Five ways to improve your communication
Being a great communicator is more than the ability to write good copy. And being a great communicator isn’t limited to people working in strategic communications, public relations, or marketing - everyone has the ability to communicate effectively.
So if you’ve got a learning mindset and want some tips to help you improve your communication, whether you work in comms or not, we’ve got you covered. Here are five ways you can improve your communication skills.
1. Use clear language, avoid jargon
Jargon is words or phrases that are unique to a particular industry, company, or even culture that are not easily understood by anyone else. For example, in the insurance industry, jargon includes words like ‘general liability’, ‘deductible’, ‘COPE’, and more. If you weren’t familiar with the industry, words like these would make no sense.
As communicators, our role is to make sure our audiences understand the message we’re sending. If we use jargon, there’s a good chance they won’t understand it. So avoid using these terms, and instead focus on being clear. We call this ‘the BBQ chat’ - how would you explain something to a person you’ve just met at a BBQ who has no idea about the subject? This should help you express your message in a way that is easily understood by more people.
2. Personalise your communication
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to communication. To make sure your communication cuts through the noise, you need to personalise for different audience groups. That means tailoring your messaging, channels, and even formatting to the needs of your audience.
There are three big ‘buckets’ of personalisation that we teach at HMC:
Communication personality type - this is about whether a person is more of a strategic or detailed thinker; more introverted or extraverted; and more of a visual or auditory learner. If you’re not sure, take our quick quiz here.
Diversity, inclusion, and accessibility - we need to ensure people with additional requirements can receive our message easily; and understand our audiences are made up of people who speak different languages, come from different cultural backgrounds and different identities..
Curiosity and empathy - we need to consider people’s contexts, experiences, and the environments they’re working and living in, because these also influence how they respond to certain messages and voices.
3. Use engaging visual content
About 65 per cent of people are primarily visual learners, so it makes sense that we should be using more visual ways of communicating, like video, infographics, animations, and sketchnotes.
But these only work if they’re engaging! A video of an executive talking at a camera for three minutes is not engaging - it’s just a talking head. Instead, think about using techniques like showing imagery or animations while a person is talking; using several different people in the one video (which is great for reflecting the diverse voices in your audience); and keep it short!
If you’re using visuals like charts and infographics, make sure they’re easily understood by keeping them simple. One image should tell one story - don’t try and squeeze in too many key points.
4. Keep your comms accessible
According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 6 people worldwide live with a significant disability. Then you’ve got those with less significant disabilities, alongside those with temporary disability - for example, temporary loss of mobility or hearing.
When you consider those stats, it makes sense that your communication should be more accessible then not. Also, from a digital comms perspective, incorporating good accessibility principles improves your search engine optimisation.
To make sure your communication is accessible, consider elements like:
Always having captions on videos, and providing transcripts
Ensuring people with mobility issues can easily access the venue for events like town halls and meetings
Having sign language interpreters for live events
Allowing people who are vision impaired to be closer to the stage or screen
Using alt text and image descriptions for social media content and website images.
For more tips, check out this podcast episode with Kelly Thibodeau, and this blog article.
5. Connect the dots
Your communication should always be relevant to your audience. If people can’t see the relevance, they’ll tune out or ignore your message completely.
So to ensure it’s effective, let people know upfront why they’re receiving a message. When it comes to the content of your communication, weed out the parts that aren’t relevant - it’ll help drive understanding and action, and keep your comms shorter.
Also, research tells us that people’s performance improves dramatically when they are able to see a line of sight between what they do every day, and the organisation’s purpose and strategic goals. So when communicating to team members - particularly about a new project or initiative - make sure you’re helping people understand how the subject connects to the bigger picture. This also tells people that what you’re asking people to do or understand isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ - it’s critically important, and well thought out, which gives you credibility.
