Communication Skills- Oral and Written

Communication Skills- Oral and Written Youve seen these requirements in nearly every job description. Excellent communication skills, oral and written. What does it really mean? The oral and written skills you will need to succeed in a job vary from role to role. Every position does not require giving presentations or writing reports. But every role will require you to write concise and clear email messages and to interact professionally with your coworkers. Sure, you already know this. As a candidate for a job, how can you prove your oral and written communication skills? You dont want to wait for the interview to demonstrate your conversational abilities or how well you can succinctly  answer a question. And you dont want your resume and cover letter to be the only written material judged. These are some ideas to help you showcase your excellent communication skills, oral and written, before the interview. Proving Your Excellent Communication Skills One way to prove you have the skills you claim is to provide evidence. But what type of evidence do you have and where do you put it? One way to identify the skills you need to prove is to read job descriptions. When you see post after post requiring certain skills, thats what you want to focus on. For example, have you seen this job requirement? “Create or deliver presentations” Your proof: Recreate or adapt a presentation you have given or created. Use a photograph or video of you delivering a  presentation. Embed these files within your LinkedIn profile and on your personal website. Write reports, executive summaries and contribute to monthly newsletter. Your proof: Start a blog or use LinkedIns publishing platform. Become a guest contributor  to a professional association or an industry related  newsletter. Press releases, news articles,  reports or other business communication youve written. Embed or link to these files in your LinkedIn profile and on your personal website. Improve Your Communication Skills We all can get better at communicating and interacting with people. One way to rise to the next level in your career is to develop the communication skills that will help you stand out. No matter what role you want next, how you communicate will always impact your performance and how your co-workers and supervisor perceive you. In order to survive and thrive in todays work and turbulent economy, youll want to adopt the philosophy of being a life-long-learner. Your career will not be a single job with a single employer. Youll need to transform and reposition your career goals based on the ever-changing demands. As you can imagine, this is going to take really strong communication skills. What are you doing today to develop yours? Practice and Refine Your Oral Communication Skills Toastmasters International is a worldwide nonprofit educational organization that empowers individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. There are Toastmaster clubs all around the world. Find a club. Visit and evaluate the club. Join the club. Reap the benefits of being a member. At Toastmasters’ 2016 World Championship of Public Speaking ®, Darren Tay, Aaron Beverly and Josephine Lee took to the stage and captivated the audience with their ability to communicate, claiming the top three spots in the world’s largest speech contest. Watch their highlight video here. Toastmasters is a public speaking organization, but it’s so much more,” says Josephine Lee. “There’s interpersonal communication, spontaneity, community and so many other side benefits of joining.” Improve Your Writing Skills Typos and grammatical mistakes cast a negative shadow over you on the job and during a job search. Its super easy to prevent this from happening. Proofread everything your write! Yes, but that takes time and you often miss common errors. Try Grammarly. [This is an affiliate link and I may make a tiny bit of money  if you end up subscribing for their paid service] Ive been using it for the past several months, in fact, Im using it as I write this post. It catches mistakes in real-time so you dont miss them. Grammarly watches everything I type online (emails and blog posts). You can even upload documents youve written off-line to double check grammar and spelling. What other skills do you feel are important to develop? Have you found an effective resource?