10 Communication Skills Examples

Good communication skills are essential to clearly relay vital information. There are fewer chances of misunderstanding and miscommunication happening, and better chances of selling a pitch, idea, product, or service.

That’s why we collected the top communication skills examples to help your teams excel in the most important soft skills to have in the workplace.

What are communication skills examples?

Communication skill examples refer to specific abilities and behaviors that individuals use to effectively convey and receive messages in a variety of settings. Examples of communication skills include active listening, clear and concise verbal and written communication, nonverbal communication, empathy, assertiveness, and adaptability.

Good communication skills are important in both personal and professional settings, and they can help individuals build strong relationships, avoid misunderstandings and conflicts, and achieve their goals. By understanding and practicing effective communication skills, individuals can enhance their overall communication competence and become more successful in their interactions with others.

1. Active listening

Active listening enables you to focus on what the person you’re talking to is actually communicating. It lets the other person know that you’re acknowledging their needs, their ideas, and their feelings – which, in turn, can help you understand how to address their problem better.

That’s why active listening is a communication skill that managers often look to train their teams on. It’s applicable to everyone whether you’re rank and file or a C-level officer.

Mindful listening can help you address conflict or problems within the team. It ensures that you don’t miss out on important information from your meetings and one-on-ones. This also enables you to anticipate potential problems before they even happen.

This communication skill example is absolutely necessary for those in leadership positions. Your team members need to feel that their concerns are being heard and addressed. If they don’t, this could cause some unpleasantness within the team or at worst, lead to their resignation.

Check out this leadership and communication lesson from our library.

2. Giving constructive feedback

Feedback can be a tricky thing to give to fellow team members and especially to bosses. Oftentimes, giving constructive feedback is associated with things such as performance reviews or team assessments.

But, it can also be used for more casual meetings when you feel that there is a need for improvement with company processes, how a product can be improved, or if you take issue with someone’s behaviors.

Additionally, saying the wrong thing could cost you your relationship and trust with the people or teams concerned or even an HR complaint.

On the flip side, knowing how to properly communicate feedback can improve interpersonal relationships within the company. Your team or your boss will be grateful for your honesty when it’s given with care.=

You can check out EdApp’s Performance Management course to learn more about how to properly give constructive feedback.

3. Presentation / Visual communication

Presentation / visual communication is another essential communication skill example to include in your next employee training. Whether it’s pitching new products and features, having a sales call with a client, or even your average brainstorming, learning how to properly present information can take you a long way in life.

Research has found that 65% of the general population needs to see information in order to retain it. Without images to aid you during your presentation, your audience will be less likely to remember or get sold on what you’re saying. Visuals add a component to communication that written and verbal methods do not: speed.

Including transcription technology in your presentation skills training can significantly enhance your ability to communicate effectively. With this technology, you can easily transcribe your spoken words into text, providing a written component to your visual aids. This not only helps those who prefer reading to listening but also makes it easier for your audience to retain information long after your presentation is over. With audio to text, you can take your presentation skills to the next level and become a more effective communicator in all areas of your professional and personal life.

EdApp’s interactive learning feature is also a good example of how tweaking your visual communication can help with information retention.

Lessons are presented in a variety of ways to your learners. Data can be compared side by side to see how they relate to each other. Expandable lists can segregate big pieces of information into smaller chunks so it’s digestible. Image waypoints highlight important details on a single image. An interactive flipbook maker can keep learners interested and engaged.

You can check out EdApp’s course on communication skills to learn more about improving your presentation skills.

4. Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication is a communication skill example that is often neglected. However, gestures, body language, and facial expressions play a large role in communicating.

This type of communication complements and accentuates what you may be saying verbally. You can increase the impact of your message when you know how to properly communicate through gestures.

Not knowing how to properly communicate through body language can get you in a rough spot. You may say one thing, but your face may say another.

For example, you may sound interested when you’re listening to client concerns but give away your true feelings by slouching or looking around or generally appearing uninterested during the meeting. This could indicate that you’re not actually interested in what your client is saying – possibly creating a rift in your relationship.

Another example is when you’re unable to look people in the eyes. Eye contact plays a vital role in communication since it lets your audience know that you’re serious and you mean business. You’re more likely to feel a person’s sincerity if they can maintain eye contact with you.

HelpGuide goes into more depth on how to improve your nonverbal communication skills.

5. Written communication

In the digital age, most corporate communications go through written communication. This can be in the form of email, social media, or messaging apps.

Written communication doesn’t only mean internal company communication, but also how you engage with your audiences, partners, and customers. Press releases, product updates, and other announcements are released through social media and online news sites. You’re able to reach more people in a shorter amount of time through written communication.

Without a physical voice to convey the message, however, it’s easy to get lost in translation. One sentence could read as serious when you’re meant to sound engaging and conversational. Or vice versa. The message you’re trying to get across might not reach your audience, after all.

That’s why it’s essential to equip yourself with the proper training for written communication.

EdApp has a wonderful course to get you started on your written communication skills training.

6. Oral communication

Oral communication plays a big role in the trust and relationship between people and companies. It adds tonality to your words so you’re more effective when communicating important points. This is especially important for sensitive interactions, such as pay negotiations or conflict resolution, or technical topics such as hazard communication and radiation safety training courses, where this skill can help you tackle these topics as carefully as possible while avoiding misconceptions and confusion.

There are around 4 main types of oral communication: pitching, informal conversations, formal conversations, and speeches.

Pitching training teaches you how to get your point across in as short a time as possible.

Informal conversation lessons train you to be more empathetic and use context clues during interactions.

Formal conversation courses focus more on the tone of having such conversations.

Speech courses are for learning how to ultimately convince people to your side and communicate to people your message through imagery, examples, and emotion.

Each type requires different types of communication training for them. You can check out this course from EdApp to get you started.

7. Voice modulation

Voice modulation is adjusting the pitch or tone of your voice to help your listeners clearly hear and understand your presentation or speech. People who need to speak to the public a lot need voice modulation training.

By mastering the art of voice modulation, you can make your pitches, presentations, and discussions more interesting and memorable to your audience. Even those who have a naturally sweet tone to their voice need to exercise their voice for modulation, variation, and professional success.

Part of what you can do to improve your voice modulation is to do voice recordings and listen to them afterward. Recording yourself can help you pick up the variations in your voice so you can compare it with great speaker’s modulations.

8. Rapport development

Rapport development is a communication skill example that focuses on building and maintaining relationships through effective communication. As we all know, a stronger team delivers stronger results.

You could also use rapport building during client-facing interactions and inter-team relationship building. Partnerships and projects prosper when the foundation between parties is solid. Communication can become easier once rapport is properly developed between two parties, as well.

Some of the things you can do to develop this is to have small talk as an icebreaker and by injecting a bit of humor during your interactions.

EdApp’s microlearning lesson on connection and collaboration can get you started on developing rapport.

9. Storytelling

Storytelling is something that’s often considered limited to content creators and writers. But, storytelling can be a powerful tool to convey a message, to buy your product, and to listen to your pitch through imagery, connection building, and evoking emotions.

Storytelling enables you to more easily connect with other people. Storytelling skills are especially critical in roles that involve marketing to an audience or business development.

A good story can convince, inform, or entertain the people you’re trying to convince. You can use storytelling to persuade your boss to approve a new project during a presentation, create a brand identity for a firm, or assist customers in imagining how purchasing a product would enhance their lives.

Learn more about how you can improve your storytelling skills with EdApp’s story design course.

10. Negotiation

Negotiation is the bread and butter of business. That’s why it’s essential that everyone in the company gets this type of communication skills training. Without good negotiation skills, deals could falter or you may end up having the bad side of the bargain. Alternatively, you could get things to be more favorable to your side when you’re a good negotiator.

For example, business transactions, salary and benefit negotiations, and partnership deals will go better if you’re equipped with the proper negotiation skills.

Negotiation skills are also applicable to resolving conflicts within a team or organization. In any disagreement, people aim to achieve the best possible outcome for everyone in the party. Fairness, mutual benefit, compromise, and maintaining a relationship are the keys to a successful negotiation.

EdApp is a mobile learning management system designed for today’s digital habits, delivering more engaging and effective micro-learning directly to learners anytime and anywhere. They have courses ranging from healthcare to free IT training courses.

Check out EdApp’s communication skills example course here.