5 must-have communication skills for leaders

Blog From- Dmitriy Ioffe, Global Chief Commercial Officer, ECU Worldwide

Strong communication skills are a must for any successful sales person. Three in four employees see effective communication as the number one leadership attribute. The ability to communicate properly enables a great leader to inspire colleagues, engage customers and help achieve growth and success. Communication skills are also essential to effectively build rapport with clients, assign tasks, set expectations with regards to deliverables, and even convince prospects.

In current times, when businesses across the world are faced with handling the health and economic implications of a crisis like the Coronavirus outbreak, communicating effectively with employees becomes all the more important. Keeping these five communication aspects in mind will surely help reduce panic, maintain productivity and get employees to cooperate with safety and prevention measures being undertaken to minimise impact.

1. Listening

Listening is the most important communication skill for a sales person. Professional listening skills involve assessing the tone and scouting for any emotions behind the message. Careful listening will help you be ready with the right questions and responses while discussing pain points, solutions and approaches with your clients. Listening also enables you as a leader to discern facts accurately, without being judgmental.

2. Being Clear and Concise

Clear communication helps clients and colleagues perceive and understand your point of view thereby negating any room for rumours and misunderstandings. Clarity in verbal and written communication helps your counterparts to hear you out, understand your opinion and be motivated to think and act differently. Furthermore, keeping the conversation concise with a focus only on the most relevant details eliminates any chance of ambiguity, helping everyone understand exactly what your goal is and what needs to be done to achieve it.

3. Adapting to Different Communication Styles

Connecting with the people is of crucial importance in any commercial role. No matter how much charisma you have or how much of a good listener you are, you can impact only when you connect deeply with the people you are communicating with. The best communication secret is getting to know the people and adapting to their style of communication. This can be as simple as choosing to communicate with people in the language they are comfortable with or selecting a popular communication channel such as social media and telecommunication.

4. Being Open to Feedback

Communication is never one-sided. To keep the communication channels open, apart from listening you should also be open to receiving feedback and responding to questions from your customers and your team.

5. Paying Attention to Body Language

It is important to pay attention to non-verbal cues when communicating. Body language is the key to successful communication. Your clients will be more open to you and your message if your body language is warm and accepting. When you project confidence about your preparedness during a crisis or a positive outlook for the times ahead, it significantly increases the likelihood of your audience feeling the same. Taking conscious efforts to work on your body language will also help you analyse how people feel during the conversation, discern their level of reception and tweak your communication accordingly.

Great leaders are masters at motivating, inspiring and engaging people. One of the most powerful ways to achieve this is to understand human needs and behavioural drivers and appeal to these in your communication.

Frame your message in a manner that will help clients and employees to achieve a sense of connection, happiness, security and success. This will help you to build long-term success and goodwill, internally and externally.