What Is Professional Communication? Definition, Types & Tools

In a professional environment, how you communicate usually differs significantly from how you converse with your friends and family. Your words at work carry a lot of weight and can impact your reputation and effectiveness as a team.

Whether negotiating contracts, presenting to stakeholders, conducting performance reviews, networking, or even sending an email, effective communication can prevent tense situations, make you stand out from your peers, help you advance in your career, and build positive relationships.

This article delves into the subtleties of professional communication and provides practical tips to help you communicate effectively, feel empowered, and succeed in your professional journey.

What does effective professional communication look like?

Here are some key characteristics that distinguish professional communication from casual conversation and make it effective:

Clarity and concision: professional messages are clear and to the point. Unnecessary jargon, ambiguity, or wordiness can muddy the message and lead to miscommunications that slow productivity.
Correctness: facts, figures, and context should all be double-checked for accuracy. A brief review of written messages to check for grammar or spelling mistakes also helps maintain professional standards.
Appropriateness: by actively engaging with and adapting to your workplace's communication culture, you'll navigate interactions confidently and clearly, avoiding misunderstandings and conflicts. Note how your colleagues and supervisors communicate (both verbally and in writing). Pay attention to the tone, level of formality, and content they use, and compare it to any official guidelines provided by the company. For example, if your workplace has a more formal communication culture, you might use more formal language and avoid slang. On the other hand, if your workplace has a more casual communication culture, you might use more casual language and be more direct.
Empathy and emotional intelligence: you can only work well with others if you understand their point of view and how your words make them feel. Ensuring that your message properly respects the viewpoints and needs of others will help everyone feel they can contribute. For example, acknowledging someone's perspective during a disagreement can defuse tension and open up a more constructive conversation.
Active listening: one of the best ways to practice active listening is to take the time to truly hear and understand what the other person is saying. Stay curious and analytical about what they’re communicating rather than assuming you already know their perspective or intentions.
Feedback: when communicating, always be open to feedback. Encouraging others to speak up and ask for clarification will ensure your own messages are understood clearly and not misconstrued. For example, if a colleague doesn't understand something you've said, they should feel comfortable asking for clarification. This can prevent misunderstandings and ensure that your message is understood as you intended.
Nonverbal communication: remember that nonverbal communication can be as powerful, if not more powerful, than spoken words. Be mindful of your body language and facial expressions to ensure your message is received positively. For example, maintaining eye contact and nodding your head can show that you're listening and interested in what the other person is saying. Try to maintain an open and welcoming demeanor that encourages others to contribute to the conversation. For instance, you could smile and lean in slightly when someone is speaking to show that you're engaged and interested in what they're saying (but don’t force anything that feels unnatural).
Adaptability: the ability to adapt your communication style based on the audience, context, and feedback is a crucial characteristic of professional communication. For instance, you might adjust your tone and vocabulary in a formal business setting to align with corporate culture and expectations. In a casual conversation, you might opt for a more relaxed and informal approach.
Transparency and honesty: clear, open, and honest communication builds trust. It involves being straightforward about intentions, avoiding hidden agendas, and being open to discussing complex issues. For example, if you're not sure about something, it's better to admit it and ask for clarification than to pretend you understand. This shows that you're honest and transparent, and can help build trust with your colleagues and clients.

Why is effective professional communication important for business?

We've seen some characteristics that make up professional communication and now know what separates effective and ineffective communication. Now, let's look at why that's important.

Impact on team dynamics and morale

Open and respectful communication creates a culture of trust and inclusivity where everyone feels comfortable expressing their thoughts and asking questions. This leads to smoother collaboration and increased productivity. Transparency in the workplace helps address issues and make collective decisions, which is crucial for better employee morale.

Influence on client relationships and customer satisfaction

Good communication is essential for building lasting relationships with customers. Clear, consistent, and honest communication builds trust, which is the foundation for successful partnerships. Loyal customers help businesses grow through word-of-mouth referrals, enhancing the company's reputation and attracting new clients. Understanding clients' needs and expectations is the key to providing personalized services that exceed their expectations and build long-lasting relationships.

Contribution to innovation and creativity

We've previously discussed the importance of an effective communication environment encouraging everyone to share their thoughts. This principle is particularly crucial in the areas of innovation and creativity. Many great ideas go unexplored because the person who created them hesitates to speak up. However, by promoting a culture of professional communication, you can help overcome this challenge.

Once creative ideas start taking shape, they need to be refined and tested, feedback needs to be gathered, and so on. All these stages rely heavily on effective communication. Companies that foster a communication-friendly culture are more likely to succeed in promoting innovation, while less effective competition may fail.

5 skills that boost professional communication

Let’s look deeply at some key characteristics of professional communication and how to master them:

1. Active listening

Active listening is the practice of fully concentrating on the speaker. Too often, people worry so much about their side of the conversation and the points they want to make that the other person only gets half the attention.

Techniques to improve active listening skills

maintain eye contact to show interest and focus,
minimize external and internal distractions,
paraphrase and summarize the points made to confirm understanding,
provide meaningful feedback on what was said,
ask open-ended questions, and

keep an open mind while listening to avoid personal biases influencing your perspective.

2. Clear and concise verbal communication

Messages should only be as complex as necessary to convey the information effectively. Continually adapt your communication to suit your audience.

Strategies for enhancing clarity and conciseness

plan ahead to ensure you stay on topic,
use simple, direct language, and avoid jargon,
avoid unnecessary details, and
speak at a moderate pace, with a calm, confident tone.

3. Written communication

Writing requires the same concision as speaking, but you can take a final read-through with written communication to ensure clarity.

Tips for writing professional emails and documents

start with a clear subject line or title that summarizes the content,
use headings and bullet points to organize information,
proofread to avoid errors, and
avoid overly complex language.

4. Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal cues, such as body language, facial expressions, and posture, play an often overlooked role in communication. These cues can reinforce or contradict verbal messages, making learning how to use them especially important.

Conveying positive body language

maintain open posture (uncrossing arms),
nodding, and
keeping appropriate eye contact to show attentiveness.

Try to stay aware of your body language and facial expressions to ensure they align with the words you're saying. For instance, nodding when saying ‘yes,’ smiling when saying ‘thank you,’ and avoiding disdainful body language like frowning excessively or eye-rolling.

5. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence refers to your ability to understand and manage your emotions and to be aware of and respectful of the feelings of others. Developing high emotional intelligence allows you to build empathy, better address conflicts, and improve your interactions.

Let’s simplify emotional intelligence into five components:

Self-awareness: understanding your own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and values.
Self-regulation: managing and controlling your emotions, impulses, and reactions effectively.
Motivation: the drive and determination to achieve goals, overcome obstacles, and pursue excellence.
Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings, perspectives, and experiences of others.
Social skills: the aptitude for effective communication, collaboration, and relationship-building with others in various social contexts.

Developing emotional intelligence in the workplace

reflect on your emotions and reactions to understand your triggers and behaviors,
practice active listening to improve empathy, and
seek feedback on your interactions to identify areas for improvement.

How do I enhance my professional communication skills?

If you feel like you've tried the tips above but still need help to improve your communication skills, don't stress. There are even more techniques you can explore to help improve your abilities.

Continuous learning

Soft skills, such as communication, are a hot topic now. There are plenty of resources that will teach you how to communicate better. Continuous learning to keep up-to-date on changing industry standards, technologies, and practices is essential. This training will keep you relevant and competitive in your field and give you better knowledge and confidence to incorporate into your communication.

Platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and Udemy offer many free or affordable courses that can help you learn everything from public speaking to effective writing. Professional organizations related to your field are great resources for gaining access to learning resources and practicing communication by networking with others in your field.

Seek feedback

There are many ways to seek feedback. As with everything, some work better than others. Meaningfully seeking feedback involves more than just asking how well you communicate. You need to ask specific questions that meaningfully guide the person giving feedback. For example, instead of asking, "Was that good?" you can ask, "How could I have made my presentation clearer?" Rather than elicit a simple yes or no response, open-ended responses usually provide a more well-thought-out answer.

The next step in learning from feedback is to put your ego aside. An outside observer will notice things about your communication skills that you need to improve. That's the whole point of asking for feedback. Yet, many people will dismiss criticism, no matter how valid and constructive. When seeking feedback, it's essential to approach it positively and proactively. Rather than viewing it as a task to check off, consider it an opportunity for growth and improvement.

Practice empathy

Empathy refers to the capacity to comprehend another person's thoughts and emotions. It doesn't necessarily mean agreeing with them but rather understanding their perspective. This understanding is necessary to properly learn their viewpoint and communicate why your perspective might be worth considering. Empathetic communication fosters trust and openness, which results in more effective and meaningful interactions.

Active listening is one way to build empathy, which we've discussed quite a bit. That's because it forces you to pay close attention to what someone is saying and take steps to understand the point they're trying to get across. A step beyond active listening is role-playing. By swapping roles with other team members and making the case from their perspective, you must consider why they may be right or feel the way they do. Although this exercise may seem silly, when done thoughtfully, it's a powerful tool for understanding other people and seeing how you come across.

Embrace technology

Modern technology has touched on every aspect of our lives. It should come as no surprise that there are a myriad of tools and platforms that can enhance your communication skills. Most of these won't teach you how to be a better communicator but instead, facilitate and encourage more productive communication.

For example, video conferencing tools are so effective at improving remote communication that they're practically single-handedly responsible for the rise in remote work. Communication platforms, like Microsoft Teams, take this idea even further. The tools in those platforms are designed to facilitate straightforward collaboration between team members using various communication methods.

Top collaboration tools to boost professional communication

Here’s a selection of specific tools you can use to boost your professional communication:

Venngage

Venngage is a popular tool for creating infographics, reports, data visualizations, and other professional visuals. These types of visuals can simplify complex information in a way that's easy to understand. Venngage provides a wide range of templates and design elements that make it equally easy to create such visuals. Anyone looking to present data or concepts more compellingly will find this tool useful.

The more creatively and pleasingly presented information is, the more likely the audience will pay attention to and retain it. Venngage's powerful tools let users create visual aids that will wow the audience. The high customization level allows these visuals to match company branding and achieve communication goals precisely.

Pumble

This tool is a complete team communication platform. Pumble aims to streamline sending messages, sharing files, and collaborating with team members. It does this through direct messaging, group chats, video and voice calls, and file-sharing. All of these features are combined into a unified and easy-to-understand interface. By using the tool, teams can reduce their email workload and centralize their communications.

To keep teams organized, Pumble supports the creation of channels for various projects, topics, or departments. This way, disparate parts of the company can all use the software without cluttering each other's workspace. This keeps conversations focused and relevant while supporting a large organization's needs. External communication tools allow messages with clients and vendors to be managed from the same central location.

Pip Decks

Pip Decks are collections of “business recipe cards.” Each deck has step-by-step instructions that cover different scenarios within its scope. For example, Storyteller Tactics will help you craft more compelling presentations, while Workshop Tactics provides countless recipes for conducting more effective workshops.

The team at Pip Decks rejects the notion of infinite answers. Carefully curating down to 54 cards in a deck makes Pip Decks powerful. Like a DJ curates music, we curate the most potent recipes for professional communication. So you know you have everything you need. No more, no less. Discover how other highly effective communicators are using Pip Decks.

Pip Decks

What is professional communication?

What does effective professional communication look like?