Introduction: Effective Business Communication

Communication is an activity, a skill, and an art that incorporates lessons learned across a wide spectrum of human knowledge. Learning to communicate well requires you to read and study how others have expressed themselves, then adapt what you have learned to your present task—whether it is texting a brief message to a friend, presenting your qualifications in a job interview, or writing a business report. You come to this text with skills and an understanding that will provide a valuable foundation as you explore the communication process.

Effective communication takes preparation, practice, and persistence. There are many ways to learn communication skills; the school of experience, or “hard knocks,” is one of them. But in the business environment, a “knock” (or lesson learned) may come at the expense of your credibility through a blown presentation to a client. The classroom environment, with a compilation of information and resources such as this text, can offer you a trial run where you get to try out new ideas and skills before you have to use them to communicate effectively to make a sale or form a new partnership. Listening to others may help you reflect on new ways to present, or perceive, thoughts, ideas and concepts.

With time, training, and practice, your skills and confidence in communication for business will improve, opening more doors than you might anticipate and furthering your career.

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