The Business Corner: The Importance of Communicating Effectively and With Articulation

Communication goes hand in hand with the idea and ability to recognize our emotions so we can recognize how others may feel and put into effect the best approach on how to handle a situation or task.

Identifying signs and attributes in how one communicates can tell us a lot about how they’re feeling, which gives us a better understanding of how to communicate with them to obtain a mutually beneficial outcome.

Communication is essential in any field and comes in various forms such as written, oral, nonverbal, and through listening.

In “10 Benefits of Effective Communication in the Workplace” the Indeed editorial team writes, “…an important component of workplace communication is that employees feel understood and heard by management. Employees who feel comfortable communicating with their supervisors and managers are more likely to understand what’s expected of them and remain productive throughout the day.”

So not only is effective communication beneficial to you, but it’s beneficial to those around you as well. Let’s expand on some of the benefits of being an effective communicator.

Benefits of Effective Communication

Mastering how to be an effective communicator is beneficial as it can allow you to mitigate

potential conflicts, facilitate employee engagement and productivity, contribute to creating and

maintaining clientele, lead to innovation, increase overall team contributions, promote inclusion and equity in the workplace, as well as improve how you are perceived.

These are important aspects in any workplace because they are crucial to succeeding within your organization as well as fostering both professional and personal growth.

Another important aspect that goes into communicating effectively is articulation.

Creating the Art in Articulation

Word articulation is a vital part of effective communication, and it’s important to know what it means and how to implement it in our daily lives.

Julien Florkin explains in his article “Articulation: 7 Important Aspects to Transform Thoughts into Words”, that articulation is “…the process of expressing our thoughts, ideas, or emotions in a clear, effective, and coherent manner, turning the hidden treasure of our minds into sparkling jewels of communication.” He also goes into the idea that articulation is like a superpower, it’s the craft of making your words resonate with your audience.

Carefully and meaningfully selecting specific words to use when expressing your ideas will give you an upper hand when presenting yourself to your audience. Articulation allows your audience to be inspired, engaged, and influenced.

Knowing how to communicate with articulation isn’t only useful for the professional world, it’s also useful in everyday life. “It helps you ace job interviews, negotiate effectively, build stronger relationships, and even resolve conflicts.” It can also prevent miscommunication, and “bolster self-confidence, improve self-expression, and enhance interpersonal relationships.”

Some ways we can improve our speech articulation are:

1. Practicing by reading to broaden our vocabulary, writing to get better at organizing our thoughts, and speaking up/participating in discussions to gain confidence and experience.
2. Seeking feedback from professors, mentors, co-workers, and people around you.
3. Practicing active listening, paying attention to how others communicate, and taking mental notes of some words, phrases, or mannerisms you’d like to implement.

Being an active listener doesn’t only benefit you, it also benefits the speaker since it shows them that you’re engaged which can lead to better, intellectual, transparent, and productive conversations.

Optimizing our use of communication is extremely beneficial for everyone. Connecting with our audiences and taking the time to understand how to articulate words is crucial in the pursuance of both professional and personal endeavors.