Someone famous once said that the art of communication is equivalent to the language of leadership. Those who master it in its entirety (conclusive of its forms) climb the ladder of success quicker than their contemporaries do. In business, especially, one of the most crucial skills that are required for moving forward is that of conveyance—an effective transfer of meaningful information from one individual to another, either through words or through actions. You have to be able to interact openly and hold the attention of your audience successfully. After all, communication is the fundamental pillar on which society stands. And, it is not for nothing that Aristotle symbolised a human as a social animal.
Verbal/Oral Communication
Like the rainbow spectrum, communication is of various kinds. However, the type that is given the most important in commerce is the ‘verbal’ one. Primarily, it is an oral-based exchange of ideas, emotion, and data between coworkers. You pass on information about the last night’s sales dip, attend a meeting with the board, give out a PowerPoint presentation, have a small chit-chat with your colleagues at the water cooler, call your boss for review and feedback, sing ‘happy birthday’ for Sara in the cafeteria, persuade a client to buy the company product, propose an idea about a new avenue and discuss it at length with your supervisor—all are examples of verbal communication that’s carried out in a workplace. Without this effective interaction, an organisation would come to nought.
For building positive interpersonal skills, for breaking economic grounds, and for ensuring market success, verbal communication is paramount for a business.
Written/Textual Communication
One thing we all need to understand is that regardless of the significance which ‘verbal’ communication has for businesses, it still cannot sustain without the protection/backing which ‘written’ communication provides. What does this mean? Let us suppose a situation. You are a young, ambitious employee who works for a company that is facing the lowest ROIs in its history. To get it out of this deathly stance, you come up with an ingenious idea. You could talk about it at length with your boss, but for it to be properly understood, signed and implemented, you would need to get it into writing. This is where your ‘written’ communication skills would come handy, right?
Hand in Hand
Coming back to the topic, one cannot underestimate the value which ‘written’ communication has for an organisation’s survival. Not everyone can command the attention of a room, and not everyone can perform well on paper, but if you master both of these communication skills, you can rule the world of commerce. Putting an idea into words that are universally understood requires dedication and practice. This cannot happen given the current overlooking of the importance of ‘written’ communication. Therefore, this post will try and make you understand why you need to work on your written skills alongside your oral ones.
Words are Everywhere
The digital world of today has tipped the scales in favour of written communication. The way we consume, create and share information both online and offline has much more to do with the visual form of words rather than with their oral aspect. Just like what those SEO experts say, content is king in the present era. Getting a firm grip on words and being able to mould them effectively according to the situation is nothing short of vital for businesses to carry out their operations masterfully. Writing opens multiple paths of success in an organisation, and each route comes with its list of directions. Some of its famous permutations in business are:
- Registering: Within an organisation, you need the written word for multiple purposes. To record the company’s crucial data either on paper or on the cloud for safekeeping. To update it regularly given the dynamically shifting profit scales. To document a new change in the business plan or the startup strategy. To set down the points of a meeting and to later distribute it among the concerned circles. To create and register a new domain, like localcabledeals.com or something that corresponds to your business’s theme etc.
- Reporting—Your writing skills can come super-handy, especially in improving your relationship with your employer. For instance, if there is a new project, you can communicate your success to the boss in writing, which will give a much better impression than merely talking in the air. Other than this, you can get the feedback in writing as well. It would make implementation easier. So on and so forth.
- Emailing—This is one of the most significant milestones of written communication in an organisational setting. Nothing sets off anyone in a firm more than a poorly composed email. It says a lot about the individual who wrote it, and not in a good way. In business, if you want to make a good first impression, then you need to know the tricks and etiquettes of writing a perfect email to all sorts of hierarchies. It has a formality of its own, which can be learned over time.
- Pitching—Ideas that are not conveyed correctly and professionally never see the light of day. You can converse about your innovative plans at length, but if you don’t properly pitch them in a textual format to your audience, no one will take your talks seriously. Presenting an idea to your boss or an important international client requires a useful written communication skill set.
- Collaborating—If you are a team player, then it’s better for you to interact with your project mates and record the success of your endeavours by putting it all into writing, right there for everyone to see.
- Recommending—If you see that your next-cubicle coworker is full of potential and is being underutilised, then you can write a recommendation for them and hand it to your boss. This will drastically improve your interpersonal relationship.
- Marketing—Written communication is vital for formulating an ‘image’ of your brand and for promoting it effectively to the online community. For instance, you should be able to use the written word so flexible that replying informally to Facebook comments and at the same time outreaching formally to backlinking bloggers should be a breeze for you.
In conclusion, it would fare well for you to realise that written communication is equally important to the verbal one in a business setting. Mastering them both will take you way up on the corporate ladder.