase sales, and basically affect positive change to the brand. Make sure your staff pays attention to the writing, spelling, and grammar of publications released to customers and partners.

Train or Hire the Right People

Effective communication is not an innate quality every employee will have. Filter your interview candidates and hires based on ability to communicate. You'd want your employees to at least have good communication habits upon entering the workforce. Train them later on to adapt to new communication techniques that can be used for both coworkers and customers. Encourage them to take courses that will eventually instill superior communication, such as a Project Management Master’s Degree.

Have an Open Communication Policy

As long as it's relevant to the business, an open communication policy can be powerful in addressing important workplace issues that are affecting your workforce's performance. Allot an hour or two every week for meeting with coworkers and employees to discuss their opinions, concerns, and feedback. Moreover, encourage them to speak with you in private if the topic they wish to discuss is sensitive in nature. Attentively listening to your employees' feedback can benefit you in the long run with lower turnover rate and training costs.

Plan Your Communication

Know what and who you will be communicating with on a daily basis. Have cue cards ready for when you're cold calling clients and when making speeches in the workplace. Rehearse your lines at home, in front of the mirror, and while in the car to work. Don't overdo it and plan every casual conversation you get each day. Instead, prepare only for those really important ones so you don't forget important details or make simple grammar mistakes.

The road to better business communication is not an overnight process, but one that will take months to successfully embed into your workforce. Needless to say, effective communication is an earmark of every successful company and is a goal worth pursuing with full force.

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