how do you communicate effectively I'm going to cover this interview question and answer
so that you can nail this in your next interview there are three important things to remember when
you're answering a question like this so one is to structure your answer separate it into
parts and make your point clear to keep it clean concise and memorable and I'll show you how to
do this two is to make sure that you include an example so I'll show you how to do that and three
is to reference multiple communication styles to demonstrate your flexibility and understanding
and also include your own communication style as well I'm Amri Celeste your interview coach
so let's get started now if you're going into a role that involves communicating
with clients customers colleagues or management which is most roles then you'll need to know how
to answer this question it's really important to understand the variations here because you
won't always be asked this question directly in the interviewer won't always be looking for the
same elements in your answer so they might ask about workplace communication your communication
style and the elements that make up effective communication at work why because they want to
understand that not only can you communicate well but you understand why it's important and
how to assess your own ability to communicate so here are the key elements to address in your
answer one is that you consider others when communicating and this could be by email in
person by phone or in a large group you need to take into account other languages learning styles
and sometimes how to keep others engaged two is that you have flexibility so you need to be
able to communicate with a range of people that will have varying listening and communication
Styles and three is that you have some level of self-awareness on how you communicate so
here are a few other variations to look out for what is good communication how do you communicate
what is effective communication and what is your communication Style now how do you communicate
effectively is not assessing your behavior or asking about a specific situation where you had to
communicate effectively so it's not a behavioral or situational question it doesn't mean that you
can't include a situation and an example but it's not asking for that this is a competency-based
interview question it's assessing your competency and your ability to perform well in specific areas
of the role that require effective communication I cover the top four in this video covering the
top four Competency Based interview questions and answers so I'll link that video in the
description below start off your answer with a summary that might look something like this I
think effective communication is a crucial skill in any professional setting it involves much more
than simply conveying a message to communicate effectively I believe that it's essential to
actively listen to the other person and understand their perspective to me listening is a crucial
part of effective communication I always strive to be clear and concise in my communication
using language that is easy to understand and avoiding any jargon that might confuse others
that summary could work for any role and the key part is the listening a lot of candidates forget
to include the listening part which is really key now here are a few role-specific examples
so that you can see how this works for specific roles so the first is a project manager when I
was working as a project manager for a software development team I needed to communicate complex
technical requirements to both the development team and non-technical stakeholders to do this I
made sure to break down the technical language and use analogies and examples that the non-technical
stakeholders could understand I also held regular meetings with the development team to discuss any
issues or concerns they had and I made sure to actively listen to their feedback and ideas by
communicating regularly in this style I was able to suggest solutions that worked for everyone and
ensure that the project was delivered on time and within budget so that's a simple and short
answer specific to a role and the example centers around regular communication so steering away
from industry jargon that could alienate others and that way ensuring effective communication
depending on the role you're interviewing for these are really effective points to include in
your answer the next is an example for a customer service rep in my current role as a customer
service rep in a retail store I sometimes handle a lot of customer complaints in these situations
I always make sure I maintain a calm and friendly tone even when the customer is upset or frustrated
I also make an effort to use positive body language such as nodding or maintaining eye
contact to convey empathy and understanding in one case a customer received a defective product
and was understandably upset they were raising their voice and becoming increasingly agitated
but I remained calm and patient throughout the conversation by maintaining a positive tone and
using open body language I was able to de-escalate the situation and work with the customer to find
a solution so that is another short sharp example for a retail role centering around positive body
language and tone of voice to communicate effect actively so those are other examples of what you
can include in your answer so the next answer will center around a specific example which can
be a very powerful way to answer this question so this is for a marketing manager in my previous job
as a marketing manager I had to work closely with a team of designers to create marketing
materials for our clients however there were times when the initial designs didn't meet the
client's expectations and I had to work with the team to revise the designs based on the feedback
we received to ensure that we could deliver the best possible results I made a point of asking
for feedback from both the clients and the design team at every stage of the process by doing this
we were able to identify and address any issues early on and make adjustments to the designs as
needed moreover I was always open to feedback from my colleagues and clients and willing to
adjust my Approach if necessary this helped me to continually improve my communication skills
and build stronger relationships with both my colleagues and my clients in fact several clients
specifically mentioned how much they appreciated my willingness to listen to their feedback and
make changes based on their input so in that last example I wanted to demonstrate the importance of
regular contact as an effective communication tool so you can see here where it has asking
for feedback at every stage of the process to identify issues early on then the second part is
about feedback and how taking feedback strengthens professional relationships and personal as well to
be honest but also the outcome of that so at the end here it says the clients mentioned how much
they appreciated feedback in your answer if you can include any of the impact of your effective
communication that makes your answer a little bit more memorable if you're not subscribed to this
channel yet please do like this video and leave a comment if you had a great result already then you
can also buy me a coffee here there are details in the description below on how to do that now
an easy way to promote your strongest area of communication that matches with the role that
you're going for is to actually review the job description before your interview and include
the areas that match with your skills in your answer so here's an example on a job description I
created for an engineer under key responsibilities you can see all the areas that involve effective
communication and where that would be important so let's highlight those now so you've got
acting as a liaison between the team and clients working with project managers to ensure timely
communication keeping stakeholders informed giving regular project updates these are all areas where
you can link your communication skills to the relevant areas of the role in your interview so
here's an example of how this is effective in an interview answer as an engineer although much of
my role is based around technical analysis and executing engineering plans multiple areas of
my role are based around communicating effectively with various teams for a variety of reasons across
all levels of management for example as a natural part of managing various projects I need to keep
stakeholders updated not only in emails and reports but sometimes in quarterly presentation
Updates this requires effective communication because in order to ensure stakeholders are
getting the information they need I have to keep their motivations in mind for example a marketing
director is going to be concerned with the areas of an engineering project that link in with what
they do as opposed to a full update covering all areas I also act as a liaison between the team
and the clients of the company I need to ensure that communication with clients is effective for
example in order to provide regular updates I've suggested setting up regular meetings so clients
don't have to chase the information I steer away from using technical jargon that might confuse
them and I use active listening to ensure that my responses are thoughtful and specifically address
what they're asking and I also ask a lot of clarifying questions to anticipate any potential
issues so this is how I ensure consistent success with my projects now that answer is a little long
of course but your answer would be shorter just include two or three key points and take what's
relevant to the role that you are interviewing for so you can see how I Incorporated my points from
earlier and how everything links to the job description now in order to keep your answer
relevant to the job description you just need to review your job description beforehand and
be clear what the key points are a key phrase throughout this video and that example is for
example used here and here in the answer very specific examples of how you made sure that
the communication was effective so for example or regular updates for clients you talk about
establishing regular communication channels using clear concise language active listening
and anticipating potential issues also areas I mentioned earlier right at the beginning of the
video so one was to separate it into parts to make it memorable the first part of that last example
in this whole section here covering communication with stakeholders two was to include an example
in your answer which I just covered in that last example answer that included examples and three
was to reference multiple communication Styles which is here emails reports and presentation
updates steering away from technical jargon to ensure Clarity so these are all various
ways of communicating and there's one last thing that you can do to guarantee interview
success subscribe to this channel if you haven't already and I will see you in the next video