career advice Archives -

5 Key Communication Skills for Career Success

In a digital world, traditional communication skills are in high demand

While generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others are becoming increasingly prevalent in workplaces of all kinds, employees are finding that soft skills like communication are becoming more important and more valued than ever.

It’s not just new employees who are looking for help developing these skills; seasoned workers are as well. I’m frequently asked by audiences of all ages and types what I believe are the top communication skills that can position people for success.

Here are my top five. They’re not newly important. They’re evergreen. Master them and you’ll position yourself for success in whatever field you’re in.

Top 5 Communication Skills

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My Favorite Question to Ask When Hiring Marketing Professionals

Throughout my career I have hired a number of people into marketing roles, and have also aided other companies and organizations in finding, interviewing, hiring and onboarding marketing staff. It can be challenging to effectively assess job candidates for any role—when hiring for creative roles it can be even more challenging. How can you determine whether applicants have both the aptitude and the innovative chops to be a valued member of your team?

Continue reading “My Favorite Question to Ask When Hiring Marketing Professionals”

Holiday Small Talk: Explaining What You Do For a Living

The holidays are a great time to see family and friends you may not have seen or spoken to in some time. And when conversations with people you don’t see regular networking, business networking, effective networking, business development, developing new business ly gets stale, the quest for common ground may lead you to a variation of this common fallback: “How’s work?” or “what do you do for work again?”

For entrepreneurs, who have often been greeted with blank stares in response to that question, the answer can be tricky. Continue reading “Holiday Small Talk: Explaining What You Do For a Living”

Best Business Books for Young Professionals

Bookshelves-small Last semester, I taught three sections of a strategic management course at a local university. The students were all seniors, near graduation, and many had already landed a job and were ready to enter the business world full time. I thought it might be helpful to share some recommendations for great business books that might help them as they entered the business world, recognizing, of course, that few students in college have much time for leisurely reading outside of their required coursework.

And, while many seemed bored and disinterested as I shared my recommendations (no real surprise there, I suppose), I persisted. Interestingly enough, by the end of the semester — and even after — a number of them contacted me to ask if I could send them the list of books I’d recommended. Continue reading “Best Business Books for Young Professionals”

Building Your Personal Brand

For many people, recognizing that they have a “personal brand” may be a foreign concept. After all, products have brands, right? Yes, that’s true but so do you! And, if you’re a business professional, you should realize that your services, whether as an entrepreneur, or an employee, are not commodities. To set yourself apart from your competition, it’s crucial to develop and promote your own, unique, personal brand. So how do you do it? We’ve covered the topic of personal branding in the past, but it’s one that’s certainly worth revisiting. Continue reading “Building Your Personal Brand”

Graduates: Have You Perfected Your Elevator Pitch?

It’s graduation time, and many are thinking about landing their first job. Even those entrenched in a career may be prompted by graduation season to think about their career paths and whether it’s time to consider a job switch.

We responded recently to a reporter’s query about creating “elevator pitches.” It’s an important concept for graduates, for those 30 years into their careers, and for any company or organization that has a key message to convey to a target audience. Continue reading “Graduates: Have You Perfected Your Elevator Pitch?”

The 3 Most Powerful Words to Boost Your Career

Humility is a powerful thing, but it’s rarely seen in action. This may be because, in order to rise to the top, leaders need to have a strong ego and self-confidence. They must be willing to take risks and move forward, even in the face of significant adversity. Too often, though, leaders may be unwilling to admit when they’re wrong. After all, admitting that they’re fallible may seem, on the surface, as an admission of weakness.

However, the opposite is true. Continue reading “The 3 Most Powerful Words to Boost Your Career”

Selling Yourself, or Your Services, on LinkedIn

Social media – and particularly LinkedIn – has emerged as THE new method of job search, providing significant benefits to both job seekers and recruiters. I’ve been a long-time LinkedIn proponent and use it extensively for my own professional communication needs. I also highly recommend it to the students I work with each semester as the “go to” resource for job search–whether looking for internships, freelance opportunities or full-time jobs.

In fact, at the beginning of each semester in one of my classes I like to use it as an introduction to “selling something” — in this case themselves. And, truthfully, the steps and process for selling yourself or your business services via LinkedIn are absolutely the same as best practice marketing for any product or service. Continue reading “Selling Yourself, or Your Services, on LinkedIn”