Your Voice: A few tips on interpersonal communication for work and the home

In professionally conducting business at work, it requires effective, productive, and harmonious interpersonal communication skills and technical (hard skills).

Here are a few tips on how to offer effective interpersonal communication skills whether at work or at home.

One of the key points here to achieve the best possible outcome in conducting teamwork is that you need to clearly and precisely describe the scope and objective for each projects. Therefore, each team member will clearly understand his/her specific tasks and time frame along with the expectations. To make it even better, you need to then ask each team member if they understand what is expected of them. Second, give everyone a chance to provide their opinion on his/her specific task. 

If any issue appears, clearly and politely provide time for the team member to voice the issue. When you disagree with the idea of one of the team members — who might be very pleased with himself or herself — first cool-down and always avoid minimizing any unnecessary arguments with him or her. Maintain your professionalism! 

It has scientifically been proven that fostering effective, polite, and clear communication of the scope and objectives of the assigned tasks along with the expectations, make people more comfortable in carrying out their tasks in a timely manner. One important additional point is that to have effective two way communication, one needs to be an attentive listener. Good communication between the speaker and listeners is therefore anchored on courtesy.

It is true that the team members may not fully understand the topic of the speaker. Therefore, the members should never be afraid to ask the speaker to clarify his or her understanding about the key points described in the talk. This can avoid any confusion, and show you that the team members understand what the exact message is.

By maintaining both your soft skills and hard skills on a day-to-day basis, whether at work or at home, and communicating your ideas will build trust, respect, and openness between you and other people. Also, clearly, effectively, and properly communicate the specific tasks so that all team members know exactly what is required from him or her to deliver results as needed.