20 min read 2nd Dec 2025
You speak every day – in meetings, messages, and conversations – but somehow your ideas don’t always land. You repeat yourself, people misunderstand, and the connection gets lost.
At Body Talk, we’ve spent more than 20 years developing our science-based communication framework and helping people master it. These are the techniques that change careers, rebuild confidence, and transform how others respond to you.
In this guide on how to improve communication skills, you’ll learn 12 practical techniques to help you express ideas clearly and influence outcomes.
Key Takeaways
- Strong communication isn’t a talent, it’s a trainable skill that transforms how people listen, respond, and act on your ideas.
- Clarity, confidence, emotional intelligence, and active listening are the four pillars that determine whether your message lands or gets lost.
- Small habits create big impact: tightening your language, improving your nonverbal cues, and preparing with intention can instantly elevate your presence.
- Communication barriers like stress, assumptions, or unclear structure aren’t permanent. Once you can identify them, you can overcome them.
- When you communicate effectively, you influence more, collaborate better, and unlock opportunities that were out of reach before.
Why communication skills matter
Strong communication is one of the most valuable skills in any career because it affects every interaction, every day.
Here’s how it makes the difference:
- In business, communication drives results. When your message is clear, people understand what to do and why it matters. Teams align faster, decisions get made sooner, and clients feel confident in your direction. If you want to explore how communication functions within an organisation and why it’s so essential for performance, take a look at our full guide on what business communication really means.
- In leadership, communication builds confidence. The best leaders don’t just deliver information, they make people feel included and motivated. They know how to explain complex ideas simply and listen actively. When people understand your vision, they’re far more likely to follow it. To dive deeper into how great leadership transforms organisations, explore our guide on the key benefits of effective leadership.
- In teamwork, communication fuels progress. Clear conversations help colleagues share updates solve problems early and stay on track. When every voice is heard and understood, collaboration becomes smoother – and projects move forward with fewer setbacks and stronger results.
To explore communication skills in more depth, including the key behaviours that make you clearer, more confident, and more influential, take a look at our Communication Skills Guide.
What is effective communication?
Effective communication is the ability to share your message in a way that people not only understand, but respond to.
When you communicate effectively, your ideas land cleanly. It bridges the gap between what you mean to say and what others actually take away.
But communication isn’t just verbal. Your tone, body language, and ability to listen all shape how your message is received. The way you make others feel often determines how well they absorb what you say.
Let’s break down what makes communication truly effective – and how you can master it.
12 techniques to improve communication skills
Great communicators aren’t born – they’re built through practice, awareness, and small, consistent changes that make a big difference.
1. Practise active listening
Listening is where real communication starts. Instead of planning your response or getting caught up in your own thoughts, focus fully on the person speaking. Being fully present allows you to pick up meaning beyond words – the emotion, intent, and perspective behind them.
Show you’re engaged with small verbal nods like “I see” or “That makes sense”, and summarise key points to confirm understanding. These simple habits build trust and make people feel heard, one of the most powerful ways to strengthen any relationship.
Avoid interrupting or letting distractions pull your focus. The more present you are, the more accurate – and empathetic – your responses become.
As psychologist Carl Rogers, a pioneer of humanistic psychology, once said:
“Man’s inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively.”
2. Utilise assertive communication
There are four main communication styles: passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and assertive.
- Passive communicators avoid conflict but often leave their needs unheard.
- Aggressive communicators push too hard, damaging trust and relationships.
- Passive-aggressive communicators express frustration indirectly, which creates confusion.
- Assertive communicators, however, strike the balance. They’re respectful, confident, and clear.
As we explore in our blog on assertive communication, this approach doesn’t just improve relationships – it reduces stress.
Dr Laura Aylward explains that stress often arises when the demands placed on us exceed the resources we believe we have to handle them. Assertive communication lowers that pressure by helping you express your needs calmly and clearly, giving you a greater sense of control in any situation.
And control matters. When you feel grounded and composed, you can communicate more effectively – even in moments of pressure or disagreement.
3. Be clear and concise
Clarity is one of the main ways to improve your communication skills. When your message is simple and free from any unnecessary words, people understand it faster and act on it sooner.
Avoid jargon unless you’re certain your audience shares your knowledge. According to a recent study, using too much jargon at work can actually block communication. It makes people feel confused, less confident, and less likely to share or ask for information.
Interestingly, the study found that age played a role too. Older employees struggled more to process jargon but were more willing to ask questions to clarify it. Younger workers, on the other hand, were less likely to seek clarification, meaning the message often stopped with them.
So, keep it clear. When your language is simple, your intent is easy to follow – and your team feels more confident.
4. Pay attention to nonverbal communication
Your nonverbal cues, like eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and tone, work together to help other people understand your intent. When your verbal communication and nonverbal signals work together, it becomes easier for people to understand and get behind your message.
Our founder at Body Talk, Richard Newman, learned this first-hand while training to teach English. During a session, his tutor told the class she would only speak in Chinese. Without knowing a single word of the Chinese language, he found he could follow what she meant simply through her body language and tone of voice.
Later, when Richard began teaching English to Tibetan monks who spoke no English at all, he relied entirely on body language to communicate. He quickly discovered that muted gestures and flat tone didn’t work. His communication had to be visibly expressive – big enough for meaning to be clear.
That same principle applies in the workplace. Too often, people dial down their body language to appear calm or “professional,” but the result is communication that feels restrained or uncertain. When your voice, movement, and facial expression carry energy and intent, your message comes alive.
5. Develop emotional intelligence (EQ)
A 2024 study of public university instructors found a strong link between emotional intelligence and effective communication.
That’s because communication isn’t just about what you say, it’s about how you manage yourself while saying it. When your emotions are in check, you’re able to respond in a positive way rather than reacting impulsively.
So, how do you develop emotional intelligence? Start by building self-awareness. Notice how you feel in the moment and what triggers those reactions. Journalling can help you spot patterns, but even pausing before you respond can stop emotion from taking over and help you think more clearly.
At Body Talk, we teach emotional intelligence as one of the most powerful skills in communication. It helps you understand others and create genuine connection, even in high-pressure situations.
6. Build confidence
Confidence helps people trust your message, often before they’ve even processed your words.
But confidence isn’t about pretending to be fearless. It’s about learning how to steady yourself when your mind starts to race.
As Professor Steve Peters explains in The Chimp Paradox, two systems in the brain drive decision-making – one logical and one emotional. The emotional side, which Peters calls the Chimp, is impulsive, reactive, and focused on survival. It’s the part of you that worries about judgement, stumbles over words, or doubts whether you’re good enough.
You can’t control your chimp entirely, but you can learn to soothe it. When you calm that inner chatter, your logical, confident self takes charge – and that’s when you communicate with real presence.
If you want to learn how to manage that inner dialogue, take a look at our blog on three ways to soothe your monkey mind.
7. Practise empathy
When others feel heard, they’re far more likely to trust your intentions and act on your ideas.
A Catalyst study of nearly 900 employees found that empathy is a key driver of innovation, engagement, and inclusion, particularly during times of crisis or rapid change. In other words, when leaders and colleagues show genuine understanding, people feel safer to share ideas and contribute fully.
Practising empathy starts with listening to understand, not to reply. Pay attention to tone, body language, and what’s not being said. Ask open questions that show real curiosity, and reflect back what you’ve heard to confirm understanding.
8. Understand the barriers to communication
Even the best communicators hit barriers. The key is knowing what kind of barrier you’re facing.
Some are physical, like poor audio on a video call or a distracting environment. Others are psychological – stress, fatigue, or assumptions that cloud understanding. Then there are language and cultural barriers, where tone or phrasing can easily be misinterpreted.
Each one holds you back in different ways. But when you can identify the barrier, you can overcome it.
We explore the science behind these challenges – and how to most past them – in our blog on barriers to communication.
9. Give and receive feedback effectively
The ability to give feedback well is one of the most valuable communication skills you can develop.
Research shows that the best feedback is clear, constructive, and helpful. That means being specific about what worked, what didn’t, and how things could be done differently.
For example, instead of saying:
“Your presentation wasn’t engaging.”
You could say:
“Your content was strong, but you could make it even more engaging by weaving in your own experiences and a few concrete examples of your point. They’ll help the audience connect with your message and stay focused throughout.”
And don’t forget the other side: receiving feedback. Staying open to input gives you insight into how your words and actions land with others. It’s one of the fastest ways to grow as a communicator, and to build trust with the people around you.
10. Use linking phrases instead of filler words
Filler words like “um”, “uh”, or “like” can make you sound uncertain and break your flow. Linking phrases, on the other hand, keep your ideas connected and your message clear.
Linking phrases are expressions that guide people through what you’re saying, helping them follow your logic and see how each point builds on the last. Phrases like “let’s explore that further”, “this leads us to…”, or “to put it another way” add structure and polish to your delivery.
Word choices like these can also help you clarify or expand on a point you’ve just made, giving other people a moment to process before you move forward.
11. Prepare in advance
Preparation is one of the most powerful communication tactics you can use, because confidence starts long before you speak.
If you’re giving a presentation, try recording yourself or practising in front of someone you trust. It might feel awkward at first, but it’s one of the best ways to catch what’s working – and what isn’t – before the real thing.
Pay attention to your pace, tone, and clarity. Small adjustments can make a big difference to how you sound and how confident you feel.
And don’t just look for what to fix – notice what you’re doing well. Our brains naturally focus on negatives, but positive reinforcement helps you build confidence faster. For more techniques to plan, structure, and deliver a standout talk, explore our guide on what makes a good presentation.
12. Flex your speaker style
The best communicators know when to step forward, when to pause, and how to meet different people where they are.
That’s where understanding your natural tendencies can make a real difference. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), inspired by Jungian psychology, gives you a framework for doing just that. It looks at four key areas:
- Where you focus your energy — Extraversion or Introversion
- How you take in information — Sensing or Intuition
- How you make decisions — Thinking or Feeling
- How you organise your world — Judging or Perceiving
If you’re naturally extroverted, you might practise holding space for silence and letting others contribute. If you lean towards introversion, you could challenge yourself to speak up sooner or share an idea before it feels “perfect.”
Want to learn how to flex your style effectively? Read our blog on flexing your communication style for more details on how we approach this at Body Talk.
Change how you communicate. Change what you achieve.
For over two decades, we’ve helped professionals and teams overcome the barriers that hold them back.
Each session is tailored and expert-led, giving you practical, usable skills you can apply immediately. Through dynamic, interactive live practice, you’ll learn how to:
- Build presence and self-awareness through body language that captures attention.
- Learn to manage nerves and stay calm under pressure.
- Influence and inspire others in meetings, presentations, and challenging conversations.
Our approach is grounded in behavioural science and proven through measurable impact. You’ll leave every session energised, equipped, and ready to put what you’ve learned into action.
Ready to communicate with confidence and influence?
Explore Body Talk’s communication skills training courses.
Back