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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Without a Plan Your Internal Communication Efforts May Be Falling Flat

I gave a presentation on employee communications recently to a group of about 80 HR people representing about 60 different organizations. I asked the group, through a show of hands, to indicate how many had an internal communication plan. None. Wow. Conversely, a majority of the group had Continue reading “Without a Plan Your Internal Communication Efforts May Be Falling Flat”

Creating a Plan to Improve Corporate Communications

Effective corporate communication has always been important. Now, though, in a hybrid and continuing uncertain corporate environment, it’s more important than ever for organizations to determine how effective their corporate communications efforts are, and what adjustments or improvements need to be made to keep employees engaged, productive, and employed!
What worked pre-pandemic almost certainly doesn’t work anymore. It’s critical that corporate communications and HR staff work together to create a strategy and plan for moving forward.

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What Your Employees Don’t Know Could Hurt You: How Effective Communication Builds Strong Brand Ambassadors

I’m often surprised that the most overlooked audience, when it comes to communicating with key constituents, is the internal or employee audience. Companies are generally pretty good about recognizing that they need to communicate with customers and prospects, but employees tend to be an afterthought. This may be because of the assumption that since employees are part of the organization they somehow “know” what’s going on. After all, it was in the newsletter or on Slack, wasn’t it? The fact of the matter, though, is that companies can’t leave it to chance that employees are paying attention to the messages they’re sending, or that they understand which are the key messages that they should be paying attention to. Continue reading “What Your Employees Don’t Know Could Hurt You: How Effective Communication Builds Strong Brand Ambassadors”

Best Practice Communication Takes Many Forms

There is no such thing as “the best” communication channel whether considering internal channels for employee communications or external channels to connect with customers and potential customers. All organizations can benefit from having a wide variety of communication channels (both synchronous and asynchronous) to ensure that employees throughout the organization, regardless of role or communication channel preference, are receiving key messages.

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This is Not the Time for Blatant Sales Pitches, But Don’t Lose Touch!

With millions of people out of work and countless businesses shutting their doors temporarily, or even permanently, many businesses are wondering whether they should maintain their marketing communication activities.

Our Advice: Yes, But…

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Daimler Learns About Viral Customer Service Stories the Hard Way

There’s an old saying in customer service that a customer who has a good experience with your business might tell a single friend while a customer who has a bad experience will tell ten. Unfortunately, those numbers might be drastically out of date in the age of social media. In an era where any individual has the chance to communicate with millions of people around the world, even a single incidence of poor customer service can have significant impacts for businesses of any kind. Continue reading “Daimler Learns About Viral Customer Service Stories the Hard Way”

Are Podcasts Poised to Replace the Employee Newsletter?

You may have recently noticed a podcast renaissance of sorts. The success of Serial woke many brands, marketers, journalists, and more up to the power of the podcast. As a result, podcasts are popping up in almost every facet of business with renewed purpose, and targeting new audiences. Continue reading “Are Podcasts Poised to Replace the Employee Newsletter?”

Engaging Employees Productively in Social Media Marketing Efforts

It’s not always easy to tie marketing spend to an increase in revenue — even defining a standard way to measure return on marketing investment (ROMI or MROI) can be difficult — which can often mean that marketing managers struggle to increase their budgets. While we wholeheartedly stand by the fact that a well-crafted and well-implemented marketing strategy will bring in far more revenue than it costs to put in place, there’s always room for low-cost or no-cost strategies. And, as we’ve stressed before, employees can be great brand ambassadors. Continue reading “Engaging Employees Productively in Social Media Marketing Efforts”

5 Steps to a Strong Employer Brand

executing your strategic plan, strategic planning, strategic communicationWe’ve written previously about the importance of employer branding and why consistency and coordination between the marketing arm and the HR arm are crucial to ensure alignment. In this post, we’re going to look at a practical, step-by-step approach to building that brand by applying some fundamental branding tips in the context of employer branding.

Generally, in working with organizations on these types of projects, the steps are: Continue reading “5 Steps to a Strong Employer Brand”