Communication skills are an essential part of everyday life. No man can be a success on his own. No matter what your profession, you cannot make it to the top without the help and support of others. No matter what area of your life you are trying to improve, you cannot do it without the help and support of others. If you want the help and support of others you need to have the essential communication skills. These essential communication skills enable you to make the most of each opportunity by delivering a clear and specific message to your audience. Whether your audience is one person, or many people, these essential communication skills will enable you to build better, more supportive relationships. As a result, you will achieve far more than you ever could alone.

There are 7 essential communication skills which will increase the quality and effectiveness of your communication. In this chapter, I will describe and illustrate all of these 7 essential skills of communication.

Whenever you communicate you should include all of the necessary detail in your speech. Never assume that some of the details are known by your audience. When you work off of these assumptions, your message will lack the necessary detail. Your message will become confused and it will be difficult to come to a clear understanding with your audience That’s why completeness is such an essential communication skill.

For important discussions, you should:

When you are finished delivering your message, the last thing that you want is for your audience to say “What are you actually trying to say.” There may be some flaws in your message or the manner in which you have delivered it so, invite questions. Where you cannot answer a question, make a note of it and promise to get back to the person who posed the question. When you send them a response, make a note of how you can include this information in future messages.

For a good example of the dangers of incomplete communication, listen to the audio below:

Conciseness is another essential communication skill; especially in business. Time is our most precious resource. No one wants to spend 1 hour listening to a message that could be delivered in half the time. Include only the necessary information.

For important messages, you should:

When you keep your message concise, you save time, both for yourself and your audience. It really helps with the effectiveness of the communication if you say everything which is needed but, no more that that. There are always some people who want to read the background / additional info and their needs should be catered or where possible. But it can be done by providing them with access to that information, in a way whereby they can read / listen to it in their own time.

Another essential communication skill is the ablility to consider the impact that your message will have on the other person. When you seek first to understand your audience, you will be better able to tailor your message for them. You have to think twice about the key points and make sure that you are always conveying your message in the most positive tone possible. Where bad news has to be delivered, consider how you might be able to help them to deal with the impact.

Analyse every aspect of your message in terms of how it impacts the receiver. Make the message all about them because that is what they are interested in. You wouldn’t attempt to sell somebody a car by explaining how you will benefit from the sales commission. This same approach applies to all communication.

An often-overlooked element of considerate communication is the choice of location. If you have an important message to deliver to somebody else, you should give them respect and privacy that they need e.g. don’t give constructive feedback in front of others. Choosing the right location can make a massive difference to the quality and effectiveness of the communication.

Considerate communication is a fundamental aspect of assertive communication. For more on assertive communication, read 12 Aspects of assertive behaviour.

Certainty is another essential communication skill. Where a message includes facts, you need to be clear on those facts. Get them right. Double check your facts before you deliver them and make sure that they are in the format that the receiver requires them.

When I worked for a bank, my boss was sourcing a management development program. He prepared an amazing proposal but when he presented it to the CEO, the CEO was fuming. The program was to be delivered by a UK company and all of the prices were in UK pounds, while we dealt in the Irish Pound. My boss had neglected to do the conversions and now he was presenting a proposal without being able to say for certain whether the program was within the relevant budget.

Facts should be clear and accurate. If you sound vague or obscure about the facts, your audience will be confused, sceptical and negative. This will directly impact the effectiveness of your message. If you are clear and assertive with your facts, you will be more confident and this will come across in your message; making more message more convincing.

For more advice on preparing your argument, read – How to prepare your argument. 8 Golden rules.

Clarity is an essential communication skill because the purpose of communication is usually to change something. If you want somebody else to change something, they need to be clear about what it is that you want them to do, and what the desired result is. You need to be precise and use simple, easy to understand language. Your audience should not have to work hard to understand your message. Don’t be too formal and don’t use jargon that only specialists understand.

When delivering any form of communication, it is essential that you take full responsibility for your communication. That means that you must accept that when the other person does not understand what you are saying; they are not the problem. The problem lies in the way you are communicating your message. Therefore, it is your responsibility to modify your communication so that the other person can understand you.

For more advice on improving the clarity of your communication, listen to the audio below:

Courtesy means that you should show respect to the receiver.  When you are appreciative, thoughtful, and respectful, you foster good will. Be polite and use non-threatening gestures; your audience will feel comfortable and they will be more receptive to your message. These are just some simple behaviours which demonstrate your professionalism.

Unfortunately, basic manners have become less common in modern life. People have developed an expectation that they can have whatever they want, whenever they want it and; it is everybody else’s duty to serve them.

Even where others are paid to serve you, it is not an excuse to be inconsiderate, discourteous or uncaring. I am sure you don’t like when others behave that way towards you so, it is important to remember that you should treat others as you would like to be treated.

The best way to ensure that your conversations are courteous is for you to take responsibility and be the one who puts the courtesy into the conversation. For more on this principle, read – Be the goal in the relationship.

It is important that your message is tailored for the right audience, at the right time, in the right place. Appropriateness is a fundamental and essential communication skill.  While you should respect all people, you may need to communicate with different people in different ways.

For example, many CEO’s expect to be addressed in a different manner than you would address the ordinary level worker within their organisations. You may, or may not, agree with that but when communicating, you should always attempt to communicate in the preferred style of the audience; not in your preferred style.

I once had to work with a CEO who expected all written communication to be condensed on to one page. If there was more than one page, the message came back, unread. Personally, I thought that it was unnecessarily petty and pedantic but, nonetheless, every message that I sent to her was on one sheet of paper.

Whenever you manage to control each of these 7 essential communication skills, you will deliver a very effective message. Your audience will be able to understand exactly what you are asking of them which will increase the likelihood of them helping you. Supportive relationships allow you to harness the power of synergy. These essential communication skills lie at the very heart of supportive relationsips. In short you can say that if your message meets all of these criteria then, it is said to be an effective message and the results you achieve will be greatly improved.