An accomplished multi-tasking professional with diverse experience in delivering end-to-end solutions in business development and loyalty to the team. Dhanlaxmi Bhoir is a woman of substance and strong character. Her impressive and commendable performance as a leader and her contributions to the community is something that certainly needs to be acknowledged. Dhanlaxmi has had a long and distinguished career touching many different aspects of human resources, sales, Marketing, service, PR, logistics handling and more for a prolonged period of 6 and half years. Even in this short span of her career, she has many remarkable achievements under her name.
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, a put-your-head-down or go-out-there-and-sweep-people-off-the-floor kind of employee, no matter what approach you want to take to get things done, if there’s one thing anyone in today’s corporate environment cannot avoid is having brilliant communication skills, both online and in person. While the pandemic brought work from home model has made it possible for people to limit their interaction to video calls, emails, phone calls and text messages, there’s no denying the fact that every employee has to develop appropriate communication methods to interact with their colleagues and bosses.
Good communication strategies and manners can significantly improve an employee’s work performance, efficiency and productivity. Most of all, with the right communication approach as an ideal arrow in the quicker, employees can always bet on having their coworkers’ support. Against this backdrop, here are seven key skills that every modern employee should hone to make advancements in their career:
1. Being respectful: The cardinal rule of effective communication is being respectful to your juniors, seniors and counterparts. Respect your coworkers’ time, space and, most importantly, avoid talking about personal or hurtful subjects that might make the entire conversation awkward, to say the least.
Do not, under any circumstances, talk down to people. Understand where they are coming from, and try to communicate your thoughts in a format that is firm but polite, professional but not rude. Creating a positive and respectful environment in a workspace can work wonderfully for its long-term success.
2. Listening actively: The essential part of being a corporate communicator is active listening abilities. Only a good listener can be a good communicator. Effective communication is not just articulating your thoughts and speaking or writing them accurately. In contrast, it is mostly about listening well and intently.
Do not interrupt someone while they are in the middle of completing a sentence or expressing their point of view, and always maintain eye contact. Active listening can assist you in understanding the actual objective of an assignment and help others feel appreciated.
3. Cross-culture awareness: Given that organisations worldwide are now prominent in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, it is normal to have coworkers that might not be from the same culture, ethnic group, community, religion and even country.
No matter what position you are in, a client, customer, boss/manager or first-grade executive, communication across cultures is an indispensable skill that one must master. Keep your mind open, and do a bit of research. The best way to make this work is to appreciate and learn about cultural differences consciously.
4. Clear communication: Corporate communication thrives on being quick and accurate. One doesn’t need two-page emails to complete the smallest of tasks. Instead, learn how to say more in less but effective words.
Nurture the skills to be clear in mind before writing an email, beginning a discussion or writing any piece of correspondence. Understanding corporate culture, objectives and people’s perspective is the key here. The absence of clarity, accuracy and too many words can lead to poor communication and confusion.
5. Emotional intelligence: When things go south, strategy collapses, decisions don’t deliver forecasted results, and it is normal for things to get a bit chaotic. But a corporate communicator’s job is to stay calm and pull the team together.
A corporate communicator should have quick strategic cards under their belt that can help companies come out of a crisis without damaging their image or standing in the market. For such unformatted and rainy days, a corporate communicator must always be ready. And they cannot do that unless they have a sharp-edge bullet called good communication in their barrel.
6. Understanding media: While corporate communication activities have no engagement with media houses, the professionals, however, from both sides are closely linked. Media is an intermediary between organisations and their target audience, so they play a pivotal role in a corporate communication professional’s life.
It is essential to have a complete and thorough understanding of the media and its operational efficiency. Solid and harmonious media relations are nothing short of the holy grail in a corporate communicator’s journey.
7. And last, building corporate credibility: While the role of corporate communicators is multifaceted, they are primarily responsible for building long-term corporate identity and credibility. It is their job to minimise any discrepancies, promote the company, and generate support from clients, customers and other stakeholders by building effective corporate communication strategies and PR campaigns.
This includes preparing the internal newsletter, media press releases, investor correspondence and social media campaigns or promotions. Simply put, corporate communicators are responsible for ensuring the organisation’s positive and reliable identity in the market.
Bottom Line
In today’s fast-paced world, tried, tested and dusted methods have no place. In order to thrive in a corporate environment, professionals have to pull up their socks and have as many abilities and skills as possible. Follow the aforementioned steps, learn and inculcate these skills, and have a considerable advantage over your contemporaries. This is the only way to survive in the contemporary cutthroat world.