Possessing excellent communication skills is a must, especially if you are in a leadership position. The ability to listen carefully, understand body language, and clearly communicate, both verbally and written, are priceless skills that will help your personal and professional success immensely.

With the emergence of new media channels, social conversation, and engagement, however, leaders must learn to adapt their skills to suit these communication styles. Here are just some of the ways leaders can expand their communication skills and improve their influence.

Relationship Building Through New Media
The relationships among employees and company leaders seem to be diminishing thanks to remote work and a more mobile workforce. But building and maintaining these relationships is important, and, in order to do so, executives must find ways to be seen and heard more often. Video webcasting, virtual town hall meetings, forums, and blogs are growing in popularity when it comes to new media channels for communication.

Empathetic Listening
When it comes to listening, you can listen to learn, listen to evaluate and analyze a situation, and listen for empathy. Truly understanding emotions and concerns of others involved in your business enable executives to properly represent and lead the company in the right direction. By combining all three, business leaders strengthen their relationships and move forward with purpose.

Diverse & Inclusive Communication
The workplace has become a melting pot of multicultural, economic, educational and generational differences. If leaders continuously communicate the importance of diversity and inclusion, they will influence the entire organization and it will become a fundamental aspect of the company’s vision.

Transparency, Honesty & Trust
Thanks to social media creating a fishbowl environment, the need for transparency and honesty is more crucial than ever. Whether you want it or not, the ability to share any interaction with your company is at your employees’ and customer’s fingertips at all times. For executives, transparency and honesty will help create a public trust, which can be extremely helpful in times when the company needs a little more support.

Humility In Engagement
Executives and senior communicators should keep their egos in check and practice humility when engaging with the public. Especially in times of crisis or when issues arise, humbleness and modesty wins.

Sharing Passion Power
Leaders who communicate with passion often get better results. If they cannot express their feelings about the organization, why would anyone listen? Audiences connect and believe genuine compassion, therefore, expressing this can effectively influence other to feel passionate about your cause.

What characteristics do you think make a great and powerful communicator and leader? Share with us on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

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Tags: Art of communication, Communication skills, Communicator, Connect, Evolved Communication, Leader, New Media, Social conversation, Verbal and written communication