As a campus recruiter, I get asked by many candidates: “What are some of the important qualities Protiviti looks for in consultants?” In my response, I always emphasize the ability to effectively communicate.
But what does that really mean? What is effective communication in the business world? In talking with recruiters and managers here at Protiviti, we’ve come up with a few key identifiers, and in anticipation of Super Bowl Sunday, we thought we’d give it a football spin.
The Effective Communicator’s Playbook
- Understand your audience – This might be the most important part of being effective! Your communication style needs to have flexibility based on your audience. You need to understand who you are speaking with and cater to their background and knowledge on the issue at hand.
- Be engaging – This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your audience. Now that you understand who you are speaking to, how can you communicate in such a way that generates results?
- Have rationale – Can you explain in depth how you moved from Point A to Point E? Can your audience follow your journey through description and facts?
- Be a good listener – Communication is not a one-way street! A great habit of an effective communicator is to also be a good listener.
- Be polished & have eye contact – This is Communication 101, but a quality worth mentioning over and over! Be confident and articulate in your words, and be sure to use eye contact as a way of keeping your audience’s attention.
If you’re not doing the above things, then you run the risk of bad lip reading and miscommunication. And we wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?
— Cait
hilarious!