how to improve communication skills assignment

8 Ways You Can Improve Your Communication Skills

Your guide to establishing better communication habits for success in the workplace.

Mary Sharp Emerson

A leader’s ability to communicate clearly and effectively with employees, within teams, and across the organization is one of the foundations of a successful business.

And in today’s complex and quickly evolving business environment, with hundreds of different communication tools, fully or partially remote teams, and even multicultural teams spanning multiple time zones, effective communication has never been more important — or more challenging.

Thus, the ability to communicate might be a manager’s most critical skill. 

The good news is that these skills can be learned and even mastered. 

These eight tips can help you maximize your communication skills for the success of your organization and your career.

1. Be clear and concise

Communication is primarily about word choice. And when it comes to word choice, less is more.

The key to powerful and persuasive communication — whether written or spoken — is clarity and, when possible, brevity. 

Before engaging in any form of communication, define your goals and your audience. 

Outlining carefully and explicitly what you want to convey and why will help ensure that you include all necessary information. It will also help you eliminate irrelevant details. 

Avoid unnecessary words and overly flowery language, which can distract from your message.

And while repetition may be necessary in some cases, be sure to use it carefully and sparingly. Repeating your message can ensure that your audience receives it, but too much repetition can cause them to tune you out entirely. 

2. Prepare ahead of time

Know what you are going to say and how you are going to say before you begin any type of communication.

However, being prepared means more than just practicing a presentation. 

Preparation also involves thinking about the entirety of the communication, from start to finish. Research the information you may need to support your message. Consider how you will respond to questions and criticisms. Try to anticipate the unexpected.

Before a performance review, for instance, prepare a list of concrete examples of your employee’s behavior to support your evaluation.

Before engaging in a salary or promotion negotiation, know exactly what you want. Be ready to discuss ranges and potential compromises; know what you are willing to accept and what you aren’t. And have on hand specific details to support your case, such as relevant salaries for your position and your location (but be sure that your research is based on publicly available information, not company gossip or anecdotal evidence). 

Before entering into any conversation, brainstorm potential questions, requests for additional information or clarification, and disagreements so you are ready to address them calmly and clearly.

3. Be mindful of nonverbal communication

Our facial expressions, gestures, and body language can, and often do, say more than our words. 

Nonverbal cues can have between 65 and 93 percent more impact than the spoken word. And we are more likely to believe the nonverbal signals over spoken words if the two are in disagreement. 

Leaders must be especially adept at reading nonverbal cues. 

Employees who may be unwilling to voice disagreements or concerns, for instance, may show their discomfort through crossed arms or an unwillingness to make eye contact. If you are aware of others’ body language, you may be able to adjust your communication tactics appropriately.

At the same time, leaders must also be able to control their own nonverbal communications. 

Your nonverbal cues must, at all times, support your message. At best, conflicting verbal and nonverbal communication can cause confusion. At worst, it can undermine your message and your team’s confidence in you, your organization, and even in themselves. 

4. Watch your tone

How you say something can be just as important as what you say. As with other nonverbal cues, your tone can add power and emphasis to your message, or it can undermine it entirely.

Tone can be an especially important factor in workplace disagreements and conflict. A well-chosen word with a positive connotation creates good will and trust. A poorly chosen word with unclear or negative connotations can quickly lead to misunderstanding. 

When speaking, tone includes volume, projection, and intonation as well as word choice. In real time, it can be challenging to control tone to ensure that it matches your intent. But being mindful of your tone will enable you to alter it appropriately if a communication seems to be going in the wrong direction.

Tone can be easier to control when writing. Be sure to read your communication once, even twice, while thinking about tone as well as message. You may even want to read it out loud or ask a trusted colleague to read it over, if doing so does not breach confidentiality. 

And when engaging in a heated dialogue over email or other written medium, don’t be too hasty in your replies. 

If at all possible, write out your response but then wait for a day or two to send it. In many cases, re-reading your message after your emotions have cooled allows you to moderate your tone in a way that is less likely to escalate the conflict.

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5. Practice active listening

Communication nearly always involves two or more individuals.

Therefore, listening is just as important as speaking when it comes to communicating successfully. But listening can be more challenging than we realize. 

In her blog post Mastering the Basics of Communication , communication expert Marjorie North notes that we only hear about half of what the other person says during any given conversation. 

The goal of active listening is to ensure that you hear not just the words the person is saying, but the entire message. Some tips for active listening include:

• Giving the speaker your full and undivided attention
• Clearing your mind of distractions, judgements, and counter-arguments. 
• Avoiding the temptation to interrupt with your own thoughts.
• Showing open, positive body language to keep your mind focused and to show the speaker that you are really listening
• Rephrase or paraphrase what you’ve heard when making your reply
• Ask open ended questions designed to elicit additional information

6. Build your emotional intelligence

Communication is built upon a foundation of emotional intelligence. Simply put, you cannot communicate effectively with others until you can assess and understand your own feelings. 

“If you’re aware of your own emotions and the behaviors they trigger, you can begin to manage these emotions and behaviors,” says Margaret Andrews in her post, How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence .

Leaders with a high level of emotional intelligence will naturally find it easier to engage in active listening, maintain appropriate tone, and use positive body language, for example.  

Understanding and managing your own emotions is only part of emotional intelligence. The other part — equally important for effective communication — is empathy for others.

Empathizing with an employee can, for example, make a difficult conversation easier. 

You may still have to deliver bad news, but (actively) listening to their perspective and showing that you understand their feelings can go a long way toward smoothing hurt feelings or avoiding misunderstandings.

7. Develop a workplace communication strategy

Today’s workplace is a constant flow of information across a wide variety of formats. Every single communication must be understood in the context of that larger flow of information.

Even the most effective communicator may find it difficult to get their message across without a workplace communication strategy.

A communication strategy is the framework within which your business conveys and receives information. It can — and should — outline how and what you communicate to customers and clients, stakeholders, and managers and employees. 

Starting most broadly, your strategy should incorporate who gets what message and when. This ensures that everyone receives the correct information at the right time. 

It can be as detailed as how you communicate, including defining the type of tools you use for which information. For example, you may define when it’s appropriate to use a group chat for the entire team or organization or when a meeting should have been summarized in an email instead. 

Creating basic guidelines like this can streamline the flow of information. It will help ensure that everyone gets the details they need and that important knowledge isn’t overwhelmed by extraneous minutia. 

8. Create a positive organizational culture

The corporate culture in which you are communicating also plays a vital role in effective communication. 

In a positive work environment — one founded on transparency, trust, empathy, and open dialogue — communication in general will be easier and more effective. 

Employees will be more receptive to hearing their manager’s message if they trust that manager. And managers will find it easier to create buy-in and even offer constructive criticism if they encourage their employees to speak up, offer suggestions, and even offer constructive criticisms of their own. 

“The most dangerous organization is a silent one,” says Lorne Rubis in a blog post, Six Tips for Building a Better Workplace Culture . Communication, in both directions, can only be effective in a culture that is built on trust and a foundation of psychological safety.

Authoritative managers who refuse to share information, aren’t open to suggestions, and refuse to admit mistakes and accept criticism are likely to find their suggestions and criticisms met with defensiveness or even ignored altogether. 

Without that foundation of trust and transparency, even the smallest communication can be misconstrued and lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary conflict.

Communicating with co-workers and employees is always going to present challenges. There will always be misunderstandings and miscommunications that must be resolved and unfortunately, corporate messages aren’t always what we want to hear, especially during difficult times.

But building and mastering effective communication skills will make your job easier as a leader, even during difficult conversations. Taking the time to build these skills will certainly be time well-spent. 

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About the Author

Digital Content Producer

Emerson is a Digital Content Producer at Harvard DCE. She is a graduate of Brandeis University and Yale University and started her career as an international affairs analyst. She is an avid triathlete and has completed three Ironman triathlons, as well as the Boston Marathon.

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18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills

Communication skills are some of the most utilized and the most sought after in the workplace. They’re essential for leaders and individual contributors to hone. Looking at our largely remot and hybrid work environments, great communication skills make the difference between connected, agile teams, and teams who fail to collaborate, stay aligned, and achieve common goals. 

The good news is that improving communication skills is easier than you might imagine. Here are some basic principles worth following in order to communicate better.

5 types of communication to develop

You and members of your team may have been working remotely for some time now. Whether you are in an office daily, at home managing from afar, or in a hybrid workplace between the two, you’ve likely leveraged more than one communication type.

For businesses to thrive long-term, it is important to develop communication skills that span each type. Here are the five most common communication types to focus on improving.

• Oral communication: Thoughts are shared through speech. Examples include presentations, one-on-one meetings, and virtual calls.
• Written communication: Thoughts and ideas are shared via the written word. This can be with emails, hand-written notes, or signage.
• Non-verbal communication : Information is shared without the use of written or spoken words. Examples include facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, and gestures.
• Active listening: Unlike the examples above, active listening is about receiving information. When someone is listening actively, they might ask questions to understand the information better, but refrain from focusing on their response so much that they fail to hear the speaker.
• Contextual communication: Information i s s hared with mutual, potentially un s poken, under s t anding s of variou s factor s s uch a s interper s onal relation s hip s and the environment.

What is effective communication?

The most effective communicators clearly inform others and actively listen to them at the same time. They can accept input – both verbal and non-verbal – while also expressing their thoughts and opinions in an inclusive way.

Regardless of the communication style , effective communication involves a connection with others. It is a dance with a partner that moves, at times, in ways we did not predict. This means the most powerful skill you can leverage is being in sync with your audience. It involves understanding and speaking to its needs, and then responding to real-time feedback. It means having the conversation that your audience wants to have.

But achieving all of that can take some practice.

Below are some effective communication strategies to help you listen and communicate better.

How to improve communication skills

The best messages are often simple.

There’s no value in delivering any kind of communication, whether written, verbal, formal, or casual, if the message doesn’t come across clearly.

Communicating concisely — while maintaining interest and including everything your team needs to know — is a high-level communication skill.

Here are some ways to communicate better.

1. Keep your audience in mind

Your audience will naturally be more interested and engaged when you tailor your communications to their interests. Piquing their interest by speaking directly to what matters to them will naturally engage their desire to understand and interact with the information.

2. Don’t use 10 words when one will do

Even the most engaged and committed audience will eventually get bored. Keeping your message simple and concise will make it easier to understand and retain. Remember, you already know what you’re going to say, but they’re hearing it for the first time. Keep it simple.

3. Consider the best method to deliver your message

If the information you’re conveying isn’t urgent, consider sending an email or a memo. This is especially important when communicating expectations . Written communication will give your audience more time to review it, think it over, and follow up with questions. It will also give them a handy record to refer back to.

4. Get them involved

If you’ve ever worked as an instructor, manager, trainer, or coach, you’ll know that there are few better ways to learn new information than to teach it. Ask them for their input or to take a role in explaining new concepts and policies to their colleagues.  

5. Leverage face-to-face communication when possible

Communicating face-to-face adds multiple layers of information to an exchange, whether between two people or two hundred. Often, there’s a synergy created with in-person communication that’s difficult to replicate elsewhere. Here are some tips to make the most of face time with your team:

6. Make eye contact

If you’re wondering whether or not your message is getting across, few metrics provide as much feedback as eye contact . You can easily tell if the person you’re speaking to is understanding you, is distracted, worried, or confused — much of which is lost in digital communication.

7. Ask for feedback 

Not sure they got it? Ask! A powerful technique is to ask people to repeat back their version of what you just said. Often, this can improve retention, immediate understanding, and minimize misunderstandings later on. You can also ask them to reach out to you with helpful ways that you can improve your delivery in presentations and other forms of communication.

8. Read non-verbal cues

There are various types of nonverbal-cues . Yawns, fidgeting, and looking around the room are usually clear signs that your audience is thinking about something other than what you’re trying to convey. If you notice this, don’t take it personally. Try asking them to share what’s on their mind, recap previous points they may have missed, or adjourn for a later time.

9. Minimize distractions

If you’re chatting with someone (or a group) face-to-face, keep distractions at bay by leaving unnecessary electronic devices out of the space. Keep the attendance limited to just those who need to be there, and avoid scheduling at a time when people are likely to focus on something else (like just before the end of the day or right before lunch).

How to improve online communication:

Online communication is rapidly replacing office spaces as the primary location of doing business. Especially if you’re used to working with in-person teams, it may be challenging to adjust to having meetings, conversations, and even people that collaborate with you or report to you digitally . Since online communication presents a unique way to interact, here are some things to keep in mind: 

1. Stick to a time limit

Online meetings can be even more difficult to focus on, since they incorporate the distractions of a nearly-unlimited number of settings. Keep the meetings short and to the point, and be especially vigilant about minimizing (potentially) marathon Q&A sessions. If needed, follow up through asynchronous communication methods to protect everyone's time.

2. Be mindful of the other person

Generally, the person presenting is the only one who can give the meeting their full attention. Especially when working from home, assume that participants have multiple demands for their attention and structure the content accordingly.

3. Recap important details

A lot of nonverbal and interpersonal cues can be lost over a digital connection. Ensure understanding by recapping the key points. You can either do a quick review in an online meeting or a brief summary at the end of a lengthy email.

4. Don’t forget to respond

Be sure to respond to each communication with a quick acknowledgment, even if it’s an informal one. Although you may have received the message, it’s likely that the person on the other end will have no way of knowing unless you let them know. A couple words or even a “like” will usually do the trick.

5 extra tips to sharpen your communication skills

In general, if you’re looking to strengthen your communication skills , the following tips will help you succeed no matter the situation you find yourself in (or the audience you find yourself with):

• Be approachable. If your teammates feel intimidated or worried that you may not respond well, they’re less likely to come to you with information.
• Be patient. Not everyone communicates the same way. Taking the time to be sure you’ve understood the other person and communicated clearly can pay dividends.
• Be self-aware. It’s okay if you’re still developing your communication skills, nervous, or having a bad day. It takes time — and practice — to become a skilled communicator.
• Check for understanding. Don’t be afraid to invite feedback or ask questions to ensure that everyone’s on the same page.
• Switch out the messenger. Allow other team members or leaders to develop their communication skills by empowering them to lead discussions and meetings.

How to be a better active listener

There is much talk about the beauty of active listening , but many people aren’t sure how it translates into actual behaviors. One of the main challenges to active listening is the preoccupation with a response. Many people are busy formulating a perfect answer, which leaves no bandwidth to engage with the input. To get out of this habit, which is not really in service of the speaker, consider the following steps.

Rethink how to add value

You may think that adding value to an exchange is mostly about what you say. But that is not always how others perceive it. Most of us value responses that help us think through our own ideas, that clarify our assumptions or point out possible blind spots. We often don’t need a listener to be brilliant or impress us with their own data. Instead, we may value most how they helped us sharpen our thoughts.

Paraphrase without judgment

If you find yourself preoccupied with responding, try changing the focus of your response. Instead of aiming to add your own thoughts, task yourself with giving a summary that withholds your opinion or judgment. As you listen, make it your goal to give a concise summary, perhaps clarifying the speaker’s initial language.

Bonus points for repeating sticky language that the speaker recognizes as their own (“so you were frustrated with the project because the deadline was an uncomfortable high ?”)

Ask questions that help speakers think

The next step from paraphrasing is to ask questions that move the needle. Much like the way a coach listens, these questions push speakers to go deeper into their own thinking, to clarify their expression or consider possible concerns. You can play devil’s advocate by pointing out inconsistencies or language that seems unclear. All of these are true gifts to a speaker and help you stay focused on listening.

Interrupt politely

Active listening isn’t mindless indulgence, and not all interruption is rude. Sometimes speakers get lost in the weeds, providing depths of detail you don’t need. Interruption can help them stay relevant – and be rewarded with more engagement.

Most speakers don’t mind being cut off by a question that lets them keep talking. Much harder, especially for introverts, is to interrupt someone in a meeting and end their floor time. Be sure to:

• Validate the speaker (“Thank you for bringing that up.”)
• Use a warm and polite tone. Get feedback from others on how you sound and come across.
• Refer to shared interest (“I’d just like to make sure we get to hear from everyone about the project.”)

Tips to keep audiences engaged when you speak

Be relevant.

As we are flooded with information, many audiences will not be impressed by data. In fact, the desire to cover all bases or anticipate all possible questions is a common reason for wordiness.

To keep listeners engaged, especially in virtual meetings, you should carefully curate content for relevance. Ask yourself: How does this information affect my audience? How may it help them with their work? Is this level of detail helpful to understand my main message?

If you have no clear answers to these questions, consider cutting the content.

A hallmark of executive presence, concision is the ability to express your ideas in as few words as possible. Listeners appreciate this, as it shows your preparation and respect for your listeners’ time. In addition, concision signals confidence: the confidence to do less, to say something once, and trust that it lands.

Especially in virtual meetings, where the feedback loop can be flat, many speakers struggle with being concise. They may repeat themselves “just to make sure” or use more examples to make a point clear. But this kind of “more” can often be less, as audiences disengage, having gotten the point the first time.

Concision is a leap of faith. The faith in your own preparation and that your delivery is clear. In virtual meetings with cameras turned off, it becomes harder to keep this faith. For your own self-care as a speaker, you may want to ask your audience to be fully present and turn cameras on — and then reward them with your confident delivery.

Leave spaces for the audience to fill

One way to slow yourself down and check in with audiences is to pause after making a point. Not just a second to catch your breath, but an actual space for silence. Both virtual and in-person, it leaves an opening for your listeners to fill, providing you with real-time feedback as to what they need next. How granular do they want you to get? Do they actually have the questions you were going to answer? Or are they taking your ideas in a whole new direction?

We often feel wary about silence, as if it means that something is wrong. But things happen in silence, and you may be surprised what your listeners offer when given the chance to jump in. However they fill the space, you may get valuable hints as to how to sync and proceed. And that is when communication becomes dancing.

Treat pushback as openings, not obstacles

You may believe that by making a compelling case, you should be rewarded with instant buy-in. Which of course, almost never happens. As your proposals are challenged you get frustrated, perhaps even defensive, as you try to explain why you are right. Soon lines are drawn and both sides double down, and you find yourself stuck in a rut.

To avoid such a shutdown of your ideas, you may want to rethink how you experience pushback. Most new ideas aren’t embraced the way they are initially proposed, and your audience may not need you to have ready-made answers to all their questions. Try to view your pitch as an opening volley, and the pushback as guidance to have the talk that you need to have. Instead of reflexive defense, ask follow-questions to validate and explore the concern.

Final thoughts on effective communication strategies

As a leader and manager, you have tremendous power to set the tone for how your team communicates. While it can be easy to fall into bad communication habits, especially when transitioning to an increasingly digital interface, a shift in the way one individual communicates can open the doors for a radical shift throughout an entire workplace. Building effective communication skills takes time, but the effects are worth the effort at every level of your organization.

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Feedback in communication: 5 areas to become a better communicator

Foster strong communication skills to enjoy professional success, improve your interpersonal communication skills with these 6 tips, member story: developing communication skills and owning the spotlight, the 5 business communication skills worth perfecting, upward communication: what is it 5 examples, communication is key in the workplace. here's how to improve, we need to talk (about communication styles in the workplace), what is nonverbal communication 10 different types (with examples), similar articles, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, want a leg up in your career master these 11 key listening skills, how to write a speech that your audience remembers, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, active listening: what is it & techniques to become an active listener, 6 presentation skills and how to improve them, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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How to improve communication skills

Ivan Andreev

Demand Generation & Capture Strategist

ivan.andreev@valamis.com

March 3, 2022 · updated April 3, 2024

11 minute read

After reading this guide, you will understand how to improve your communication skills, and help others do the same.

Communication is a skill, and like all skills, you can get better at it through practice.

You will be able to effectively employ these techniques in your workplace, which will improve interpersonal relationships, allow for better problem solving, and ultimately lead to better business outcomes.

Why is good communication so important at work?

• The importance of listening
• Improving non-verbal communication
• Improving verbal communication
• Improving written communication
• Improving visual communication
• Recommended resources: books and online courses

It might be tempting to think that, as long as you do your job well, being a good communicator isn’t very important. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth!

Every aspect of your job depends on communication, and how well you can communicate directly correlates with how well you can do your job.

This has become even more relevant with the increase in remote work – bad communication skills have been highlighted by the increased use of messaging rather than face-to-face workplace communication.

If you’re in a client-facing role, your communication with them will make or break the relationship.

Think of the various aspects of that work that requires good communication:

• pitching your company to the client,
• building a trusting personal relationship with them,
• understanding what they want and clearly communicating that to the relevant teams,
• receiving feedback,
• communicating about updates or delays,
• and many more.

If you are unable to do this, then the client will lose trust and could seek another company that is better at communication.

If you’re in a management role or would like to be in the future, communication is key.

According to LinkedIn research , communication skills are the number one most desired soft skill that employers want.

Leading is all about being able to deliver your message well, explain concepts, give constructive feedback , mentor your team, and solve problems. How well you can communicate will be crucial to all of those actions.

Even in roles where you are mostly dealing with your own team, your communication skills will help you achieve success in your role.

Good communication will result in being able to explain problems, build solutions, form positive relationships with your department, and effectively collaborate on workflow.

Career development plan template

This template helps employees and bosses plan together for career growth: set goals, assess skills, and make a plan.

5 Ways to improve your communication skills

1. the importance of listening.

We cannot touch on the importance of communication without highlighting that a massive aspect of it is what you do when you’re not talking.

Being a good listener is the most crucial part of communication .

We’re not just talking about hearing the words that a person is saying; rather you should be tuned in to their non-verbal communication also.

• Is the person avoiding eye contact?
• Is their posture open or closed?
• Are they fidgeting with their hands?

All of these actions convey a lot of information.

How to be a good listener:

• When you are listening, give your full attention to the speaker.
• Set your phone face down.
• Turn away from your computer screen.
• Look at their non-verbal signals, and listen to their words.
• Use clarification questions to follow up on key points and then sum up your understanding to them, so they can clear up any miscommunication immediately.

By following the advice above, you demonstrate your engagement in the conversation, confirming to the person that you have heard, and understood, them completely.

2. Improving non-verbal communication

To begin improving your non-verbal communication, first, you must begin by paying attention to it.

As you go through your day, observe how you use the various types of non-verbal communication that we mentioned in our article about types of communication .

Observe yourself:

• Do you make consistent eye contact?
• How do you position yourself when speaking to people?
• Does it change based on who you are talking to?
• How do people react to you?

Observe others:

• Are there certain people who make you feel heard?
• What do they do that makes you feel like that?
• Is there someone who is unpleasant to communicate with?
• What actions do they do that make you not enjoy talking to them?

Think about the positives and negatives that you observe.

If there is someone who you find to be a particularly good – or bad – person to talk to, pinpoint why they make you feel that way.

Pay attention to the non-verbal signals that they are giving off.

You can mimic the positives, and be aware of the negatives.

How to be better at non-verbal communication:

• Don’t fidget! This is rule number one. Be still, and calm. This communicates that you are in control, confident and a force to be reckoned with.
• Use eye contact intelligently. Focus in on people when you want to drive home a point. Look people in the eye both when you are listening to them and when you are speaking.
• Be confident in your use of space. Don’t minimize yourself, instead relax into your space. It’s important that you do this intelligently! Don’t prevent other people from sitting comfortably.
• Strive to be non-reactive during stressful situations. Keep your emotions level and respond calmly.

Simply being more aware of non-verbal communication, and the power that it has will help you be better at using it proactively and positively.

If you observe that you tend to avoid eye contact during stressful negotiations, then you can make sure to put an emphasis on making consistent eye contact when speaking in the next meeting.

3. Improving verbal communication

To improve your verbal communication, you’ll need to get better at both what you say and how you say it.

It doesn’t matter how clear your message is if you are patronizing or rude when you say it.

As we recommend for non-verbal communication, begin by observing yourself and others in conversation.

• Are there times when they react more negatively than others, and can you pinpoint why?
• Are there colleagues who you particularly enjoy conversing with?
• Observe how communication happens in your work environment, and pay attention to which aspects are positive and negative.

Next, begin to think about the content of your verbal communications.

We all know someone who takes ages to get to the point of the story, and how frustrating that can be, or someone who never gets to the point at all.

Before you speak, know what you want to communicate.

• Begin with your stated purpose (‘I think we need to increase ad spending 10%’)
• Move on to your reasoning (‘The upcoming holiday season is a prime time to target our customers more effectively’)
• Review possible outcomes (‘We could increase sales between 20 and 30%’).

While this advice is best suited for more formal presentations, this is effective in informal settings as well.

Knowing what you want to say and having the facts to back it up will make you seem more professional, knowledgeable and decisive.

Use pitch to help captivate your audience

• A lower pitch tends to communicate gravitas and experience. Take longer, deeper breaths and speak from your diaphragm to lower your voice.
• Strategically use silence to capture, and keep attention. Pause and hook the viewer’s attention before dropping your pitch, your big reveal or your thesis sentence.
• Use a range of cadence, speed and style. You don’t want to speak in a monotone, you’ll bore your audience and they won’t be engaged in the content of your communication.

4. Improving written communication

In written communication, the first step to improve is to make sure that your spelling and grammar are perfect.

There are plenty of online tools that can help you with this. You simply paste your writing into the app and then you get valuable feedback on spelling, grammar, and even the content.

Now, this is not a perfect solution, AI is smart but can make mistakes, but it works very well for a quick check, especially if you are not the world’s strongest writer.

Read more about the written type of communication .

Take the time to re-read everything that you write

• Is your tone appropriate to the setting?
• Are there any mistakes, items not linked properly, or missing points?
• Have you covered the subject in enough depth?
• We often overestimate how much other people know about our specialist subjects, it might be necessary to write in more detail. At the same time, don’t write a novel!

Formatting is key

• Format everything, from a Slack message to a full presentation, to make sure that you are creating a readable text.
• Use bullet points and paragraphs to break up your message.
• Highlight your points in bold if you have a lot of text.
• Underline anything that you think is crucial.

More tips for improving your written communication:

• State your assumptions. This will help avoid miscommunications. Start by saying ‘I assume you have heard about the new policy change, effective June 1. Because of this, we will be adjusting x, y and z.’
• Read often. From messages to novels, read often and when you do, think about what you like (or dislike) about what you’re reading. Emulate what you like, and work to avoid what you dislike.
• Use framing to get your point across. Think about it from the recipient’s point of view, and what’s in it for them, and then frame the message to highlight that.
• Read your writing out loud to check for mistakes. Use this time to review grammar, tone, fact-check and to make sure that you have covered everything you wanted to in the communication.
• When possible, use clear examples and avoid using too much jargon.

5. Improving visual communication

An important aspect of using visual communication is to only use it when necessary.

A presentation stuffed full of visual aids that do not add to the content is messy, unprofessional and will distract from the overall message.

You want to be judicious about what you include, and why you are including it. Make sure that you are using the proper chart to show the data in the clearest way, or are including only the sketches that will add to the audience’s understanding of the ideas for a new logo.

Not all of us are graphic designers, but there are tools available to help us create professional-looking visuals.

Make use of those! You don’t want your presentation to look like it was created in 1995.

Default to clean, professional templates, rather than looking for something ‘interesting.’ Your message should be the star, not the font, color, or background image.

Tips for improving visual communication:

• Less is more! Pare back your design and resist the urge to stuff every fact, figure, font and color into a presentation.
• Utilize typography. If in doubt, ask for the brand guidelines for your company and follow those. They will help you create cohesive presentations in line with your company’s preferred look.
• Pay attention to balance and harmony. You can achieve this by using similar, rather than disparate, elements in your communication. The same style of clip art, the same font family, or the same pastel shades.
• Begin with the end in mind. Know what you want to communicate and start there.

Recommended resources

• Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life) , Thomas Erikson
• How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships , Leil Lowndes
• Influencer: The new science of leading change , Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
• How to win friends and influence people , Dale Carnegie
• Skill with people , Les Gibli
• How to speak, how to listen , Mortimer J. Adler
• Communication strategies for a virtual age
• Improving communication skills
• Teamwork skills: Communicating effectively in groups
• Effective communication in the globalised workplace

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How to Improve your Communication Skills, with Key Resources

October 22, 2021 - Sophie Thompson

“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.” – Paul J. Meyer.

Is the ability to communicate successfully something that is a natural part of human personality or something you can learn? Many believe it is a mixture of both.

Some of the greatest communications in history do seem to have been “born” speakers, and their tone, delivery and words leave an indelible stamp. Take for instance Martin Luther King Jr. His messages and phrases are still used today, in a multitude of ways. Especially “I have a dream” and his belief that people should “not be judged on the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” He certainly had a charismatic character!

However, there are many business leaders, entertainers, politicians and well know orators who describe themselves as naturally shy. So, there’s plenty of evidence that you can develop effective, confident and successful speaking and writing abilities. Especially if you’re truly invested in what you want to say.

Everyone needs to communicate well to establish healthy relationships with loved ones, bosses, interview panels, colleagues and business contacts, to name but a few ‘audiences’.

Whatever your job, you will need to deliver information, with clarity and confidence. According to global professional development company Dale Carnegie – in the  organisation’s video  about improving communications skills – your wages depend on it!

The firm says that 85% of your financial success in life comes from your personality, and your skills in communication, negotiation and leadership. Leaving only 15% of your career achievements rooted in technical knowledge.

Effective communication skills are important to many aspects of your life and career, including:

• Being hired for a new job
• Working with clients and customers
• Working with teams, both internal and external
• Leading people
• Establishing relationships
• Securing new business at networking events

This is why this article brings together various methods and ideas for how to improve your communications skills.

Understand the fundamentals of communication

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” – Brian Tracy.

A great place to start in developing communications skills is to constantly consider, ‘What am I trying to achieve?’ before writing anything, or preparing for presentations, interviews and meetings.

All communication has a purpose. It could be to educate, inform, warn, entertain, influence or persuade for example. Sometimes more than one purpose is involved.

Focusing on the result you want to achieve can help you to frame and deliver what you say more effectively. You can also evaluate the outcome against your initial aim, to find ways to develop better communications skills.

Learn to listen to verbal and non-verbal communications

Developing a better ability to listen is not simply learning to stay quiet when someone speaks or reading documentation more thoroughly!

Active listening needs to be practised and improved. It involves engaging with a speaker, in an emotionally intelligent way.

For instance, being aware of your own responses and reactions, so you can stay calmer and more focused in situations of conflict or debate. Also, consider what’s behind the words you’re hearing. This can mean studying the speaker’s body language and giving thought to their views, motives, interests and preferences.

Good listening also involves encouraging people to supply you with more information or clarity, by using open-ended questions and prompts for instance.

Why is active listening so important?

William Ury, an author and one of the world’s best-known and respected experts on negotiation skills, argues that “listening is the essential, and often overlooked, half of communication.”

His TED talk video called  ‘The power of listening’  develops this view.

Primarily, the advantages of improving listening skills include:

• A better understanding of the speaker. As William Ury says: “How can you possibly change someone else’s mind if you don’t know where their mind is?”
• Creates connection – including rapport and a level of trust.
• Makes it more likely the speaker will be more receptive to what you have to say.
• It costs nothing and you could learn a lot!

Add structure, context and non-verbal cues to your communication

Of course, it’s hard to actively listen when you come across a waffler, rambler or tech-speak geek. This is why the best communicators keep their purpose sharply in mind and deliver their ‘messages’ in as few words as possible.

As well as being succinct, there are other ways to enhance the success of your communication, including strategic use of visual aids. However, don’t let the visual material speak for you, as the impact of your words could get diluted if your audience gets too distracted.

One of the most commonly used ways to frame a presentation (or even a short speech) has been handed down from ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, Aristotle. It involves three steps:

• Tell them what you are going to talk about.
• Explain what you just said.

Also, keep in mind that even the most polished and well-presented speech needs to include a degree of flexibility, leaving space to respond to your audience, and invite discussion, questions and feedback.

You can also improve your communication by remembering that words – and even visual aids – can all be underpinned by your body language. Good non-verbal techniques to connect with your audience and hold their attention include natural smiles, plenty of eye contact and an open posture.

This is true of whether it’s one potential customer, an interview panel or a room full of your peers. Equally universal is the need to personalise what you say as much as possible.

For example, frequently (but seamlessly) addressing people by name in written or verbal communication and using ‘you’ ‘we’ and ‘I’ for example.

Use contemporary methods for improvement

“Although we live in an information technology age, we often find ourselves in failure to communicate situations.” – Johnny Tan.

Technology provides important communication improvement tools – more on this later.

However, it’s a double-edged sword according to world-renown communications expert Antoni Lacinai in his TED Talk video called  ‘6 communication truths that everyone should know.’

Antoni Lacinai has spent over 25 years studying human communication and psychology, and his mission is to reclaim and enhance ‘analogue’ skills in an ever more digital world. He argues this takes time, effort and willpower.

Especially as digital communications have added to our impatience, and we lose concentration quickly (particularly younger audiences). According to Antoni Lacinai average attention spans have dropped from 20 to 3.5 minutes in a matter of a few years!

This makes it even more important to constantly fine-tune and refresh the way you communicate. Including, (ironically) making the best use of technology, such as growing your familiarity with software and web-based platforms that support information sharing.

Much depends on the nature of your job. So, for instance, if you are an entrepreneur, this could include getting a firmer handle on the different demographics and values of separate social media platforms.

Also, you could grow your ability to use options such as Slack and Zoom to continuously improve communication efficiency. They offer a way to record discussions, so you can evaluate if you could have done things better, clearer and in a more engaging way.

These are also digital communications tools you can learn to adapt to tailor information to specific audiences, and managers can use them to measure speaker success and viewer engagement.

This sort of communication improvement is vital as workforces are now highly dispersed.  Research  shows that if you use communications properly, to connected office-bound and remote staff, your productivity will increase by 20-25%. Also, 97% of employees feel their daily tasks depend on effective communications.

Use traditional methods for improvement

Beyond technology, you can also improve the success of your communication using more traditional methods, including participating in training courses in public speaking and writing for business.

Even something as readily accessible as reading more – and watching more news and documentary programmes – can help. This will expand your vocabulary, appreciation of language, and awareness of other people’s motivations and behaviours.

Also, use observational research. Focus on the communications activities of others, and study how they engage with their audience and achieve their purpose. You could also get a coach or mentor, to help you hone your skills.

Another free way to improve as a communicator is to use online resources to study the biggest mistakes people make, such as  this article  by a public speaking consultancy.

There is an important rider to this. It is natural to be nervous and to make mistakes, especially when presenting to multiple people. Accept that as something that happens to even the most experienced communicators and don’t let it derail you from your purpose.

However, if you want to see some really cringy public speaking mistakes,  this series of videos  includes some toe-curling examples!

Invest in understanding your audience properly

“The best speakers in the world are the best storytellers. They have a gift to not only tell a great story but also share a lot of the details that many others wouldn’t.” – Larry Hagner.

To meet any of the purposes of communication, you must quickly establish a strong connection with your audience. Engaging them both intellectually but also at an emotional level. This is the basis of the much-used phrased that you need to win ‘hearts and minds’.

That is why traits of the best communicators are empathy, respect and warmth, alongside displaying competence. These attributes enable you to talk to people – not at them. Staying constantly alert to their responses.

For example, if it is a meeting and their eyes start to glaze and drift off, you can pause, or ask them a friendly question, then move on to something you feel is more engaging and relevant. In written communication, it could be choosing words, phrases and additional information to explain things in a way your audience will better understand and appreciate.

You can also use ‘storytelling’ techniques to frame when you say or write; making it personal, relatable and inclusive of good illustrations to drive points home.

The series of videos in this  article  show storytelling in action among successful TED talk speakers.

Showing empathy, respect and warmth makes people feel important and engages them more thoroughly. It is only possible if you consider the nature of your audience.

That means taking note of what their expectations, interests, motivations and behaviours may be. Also, what level of ability and understanding does your audience have?

If you invest time in considering all this, you are more likely to communicate at a sufficiently technical level, at a pace that matches your audience and using content most likely to achieve the result you want.

“When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.” – Stephen R. Covey.

Work on timing, appropriateness and versatility

Great comedians, like all great communicators, understand timing. They also gain a sense of their audience as quickly as possible, to dictate their content and the pace of their delivery.

Whether you are speaking in a project meeting, job interview or room with hundreds of people, the pace and fluidity of your communications matters. As it does in exchanges of written information.

The basis of this is gaining a good understanding of your audience (see above) but also not being too prescriptive and rigid. Leave room for responses, questions and feedback.

Being versatile as a communicator involves adapting to real-time responses. Such as, repeating things when you sense confusion, or emphasising points if you find something that enlivens and fully engages your audience.

You may even find a particularly relaxed and responsive audience makes humour appropriate. Though this must be measured and tasteful of course! You’re trying to win their hearts and minds, but if you can get a few laughs too, it’s a bonus that helps you build your audience connection.

Focusing on appropriateness and timing also revolves around the system you use to deliver information.

Did you know that over 205.6 billion emails are sent worldwide, every day? Of, those,  only a third are opened .

It’s the perfect example of why you should decide the most effective way to communicate, to match your audience’s needs and expectations, and your purpose.

Such as, using the telephone or an in-person discussion to communicate, and then following it up with an email, to achieve a better result.

The best communicators are life-long learners

To come full circle then, personality is important, but you can certainly develop successful communications skills. In fact, even if it comes naturally, you must invest time in understanding your audience and purpose, and in choosing your words with care. This is why becoming a successful communicator is a journey, not a destination.

“Communication works for those who work at it.” – John Powell

Key resources to improve your communication skills

1. online courses.

• Improving Communication Skills  – You’ll learn how to develop trust, the best method of communication for negotiation, when to cooperate and when to compete, how to create persuasive messages, and more.
• Essential Public Speaking  – Learn all the fundamentals of public speaking, from building rapport to asking the right questions. You can then practice these techniques with interactive practice exercises.
• Business Communications  – Sharpen your writing, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills to help you succeed in the business world. You will learn strategies for honing your communication style, improving clarity, conciseness and impact.
• Communication and Interpersonal Skills at Work  – Improve your communication skills at work and learn how to navigate positive collaboration in the modern workplace.
• Communication Styles for Stronger Social Skills  – How to adapt your communication styles to improve your relationship and influence with the people around you.

2. YouTube tutorials

• 5 ways to improve your communication skills  – actionable insights form five different communication leaders, each addressing a different way to improve your skills.
• 7 tips to improve communication skills  – design art style of explaining ways to improve your speaking and communication skills.
• Think fast, talk smart: communication techniques  – Matt Abrahams, lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School, explains techniques that will help you speak spontaneously with greater confidence and clarity, regardless of content and context.
• 4 steps to improve Your communication skills  – If you’re someone who struggles to talk to people, because it feels forced, unnatural, and the conversation doesn’t really go anywhere, then this video is for you.
• TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking  – this book explains how powerful public speaking is achieved and equips you to give it your best shot. There is no set formula; no two talks should be the same. The goal is for you to give the talk that only you can give.
• How to Win Friends and Influence People  – a classic book on how to make people like you, change people to your way of thinking, negotiate without causing resentment and more topics are covered.
• The Art of Public Speaking  – this book covers classical and contemporary speaking theory, including practical applications relating to public speaking.

4. Blogs about communication

• MindTools  – learn about a wide range of communication skills, from giving feedback to negotiating with a customer, in detailed, well thought out articles.
• VirtualSpeech  – in-depth articles on how to improve communication skills and how virtual reality and be used to practice these skills.
• SkillsYouNeed  – detailed articles with plenty of examples and exercises to ensure you are learning actively.

5. Quiz – what is your communication style?

• Communication style quiz

Improve communication skills

With plenty of practice, you’ll notice significant improvements in how you speak and communicate with others:

• Your confidence around other people will grow
• People will pay more attention to what you’re saying
• You’ll be able to explain complex ideas and processes more clearly
• You’ll find it easier to communicate with people around the world in different cultures and with different ethnic backgrounds

Nonverbal Communication and Body Language

Improving emotional intelligence (eq), conflict resolution skills.

• Empathy: How to Feel and Respond to the Emotions of Others

Anger Management

Managing conflict with humor.

• The 5 Love Languages and Their Influence on Relationships
• Gaslighting: Turning Off the Gas on Your Gaslighter
• Online Therapy: Is it Right for You?
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• Emotional Intelligence
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• Meet Our Team

What is effective communication?

Effective communication skill 1: become an engaged listener, skill 2: pay attention to nonverbal signals, skill 3: keep stress in check, skill 4: assert yourself, effective communication.

Want to communicate better? These tips will help you avoid misunderstandings, grasp the real meaning of what’s being communicated, and greatly improve your work and personal relationships.

Effective communication is about more than just exchanging information. It’s about understanding the emotion and intentions behind the information. As well as being able to clearly convey a message, you need to also listen in a way that gains the full meaning of what’s being said and makes the other person feel heard and understood.

Effective communication sounds like it should be instinctive. But all too often, when we try to communicate with others something goes astray. We say one thing, the other person hears something else, and misunderstandings, frustration, and conflicts ensue. This can cause problems in your home, school, and work relationships.

For many of us, communicating more clearly and effectively requires learning some important skills. Whether you’re trying to improve communication with your spouse, kids, boss, or coworkers, learning these skills can deepen your connections to others, build greater trust and respect, and improve teamwork, problem solving, and your overall social and emotional health.

What’s stopping you from communicating effectively?

Common barriers to effective communication include:

Stress and out-of-control emotion.  When you’re stressed or emotionally overwhelmed, you’re more likely to misread other people, send confusing or off-putting nonverbal signals, and lapse into unhealthy knee-jerk patterns of behavior. To avoid conflict and misunderstandings, you can learn how to quickly calm down before continuing a conversation.

Lack of focus.  You can’t communicate effectively when you’re multitasking. If you’re checking your phone , planning what you’re going to say next, or daydreaming, you’re almost certain to miss nonverbal cues in the conversation. To communicate effectively, you need to avoid distractions and stay focused.

Inconsistent body language.  Nonverbal communication should reinforce what is being said, not contradict it. If you say one thing, but your body language says something else, your listener will likely feel that you’re being dishonest. For example, you can’t say “yes” while shaking your head no.

[Read: Nonverbal Communication and Body Language]

Negative body language.  If you disagree with or dislike what’s being said, you might use negative body language to rebuff the other person’s message, such as crossing your arms, avoiding eye contact, or tapping your feet. You don’t have to agree with, or even like what’s being said, but to communicate effectively and not put the other person on the defensive, it’s important to avoid sending negative signals.

When communicating with others, we often focus on what we should say. However, effective communication is less about talking and more about listening. Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to convey.

There’s a big difference between engaged listening and simply hearing. When you really listen—when you’re engaged with what’s being said—you’ll hear the subtle intonations in someone’s voice that tell you how that person is feeling and the emotions they’re trying to communicate. When you’re an engaged listener, not only will you better understand the other person, you’ll also make that person feel heard and understood, which can help build a stronger, deeper connection between you.

By communicating in this way, you’ll also experience a process that  lowers stress and supports physical and emotional well-being. If the person you’re talking to is calm, for example, listening in an engaged way will help to calm you, too. Similarly, if the person is agitated, you can help calm them by listening in an attentive way and making the person feel understood.

If your goal is to fully understand and connect with the other person, listening in an engaged way will often come naturally. If it doesn’t, try the following tips. The more you practice them, the more satisfying and rewarding your interactions with others will become.

Tips for becoming an engaged listener

Focus fully on the speaker.  You can’t listen in an engaged way if you’re  constantly checking your phone or thinking about something else. You need to stay focused on the moment-to-moment experience in order to pick up the subtle nuances and important nonverbal cues in a conversation. If you find it hard to concentrate on some speakers, try repeating their words over in your head—it’ll reinforce their message and help you stay focused.

Favor your right ear.  As strange as it sounds, the left side of the brain contains the primary processing centers for both speech comprehension and emotions. Since the left side of the brain is connected to the right side of the body, favoring your right ear can help you better detect the emotional nuances of what someone is saying.

Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns.  By saying something like, “If you think that’s bad, let me tell you what happened to me.” Listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. You can’t concentrate on what someone’s saying if you’re forming what you’re going to say next. Often, the speaker can read your facial expressions and know that your mind’s elsewhere.

Show your interest in what’s being said.  Nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting. Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like “yes” or “uh huh.”

Try to set aside judgment.  In order to communicate effectively with someone, you don’t have to like them or agree with their ideas, values, or opinions. However, you do need to set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand them. The most difficult communication, when successfully executed, can often lead to an unlikely connection with someone.

[Read: Improving Emotional Intelligence (EQ)]

Provide feedback. If there seems to be a disconnect, reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. “What I’m hearing is,” or “Sounds like you are saying,” are great ways to reflect back. Don’t simply repeat what the speaker has said verbatim, though—you’ll sound insincere or unintelligent. Instead, express what the speaker’s words mean to you. Ask questions to clarify certain points: “What do you mean when you say…” or “Is this what you mean?”

Hear the emotion behind the words . It’s the higher frequencies of human speech that impart emotion. You can become more attuned to these frequencies—and thus better able to understand what others are really saying—by exercising the tiny muscles of your middle ear (the smallest in the body). You can do this by singing, playing a wind instrument, or listening to certain types of high-frequency music (a Mozart symphony or violin concerto, for example, rather than low-frequency rock, pop, or hip-hop).

The way you look, listen, move, and react to another person tells them more about how you’re feeling than words alone ever can. Nonverbal communication, or body language, includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing.

Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work.

• You can enhance effective communication by using open body language—arms uncrossed, standing with an open stance or sitting on the edge of your seat, and maintaining eye contact with the person you’re talking to.
• You can also use body language to emphasize or enhance your verbal message—patting a friend on the back while complimenting him on his success, for example, or pounding your fists to underline your message.

Improve how you  read nonverbal communication

Be aware of individual differences. People from different countries and cultures tend to use different nonverbal communication gestures, so it’s important to take age, culture, religion, gender, and emotional state into account when reading body language signals. An American teen, a grieving widow, and an Asian businessman, for example, are likely to use nonverbal signals differently.

Look at nonverbal communication signals as a group. Don’t read too much into a single gesture or nonverbal cue. Consider all of the nonverbal signals you receive, from eye contact to tone of voice to body language. Anyone can slip up occasionally and let eye contact go, for example, or briefly cross their arms without meaning to. Consider the signals as a whole to get a better “read” on a person.

Improve how you  deliver nonverbal communication

Use nonverbal signals that match up with your words rather than contradict them. If you say one thing, but your body language says something else, your listener will feel confused or suspect that you’re being dishonest. For example, sitting with your arms crossed and shaking your head doesn’t match words telling the other person that you agree with what they’re saying.

Adjust your nonverbal signals according to the context. The tone of your voice, for example, should be different when you’re addressing a child than when you’re addressing a group of adults. Similarly, take into account the emotional state and cultural background of the person you’re interacting with.

Avoid negative body language. Instead, use body language to convey positive feelings, even when you’re not actually experiencing them. If you’re nervous about a situation—a job interview, important presentation, or first date, for example—you can use positive body language to signal confidence, even though you’re not feeling it. Instead of tentatively entering a room with your head down, eyes averted, and sliding into a chair, try standing tall with your shoulders back, smiling and maintaining eye contact, and delivering a firm handshake. It will make you feel more self-confident and help to put the other person at ease.

How many times have you felt stressed during a disagreement with your spouse, kids, boss, friends, or coworkers and then said or done something you later regretted? If you can quickly relieve stress and return to a calm state, you’ll not only avoid such regrets, but in many cases you’ll also help to calm the other person as well. It’s only when you’re in a calm, relaxed state that you’ll be able to know whether the situation requires a response, or whether the other person’s signals indicate it would be better to remain silent.

In situations such as a job interview, business presentation, high-pressure meeting, or introduction to a loved one’s family, for example, it’s important to manage your emotions, think on your feet, and effectively communicate under pressure.

Communicate effectively by staying calm under pressure

Use stalling tactics to give yourself time to think. Ask for a question to be repeated or for clarification of a statement before you respond.

Pause to collect your thoughts. Silence isn’t necessarily a bad thing—pausing can make you seem more in control than rushing your response.

Make one point and provide an example or supporting piece of information. If your response is too long or you waffle about a number of points, you risk losing the listener’s interest. Follow one point with an example and then gauge the listener’s reaction to tell if you should make a second point.

Deliver your words clearly. In many cases, how you say something can be as important as what you say. Speak clearly, maintain an even tone, and make eye contact. Keep your body language relaxed and open.

Wrap up with a summary and then stop. Summarize your response and then stop talking, even if it leaves a silence in the room. You don’t have to fill the silence by continuing to talk.

Quick stress relief for effective communication

When a conversation starts to get heated, you need something quick and immediate to bring down the emotional intensity. By learning to quickly reduce stress in the moment, you can safely take stock of any strong emotions you’re experiencing, regulate your feelings, and behave appropriately.

Recognize when you’re becoming stressed. Your body will let you know if you’re stressed as you communicate. Are your muscles or stomach tight? Are your hands clenched? Is your breath shallow? Are you “forgetting” to breathe?

Take a moment to calm down before deciding to continue a conversation or postpone it.

Bring your senses to the rescue. The best way to rapidly and reliably relieve stress is through the senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell—or movement. For example, you could pop a peppermint in your mouth, squeeze a stress ball in your pocket, take a few deep breaths, clench and relax your muscles, or simply recall a soothing, sensory-rich image. Each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find a coping mechanism that is soothing to you.

[Read: Quick Stress Relief]

Look for humor in the situation. When used appropriately, humor is a great way to relieve stress when communicating . When you or those around you start taking things too seriously, find a way to lighten the mood by sharing a joke or an amusing story.

Be willing to compromise. Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you’ll be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces the stress levels for everyone concerned. If you realize that the other person cares much more about an issue than you do, compromise may be easier for you and a good investment for the future of the relationship.

Agree to disagree, if necessary, and take time away from the situation so everyone can calm down. Go for a stroll outside if possible, or spend a few minutes meditating. Physical movement or finding a quiet place to regain your balance can quickly reduce stress.

Find your space for healing and growth

Regain is an online couples counseling service. Whether you’re facing problems with communication, intimacy, or trust, Regain’s licensed, accredited therapists can help you improve your relationship.

Direct, assertive expression makes for clear communication and can help boost your self-esteem and decision-making skills. Being assertive means expressing your thoughts, feelings, and needs in an open and honest way, while standing up for yourself and respecting others. It does NOT mean being hostile, aggressive, or demanding. Effective communication is always about understanding the other person, not about winning an argument or forcing your opinions on others.

To improve your assertiveness

Value yourself and your options. They are as important as anyone else’s.

Know your needs and wants. Learn to express them without infringing on the rights of others.

Express negative thoughts in a positive way. It’s  okay to be angry , but you must remain respectful as well.

Receive feedback positively. Accept compliments graciously, learn from your mistakes, ask for help when needed.

Learn to say “no.” Know your limits and don’t let others take advantage of you. Look for alternatives so everyone feels good about the outcome.

Developing assertive communication techniques

Empathetic assertion conveys sensitivity to the other person. First, recognize the other person’s situation or feelings, then state your needs or opinion. “I know you’ve been very busy at work, but I want you to make time for us as well.”

Escalating assertion can be employed when your first attempts are not successful. You become increasingly firm as time progresses, which may include outlining consequences if your needs are not met. For example, “If you don’t abide by the contract, I’ll be forced to pursue legal action.”

Practice assertiveness in lower risk situations to help build up your confidence. Or ask friends or family if you can practice assertiveness techniques on them first.

More Information

• Effective Communication: Improving Your Social Skills - Communicate more effectively, improve your conversation skills, and become more assertive. (AnxietyCanada)
• Core Listening Skills - How to be a better listener. (SucceedSocially.com)
• Effective Communication - How to communicate in groups using nonverbal communication and active listening techniques. (University of Maine)
• Some Common Communication Mistakes - And how to avoid them. (SucceedSocially.com)
• 3aPPa3 – When cognitive demand increases, does the right ear have an advantage? – Danielle Sacchinell | Acoustics.org . (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from Link
• How to Behave More Assertively . (n.d.). 10. Weger, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). The Relative Effectiveness of Active Listening in Initial Interactions.  International Journal of Listening , 28(1), 13–31. Link

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15 Communication Exercises and Games for the Workplace

Cooperation and collaboration underpin how we work together, and done brilliantly, can determine our competitive advantage.

At the human level, our social resources play a massive part in our happiness and well-being in the workplace.

We can brush it all off as too soft and fuzzy, or we can embrace communication as one of the keys to an emotionally intelligent workplace. But because the way we get along is so fundamental to organizational success and human flourishing, many more companies are focusing on the latter.

In this article, you will find 15 communication exercises, games, and tips to help you improve teamwork and collaboration in your workplace. If you have any great activities that we haven’t covered, do let us know!

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free . These science-based tools will help you and those you work with build better social skills and better connect with others.

This Article Contains:

What are communication exercises and games, the importance of communication in the workplace, 7 tips on improving communication skills at work, 3 games and exercises to improve workplace communication skills, 3 activities to improve communication between employees, 3 active listening games and exercises for the workplace, 3 team building communication games and exercises, 3 communication exercises and activities for groups, a take-home message.

Typically, communication is seen as a ‘soft’ skill—because it’s not easily quantifiable. Compared to profits, losses, and even risk, it is intangible. Unless it’s either terrible or completely absent. Communication exercises and games are interactional activities that aim to develop how we relate to one another, including how we share information and get along.

They can be one-on-one or team exercises, but the goal is the same: they help us develop our interpersonal skills and improve our capacity to relate.

Communication is a whole lot more than just talking—although, that is a fundamental part of relationship-building and knowledge-transfer. To really grasp how big of an impact it has, we can touch on some of the theory. Surprisingly, taking a step back to look at some theory can sometimes be just as helpful, if not more so, than ‘getting on with it’.

What are Workplace Communication Skills?

Succinctly, they help us convey information to others in an effective way. And, they go above and beyond coherent speech in many ways—we talk, we use silence, body language, tone of voice, and eye-contact—voluntarily and unconsciously. With a broad and beautiful rainbow of ways to communicate, then, how do we know what’s considered a skill? What’s noise and what’s a message? What matters?

Drawing on empirical literature on communication skills in the workplace, we can look at Maguire and Pitcheathly’s (2002) study of doctors for a good example. In medical professions, it’s particularly critical not just to extract and interpret information—often, from conversation partners who lack crucial information themselves—but to convey it empathetically and with clarity.

The authors described several key communication skills as follows:

– The ability to elicit patients’ problems and concerns.

Swap ‘patients’ with clients, co-workers, managers, and so forth, and we can see that this is readily applicable in many other work situations. That is, the ability to understand, explore and clarify what others are talking about, and to solicit more details if and when the situation requires it.

Doctors also described effective communication as being able to summarize what the patient/other had related to correct information and display understanding.

Benefits: In an objective sense, we need to extract information so we can channel our efforts accordingly. Deadlines, role boundaries, budgets, and the ‘why, how, what’ of tasks. But active listening encourages pleasant social interactions, which in turn, these boost our well-being and life satisfaction (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).

– The ability to deliver information effectively.

The doctors studied also checked with their patients what their beliefs were about what was wrong. In other workplaces, team situations call for clarity—a shared goal is the ideal, but very often we come at situations with at least a few different beliefs. Alternatively, we may be quick to assume that others understand what we are saying when situations actually require further explanation.

To deal with this, the doctors:

• Reorganized information where required (e.g. into categories);
• Checked that patients understood them before moving on; and
• Checked whether they wanted further information.

Benefits: Our messages need to make sense if we want to convey information in a meaningful way. That applies both to our language and the extent to which we empathize. Effective information delivery helps us define goals , transfer knowledge, and successfully accomplish shared tasks.

– Discussing treatment options.

Communication, in its most basic form at least, is dyadic—a two-way, and (one would hope) mutually beneficial flow of information. In this study, giving a diagnosis and treatment options was only one part of the job. Doctors described how important it was to see whether patients wanted to participate in choosing their treatment.

They determined their perspectives before decision-making; in other settings, this is inviting participation and engagement.

Benefits: As discussed, information delivery is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions. Giving others a chance to contribute allows us to factor in more perspectives and diverse opinions. We can encourage more engagement, commitment, and complement one another’s different skills for better results.

– Being supportive.

Doctors described empathy in terms of feedback and validation. They showed that they understood how their patients were feeling to relate at an interpersonal level; where they didn’t know, they at least made a stab at empathizing through educated guesses.

Benefits: We don’t need to look too far to find sources of workplace stress that might be impacting our colleagues. By empathizing, we not only build better relationships, but we show that we are available as key ‘job resources’ – social support for those around us to reduce the negative impacts of our job demands (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

Put even more simply, we make work a nicer place to be while avoiding unnecessary conflict.

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Maguire and Pitcheathly’s (2002) clinical review offered several learning tips, the first of which was an emphasis on proper communication skills training. As well as identifying key communication deficits and their root causes, these included several that relate to our knowledge of positive psychology and communication.

3 Tips for Creating a Supportive Learning Environment

First, we need to create an optimal learning environment if we want to maximize our improvement; in this sense:

• Communication skills need to be modeled and practiced, not simply taught – a nod to experiential learning, which is frequently emphasized in emotional intelligence learning (SEL) (Haertel et al., 2005; Kolb, 2014);
• They are best learned and practiced in safe, supportive environments, which studies show are central to learning behavior (Edmonson et al., 2004); and
• Constructive performance feedback is helpful, but “only once all positive comments have been exhausted” (Maguire & Pitcheathly, 2002: 699). Peer feedback is also a useful job resource when it comes to work engagement; as a form of social support, it can help stimulate our learning and development—that includes communication skills (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Bakker et al., 2008).

4 Tips for Enhancing Communication Skills

We can also look at the business literature for some more support of what we identified earlier as key communication skills. Breaking these down into tips, here are 4 fairly broad ways we can enhance our communication skills to increase our effectiveness and well-being.

– Work on your emotional perception

Perception of emotions is a key component of Mayer and Salovey’s emotional intelligence framework and covers the ability to read others’ non-verbal cues as well as their potential moods (Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

At the individual level, we can make conscious use of this EQ skill to gauge how others are feeling. Is your colleague overwhelmed, perhaps? Is now the best possible time to ask them for help on a task? Or, have you noticed someone in the corner of the room who has been dying to contribute to the meeting?

– Practice self-awareness

Our non-verbal behavior and the way we speak is critical. Different studies vary on exactly how much of our intended message (and credibility) is non-verbal, but it’s undoubtedly important (DePaulo & Friedman, 1998; Knapp et al., 2013).

When the words we speak convey one message and our body another, we risk confusion and potentially, we jeopardize our intended impact. To enhance our influencing skills and the quality of our working relationships with others, it helps to practice being aware of your own non-verbal behaviors.

– Give others a chance to engage

Communication is a two-way street, at the very least. And as more than one collective intelligence researcher has pointed out, teams are more than the sum of their parts (Woolley et al., 2010).

When we get together as humans, we need a chance to communicate just as much as we need our individual ‘smarts’, and essentially, it comes down to social sensitivity—emotional perception once again. We can look at Leary’s Rose for more insights on how and why, but this time, the tip is to understand when to communicate or step back (Leary, 2004).

– Practice listening

Talking is essentially a form of content delivery, and it’s not really communication unless we listen. Active listening involves engaging with our co-workers and bringing empathy to the table to enhance the quality of our dialogue.

Sometimes mentioned along with ‘reflective questioning’, it involves, “restating a paraphrased version of the speaker’s message, asking questions when appropriate, and maintaining moderate to high nonverbal conversational involvement” (Weger Jr et al., 2014: 13). It helps us create more clarity, take in information more effectively, and develop our workplace relationships through empathetic engagement (Nikolova et al., 2013).

Some of these activities will require a facilitator, and some just a group of colleagues. None of them require professional facilitation per se, and any participant can easily volunteer to keep the process on track.

1. Back-to-Back Drawing

This exercise is about listening, clarity and developing potential strategies when we communicate. In communicating expectations, needs, and more, it helps to clarify and create common ground. This can show what happens when we don’t…

For this activity, you’ll need an even number of participants so everybody can have a partner. Once people have paired off, they sit back-to-back with a paper and pencil each. One member takes on the role of a speaker, and the other plays the part of the listener.

Over five to ten minutes, the speaker describes a geometric image from a prepared set, and the listener tries to turn this description into a drawing without looking at the image.

Then, they talk about the experience, using several of the following example questions:

Speaker Questions

• What steps did you take to ensure your instructions were clear? How could these be applied in real-life interactions?
• Our intended messages aren’t always interpreted as we mean them to be. While speaking, what could you do to decrease the chance of miscommunication in real-life dialogue?

Listener Questions

• What was constructive about your partner’s instructions?
• In what ways might your drawing have turned out differently if you could have communicated with your partner?

2. Effective Feedback in “I” Mode

Defensiveness is a root cause of miscommunication and even conflict in the workplace. We’re not always ready to receive and learn from criticism, especially when it’s delivered insensitively. This exercise introduces “I” statements, which describe others’ behavior objectively while allowing the speaker to express the impact on their feelings.

Employees can pair off or work alone, in either case, they will need a worksheet of imaginary scenarios like this one . Together or solo, they can create “I” statements about how the imaginary scenario makes them feel. When done in pairs, they can practice giving each other feedback on ‘meaning what you say’ without triggering defensiveness in the other.

3. Storytelling with CCSG

Storytelling is an engaging way to convey information; when it’s positive information, narratives are also highly effective means of motivating and inspiring others (Tomasulo & Pawelski, 2012). Appreciative Inquiry, for example, is one type of positive psychology intervention that uses storytelling in a compelling way, as a means to share hopes and build on our shared strengths.

Through this exercise, we can practice structuring our narratives—essentially we’ll have one ‘information delivery’ tool to draw on when we feel it might help (like the doctors we looked at earlier). CCSG is a structure, and it involves:

C : Characters C : Conflict S : Struggle G : Goal

To use the structure as an exercise, participants simply relate a narrative using CCSG. For example, one team member might describe a past success of the group or team, where their collective strengths helped them succeed. The Characters would then be whoever was involved, the Conflict may be a challenge the team faced (a new growth opportunity, perhaps).

The Struggle might be something like geographical distance between team members, and the Goal would be just that: their objective or success.

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Because communication is so multi-faceted, we’ve included a selection of different activity types. These interpersonal and team communication games cover topics such as misinterpreting information, awareness of our assumptions and engaging others.

1. Direction Direction

This activity is a slight twist on Chinese Whispers in that it uses a complex set of instructions rather than just a sentence. And here, we have only one link rather than an entire chain of people. Otherwise, the idea is identical—information gets misinterpreted thanks to noise, but we can improve our verbal communication and listening skills to minimize this risk.

First, pick a game with enough instructions that the information is a challenge to memorize. With 2+ co-workers, pick one person (a speaker) to whom you’ll explain the instructions. They are responsible for passing the information on to the rest of their team. The group then needs to play the game with only the instructions from the speaker.

Once they’ve finished the game, start some dialogue about what happened:

• Was there any lack of clarity around the instructions?
• What might have contributed to this confusion?
• What are some key things to be aware of when we give or listen to instructions?

This activity comes from The Wrecking Yard of Games and Activities ( Amazon ).

Here’s an exercise on the pivotal role of clarification. When it comes to tasks and expectations, it goes without saying that clarity helps us avoid lots of unwanted things. And clarity plays a role on a larger scale when it comes to our roles more broadly, in fact, it’s a psychological resource under the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

Succinctly, ambiguity contributes to stress, and clarity is empowering—something that is easy to overlook and which this game reminds us of.

Any number of co-workers can participate in this very simple mime game. You’ll need a list of topics for people to act out, then invite players to break off into groups of two. In these pairs, they will take turns being a mime and being an asker. The mime reads the card, then attempts to act out what’s on it (you’ll first need to decide on a theme, like weather, activities, or what have you).

While the asker can pose questions, the mime can only act out their answers.

It might unearth an awareness of implicit assumptions, bringing our conscious attention to the role these play in our judgments. Potential discussion questions will help you unpack this further:

• How did your questioning skills help you comprehend what was going on?
• What value do questioning skills have when we’re trying to understand others?
• What factors sometimes prevent us from asking questions when they might actually be useful?

3. Let’s Face It

This exercise from The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games is about self-awareness . How large of a role does it really play, and how does it influence our communication?

There is no limit to the group size for this game, which requires only enough pens and paper for everybody. It doesn’t take very long, either, and can be played in as little as ten to twenty minutes—perfect for breaking up the day.

Start with groups (or sub-groups) of between four and ten players; in each of these, someone will need to volunteer as a facilitator. This facilitator simply keeps the game on track and gets the discussion going afterward.

Each player writes down a feeling on a small piece of paper, folds it, then passes it to the volunteer facilitator. From him or her, they take another piece that someone else has written, and tries to act out that feeling to the rest of their group—using only their facial expressions. The other participants try to guess that emotion and this should lead to a talk about the role of expressions. Useful discussion points include:

• What feelings do we understand the easiest, when only facial expressions are used? Why might that be?
• Describe some contexts where facial expressions play a particularly important role in communication?
• In what ways can facial expressions influence our ability to deal with misunderstandings?

How to improve communication skills at work – Adriana Girdler

Through active listening, we can enhance our understanding of other people’s perspectives (Drollinger et al., 2006). Practicing it during our interactions with others enables us to validate their feelings and potentially avoid the stress of misunderstandings.

Exercises that boost our active listening skills help us engage better, through empathy, body language, and non-judgment where required (Rogers & Farson, 1957).

At the end of the day, active listening games can impact positively on our relationships by encouraging us to practice specific techniques, and these, in turn, find support in the empirical literature (Weger et al., 2014).

1. Concentric Circles

This large group exercise works best when you already have a topic for discussion. It is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate good communication. For this exercise, everybody has a handout that summarizes the goals of the discussion.

Two circles of chairs are set up, one inside the other. Participants who sit in the middle are ‘talkers’ while those in the outer ring are ‘watchers’, and these roles should be allocated prior to the exercise. Armed with their handouts, talkers begin to engage with the topic. They use the goals as a guide for the conversation, while the watchers listen carefully and make notes.

After fifteen minutes of discussion, the watchers and talkers switch circles—those who were listening before now sit on the inner circle for a fifteen-minute conversation. It can be on the pre-chosen topic or on a different one, but the activity must conclude with a debrief.

During this debrief, they reflect collectively on the experience itself:

• How was being a watcher, compared to being a listener?
• What did you feel when you were observing from the outer circle, listening but not contributing? How did this influence your learnings, rather than providing your own input?
• In what ways did being a watcher impact your perspectives of the talkers? What about their dynamics?

This gamestorming communications exercise is based on a team coaching technique by Time To Grow Global .

2. 3-minute Vacation

Here is another talker and listener exercise that can be done in pairs. In a larger group of participants, this can be done multiple times as players pair up with different conversation partners. And in each pair, of course, team members will take turns being listener and talker.

The talker discusses their dream vacation for three minutes, describing what they would like best about it but without specifying where it should be. While they talk, the listener pays close attention to the explicit and underlying details, using only non-verbal cues to show that they are listening.

After the 3-minute vacation, the listener summarizes the key points of their conversation partner’s dream vacation—as a holiday sales pitch. After they’ve ‘pitched’ the ideal vacation spot in the space of a few minutes, the pair discuss how accurately the listener understood the talker.

They outline how they could improve their dialogue with regard to active listening, then swap roles. A twist on this team coaching exercise might involve allowing the listener to make notes during the talker’s description, revealing them as a point of discussion only after they deliver the ‘sales pitch’.

Used with permission from Time To Grow Global .

3. Pet Peeve

How about a chance to blow off some steam and get that empathetic listening ear at the same time? And at the same time, helping your co-worker practice active listening?

In this game, one colleague has a full 60 seconds to rant about something which irks them. It’s best if this isn’t inappropriate for the workplace, but at the same time, it doesn’t have to be work-related. If you hate pop-up ads, for instance, you’ve already got great material for your rant.

The first colleague (Player A) simply lets loose while the second person (Player B) listens carefully, trying to cut through the noise by singling out:

• What Player A really cares about – for instance, smooth user experience on the internet;
• What they value – e.g. clarity and transparent advertisements;
• What matters to them – e.g. getting work done, doing their online shopping in peace, or a more intuitive, user-friendly adblocker.

Player B then ‘decodes’ the rant by repeating it back to Player A, isolating the key positive points without the fluff or negativity. They can use some variant on the following sentence stems to guide their decoding:

• “You value…”
• “You care about…”
• “You believe that…matters a lot”

Then, they can switch over and repeat the game again. As you can probably see, the activity is aimed at helping teammates appreciate that feedback has positive goals.

When we give attention to our relationships as well as the task(s) at hand, we create trust and collaborate more effectively. The games and exercises in this section are about connecting on a human level so that we can communicate with more emotional intelligence in the workplace.

1. Personal Storytelling

In large organizations especially, we may only bring a part of ourselves to the workplace. If we want to communicate empathetically and build relationships with co-workers—important social resources—personal storytelling is one way we can build our teams while developing communication skills.

There is no set time or place for storytelling, but it works best when a story is followed by an invitation to the group to give input. Feel free to use the CCSG technique described earlier in this article, and that the speaker uses a reflective tone, rather than purely informative, when addressing the group.

To try out personal storytelling, set aside a team-building afternoon, meeting, or workshop. Ask the group to each prepare a reading that they will share. Here are some ideas that nicely blend the emotional with the professional:

• Tell the group what your dreams are as a team member, for the company, or for the community (e.g. Whitney & Cooperrider, 2011);
• Tell them about your first job, or your very first working experience;
• If you’ve got a budget, give team members a small amount of money each to do something good with. Then, let them share the story of what they did with it;
• When onboarding new people, invite the group to bring in an object which symbolizes their wishes for the new team member. Then, let them share the story behind the object.

2. I’m Listening

We learn from our peers’ feedback, and that learning is most productive in a supportive work environment (Odom et al., 1990; Goh, 1998). Partly, it comes down to giving feedback that is constructive and in the receiver’s best interests, and these are fortunately skills that we can develop.

I’m Listening can be played with an even number of participants, as they will need to find a partner for this one-on-one game. In the book mentioned below, there are also hand-outs, but you can prepare your own for this activity. Ideally, more than one ‘Talker Scenario’ and more than one ‘Listener Scenario’:

• A ‘Talker Scenario’ will describe something like a bad day at work, or a problem with a client. In a small paragraph, it should outline what’s gone wrong (maybe it’s everything from a cracked smartphone screen to a delay during your commute). This scenario is followed by an instruction for the Talker to play a role: “ You call up your colleague for some support ” or “ You decide to let off some steam by talking to your co-worker ”.
• A ‘Listener Scenario’ is a bit different. In several sentences, the scenario outlines a situation where they are approached by a colleague with problems but might have other things on their plate. They might be up to their ears in work, or their colleague’s complaints might seem trivial. After reading the scenario of their context (e.g. it’s a hectic day, your computer’s just crashed), the Listener’s role is to act it out while they respond, for example: “ Show with your body language that you’re far too busy ”.

The exercise is a good starting point for a conversation about constructive listening strategies. Together, the pairs can come up with more productive, empathetic, and appropriate responses, with the acting experience fresh in mind. Some discussion points include:

• As Talker, what feedback did your Listener appear to give?
• How did you feel about the feedback you received?
• How might you create some listening and feedback approaches based on this?

This game comes from The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games ( Amazon ).

3. “A What?”

Inspired by the kid’s game Telephone, this exercise draws on different elements of effective communication between team members, while highlighting where things often go wrong. It works with any sized team and requires only a facilitator and some novel objects that can be passed between participants. So, plush toys, tennis balls, or similar—but the more imaginative they are, the better.

Players stand in a circle and pass two of the objects along to each other. One object should be passed clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise. Prior to passing on the toy, ball, or what have you, players ask something about the object and answer a question about it.

Essentially, the message will change as the object gets passed along, and players will need to stay sharp to remember who they are passing and talking to.

For instance:

• The facilitator starts out by handing one of the items to the person on their right, saying “Ellen, this is a tattered elephant with pink ears.”
• Ellen then needs to ask “A What?”, prompting you to repeat the item’s name.
• Taking the item, Ellen turns to her right and repeats the same with Pedro: “Pedro, this is a tattered elephant with pink ears.” Pedro asks, “A What?”
• Before she passes the item to Pedro, however, Ellen’s answer to his question must come back to the facilitator, who says it aloud. This way, it’s possible to see if and how the message changes as it goes around the group. By the time it reaches Hassan, who is Person 5, for instance, it might be “A grey elephant with tattered ears.”
• Once people get the gist of how to play with one item, the facilitator adds in the second by passing it to the left.

Debrief with a chat about the communication that went on. Did anybody end up with both items at once? How did they cope? Did others help them?

Other questions include:

• How did communication look with a longer or shorter chain? Where was the weakest link, and why?
• In what ways did players support each other?
• How did you feel during the game? What was the impact of that emotion on you and on others?

This exercise comes from a Teambuilding Facilitation Manual: A Guide to Leading and Facilitating Teambuilding Activities , by Penn State University.

17 Exercises To Develop Positive Communication

17 Positive Communication Exercises [PDF] to develop help others develop communication skills for successful social interactions and positive, fulfilling relationships.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

A lot of team situations are about creativity. We each have unique experiences, competencies, and viewpoints, the way we collaborate inevitably decides whether we synergize or fall flat. Here are two activities that will help your team work together creatively to solve a problem, as well as one about the role of silence.

1. Crazy Comic

This is a fun game in communication skills that will also give team members some creative freedom. They will need to communicate those creative ideas to one another, but also engage in joint decision-making for the activity to be a success. And that activity is to create a comic together, using their complementary skills and communication to realize a shared vision.

You’ll need more than 9 participants for this activity, as well as paper, drawing, and coloring materials for each colleague. From your larger group of co-workers, let them form smaller groups of about 3-6 participants and tell them their task is to produce a unique comic strip, with one frame from each person. So, a 6-person group will make a 6-frame strip, and so forth.

Between them, they need to decide the plot of the comic, who will be carrying out which tasks, and what the frames will contain. The catch is that they all need to draw at the same time, so they will not be seeing the preceding frame in the strip. Make it extra-hard if you like, by instructing them not to look at one another’s creative progress as they draw, either.

Afterward, trigger some discussion about the way they communicated; some example questions include:

• How critical was communication throughout this exercise?
• What did you find the toughest about this activity?
• Why was it important to make the decisions together?

This exercise was adapted from 104 Activities that build ( Amazon ).

2. Blindfold Rope Square

This is similar in some ways to the Back-to-Back Drawing exercise above. That is, the Blindfold Rope Square exercise challenges us to look at how we communicate verbally, then think about ways to develop our effectiveness. In a large group of participants or employees, particularly, we often need to cut through the noise with a clear and coherent message—and this game can be played with even a large group of people.

You will need about ten meters of rope and a safe place for employees to walk around blindfolded in. So, flat and ideally with no walls or tripping hazards.

• Explain first up that the goal of the task is effective verbal communication, and give each participant a blindfold.
• Once they have gathered in your chosen ‘safe space’, invite them to put on their blindfolds and turn around a few times so they are (reasonably) disoriented in the space.
• Coil the rope and put it where at least one participant can reach it, then explain that you’ve put the rope ‘somewhere on the floor’.
• Tell them their shared aim is to collaborate: first to find the rope, then to lay it out into a perfect square together on the floor.
• Let the participants go about it, taking care not to let any accidents occur. Tell them to let you know once they’ve agreed that the job is done.
• Finally, everybody removes their blindfolds, and it’s time for feedback. This is the perfect opportunity to congratulate them or start a discussion about what they might do differently the next time around.

Find more information on the exercise here .

3. Zen Counting

Silence is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it gives us a chance to reflect, in others it creates a space for others to take the floor. Nonetheless, we’re often inclined to view it as awkward—a gap to be filled or avoided—rather than a chance to listen. According to Shannon and Weaver’s Theory of Communication (1998), this simply creates more ‘noise’ and negatively impacts our ability to reach resolutions at work (Smith, 2018).

Zen counting is incredibly straightforward: team members simply sit in a circle but face outward. With nobody in particular starting first, they are asked to count from one to ten as a group, but each member can only say one number. Nothing else is said. When someone repeats or interrupts another group member, they start again from one.

The idea is to facilitate a sense of ‘okayness’ with being uncomfortable and silent, while team members practice letting others speak.

Imagine attending a communication workshop, in purely lecture format. Or, reading about how to communicate without actually trying what you learn. Communication exercises may not feel 100% natural at first, but they let us work with—rather than live in fear of—that discomfort. Whether it’s Chinese Whispers or making a rope square blindfolded, we can shake up old habits and create new ones by stepping into our ‘stretch zones’.

Try out activities that are best suited to your organizational goals so they have the most relevance. If you’re focused on innovation, try a creative communication exercise like Mime. If you’re a cross-functional team, why not try out an activity that challenges assumptions?

Tell us if any of these are particularly useful, and let us know if you’ve got tweaks for this current set of activities. What has worked in the past for your team?

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free .

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• Depaulo, B. M., & Friedman, H. S. (1998). Nonverbal communication. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (pp. 3-40) . New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill.
• Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23 (2), 161-180.
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• Haertel, C., McWilliams, J., & Ma, R. (2005). Developing emotional intelligence in high potential middle managers: The role of experiential learning. In EURAM Conference, Munich, Germany.
• Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). Nonverbal communication in human interaction . Cengage Learning.
• Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development . FT Press.
• Leary, T. (2004). Interpersonal diagnosis of personality: A functional theory and methodology for personality evaluation . Wipf and Stock Publishers.
• Maguire, P., & Pitceathly, C. (2002). Key communication skills and how to acquire them. British Medical Journal, 325 (7366), 697-700.
• Nikolova, N., Clegg, S., Fox, S., Bjørkeng, K., & Pitsis, T. (2013). Uncertainty reduction through everyday performative language work: the case of coaching. International Studies of Management & Organization, 43 (3), 74-89.
• Odom, R. Y., Boxx, W. R., & Dunn, M. G. (1990). Organizational cultures, commitment, satisfaction, and cohesion. Public Productivity & Management Review, 157-169 .
• Rogers, C. R., & Farson, R. E. (1957). Active listening. Industrial Relations Center of the University of Chicago .
• Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, cognition and personality, 9 (3), 185-211.
• Shannon, C. E. (1998). Communication in the presence of noise. Proceedings of the IEEE, 86 (2), 447-457.
• Smith, K. (2018). Silence: The Secret Communication Tool. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/silence-the-secret-communication-tool/
• Tomasulo, D. J., & Pawelski, J. O. (2012). Happily ever after: The use of stories to promote positive interventions. Psychology, 3 (12), 1189.
• Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). The relative effectiveness of active listening in initial interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28 (1), 13-31.
• Whitney, D., & Cooperrider, D. (2011). Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change . ReadHowYouWant. com.
• Woolley, A. W., Chabris, C. F., Pentland, A., Hashmi, N., & Malone, T. W. (2010). Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. Science, 330 (6004), 686-688.

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Very useful, insightful, and helpful. Great simple and applicable source on communication topic. Many thanks for share, and nice to looks for how far you go with other valuable topics

Thanks Cathy for putting up this article. It is simply amazing. I intend to use three of your exercises in my upcoming workshop on communication in the 2nd week of June, 2022 🙂

I think this is an excellent resource with a great outcome. Thanks for putting this together. Very useful for my Communicare sessions.

Such an informative article

Excellent content and I can’t wait to use some of this content as well. Crediting the source(s) of course

Thank you so much for creating and sharing these tools. I too would like to be able to utilize them as a resource for my workshop. Sources credited/included. I am a firm believer in the power of soft skills, especially listening and communication. The world will be a better place once we’ve mastered them.

Very insightful and interesting ways of training people for better workplace communication skills. Enjoyed it.

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20 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills

“Communication” is a buzzword these days.

You’ve probably seen magazine articles about communication skills with your partner, or self-help business gurus talk about the importance of communication skills in the workplace.

We hear about communication constantly. With good reason – it really is a huge deal when it comes to having a smooth and enjoyable personal and professional life .

But hearing about it isn’t enough to absorb all that knowledge and be able to apply it to your own unique situation. This is especially true for those who might feel like they’re struggling a bit with effective communication skills.

We can’t all have a natural gift, after all.

If you’re curious what everyone keeps talking about, or how to improve your own communication skills, you’re in the right place.

In this article, we’re going to look at the three main types of communication skills, some examples, and loads of actionable tips you can start using today to help strengthen those skills. 

Here’s how I’m going to break down this mini communication skills training. We’ll go over:

• The three main types of communication skills: verbal, non-verbal, and written
• General tips to improve your communication across all types
• A section dedicated to each of the three types specifically

Let’s do this.

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Three Different Types of Communication Skills

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Communication is considered one of the most important interpersonal skills , or how we interact with and relate to other people. There are three main types of communication skills: verbal, non-verbal, and written.

Verbal. Verbal communication is when you’re talking to other people, whether it’s face-to-face, on a video call, or over the phone. Your choice of words matter (a lot), but so do smaller details like the tone of your voice and the timing of when you say things.

Non-verbal. Non-verbal communication, also referred to as body language, is what people see when they’re looking at you during a conversation, either face-to-face or on video. It’s your facial expressions, eye contact, and the positions of your body. You might not realize that your body language is saying, “I don’t want to be talking to you right now,” even if it’s an important conversation.

Written. These days, written communication mostly show up in emails and chat messages, including an email to your partner or a customer service email for work. This can also include chats on platforms like Facebook Messenger or Slack . If you’re managing a remote team , it’s important for your written communication skills to be on-point.

How to Improve Communication Skills: All Three Types

For business communication skills as well as personal communication skills, the key is how you’re approaching your interactions. You can even call it a strategy.

Here are some strategic tips for building communication skills.

1. Be an “active listener”

Even if you’re a great listener, I guarantee there’s still some areas where you can improve. A great way to find your weak spots is to look at the active listening model.

The concept of active listening means that you’re involved and engaged in what the other person is saying, as opposed to being passive and letting the conversation pass you by.

There’s no single model, but your research will turn up the same ideas, including:

• Pay attention when someone else has something to say
• Ask them open-ended questions so that you can get an idea of what they want
• Ask probing questions if there are specific things you’d like to learn about
• Request clarification on anything you’re uncertain about
• Paraphrase what they said and repeat it back to them, so you can be sure you understood them correctly
• Be attuned to their feelings and your own, to make sure everyone’s needs are being met
• Summarize at the end of your interaction so everyone has the same takeaways and next steps

2. Speak up about your thoughts and ideas

Just like it’s important to understand what others are seeking, make sure that you’re expressing your own needs. Nobody will ever know if you don’t tell them, right?

This communication skill is especially important if you’re a leader, because what you say is setting the stage for your team to follow. If you’re an open and honest communicator, you’re setting an example for everyone else to do the same. 

They’ll be more willing to collaborate with others, to compromise when it’s necessary, and to face difficult situations with an open mind and confidence that things will work out in the end.

3. Try not to make assumptions

It can be easy to assume that you know what someone else wants. But this is a huge cause of misunderstandings – and a reason that misunderstandings can escalate into conflict.

That’s where the active listening model can save the day. Part of great communication skills means having empathy: trying to understand what’s going on in the other person’s head.

This is important because what we say isn’t always a completely accurate representation of what we really want. Especially in a complicated situation, or one where it’s easy to get overwhelmed or embarrassed, it’s common that we try to disguise or hide our real needs.

When you ask questions, listen closely to the answers, and repeat back what you think they want, you’re playing a big role in minimizing misunderstandings and lowering the risk of conflict.

It’s like that famous George Bernard Shaw quote: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

4. Practice self-awareness, especially during tough conversations

People with advanced communication skills have a solid grasp on their own emotions. They know how to control them when they’re upset or over-excited, and they don’t let them take over the conversation or cause unnecessary drama.

It’s important to stay level-headed when you’re reacting to something you don’t like. If you feel your heart start to thump, or your face start to get hot, take a break. Try to find some alone time where you can calm yourself down.

Another key part of self-awareness is being able to admit when you’re wrong. It might feel like a huge blow to your ego, but trust me – you’ll likely find that by admitting your mistakes and trying your best to prevent them moving forward, you’ll build respect and integrity in the eyes of your loved ones and colleagues.

5. Don’t be accusatory when raising an issue

Tough situations are bound to happen. Even if you feel like someone did something that was completely wrong, keep your cool when you have the discussion.

If you start the conversation with an accusation that something is their fault, it’s practically an invitation for a fight. Our natural reaction to accusation is to get defensive… and nothing good comes from that conversation.

For example, avoid saying they “always” or “never” do something when it’s only been a few times. Instead, state only the facts, use empathy, and reframe the focus to how you can fix it.

Instead of telling your team member, “You’re always late for meetings,” try something like, “I see on the attendance sheet that you’ve been late two times this week. Is everything okay?”

This opens the door for you to see what might be wrong and how you can help make sure it doesn’t keep happening.

How to Improve Communication Skills: Verbal

• Be brief and clear

Have you ever sat through a coworker’s long and winding story when you have a lot of work to finish? It’s rough. Try to get to the main points quickly so that you’re not that person.

• Don’t be afraid of silence every now and then

It can seem like silence is unbearable, but it’s not always a bad thing. Don’t start blabbering just for the sake of eliminating silence. (It’s hard, but fight the urge.) Your partner and colleagues will thank you when you have a grasp of when it’s okay to be quiet.

• Find a “bridge” if you need to change the subject

Changing the subject tactfully is an art. Try looking for a “bridge” that can connect where the conversation is now and where you want it to be. Use connecting phrases like, “The important thing is…” or “I agree with you, but…” or “Here’s what I do know…”

• Get rid of those “um’s” and “uh’s”

This feels like common sense, but the average person uses fillers way more than they think they do. Try recording yourself in a presentation and listen back for how often you say them. Then moving forward, stay mindful of the fillers and speak more slowly so that you have time to think ahead.

• Plan and practice what you’ll say

Of course, there are a lot of impromptu conversations where you don’t have the opportunity to plan and practice. But when you have the chance, take even 30 seconds to go over your key points. This can work wonders for your communication skills.

How to Improve Communication Skills: Non-verbal

• Make eye contact while someone is talking

This is the number one tip for showing someone that you’re paying attention to what they have to say. Hold firm eye contact, but don’t get creepy. There’s a fine line here.

• Avoid fidgeting or distracting movements

Don’t readjust in your chair seven times. Don’t click your pen open and closed over and over. Don’t shuffle through your papers during a board meeting, or click through your browser tabs during a Zoom call.

• Keep good posture

Another one of those tips that seems obvious, but is surprisingly easy to overlook. When I was working on mastering this non-verbal communication skill, I set an alarm to go off every 30 minutes that said “POSTURE!” Most of the time, I was slouching.

• Don’t cross your arms

Some people think this is a “power pose.” This might be true in some situations, but in others, it makes you look blocked off from the other person. It can give the impression that you can’t wait to get out of there, which isn’t helpful for a good conversation.

• Pay attention to the same cues from others

Non-verbal cues might be unintentional, but they’re often intentional too. If your coworker isn’t making eye contact or constantly fidgeting, ask yourself if it might be a reaction to you telling a story that’s too long or bugging them when they’re busy.

How to Improve Communication Skills: Written

• Never respond to messages when you’re upset

Have you ever sent an email when you’re mad, then later came back to it and thought, “Damn it. Why did I say that?” I’ve been there. If you get a message that upsets you, take a five or ten minute break to cool down before you respond. This can work wonders for your relationships.

• Write descriptive titles and email subject lines

How annoying is it to get an email that says “(no subject)?” Title your emails as succinctly and specifically as possible. Tell them exactly what it contains. Instead of “Meeting,” try a subject line like, “Request to reschedule our 2pm meeting to 3pm.”

• Use active voice

You might remember hearing this tip a lot in school. Instead of saying “The paperwork was filed,” say “I filed the paperwork.” This helps to get rid of any confusion about how things are getting done. In addition to being more clear, active voice is more engaging for your message recipients.

• Keep your words and sentences simple

A general rule is that your sentences shouldn’t be longer than two lines long. Look for opportunities to cut them in half or make them shorter. You should also try to avoid over-complicating your writing with big words that some people might not understand.

• Keep it short and sweet

Similarly to not telling a long and winding story face-to-face, a long and winding email isn’t the most enjoyable experience either. In addition to making others feel like you’re wasting their time, it also boosts the chances that they’ll miss important details because they skimmed over them or flat-out didn’t read them.

How Good Are Your Communication Skills?

As you read through this article, what tips and points stuck out to you as room for improvement? And what did you give yourself a pat on the back for?

Like I mentioned earlier: even if you were born with a natural gift for engaging with other people smoothly and easily, there’s always room for improvement. Strong communication skills grow and evolve just as your personal and professional relationships grow and evolve.

There are plenty of handbooks to help you, but the best communication skills are learned through experience. 

Start with self-awareness – stay in-tune with how you’re communicating now and how that aligns with your communication goals. Then shift into awareness of others – make sure you’re on the same page and you’re reading the right cues.

And remember: if this feels like a big undertaking, there’s no shame in asking for help through a mentor , coach, or class.

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Communication Skills: Performance Review Examples (Rating 1 – 5)

By Status.net Editorial Team on July 26, 2023 — 6 minutes to read

Effective communication is a crucial skill in the workplace: it fosters healthy relationships, clear information exchange, and a positive work environment. Although some employees excel at communication instinctively, others may need guidance in refining their skills. Performance reviews provide an ideal avenue for evaluating and guiding employee communication skills on a regular basis. To assist managers and supervisors during these assessments, this article offers an organized structure of performance review phrases and paragraphs examples with a focus on communication skills.

By following the provided examples and breaking down the various aspects of communication skills, managers and supervisors can ensure that performance reviews are effective and consistent. The aim is to promote growth, constructive feedback, and a better understanding of workplace communication expectations for every employee, thus resulting in a more successful and harmonious work environment.

Questions to determine an employee’s performance review rating for communication skills:

• Does the employee communicate effectively with team members, managers, and clients?
• Does the employee actively listen and provide thoughtful responses?
• Does the employee express ideas and opinions clearly and concisely?
• Does the employee use appropriate tone and language in written and verbal communication?
• Does the employee adapt their communication style to different situations and audiences?

Based on your assessment of the employee’s performance in these areas, you can assign a rating that reflects their communication skills. For example, if the employee consistently communicates effectively, listens actively, and adapts their communication style to different situations, they may receive a high rating. Conversely, if the employee struggles to communicate clearly or appropriately, they may receive a lower rating.

Performance Review Phrases and Paragraphs Examples for Communication Skills

5 – outstanding, phrases examples.

• Exceptional ability to convey complex ideas in a simple and easily understandable manner
• Consistently demonstrates active listening skills and responds appropriately
• Facilitates open and honest discussion, promoting a positive work environment
• Frequently praised for engaging communication style and active listening skills
• Leveraged excellent communication skills to resolve conflicts effectively and efficiently
• Regularly sought out for advice regarding effective communication strategies
• Demonstrated exceptional skill in written and verbal communication across multiple channels

Paragraph Example 1

“John consistently demonstrates outstanding communication skills. His ability to articulate complex concepts in a simple and understandable manner is truly exceptional. He actively listens during conversations and is well-regarded for his engaging communication style. His skills in conflict resolution and providing guidance in effective communication strategies are frequently sought out by his peers. John has shown mastery in communicating across multiple channels, with excellent verbal and written communication.”

Paragraph Example 2

“Jane consistently displays outstanding communication skills. She is able to take complex ideas and present them in a simple, easy to understand manner, allowing her team to effectively grasp new concepts. She actively listens to others, showing genuine interest in their input and responds with thoughtfulness. Her ability to facilitate open and honest discussion fosters a positive and inclusive work environment.”

4 – Exceeds Expectations

• Effectively conveys thoughts and ideas, making sure everyone is on the same page
• Often engages in active listening, providing constructive feedback when necessary
• Promotes a positive work environment by openly communicating with team members
• Continuously expanded communication skills through self-learning and workshops
• Mastered the art of tailoring communication to suit diverse audiences
• Took initiative to lead presentations and meetings with clarity and confidence
• Enhanced team communication by introducing new collaboration tools and techniques
• Created a positive and inclusive environment by communicating effectively with team members

“Jane has exceeded expectations in communication skills. She continually improves her abilities through self-learning and attending workshops. Jane has a strong command of tailoring her communication to suit diverse audiences, routinely leading presentations and meetings with confidence. She was instrumental in enhancing team communication by introducing new collaboration tools and techniques. Jane’s effective communication skills create a positive and inclusive environment that fosters strong team relationships.”

“John exceeds expectations in his communication skills. He effectively shares his thoughts and ideas, ensuring everyone on the team is aligned and informed. John actively listens to his colleagues, offering constructive feedback and support. His open communication style contributes to a positive work environment and strong team dynamics.”

3 – Meets Expectations

• Adequately communicates thoughts and ideas with coworkers
• Typically engages in active listening and responds to feedback
• Contributes to a positive work environment by maintaining open lines of communication
• Consistently communicates information in a clear and concise manner
• Effectively balances active listening and speaking during discussions
• Demonstrates good written and verbal communication skills
• Proactively seeks to improve communication skills through feedback from colleagues
• Successfully adapts communication style to various situations and audiences

“Sam meets expectations in his communication skills. He consistently communicates information clearly and concisely in both written and verbal communication forms. Sam is effective in his ability to balance active listening and speaking during discussions, and he adapts his communication style as needed to diverse situations and audiences. He takes feedback from colleagues seriously and proactively works to improve his communication skills.”

“Susan meets expectations in her communication skills. She adequately conveys her thoughts and ideas to coworkers, and generally engages in active listening, responding to feedback when necessary. Susan keeps open lines of communication with her team members and contributes to a positive work environment.”

2 – Needs Improvement

• Struggles to clearly convey thoughts and ideas to coworkers
• Has difficulty engaging in active listening and responding appropriately to feedback
• Could improve upon fostering a positive work environment through better communication
• Struggles to clearly articulate thoughts and ideas
• Difficulty in adapting communication style to different audiences
• Limited development of written communication skills
• Inconsistent in providing timely responses to messages and inquiries
• Needs to improve active listening skills during meetings and discussions

“James requires improvement in his communication skills. His ability to articulate thoughts and ideas is not clear, and he has difficulty adapting his communication style to different audiences. James should focus on improving his written communication skills and ensuring that he is consistent in providing timely responses to messages and inquiries. Additionally, it is vital for James to enhance his active listening skills during meetings and discussions.”

“Tom’s communication skills need improvement. He often struggles to clearly express his thoughts and ideas to his coworkers, leading to confusion and misunderstandings. When engaged in conversation, Tom has difficulty actively listening and responding appropriately to feedback. An improvement in Tom’s communication would help foster a more positive work environment.”

1 – Unacceptable

• Consistent failure to convey information accurately and effectively
• Unable to adapt communication style to suit the audience or the situation
• Ignored or dismissed valuable feedback from colleagues regarding communication issues
• Disrespectful and unprofessional communication with peers and supervisors
• Habitual absence or disengagement during team meetings and discussions
• Frequently fails to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas.
• Does not engage in active listening or provide appropriate responses to feedback.
• Negatively impacts the work environment through a lack of effective communication.

“Lucy’s communication skills are currently unacceptable. She frequently fails to effectively articulate her thoughts and ideas, causing disconnects within the team. Lucy does not engage in active listening and often provides inappropriate responses to feedback. Her lack of communication has a negative impact on the work environment, and it’s crucial for her to address this issue.”

“Sara’s communication skills are unacceptable. She consistently fails to accurately and effectively convey information, and she is unable to adapt her communication style to suit various audiences or situations. Sara has also dismissed valuable feedback from her colleagues regarding communication issues. She exhibits disrespectful and unprofessional communication with peers and supervisors. It is crucial that Sara takes immediate steps to improve her communication skills, including addressing her habitual absence and disengagement in team meetings and discussions.”

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8 Essential Leadership Communication Skills

• 14 Nov 2019

If you want to be an effective leader , you need to excel in communication. In fact, the success of your business relies on it.

According to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) , poor communication can lead to low morale, missed performance goals, and even lost sales. A separate study found that inadequate communication can cost large companies an average of $64.2 million per year, while smaller organizations are at risk of losing $420,000 annually.

But effective communication impacts more than just the bottom line. For leaders, it’s what enables them to rally their team around a shared vision, empower employees , build trust, and successfully navigate organizational change .

Why Is Communication Important in Leadership?

A leader is someone who inspires positive, incremental change by empowering those around them to work toward common objectives. A leader’s most powerful tool for doing so is communication.

Effective communication is vital to gain trust, align efforts in the pursuit of goals, and inspire positive change. When communication is lacking, important information can be misinterpreted, causing relationships to suffer and, ultimately, creating barriers that hinder progress.

If you’re interested in enhancing your leadership capabilities, here are eight communication skills you need to be more effective in your role.

Essential Communication Skills for Leaders

1. ability to adapt your communication style.

Different communication styles are the most frequently cited cause of poor communication, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) , and can lead to more significant issues, such as unclear priorities and increased stress.

It’s essential to identify your leadership style , so that you can better understand how you’re interacting with, and perceived by, employees across the organization. For example, if you’re an authoritative leader , you likely have a clear vision for achieving success and align your team accordingly. While an effective approach for some, it might fall flat for others who seek more autonomy in their role.

Every employee’s motivations are different, so knowing how to tailor your communication is essential to influencing others and reaching organizational goals.

Related: 4 Tips for Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

2. Active Listening

Effective leaders know when they need to talk and, more importantly, when they need to listen. Show that you care by asking for employees’ opinions, ideas, and feedback. And when they do share, actively engage in the conversation—pose questions, invite them to elaborate, and take notes.

It’s important to stay in the moment and avoid interrupting. Keep your focus on the employee and what it is they’re saying. To achieve that, you also need to eliminate any distractions, including constant pings on your cell phone or checking incoming emails.

3. Transparency

In a survey by the American Management Association , more than a third of senior managers, executives, and employees said they “hardly ever” know what’s going on in their organizations. Transparency can go a long way in breaking down that communication barrier.

By speaking openly about the company’s goals, opportunities, and challenges, leaders can build trust amongst their team and foster an environment where employees feel empowered to share their ideas and collaborate. Just acknowledging mistakes can encourage experimentation and create a safe space for active problem-solving.

Every individual should understand the role they play in the company’s success. The more transparent leaders are, the easier it is for employees to make that connection.

When communicating with employees, speak in specifics. Define the desired result of a project or strategic initiative and be clear about what you want to see achieved by the end of each milestone. If goals aren’t being met, try simplifying your message further or ask how you can provide additional clarity or help.

The more clear you are, the less confusion there will be around priorities. Employees will know what they’re working toward and feel more engaged in the process.

5. Ability to Ask Open-Ended Questions

If you want to understand employees’ motivations, thoughts, and goals better, practice asking open-ended questions. Jennifer Currence, president of consulting firm The Currence Group, said to the Society of Human Resource Management to use the acronym TED, which stands for:

• “ T ell me more.”
• “ E xplain what you mean.”
• “ D efine that term or concept for me.”

By leveraging those phrases when speaking with your team, you can elicit more thoughtful, thorough responses and ensure you also have clarity around what they need from you to succeed.

There’s a reason empathy has been ranked the top leadership skill needed for success . The better you get at acknowledging and understanding employees’ feelings and experiences, the more heard and valued they’ll feel.

In a recent survey (pdf) , 96 percent of respondents said it was important for their employers to demonstrate empathy, yet 92 percent claimed it remains undervalued. If you want to improve your communication and build a stronger, more productive culture, practice responding with empathy.

Related: Emotional Intelligence Skills: What They Are & How to Develop Them

7. Open Body Language

Communication isn’t just what you say; it’s how you carry yourself. Ninety-three percent of communication’s impact comes from nonverbal cues, according to executive coach Darlene Price .

To ensure you’re conveying the right message, focus on your body language. If you’re trying to inspire someone, talking with clenched fists and a furrowed brow isn’t going to send the right message. Instead, make eye contact to establish interest and rapport and flash a genuine smile to convey warmth and trust.

8. Receiving and Implementing Feedback

Asking for feedback from your team can not only help you grow as a leader, but build trust among your colleagues. It’s critical, though, that you don’t just listen to the feedback. You also need to act on it.

If you continue to receive feedback from your team, but don’t implement any changes, they’re going to lose faith in your ability to follow through. It’s likely there will be comments you can’t immediately act on—be transparent about that. By letting your employees know they were heard and then apprising them of any progress you can, or do, make, they’ll feel as though you value their perspective and are serious about improving.

Related: How to Give Feedback Effectively

Improving Your Leadership Communication

Communication is at the core of effective leadership. If you want to influence and inspire your team, you need to practice empathy and transparency, and understand how others perceive you, through your verbal and non-verbal cues.

To improve your communication skills and become a better leader, begin by assessing your effectiveness so you can identify areas for improvement. Then, set goals and hold yourself accountable by creating a leadership development plan to guide and track your progress.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our online course Leadership Principles to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

(This post was updated on June 16, 2020. It was originally published on November 14, 2019.)

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Educational Interventions for Nursing Students to Develop Communication Skills with Patients: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Nursing students establish therapeutic relationships with their patients and as future nursing professionals, they should be trained to be effective communicators. The objective of this systematic review was to know the impact of educational interventions on nursing students to develop their communication skills with patients. Methods: A systematic review of literature was carried out. The following databases were consulted: CINAHL, PubMed (Ovid Medline), SCOPUS and Web of Science. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guided this review. As for inclusion criteria, published articles in English from 2000 to 2020 were included. The methodological rigor of the included articles was evaluated with the JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Randomized Controlled Trial or Quasi-Experimental Studies. Changes in communication skills with the patient after the implementation of an intervention were analyzed. Results: Of the included studies in this systematic review (N = 19), two studies were randomized controlled trials, others were single group quasi-experimental studies (N = 11) and two group quasi-experimental studies (n = 6). The majority of the studies were carried out in the USA (n = 7). The most frequent educational intervention was simulation (n = 11). As for the improvement of communication skills, 13 of the 19 articles found statistically significant differences in patient-centered communication skills of nursing students. Conclusions: This systematic review provides preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of interventions used to train nursing students in patient-centered communication. Although all the interventions obtained significant results in communication skills, it has not yet been determined which methodology is more effective.

1. Introduction

Therapeutic communication (TC) is defined as the process of using verbal and nonverbal communication to connect with patients [ 1 ]. TC is holistic, patient-centered and involves aspects of the physiological, psychological, environmental and spiritual care of the patient [ 2 ]. It is based on understanding and addressing the patient’s situation, including life circumstances, beliefs, perspectives, relevant concerns and needs in order to plan adequate patient care [ 3 , 4 ]. TC between the nurse and patient is considered one of the most significant clinical methods of communication and the basis of nursing care [ 5 ].

The TC that nurses establish with their patients has been explored in various clinical areas. In particular, with psychiatric patients, it has shown improved health outcomes and decreased clinical anxiety and depression [ 6 ]. In the case of chronically ill patients, it has contributed to an increase in adherence to treatment [ 7 ], and therefore, an improvement in the self-management of their disease [ 8 ]. Additionally, in palliative care, communication skills are essential to provide the patient with effective symptom management, psychosocial and spiritual support and advance care planning [ 9 ].

A nurse’s ability to communicate in an effective way is essential for developing therapeutic relationships with their patients and obtain greater patient satisfaction. It also minimizes treatment errors and improves the quality of nursing care [ 10 , 11 ]. Patients and their caregivers positively value professionals who attentively listen, the depth of conversation, the moment of delivering information and communicating in an empathetic way [ 12 ]. However, various studies have shown that nurses lack communication skills due to inadequate training or a failure to appreciate the importance of patient-centered communication [ 7 , 13 ]. For this reason, nursing professors must find active and effective ways to foster communication skills in the education of nursing students [ 14 ].

Teaching and training how to effectively communicate can be complicated due to the variety of potentially difficult conversations that nursing students may face in clinical settings [ 15 ]. This situation constitutes a challenge for university professors in charge of educating nursing students [ 15 , 16 ]. Nursing students establish therapeutic relationships with their patients, and as future nursing professionals, they should be trained to be effective communicators [ 17 ]. Therefore, the concept of TC should be emphasized in the nursing curriculum to meet the educational needs of the students, as well as the needs of the patients [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. However, most interventions aimed at improving patient-centered communication have been for doctors [ 21 , 22 ]. Given the above, the question was posed as to whether nursing students that receive educational interventions could improve their communication skills with patients. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review was to know the impact of educational interventions on nursing students to develop their communication skills with patients.

2.1. Search Strategy

A systematic review was carried out from September 2019 to January 2020. For this purpose, a critical evaluation of all related evidence was conducted, following a widely documented methodology, in order to answer the specific research question [ 23 ]. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist was used as a guide for the search and presentation of the results [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ].

An initial search was conducted to obtain information on the breadth of publications and identify the words contained in the titles and abstracts on Google Scholar. A search was then made in the PubMed database (see Box 1 ) through the US National Library of Medicine in order to identify the Medical Subjects Headings (MeSH). However, the term MeSH ‘therapeutic communication’ and similar terms found were not linked to any educational subgroup in the search tree. Subsequently, a systematic search was performed using all the keywords identified in the following databases: CINAHL, PubMed (Ovid Medline), SCOPUS and Web of Science.

Example of search strategy conducted in PubMed.

(((((((("students, nursing"[MeSH Terms] AND prelicensure[Title/Abstract]) OR undergraduate[Title/Abstract]) AND intervention[Title/Abstract]) OR effectiveness[Title/Abstract]) AND therapeutic communication[Title/Abstract]) OR nurse-patient communication[Title/Abstract]) OR patient-centered communication[Title/Abstract]) OR interpersonal communication[Title/Abstract]) AND English[Language]

A systematic strategy was used derived from the terms ‘nursing students’ (population); ‘education’ or ‘teaching’ and ‘therapeutic communication’ (intervention); ‘undergraduate’ or ‘prelicensure’ or ‘university’ (context); and ‘effectiveness’ or ‘impact’ (outcome). Finally, manual searches were conducted in the references lists of recent studies and reviews in search of eligible articles that could have been previously lost.

As for inclusion criteria, the review included quantitative studies whose design were Randomized Clinical Trials (RCT) and quasi-experimental trials published in English from January 2000 to January 2020. Regarding the participants, studies were included with participants that were undergraduate (or pre-licensure) nursing students, regardless of their age, sex or country of origin. With respect to the types of intervention, the review included studies of TC training or patient-centered training. In regards to the types of measured results, the review considered any objectively measured or self-reported quantitative data reporting on therapeutic communication outcomes.

2.2. Data extraction

A total of 5,845 articles were identified in the initial search. All citations and abstracts identified in the search strategy were downloaded to Mendeley. The first author (LG) assessed the titles of the articles obtained from the search in the databases. The search yielded 612 articles after eliminating duplicates (see the systematic review flow diagram in Figure 1 ). The abstracts were reviewed and studies were excluded if: (a) the intervention was not aimed at TC or patient-centered; (b) if the intervention was not aimed at nursing students; (c) articles that were systematic reviews, meta-analysis, qualitative studies, case studies, doctoral thesis or conference abstracts; (d) articles not written in English. Of the 86 abstracts reviewed, 27 articles were selected by the first author for revision of the full text. From the manual search, 10 relevant articles were identified for inclusion in the review. Both reviewers independently analyzed the 27 articles taking the preestablished criteria into account.

Systematic review flow diagram.

Data from the included articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers (LG and VM), using the JBI-MAStARI data extraction tool. The reviewers extracted information from each of the articles including data on design, theoretical framework, participants, intervention, outcome measures and results. The most relevant characteristics of the studies included in the review are summarized in Table 1 . Due to variations in the intervention methods and outcome measures, it was not possible to carry out a meta-analysis.

Main characteristics of the selected studies.

IG, Intervention Group; CG, Control Group; SP, Standardized Patient; CST, Communication Skills Training; IPCS, Interpersonal Communication Skills; SPEs, Standardized Patient Experiences; SPS, Standardized Patient Simulation.

2.3. Quality appraisal

The selected articles were independently evaluated by two reviewers (GA and VG), before being included in this review. The methodological validity was evaluated using the Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument standardized critical appraisal instrument (JBI MAStARI). For the RCTs, the JBI MAStARI for RCTs was used. This checklist is made up of thirteen items. The possible answers to the items are yes, no, unclear or not applicable. If “yes” is answered, a point is obtained. For the study to be included, it had to obtain a score equal to or greater than seven. In the quasi-experimental studies, JBI MASTARI for quasi-experimental studies was used. This checklist is made up of nine items that can be rated yes, no, unclear or not applicable. If “yes” is chosen for the item, a point is obtained. For the study to be included in the systematic review, it had to obtain a score equal to or greater than five. This process enabled an increase in methodological rigor and evaluated possible biases and threats to the validity [ 25 ]. The discrepancies between the reviewers of the articles that were to be included in the review were discussed until a consensus was reached. After review, evaluation and discussion, eight articles were excluded that were not based on TC interventions, as defined in the inclusion criteria, or for methodological reasons. Finally, 19 articles were included after confirmation by both reviewers.

3.1. Characteristics of the study

The overall sample size of the studies included in this review was N = 1,295 participants. In the included studies, there was a great deal of variation in the sample size, ranging from 26 to 147 (median, n = 62). Although the literature search was conducted from the year 2000, the first study included in this review was from 2006. Ninety percent of the studies (n = 18) were carried out in the last ten years and more than fifty percent (n = 10) were conducted in the last five years. Most studies (n = 9) were in mental health. The other areas represented were end-of-life and maternity. As for the study designs, the majority were quasi-experimental studies (n = 17) followed by RCTs (n = 2). In all of the included studies, pre-test and post-test measurements were performed (N = 19) ( Table 1 ).

3.2. Theoretical frameworks

Only two of the 19 studies included in this systematic review included a description of a theoretical framework. Donova and Mullen [ 26 ] used the Constructivist Learning Theory by Merriam, Cafferella and Baumgartner [ 27 ]. While Shorey et al. [ 28 ] used a combination of the two frameworks (a) the Self-Efficacy Theory [ 29 ]; and (b) the Authentic Learning Concept [ 30 ].

3.3. Intervention characteristics

Eleven studies used simulation as the intervention. The majority of them (n = 8) used SP to facilitate learning [ 26 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ] and three studies used simulation to aid in the assessment of communication skills, performed by a faculty member [ 38 ], peer [ 39 ], or both [ 40 ]. Nine were carried out through simulation using Standardized Patients (SP) [ 26 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 40 ]. One study used simulation through role playing [ 39 ] and with high-fidelity patient (n = 1) [ 34 ]. Three studies used innovative educational methodologies, such as a blended learning environment [ 28 ], cooperative learning methods [ 41 ], and Case-Based learning [ 42 ]. Five studies focused their intervention on the development of courses [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], and four of the courses indicated the included activities.

Regarding the contexts of the interventions, nine studies focused on mental health [ 26 , 31 , 33 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], three studies on end-of-life [ 32 , 43 , 47 ], one focused on maternity [ 34 ], and six studies focused on general patient-centered communication skills [ 28 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. As for the duration of the interventions, it varied from one hour to one semester ( Table 2 ).

Intervention characteristics.

IG, Intervention Group; CG, Control Group; SP, Standardized Patient; CKT, Communication Knowledge Test; SSPE, Student Self-Evaluation of Standardized Patient Encounter; SPIR, Standardized Patient Interpersonal Ratings; CST, Communication Skills Training; CCT, Clinical Competence Tool; CEQ, Course Experience Questionnarie; PIMC, Perceived Importance of Medical Communication; CSAS, Communication Skill Attitude Scale; CES, Caring Self-Efficacy Scale; DAS, Death Anxiety Scale; CAT, Communication Assessment Tool; CAS, Communication Ability Scale; CIS, Clinical Interaction Scale; IDC, Interpersonal Dysfunction Checklist; C-SPSI-R, Social Problem Solving Inventory Revised; IPCS, Interpersonal Communication Skills; SLS, Student Learning Satisfaction; SPEs, Standardized Patient Experiences; CBL, Case-Based Learning; PSI, Problem-Solving Inventory; IMMS, Instructional Materials Motivation Scale; ICAS, Interpersonal Communication Assessment Scale; BLSS, Blended Learning Satisfaction Scale; C-NSSES, Communication Skills subscale of the Nursing Students Self-Efficacy Scale; CSI, Communicational Skills Inventory; STAI, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.

3.4. Outcome measures

The included studies reported 19 different instruments of patient-centered communication. Most of the studies provided data on the reliability and validity of the instruments, either in previous studies or calculated for the study they carried out. However, several authors designed the instruments themselves to evaluate interpersonal communication. For six instruments, no validity data was provided [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 36 , 38 , 39 ].

3.5. Intervention impact on outcomes

Of the articles included in the review, thirteen determined a statistically significant improvement in the results. More than fifty percent (n = 11) of the studies used simulation as part of the training of patient-centered communication skills. Several studies that used simulation found no statistically significant differences between the groups [ 33 , 35 , 37 ]. However, they did determine an improvement in the patient-centered communication skills of the intervention group (IG) with respect to the control group (CG) [ 33 , 35 , 37 ] (see Table 3 ).

Main results and conclusions.

SP, Standardized Patient; SLS, Student Learning Satisfaction; CIS, Clinical Interaction Scale; IPCS, Interpersonal Communication Skills; SPSI-R, Social Problem Solving Inventory Revised; SPEs, Standardized Patient Experiences; BLSS, Blended Learning Satisfaction Scale; CSAS, Communication Skill Attitude; C-NSSES, Communication Skills subscale of the Nursing Students Self-Efficacy Scale; SPS, Standardized Patient Simulation; CSI, Communicational Skills Inventory; STAI, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

3.6. Quality assessment

Based on JBI criteria for the effectiveness of experimental designs, the two RCTs included were evaluated at level 1C (See Table 1 ). The quasi-experimental studies (n = 6) with two groups reported a level of evidence of 2C and the experimental studies with a single group (n = 11) reported evidence at level 2D for effectiveness, according to the criteria of evidence levels of JBI [ 25 ] ( Table 4 and Table 5 ).

Results of critical appraisal for quasi-experimental studies.

Results of critical appraisal for Randomized Controlled Trials.

4. Discussion

This systematic review provides an overview of the research carried out on nursing students in order to develop communication skills with the patient. The objective of this systematic review was to identify, critically evaluate and synthesize the evidence of the impact of educational interventions on nursing students to develop their communication skills with patients. Despite the various educational pedagogies used to develop communication skills with the patient. All research agrees on the importance of developing interventions to improve communication skills with the patient in nursing students. From the main findings, it can be indicated that the majority of the analyzed studies used simulation as the methodology for communication skills training, obtaining statistically significant results. Regarding the countries in which they have carried out the studies, it is worth noting that the majority have been carried out in the USA, these data coincide with those reported in previous research on the analysis of scientific communication publications [ 48 , 49 ]. Regarding theoretical and conceptual frameworks to guide the intervention studies, only two studies used theoretical frameworks to guide the intervention [ 26 , 28 ]. However, the theoretical and conceptual frameworks are essential to develop experimental studies allowing the variables and the relationship between them to be established, described in previous studies. The conceptual frameworks provide information about the subjects, the way of collecting and statistical analysis of the data, making it possible to guide the interventions in the experimental studies and helping the interpretation of the data [ 50 ].

However, measuring patient-centered communication can be difficult due to the numerous definitions that exist to refer to this type of communication such as TC, nurse–patient communication or interpersonal communication. In addition, there are numerous aspects of communication with the patient that must be considered, as reflected in, for example, the conceptual framework of interpersonal relationships [ 2 ]. The instruments used must prove to be valid and reliable. However, only fourteen of the articles reviewed provided data on the validity and reliability of the tool [ 26 , 28 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. These issues suggest that researchers should consider the relevance of instruments to assess patient-centered communication before using them. In addition to considering the validity and reliability of the instruments, if they were developed in previous studies, psychometric tests should be performed for the study population. In the case that these instruments were developed by the researchers of the study, they should report the psychometric properties of them. On the other hand, previous studies have indicated the need to develop and validate instruments to assess patient-centered communication skills of nursing students [ 51 , 52 ]. The development of validated instruments to assess communication skills with patients would allow evaluating the impact of the interventions developed on nursing students and determining which interventions are more effective.

Regarding interventions to improve patient-centered communication skills of nursing students, it was observed that the majority focused on simulation, using SP (e.g., [ 26 , 32 , 33 ]), role-playing [ 39 ] or high-fidelity patient [ 34 ], to either facilitate learning or evaluate communication skills. Previous studies indicate the importance of incorporating simulation in communication skills training. In particular, simulation provides realistic scenarios that allow nursing students to practice and evaluate TC with patients, without putting real patients at risk [ 53 ]. In addition, various studies indicate that the simulation with SP offers nursing students the opportunity to practice TC before clinical practices, being able to improve communication with the patient in the clinical setting [ 54 , 55 ]. Simulation using SP can be effective in teaching patient-centered clinical skills [ 53 , 56 ]. On the other hand, previous studies have shown the training of individuals to treat patients in realistic situations provides an opportunity to improve the competencies of nursing students through human interaction and feedback [ 57 , 58 ]. In this review, all of the studies that implemented simulation conducted feedback with the nursing students. The process of providing feedback during or after the simulation sessions allowed them to address their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve their performance [ 57 , 58 ]. In conclusion, previous research indicates that the implementation of simulation in clinical skills training programs could be useful to improve nurses’ communication skills and the ability to interact with patients [ 6 , 52 ]. In relation to the application of innovative educational pedagogies, various studies have indicated the need to implement new active learning pedagogies that involve students in their training in order to improve their clinical skills [ 59 , 60 ]. Regarding the use of courses as an intervention to improve communication skills with the patient, they have been shown to be effective in some of the included studies. However, the development of courses based on master classes is not recommended as the only educational resource in the training of nursing students and should be combined with other educational pedagogies [ 61 ]. In short, previous studies indicate that the new generation of students prefer self-directed, immediate, exciting and immersive experiences [ 62 ]. They encourage nurse educators to superimpose the dissonances between traditional teaching and generational learning needs, based on active learning, simulations, reflective learning and educational games [ 63 , 64 ]. Hence, most studies are based on simulation or innovative pedagogies, to encourage student participation in the acquisition of skills.

Following the analysis of the included articles, the contexts were mainly based on mental health [ 26 , 31 , 33 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], end-of-life [ 32 , 43 , 47 ] and maternity [ 34 ]. Six studies focused on general patient-centered communication skills [ 28 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Previous studies have indicated that interventions to teach nurse-patient communication skills target the most challenging clinical interactions [ 52 ]. These data are consistent with the studies included in this review. In particular, previous studies indicate that nursing students feel challenged and anxious when they have to talk and interact with mental health patients [ 65 , 66 ]; hence, it is one of the most predominant clinical areas in this review. In addition a review indicated that further studies are needed to improve the available evidence on the clinical practice of nursing students with mental health patients [ 67 ]. However, the communication skills involved in everyday conversation with patients are equally important, especially given the perception that nurses lack the time to communicate with patients [ 68 ] or with chronically ill patients [ 7 , 8 ], and this was not addressed in the nursing students. Regarding the year that the nursing students were enrolled in, statistically significant improvements were observed in both the students enrolled in their first year [ 28 , 32 , 34 , 35 , 42 ] and those in their last year of the nursing degree [ 33 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. In addition, several studies indicate that communication skills training should be incorporated into the nursing degree curriculum every year. Therefore, the students learn and practice various communication skills before beginning their clinical practices in different clinical areas [ 15 , 68 ].

In this systematic review, in which 19 quantitative studies on patient-centered communication interventions in nursing students were reviewed, half of them were found, specifically thirteen [ 26 , 28 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], to be effective in improving patient-centered communication skills. The differences between the obtained results may be due to the study design, as there was a lot of variability in the designs, sampling, teaching interventions, duration and sample size. In addition, several studies indicated improvements in patient-centered communication skills, although the results were not statistically significant in some of them (e.g., [ 33 , 35 , 37 ]). On the other hand, only one study evaluated the long-term impact of intervention on nursing students, finding statistically significant differences [ 38 ]. It would be necessary for future studies to evaluate the long-term impact of the interventions in order to improve their communication skills with patients and to determine the effectiveness over time.

A longitudinal study design is recommended to assess the stability and long-term influence of the improvements in communication skills observed in this study. Specifically, observational studies are needed to assess student performance in clinical areas.

Strengths and limitations

This review includes the following limitations. First, articles that were not in English were excluded, which may constitute a bias by not considering other languages. Most of the included studies used self-report measures to identify the results and few studies used more objective measures. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of the intervention methods and measurements of the studies’ results prevented a synthesis of results through meta-analysis. The studies need more evidence to address the possibility of bias due to the use of self-report measures and other potential forms of bias [ 69 ]. For example, the inclusion of quasi-experimental studies without randomization presents a selection bias. This aspect tends to overestimate the effects of intervention, even though a rigorous methodology and relevant data are presented. The studies of a single group that evaluate the impact of intervention, based on differences between pre-test and post-test measures, can interfere with internal validity by not being compared with students of the same cohort who were not exposed to the intervention. The studies where training was carried out over a period of time can lead to biases, as it is not possible to prove whether changes were due to the intervention or other academic activities. Another risk of bias in the studies is that the instructors who performed the interventions were not blinded due to the nature of the educational intervention studies. On the other hand, it is also important to consider that almost 50% of the studies were carried out within the context of mental health, as communication is a key element of the nurse-patient relationship in this area. However, it would be interesting in future research to be able to deepen the analysis of communication skills learning within the nursing curriculum and the subjects or areas in which it is involved.

This systematic review had some strengths. First, a broad search was performed using MeSH terms and keywords that addressed the communication of nursing students with the patient; and this search was performed in multiple databases. Despite this, research methods have been systematically applied in this review following the guidelines established for systematic review. In addition, a two-person review of what studies to include and the assessment of their quality increased the rigor of the findings. Therefore, the results obtained expand and update what was known thus far about patient-centered communication interventions for nursing students.

More research is needed to develop instruments that evaluate all aspects that interfere with patient-centered communication in order to improve patient-centered communication skills of nursing students through more effective educational strategies, guided by theoretical frameworks, in a more consistent way. In addition, studies should be carried out that report the perspective of the patient in regards to communication established with the nursing students.

5. Conclusions

This systematic review provides preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of interventions used to train nursing students in patient-centered communication. Although all the interventions obtained significant results in communication skills, it has not yet been determined which methodology is more effective. The majority of the analyzed studies used simulation as the methodology for communication skills training, obtaining statistically significant results. This methodology could be combined with other educational strategies that have indicated improved communication of nursing students with their patients.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, L.G.-P. and V.V.M.-H.; Methodology, L.G.-P., V.V.M.-H., V.G.-P., G.A.-M.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, L.G.-P., V.V.M.-H., and G.A.-M.; Writing—Review & Editing, V.G.-P. and G.G.-G.; Supervision: L.G.-P., V.V.M.-H.,V.G.-P., G.G.-G., G.A.-M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.