Communication Skills Coaching

Communication is an exchange of information between multiple parties. Even between a speaker and a large audience, there is a degree of two-way trade. The speaker may be relaying information verbally, but if the speaker is truly an effective communicator, they will also be able to pick up on the nonverbal cues that the audience is relaying in response.

Inferior communication breeds conflict and dysfunction. If the information being relayed isn’t clear, if one person is constantly talking over another, or if there are no systems in place that allow individuals to communicate with one another, problems are sure to arise. The good news is that you can avoid these problems altogether with the help of a communication skills coach.

Effective communication is necessary for every business to run smoothly. Communication skills coaching guarantees that all of your employees are equipped with foundational communication skills that are conducive to their professional success and your company’s benefit.

Communication Skills for Employee Coaching

Communication skills are not hard to develop, but they must be developed correctly.Effective communication coaching provides training on various forms of communication and interaction techniques. Some of the most foundational and practical conversation skills that you should coach employees on are active listening, empathy, paying attention to non-verbal cues, tone of voice, clarity, and conciseness.

Active listening

Active listening is one of the most receptive communication skills. By actively listening, a person must intentionally focus on what the speaker is saying, process this information, and give a thoughtful response when it’s their turn to speak. Active listening aims to get people to listen to understand instead of listening just to respond.

Empathy

Empathy is often confused with sympathy. While sympathy and empathy are both important concepts to understand, it’s also essential to differentiate them from each other. Sympathy means acknowledging the struggles, hardships, and pain of others. Empathy goes deeper than acknowledgment, to a level where the listener starts to feel alongside the speaker. Empathy leads to greater understanding between communicating parties. When we empathize with others, we can better assimilate points of view outside our own and communicate with more sincerity.

Paying attention to non-verbal cues

Nonverbal cues include body posture, eye contact, and breathing patterns. Nonverbal cues are observational signs that indicate how someone is feeling when you communicate with them. What emotional impact are your words having on the person you’re speaking to? Are they making eye contact or nodding to signal that they are engaged? Are they hunched over, signaling fatigue? Distressed body language may be a sign to keep your conversation brief.

It’s also vital to take note of your own non-verbal cues. Heavy breathing may signal nervousness and unease to your listener. If you are hunched over, looking down, and/or fidgeting, it will signal anxiety and a lack of confidence in what you’re saying. Being aware of non-verbal cues is as important to note for a speaker as it is for a listener. Paying attention to the non-verbal signals you are giving and receiving will help you deliver and collect information with more confidence and understanding.

Tone of voice

Modulating your tone of voice is one of several verbal communication examples.Appropriate tone and volume are crucial to setting the desired mood for a conversation. Most professional communication advice calls for a calm and positive tone. Depending on whether you are giving a presentation to a large audience, conversing with one colleague, or speaking in a small group, you need to adjust the volume of your voice to match the situation.

Clarity and conciseness

Coaching on communication skills teaches people how to eliminate “fluff” when communicating with others. “Fluff” is another way to describe unnecessary information that is usually added to take up space. Avoiding fluff is particularly important in written forms of communication. When writing and speaking, touch on your talking points in a clear, direct fashion. If you can explain your message in a few sentences rather than a lengthy paragraph, that’s preferable. Also make sure to deliver the information in a concise, easily accessible, and easy-to-understand manner.

How to Develop a Communication Coaching Plan

Communication coaching is an excellent tool, but how do you get started? Begin by creating a communication coaching plan. Creating a communication plan takes place in five steps: assessment, improvement, additional training and practice, reassessment, and growth tracking.

1. Assessment

To establish a baseline for communication coaching, you will need to assess your employees’ current communication skills. Establishing a baseline for communication skills will help you determine what aspects of communication individual employees are strong in and which communication skills need improvement. While this may seem like a daunting process, tools like Lessonly allows you to streamline your assessment data into an actionable plan for improved communication.

2. Improvement

After your employees complete their assessments, it’s time to get to work on improving their communication skills. This is where custom training lessons and coaching plans come in handy. Be sure to connect employees with communication coaches, and make sure that employees are retaining the information you’ve given them.

3. Additional training and practice

After the learning stage, you may find that some employees require more training before moving onto the practice stage. You can use their learning metrics to utilize a personal communication coach for one-on-one training or adjust learning modules so that the employee can retain training information with more ease.

Once employees have successfully completed training lessons, give them the chance to apply what they learned through practice scenarios. This is where tools like Lessonly Practice also help companies analyze employee metrics and measure the impact of communication training and coaching on frontline behaviors.

4. Reassessment

As employees progress in their training, you’ll need to reassess them periodically. You will also need to reevaluate your training methods and topics to ensure that your employees are learning the communication skills that will be most beneficial to your company. If you are properly addressing your company’s coaching communication styles, you’ll be able to see how well coaching outcomes match up with your company goals.

Lessonly Skills can help you conduct employee reassessment by collecting data that reveal gaps in your communication coaching. Communication coaching promotes positive change and acts as a guide to help you move forward with communication coaching in the future.

5. Growth tracking

Communication skills coaching is an ongoing process, and you’ll need to make tweaks here and there to optimize coaching outcomes and delivery to meet the needs of your company as it grows, changes, and evolves. This is where Lessonly Skills can also help you make informed decisions about your company’s communication skills coaching methods. Use Skills to monitor your company’s growth and communication improvement and make needed changes to your communication skills coaching at scale.

Deliver Communication Skills Training with Lessonly

Lessonly’s products make it simple and easy to create valuable communication skills coaching and training for companies. Because of Lessonly’s training, enablement, and coaching tools, it’s easy to conduct communication training online. Learn, practice, and track your communication skills coaching progress all in one place. Check out this quick 2-minute preview of Lessonly to see how we can help your team implement communication skills coaching quickly and efficiently.