Communication is crucial in pretty much every walk of life. However, many people overlook business communication skills. Whenever you’re in a professional setting, it’s vital to make sure that you have the appropriate communication skills and tools to help you ensure that projects, planning, and meetings all go smoothly.
If you’re looking at starting a career in hospitality, you’ll need to foster business communication skills. Having these skills can help ensure that you get ahead in hospitality careers, especially since so much of hospitality revolves around communicating and liaising with others. In this article, we’ll go over why business communication skills are so important, as well as the skills you should focus on for a career such as hospitality management.
What are business communication skills?
Many people say that effective communication is the key to almost any successful interaction you have with others, and this is essentially true. But what are business communication skills? Put simply, these are any communication skills that you need in the workplace. You’ll need these skills when dealing with employees, including your team, managers, and other departments, as well as when handling suppliers, agencies, and any outside groups you work with.
Business communication skills include verbal, written, and non-verbal skills since you will have to communicate in a wide range of ways depending on the situation. We’ll look at specific business communication types and the tools you can use, all of which you’ll need when you start your career path.
Business communication skills vs. regular communication skills
There’s obviously an overlap between business communication skills and regular communication skills. However, business communication skills focus on the techniques you need within the workplace. Of course, many are transferable skills. Good workplace communication helps you have the groundwork for effective communication outside the workplace as well.
Importance of business communication skills in the workplace
Communication is vital in the workplace as whenever there needs to be teamwork or collaboration with others, communication is what ensures success. Good communication can help avoid misunderstandings, and to resolve any conflicts that arise. Workplace communication is so important that the role of communications manager is becoming more popular in a wide range of industries.
Importance of these skills in the hospitality industry
Just like any other industry, there’s a need for good communication skills in the hospitality industry. The smooth running of a hospitality venue means that every team member, from managers to front-of-house staff, has to know exactly what they’re doing, and that they can communicate issues to their managers.
There are also outside companies to communicate with, for example, suppliers or marketing firms. In addition, the hospitality industry is fast-paced and issues can crop up quickly. Good communication can help solve problems rapidly and easily with minimal disruption to the service you provide to customers.
Business communication skills for hospitality
There are many communication skills that can benefit you in the hospitality industry, including the following:
- Active listening: This means going beyond just passively listening and making it clear that you’re an active participant in the conversation. Active listening includes asking questions, clarifying facts as they come up, and using the right body language to show that you’re listening with purpose. All of this boosts engagement and shows the speaker that you care about what they have to say, which helps foster a good working relationship. It can also ensure that you’re paying enough attention to the conversation to remember details.
- Adapting messages to the audience: It’s vital to know how to speak to the audience you’re trying to engage with. This includes tailoring the language to the target audience as well as making sure that you focus on the most important points they need to remember.
- Being authentic: Authentic communication can help make sure that team members, managers, and subordinates feel respected and boost engagement with the conversation.
- Being approachable: You need to make sure you are approachable so that others will come to you with problems or questions. This helps keep everything running smoothly.
- Using non-verbal signals: Effective communication for business involves nonverbal cues such as gestures.
- Preparation: Preparing what you say beforehand ensures that your message is clear.
- Handling conflict: In any team, there will be conflict. You need to handle this respectfully to ensure good working relationships between team members.
- Asking the right questions to get the right information: As well as demonstrating engagement, asking questions can help ensure that you get the information you need to do your job and inform others.
- Getting feedback: Feedback helps us improve and do better in the future. You need to make sure you are open and receptive to the feedback you receive to ensure a successful career.
- Quick problem-solving: Creative thinking on the spot and problem-solving can help you tailor your communication to the audience, and it can help you resolve issues as they come up.
- Emotional awareness: It’s important to be aware of the emotional support that the person you’re communicating with might need. If, for example, an employee has had bad news and is emotionally shaken, you may need to change your communication style to take this on board.
- Being assertive: Whether in one-to-one talks or team discussions, you need to make sure that you are assertive enough to get your points heard without being aggressive.
Tools for effective business communication in hospitality
There are many different business communication techniques and tools that you can use to ensure effective message delivery. Each tool can be used differently and they include:
- Group meetings
- Emails
- Message systems
- Ticket systems
- Team discussions
- One-on-one conversations
- Phone calls
Importance of nonverbal communication in hospitality
While many of the communication techniques we’ve listed are verbal or written, there is also significant importance placed on nonverbal signals and nonverbal communication. People do not just focus on the words that are being said, but on how things are expressed.
For example, your body language, eye contact, or gestures affect delivery. Working in hospitality often means working with people from all over the world, so having good nonverbal communication is important. Plus, the appropriate body language and gestures can help you show enthusiastic communication, which can improve a team’s response to the message you’re trying to put across.
Essential communication skills for leaders
Leaders must be able to manage their teams effectively, and this means they need to communicate clearly and be enthusiastic and accurate in what they say. The teams that managers oversee will be made up of people with different backgrounds and specialisms, which means that leaders have to adapt their message as required. The communication skills discussed can help ensure that your teams operate efficiently.
Developing business communication skills
There are plenty of ways to improve your communication skills. One of the main methods is through studying for a hospitality degree, where you’ll be given expert tuition on these techniques. There are also many benefits to be gained from work experience or an internship, where you’ll have the chance to develop these skills in a professional setting.
Build vital skills for success in hospitality management with us, as you develop communication techniques through academic study and professional internships.
Tips for improving verbal communication
If you want to build your verbal skills, one of the simplest ways is to practice with other people. You should be sure to change who you practice with, as practicing with the same people will not help you adapt your message to new audiences.
Strategies for improving written communication
You’ll also need to practice improving your written communication. You should also try to read a lot of documents, books, newspapers and emails, and other written passages and assess how well they work at conveying a specific point. You could also look at different styles for different written communication.
How to improve nonverbal communication
Improving nonverbal communication can be the hardest to achieve. However, you can try gestures, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues in front of a mirror to make sure that you are conveying the right message.
Conclusion
Business communication skills are very important in the hospitality industry. This also means that there are lots of jobs for good communicators in hospitality, including hotel management and other roles.
Even if you are planning on striking out on your own with an entrepreneur business plan, you will need these communication skills to help you communicate well with suppliers, employees, and others. If you want to develop these skills, you can look at our hospitality management degrees, which help you build all the soft and hard skills that you will need in the world of hospitality, luxury management, or consulting.
Photo Credits
Main Image: Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images
