The digital age has certainly changed what we perceive as value propositions within professional contexts. Traditionally, a supportive workplace would be defined by its office amenities, like a comfortable break room or the right tech investments. With the rise of remote and hybrid work models, however, that have evolved greater nuances as to what constitutes a supportive manager or workplace culture. And with technology making up more of the infrastructure for our daily organizational processes, the value of strong communication has naturally skyrocketed.
Today, great communicators are worth their weight in gold, as the ability to speak clearly and concisely even with digital technologies allows teams to maintain streamlined briefing and comms without having to sacrifice on quality of output. So if you’re looking to hone your communication skills and ensure you’re an asset to any organization in the digital age, then be sure to heed these top tips.
Ensure your Communications Are Accessible
First and foremost, making sure that your communication style is universally accessible is foundational to being an effective figurehead in your organization’s digital spheres. This means getting into the habit of using plain or formal English with all your emails, and structuring your communication style to ensure that all your main points are clearly legible and can be absorbed by your readers.
But there’s another element to ensuring your comms are accessible – utilizing structures, formats and file types that can be read on all devices. This means keeping emails in simple formatting for mobile friendliness, and perhaps even using an online PDF editor to ensure that all your email attachments are in universal .pdf file format prior to sending.
Project a Trusting, Confident Digital Presence
The difference between in-person and digital communication is that in person, people can witness your body language and facial expressions, which form a large part of non-verbal communication. A video call, on the other hand, cuts out half of the non-verbal cues in the meeting. Email, texts and instant messages (IM) remove it altogether. This means that text-based communication can easily be mistaken for being rude or brusque. All of this can lead to communication breakdowns, a lack of trust, and strained relationships.
To address these issues, ensure that you project a trusting, confident, friendly and collaborative persona across all digital communication channels. You can do this by expressing and extending gratitude in every digital interaction, whether it’s a video call, email or IM. Ensure that you actively listen to all participants in a digital meeting and allow everyone a chance to speak. Foster environments of openness and belonging so everyone feels comfortable participating in a discussion.
Did you know that the Harvard Business Review has recommended using emojis in text and IM to gain a deeper understanding of how people feel, convey empathy and humour, and build connections? This shift is evidence enough that our trust signals when it comes to professional digital communications have rapidly evolved. So why not follow suit?
Invest in Your Digital Persona
And speaking of sending emojis, chances are most of us know our favourite friends’ and colleagues’ digital communication style quite intimately solely because of the emojis, text abbreviations, and phrases that they’re most likely to use. All of these intricate communication details make up the foundation of your digital persona.
Simply put, a digital persona is your online presence and typically is made up of all your profiles on social media websites, email accounts and professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn. It’s a combination of your name, experience, education, profile picture, certifications and status updates or tweets.
This digital persona is typically the first thing that colleagues, potential clients and peers will witness before they jump on a video call or meet you in person. Auditing your digital persona to ensure it conveys what you want it to, which is making you appear professional, collegiate and trustworthy.
Stay Positive in all Digital Communications
Effective communicators keep in mind that more often than not, tonality just cannot be gauged over text comms. If you receive an email that unsettles you or rubs you the wrong way, or a coworker or friend texts something that doesn’t sit well, it is essential that you remain positive and project that energy into the situation with grace. If an aggravating, or annoying situation comes up, ensure that you remain calm and calm yourself before replying. You should never give a knee-jerk reaction by sending a scathing email or getting into an argument with your coworker or friend on the video chat.
Here are some tips. You should avoid responding to emails when you’re elevated or frustrated, angry or annoyed. Instead, step away from your desk or workstation for a quick break and relaxing cup of tea or coffee, or focus on other tasks until you feel calm and collected enough to respond with understanding, empathy, grace and appreciation. When disagreeing with someone, whether they’re a coworker or a direct report via video chat, ensure that you explain that you get their point of view. You should point out the positive aspects of their argument or point and then calmly express your point of view while remaining cool and collected. Remember that by encouraging other people’s viewpoints, you cultivate a collaborative environment where everyone feels safe and respected.
Be Mindful About Communication Channels
We’ve all sat in a meeting and thought to ourselves, “This could have very well been an email.” On such occasions, team members or clients may feel as though their time has been wasted with a one-hour meeting that was needless.
It’s important to avoid such feelings and mix-ups with your stakeholders by being thoughtful about the communication channel you choose to convey information or a proposal. Is there too much information for an email, or is it a thing that needs to be discussed at length and have input before it moves forward as an action? Or is it a quick “yes” or “no” confirmation? Consider the length and complexity of a request before you book time on someone’s calendar, pick up the phone or hit send on an email.
In some instances, a quick question can be very easily answered by IM, which gives the person time to see, craft a response and get back to you in their own time. An urgent reply, on the other hand, definitely warrants a phone call.
A Communication Skills Summary
Above, we’ve covered everything you need to know about digital communication channels and when one might be more appropriate over another. We’ve also shared how you can keep your cool when something annoying or aggravating comes up via digital communication. With this information in mind, you should be able to hone your communication skills with ease, ensuring that you’re a more effective and empathetic communicator to both your coworkers and clients alike.
