6 Steps to Improve Business Communication Skills

Welcome to Motivational Monday.

In today’s newsletter, I want to discuss six steps to improve business communication. Effective communication is vital in the business world and establishing clear attainable goals can help you improve your skills and boost your confidence.

Why Setting Goals Matters

You or your company probably have weekly, monthly and annual sales targets. These are based on current sales plus a, hopefully, achievable target for improvement. Without these goals, the company would not have direction. This is the same with business communication and language learning more generally.

Having specific objectives helps you focus your efforts, track your progress and stay motivated. Goals act as a roadmap, guiding you towards improved performance and greater success in your professional interactions and, hopefully, your career.

6 Steps to Improve Business Communication Skills

1. Identify specific areas for improvement. This involves working out your current level and understanding your strengths and weaknesses. For example, do you need to write clearer and more concise emails? Do you need to become better at speaking up in meetings? Are presentations your weakness? Once you have pinpointed your weaknesses, you can create targeted goals to improve in these areas.

2. Set SMART Goals. We have discussed SMART goals in previous newsletters previously. Your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. How do we turn a vague goal into a SMART goal? A vague goal may be ‘improve my presentation skills’. A SMART version would be ‘deliver a 10-minute presentation with no more than 3 filler words (um, oh, er, etc) by the end of next month. This goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to your professional growth and has a clear deadline.

3. Break down your goals. Large goals can seem overwhelming, particularly at the beginning so break down your overall goal into a series of mini-goals. Taking the presentation goal above, you would need to think about the vocabulary that you need to learn or revise for your presentation. Then you need to check the grammar that you are going to use - is your talk about the past or the future, for instance? The next step would be to outline the bullet points in your presentation (I do not recommend writing a script because this will not sound natural). You can then turn your bullet points into slides (a deck) before setting aside time to practice delivering your presentation. Each step should have its own time element.

4. Create an action plan. Are there any steps you need to take to achieve these smaller goals? For example, do you need to hire a Business English coach to help with the presentation planning or ask a colleague to listen to you practice your presentation? Can you use your phone to record yourself practising and watch back later looking for areas for improvement?

5. Monitor your progress. Regularly track your progress. Are you completing your mini-goals on time? If so, you are on track to complete your overall goal. Alternatively, are there areas that you are struggling with and have to take immediate action?

6. Seek feedback. Always seek feedback along your journey and take action accordingly. Feedback may come from a colleague, a boss or even your children (many of my teenage students take delight in correcting their parent’s English! 😀). Don’t be frightened to make adjustments to your mini goals and action plan from points 3 and 4 above. As you seek feedback you will learn more about your strengths and weaknesses which will allow you to focus more on the areas of improvement.

Achieving your goals requires persistence, motivation and a willingness to go outside your comfort zone. Try to surround yourself with good people to help you achieve your goals and, ideally, a supportive work environment.

Conclusion

Setting achievable goals in business communication is a powerful way to improve your communication skills and build confidence over time. Demonstrating excellent communication skills is vital for those businessmen and women aiming for executive level. Regularly setting and evaluating your goals is a wonderful way to stay motivated.

Word of the Day - Deck (Business English)

Deck - noun - a deck is a collection of individual slides used to deliver a presentation.

A deck can be easily created on software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote or similar tools. A well-designed deck should be visually engaging, concise and deliver the key points to the audience.

Additionally, there are different types of deck. For example:

• Pitch deck - used to present a business idea to potential investors

• Sales deck - used by sales teams to present products or services to potential customers or clients

• Marketing deck - used to present marketing strategies. It may include market analysis, target audience, campaign ideas and performance metrics.

• Project deck - used to present the status, progress and future plans of a project to stakeholders.

Do you have any Business English questions?

Please email me and I will do my best to answer them in future newsletters.

Until Wednesday - have a great day!

Iain.

www.communicateenglish.com

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