There are many strengths of communication that can set you apart in any industry. If you are someone looking to optimize your strengths, communication is a great place to start. Strong communication skills are needed by most employers.
They can help you build bonds with others, increase your productivity, and even make you happier. Communication barriers are a common source of frustration and can prevent you from reaching your goals.
When trying to improve your communication strengths, you may think effective communication can only be accomplished through years of strengths research and trying to understand the best communicators. In reality, you can just take a few steps to boost your communication.
In this article, we will cover why communication strengths are important and how you can become a better communicator.
Why Are Strengths In Communication Critically Important & Their Benefits
Whatever your job is, you cannot escape communication. Even if you work entirely online, you will still need to connect with others via email, cell phone, social media, or other channels. As such, communication will be necessary for you to succeed in the workplace.
A lack of communication abilities will cause you many problems in your long-term career. It will decrease your ability to meet your goals, work on a team, and stay passionate about your work. Knowing your strengths can help you avoid these negative outcomes.
In addition, some benefits you can expect from gaining communication skills include:
- Becoming more confident in your communication abilities
- Acquiring more job opportunities by showing your new skills and increasing your job satisfaction
- Connecting with clients, employees, employers, and partners on a deeper level
- Improving your ability to solve problems and avoid issues before they even start
- Boosting your positivity and staying passionate about your job
- Becoming more persuasive and simultaneously improving your negotiation abilities
- Being a better team player and working more efficiently on a team
- Increasing your productivity, which can lead to improvements in your pay
- Handling conflicts in a more mature and efficient manner
- Make customers happier, which leads to a boost in your own happiness
List of 20 Strengths In Communication (Described In Details)
Active Listening
When you think of communication, you typically think of speaking. However, there is far more to communicating than just that. Active listening skills are a crucial part of communicating in general.
Active listening skills can help you acquire better relationships with your clients, boost your positivity, and allows you to better understand others.
Using The Right Communication
There are many ways to communicate. The medium you choose, whether it be a cell phone, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, or in-person communication, will have an impact on the outcome of your communication.
Knowing which medium to use when is truly a skill that you need to master. If you are speaking to someone formally, for example, in person may be the way to go. But, casual conversations over Instagram can make you seem more relatable and relaxed to clients, which could be positive.
Being Kind
Kindness is great, and it is included in communication. Being honest and friendly can make you more approachable. It will also make you more positive, help you build bonds with clients, and make your relationships long-lasting.
Even small acts of kindness can go a long way. It will increase your own positivity, too. When having contact with people, remember to sprinkle in acts of kindness to make the interaction more memorable.
Confidence
Confidence is key in any industry. When you present yourself with confidence, you are seen as an authority figure and are thus more trusted. Improving your confidence starts with changing your mindset.
Then, you can also change how you present yourself. Start making more bold statements if you truly believe them. Look people in the eye, and don’t back down from your statements.
Quality Feedback
Knowing how to give feedback is essentially as important as receiving it. Just like you want to know your strengths and weaknesses, so do others. You can practice your communication by giving honest but polite feedback.
It should also be individualized to the person, and try to answer the questions as precisely as possible. If you want to know how to give feedback, look at the way others give feedback to you. Note why the feedback resonated with you and how you can improve your feedback delivery from others’ input.
Being Clear and Audible
You can master a speech and remember it perfectly, but that will not matter if you aren’t heard when you speak.
You need to speak clearly so others understand you. However, being too loud can be distracting and even rude. So, it is best to balance your loudness and adjust your volume according to others’ reactions.
Empathy
Empathy comes in two parts: you must connect to those you speak in an emotional level, and change your responses accordingly. This is crucial both in the long and short term.
Having empathy will also help you better understand emotions, including your own emotions. It will allow you to learn from others and be open to personal change. So, there are many benefits that come along with empathy besides just communicating better.
Respecting Others
If you want to be respected, you must first respect others. Disrespectful people are generally not well received by clients or coworkers. They struggle with forming bonds in the workplace, and they rarely meet their professional goals as a result.
Respectful communication ensures keeping eye contact appropriate, being attentive, and listening to those around you.
Using The Right Tone
The tone of voice is one of the many factors that make up communication. It leaves a major impact on those you communicate with.
If you use the wrong tone with those you communicate with, you can come off as arrogant or rude. To avoid this, ensure that you stay aware of your tone and match it to suit the scenario you are in.
Eye Contact
Eye contact is another key communication element effective communicators know how to utilize. It can help you reveal your inner feelings, show you care for others, and boost your authority in a situation. You should also observe the eye contact of others to see their true emotions and interest level.
Non-Verbal Communication
Effective communication is about so much more than just speaking. It also involves a wide variety of nonverbal communication methods.
Your nonverbal communication skills play a major role in your ability to be a strong communicator. People pay equal attention to your nonverbal and audible communication, so it is important to be skilled at both.
Persuasion
Persuasive communicators are often some of the most successful individuals in their industries. Persuasion allows you to boost your sales abilities, negotiate better, and generally perform better at work. It allows you to land clients and build businesses, too.
Negotiation Skills
Negotiation is not just important for salespeople, realtors, and businesspeople. It is used by most individuals on a daily to weekly basis. When you want someone to do something for you, you must do something in return.
It’s all about fair trade and communication. If you can master negotiation, you can boost sales, make more profit, get better deals, and be more efficient.
Being Responsive
Do you wait for hours, days, or weeks to respond to emails? Or, do you quickly respond to those who need your support and input? Being responsive allows to stay involved in your business.
It keeps you on top of tasks and boosts productivity. In addition, it also leaves a positive impression on those you communicate with. If you respond with urgency, regardless of what the message is, you will grow to be a more efficient communicator with a positive reputation.
Bravery
Just like confidence is a major element of communication, so is bravery. Imagine you are in a meeting room. If you avoid speaking up for yourself because you lack bravery, your speaking abilities would have been massively underdeveloped.
If you do speak up for yourself, you will also become more confident, gain new opportunities, and feel more satisfied with your performance at work. You will feel like you are in action instead of just watching on the sidelines.
Written Communication
Written communication comes in multiple forms. For example, any time you text someone or write an email, you are using this form of communication.
With the world becoming more digitalized, knowing how to communicate in written form is becoming more and more important. You can try adapting your communication style depending on the medium, for example.
Social Media And Digital Communication
Social media and casual communication is also on the rise. Ensuring you master this form of communication can help you stand apart from the competition. However, you cannot use the same communication style for every social media you use.
For instance, clients’ direct messaging you on Instagram requires a different communication style when compared to Linkedin.
Networking
Communicating with those during networking requires a specific type of communication. These people are professionals, and they require high levels of persuasion to be convinced.
To truly connect with those you network with and form long-term bonds, you have to master the unique style of communication networking. To do this, work on improving confidence, persuasion, and nonverbal communication.
Emotional Control
Effective communicators know how to keep their emotions in check. By ensuring that your emotions are in check, you can help others understand you better and more clearly communicate your message.
Being viewed as too emotional hurts your career opportunities and limits your ability to effectively communicate. On the flip side, using too little emotion makes you seem boring. It’s about striking a balance.
Engaging The Listener
Whether you are giving a presentation or simply talking to a coworker, you don’t want to lose their attention. Ensuring they stay engaged will help you make the most out of each interaction. You can boost engagement by using certain hand gestures, using the right tone, maintaining eye contact, and asking the listener questions.
How To Identify & Master Your Communication Strengths
Now that you know of some of the strengths included in communication, you may be wondering: how do I acquire these abilities? Before you sign up for expensive strength-building programs or spend hours researching strengths, know there is a better way.
This hidden strategy is quite simple: taking a straightforward online assessment. One of the best strength tests you could take is the HIGH5 assessment.
This test will not only give you a list of your communication skills, but it will also include other strengths, like independence, organization, and more. This test can be taken in a single sitting, too. And, best of all, it’s free to take.
There are a few other ways to better understand your communication strengths. You could look back at some of your crucial presentations and key times when you used communication skills.
Then, ask yourself: what did you do well? What helped you achieve success? You could even ask others for some help if you are unsure. However, this takes more time and effort than simply taking an assessment, and it may also be less accurate.
How To Improve Strengths In Communication
Before you set your eyes on improving your strengths, you must ensure you know your strengths well. Take an online assessment like HIGH5, for example. After you do this, you can start the strength improvement process.
Begin by changing your environment. You will be able to communicate best in certain settings. Remove any distractions. If you know, for example, bright lights take your eyes off of the person you are speaking to, choose more dim lighting for your office.
Then, try exploring different communication types and mediums. There are so many different ways to communicate. If you know that you are skilled at email communication, ensure you know how to communicate by other means as well, like social media, phone calls, or in-person communication.
Finally, also be sure to work on your nonverbal communication skills. Speaking clearly, concisely, and persuasively is important, but so is listening to others and noticing their social cues.
Note when they seem to be excited, and continue using a similar approach when placed in similar situations. You should also learn how to adapt, so expose yourself to many different settings where you can communicate.
5 Examples Of Weaknesses In Communication
Just like there are a plethora of communication strengths, there are also quite a few weaknesses in communication. Being aware of your weaknesses is generally advisable. However, you should not become obsessed with your weaknesses. Instead, you should be focused on growing your strengths.
With that said, a few of the most common communication weaknesses include:
Not Listening To Others
Communication is not just about talking. It is equally about listening, empathizing with others, and better understanding the person you speak with. Without listening to others, you will come off as a self-centered and arrogant person.
It will negatively impact your odds of building relationships in the workplace and it will set you back from meeting your goals.
Not Paying Attention To Many Types Of Communication
Nonverbal cues are also a huge part of communicating. They can reveal immense amounts of information about someone’s thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Without recognizing this information, you will be confused when speaking to others.
If you improperly use nonverbal cues, then others will misinterpret your feelings and may change how they respond to you. You could also be negatively viewed by others, as a lack of social awareness typically makes you look awkward.
Not Adapting Your Communication Based On The Audience
Every audience has a unique set of needs and desires. If you are talking to a potential customer on Instagram, being more casual and upbeat could give off a great impression. It makes you seem fun and relatable.
But, if you use the same communication strategy with emails to your boss or connection on LinkedIn, you will probably receive completely different reactions. Knowing your audience and adjusting your communication accordingly is paramount.
Not Respecting Others And Not Connecting With Them
Rushing through your conversations with others and showing signs of disrespect can ruin your reputation. Even if you are a highly persuasive person, looking at your phone throughout a conversation shows immense disrespect.
It will probably lead to the client leaving you or the job opportunity being lost. Do not make the mistake of ignoring the importance of respect.
Hesitating, not standing up for yourself, and using poor language
If you always hesitate and never speak up, no matter how great of a communicator you are, no one will ever know your skills. Using weak language and constantly saying ‘um,’ ‘you know,’ and similar phrases also makes you seem like a weaker communicator.
It makes you seem uncertain and insecure, too. It could potentially cost you a job opportunity or partnership.
How To Highlight Communication Strengths In Resume & Job Interview
Once you know your strengths, you may want to include them in your resume. You certainly should, but just listening to your strengths will not convince any employer you truly have them. You have to do more than just list your strengths.
One of the best ways to show your strengths on a resume is to include examples along with your strengths. For your communication strengths specifically, note how others reacted to your communication and how it impacted them.
Try to give their contact information or direct quotes if possible. You can also mention this during an interview.
If there are specific communication strengths your employer lists on their job posting, ensure you mention them if you have them. Also, try to include a variety of your communication strengths when asked about the topic.
Do not just say you know how to communicate effectively in person. Note your experience with social media communication and email, too. This will help the interviewer realize you are highly experienced and have many different communication types.
Show them you can also communicate to different audiences and adapt effectively.
Strengths of Communication FAQs
Why is communicating a strength?
Communicating is a major element of career success. Anything that helps you achieve your goals and reach your maximized potential is considered a strength. Communicating certainly helps you do that.
With proper communication, you can form bonds with clients and employers. This increases your odds of acquiring customers, getting your dream job, working well in a team, being an effective leader, networking well, and much more. This, communication is considered a strength.
What are effective communication skills?
There are many different skills that are included within the broad category of “communication.” In general, effective communication is any skill that helps you get your point across better and improves your career performance.
For example, mastering your nonverbal cues (body language, eye contact, and so on) as well as reading others’ body language are both included in communication skills. Knowing how to adjust your communication style to the audience is a crucial skill, too.
Additionally, being an active listener, being clear when you speak, and understanding various mediums of communication are all effective communication skills.
