Enhance Workplace Communication: 6 Steps

86% of both employees and managers consider poor communication a major cause of failure in the workplace. Effective communication at work is necessary for increasing productivity, fostering trust, reducing conflict, enhancing client relations, and more.

Whether you’re a property manager or a staff member in the rental industry, you’ll want to make sure you have great interpersonal communication skills to advance your career while also contributing to the team.

Read on to learn about how to improve communication skills at work/your job and succeed in your career or business.

Learning About Interpersonal Communication Skills

Interpersonal communication skills allow you to interact with other people effectively. In a work environment, you’ll need these skills to interact with colleagues, managers, owners, and customers. If you’re working in the rental industry, interpersonal communication skills are necessary for dealing with tenants and staff members.

You use your interpersonal communication skills when expressing your thoughts and ideas about what marketing strategies can help attract more tenants. You also use these skills when listening to tenants’ concerns and providing the right solutions. Moreover, these skills are important when you discuss with your team ways to streamline your application process.

Learning how to improve communication skills at work/your job allows you to be a better leader or colleague. You become more confident in addressing conflicts properly. You can collaborate with team members of different personalities. You become an expert in managing client relationships and employee relationships.

Moreover, you’ll earn respect from both your colleagues and clients because you listen and acknowledge their needs, stay calm even in difficult situations, and focus on implementing effective solutions that will benefit all parties.

Steps To Improve Your Interpersonal Communication Skills at Work

Some are naturally great communicators and can easily build positive interpersonal relationships with others. Fortunately, these skills can also be learned. Here are some ways to improve your interpersonal communication skills at work.

Perform Active Listening

Great communicators are also great listeners. Active listening means listening to a speaker attentively, understanding what they say and mean, and responding appropriately. It promotes a mutual understanding between you and the speaker.

To become a good listener, pay full attention to the speaker. Set aside any thoughts that might distract you. Moreover, don’t think of any rebuttal while the speaker is talking. Pay attention to their body language too.

To show that you’re actively listening, maintain good eye contact. Nod from time to time, smile when necessary, and maintain an open and relaxed posture. Moreover, do not interrupt the speaker. Let them finish their discussion first to show respect.

Once the person is done talking, paraphrase what you’ve heard. Doing so helps the speaker feel heard and understood. Furthermore, any potential misunderstanding can be prevented. Ask for clarifications, if necessary. Make sure to remain neutral when responding to the speaker. This way, they’ll feel more comfortable and confident to share.

Show Empathy

To improve your interpersonal communication skills, practice empathy. Put yourself in other people’s shoes so you’ll have a more comprehensive view of things and avoid judgment. For example, if tenants have complaints, show compassion. Let them know that you understand how they feel. If you haven’t been in the same situation as them, recall a time when you felt the same emotion as your tenant or client is going through.

Stay patient and respectful when responding to their concerns. While it’s easy to get annoyed at a client who tends to be aggressive, try to stay calm. Maintain open body language. Control your voice too to show your willingness to resolve any conflict immediately.

Gather Feedback

It wouldn’t hurt to ask your colleagues or managers for honest feedback regarding your interpersonal communication skills. Ask for advice on how you can improve your skills. Show them that you value their opinion and that you’re willing to improve for yourself and the team.

Once you learn the things you need to work on, establish the goals that you want to achieve. Afterward, develop an action plan. For instance, if you easily get distracted while listening to a colleague, remove possible distractions like phones. You might also just need the right software that can help increase your focus and productivity.

Learn To Negotiate

Knowing how to negotiate is another way to improve your interpersonal communication skills at work. From sales and contract negotiations to addressing team conflicts, negotiation skills are necessary for nearly every aspect of the workplace. If you own or manage a rental property, good negotiation skills come in handy when deciding on rental rates, resolving complaints, handling tenant evictions and late payments, and more.

First, know what you want and what your boundaries are. Defining your non-negotiables allows you to easily communicate and set the right expectations. Furthermore, you should always do your research. Collect enough data to pick the right choices and decisions.

With ExactEstate, you have everything you need in one platform — from thorough tenant screening and document management to online payments and detailed reporting. Hence, it becomes easier to communicate with clients and keep them satisfied with your service.

Practice Your Skills

Knowing how to improve communication skills at work/your job requires some practice. Find a mentor. Role-play scenarios with them so you can correct certain behaviors. You can gain honest feedback too, helping you realize what you need to work on.

Attending training sessions can also help develop your interpersonal skills at work. You’ll learn different techniques to communicate your thoughts effectively and handle tough situations.

Practicing public speaking too. By regularly talking to a group, you can build your confidence, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and have more chances to hone your communication skills. 

Maximize Technology

There are several ways you can maximize technology to help improve your interpersonal communication skills. For example, you can record yourself in mock communication scenarios, listen to the recording, and identify certain habits and styles that you think are effective and need improvement. Leverage technology to create captivating and effective presentations too.

If you’re working in the residential property rental industry, you can also use technology to help build a positive relationship with tenants. For instance, ExactEstate’s resident portal will keep your tenants happy because they can easily send work orders online, stay updated through online notifications, and even process their payments quickly online. They can also access the resident portal anywhere they go, so any concerns are addressed promptly and properly.

Final Thoughts

To help improve your interpersonal communication skills at work, learn to listen, negotiate, empathize, and gather feedback. If you want to increase your productivity while maintaining a great relationship with your tenants or clients, utilize reliable property management software like ExactEstate. Schedule a demo today to see how we can help grow your team and business.