How to Communicate Your Ideas in the Workplace

One of the most important skills to develop in the workplace is the ability to communicate your ideas in a clear and coherent way. Sharing ideas and concepts is how new products and methods develop to improve the company, as well as your own standing within it. On top of that, people like to be creatively fulfilled at their jobs, and it is difficult to do that if you can reasonably explain why your ideas should be utilized in a way that will improve the company’s operation. Here are some ways that you can improve the way that you share and communicate your ideas in the workplace…

Be goal oriented in your communication

Before you do anything else, you want every conversation and line of communication that you go into to have a set goal that furthers your idea. If you don’t have this goal going in, then you can’t make competent decisions that are going to lead the conversation in a way that makes your ideas coherent to the listener. Failing to have a goal can make conversations messy, and that means your ideas will probably get lost in translation.

Find interesting ways to organize your ideas

Communication takes a handful of different factors, in order to execute well: passion, empathy, and organization. While putting yourselves in your listener’s shoes and being passionate about what you are saying are both crucial elements to communicate your ideas, organization might be the most important of these factors.

If you can organize your thoughts in such a way that every statement you make leads the listener towards a conclusion that you want them to make, then there will be a logical rhythm and flow to your concepts that make them resonate with people. This all comes down to preparation, and making sure that you are putting the time into your ideas to make them coherent. Here is a useful article with some tips on how to prepare your ideas in a way that makes them make sense in a business setting.

Do it in a formal and informal setting

One important thing to remember about communicating your ideas at work is that you want to make sure that what you want to say is coming up in a variety of different situations. Don’t bank everything that you have on one formal meeting, even though learning how to pitch your ideas in those meetings is crucial, as well. Instead, make sure that you discuss the ideas with other coworkers, informally, so that you can get feedback on your ideas and find organic ways to grow this idea into something that makes more sense.

Look for emotional cues in the listener

If you want to communicate well, then you want to work on becoming more of a people person. This is a lot easier said than done. However, don’t make the mistake of assuming that because your aren’t naturally outgoing or gregarious, that you can’t develop people skills. The best way to become more of a people person is to develop your emotional intelligence, which means learning how to identify specific and complex emotions that all people go through, and identify those same things in the people you talk to. This is a really helpful skill to have at work, because it allows you to look for emotional cues in the listener that tells you how they are reacting to what you are telling them, even if they can’t or don’t want to put those reactions into words.

Listen to criticism, well

Nothing shuts down your ideas like not being able to accept criticism. Even if you have good ideas that might be beneficial, people are going to opt to go in different directions if they feel like they can’t work with you to perfect a concept and bring other perspectives into the conversation. Because of this, don’t get too attached to your ideas. This form of preciousness makes you unpliable, which is a terrible trait to develop at work. Instead, learn how to compromise well and take other people’s opinions and combine them with your own to create solutions that work for everyone.