{"id":4662,"date":"2012-08-17T09:56:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T23:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/?p=4662"},"modified":"2016-09-27T15:31:20","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T05:31:20","slug":"top-6-skills-in-communications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2012\/08\/top-6-skills-in-communications\/","title":{"rendered":"Top six skills in a communications consultant or manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was recently asked to name a skill that has really helped me as a <a title=\"Can you outsource a manager?\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2011\/08\/can-you-outsource-a-manager\/\" target=\"_blank\">communications manager<\/a>\/consultant and for running my business.<\/p>\n<p>The conversation got me thinking about<strong> the skills and abilities that help make a good\u00a0<\/strong><a title=\"Communications is more than marketing\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2011\/07\/communications-is-more-than-marketing\/\">communications person<\/a>, and this is a list of the top\u00a0six traits I came up with.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><strong>ability to write well<\/strong><\/strong>\n<div id=\"attachment_4697\" style=\"width: 168px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/candle_quill.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4697\" class=\" wp-image-4697\" title=\"candle_quill\" src=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/candle_quill.jpg\" alt=\"quill on paper by candle\" width=\"158\" height=\"144\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4697\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Writing basics are a good start in communications<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It sounds obvious, but you need\u00a0to\u00a0be able to write documents\u00a0as required or at least\u00a0recognise quality and issues\u00a0 for provided documents and materials.<\/li>\n<li><strong>coordination<\/strong><br \/>\nI spend a lot of time <a title=\"Managing feedback\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2008\/09\/managing-feedback\/\">collating and implementing feedback<\/a>, communicating client ideas and needs to\u00a0designers, pulling together information from various sources and so on &#8211; if you can&#8217;t coordinate multiple people and tasks, managing communications projects will be a tough call.<\/li>\n<li><strong>understand various tasks and roles<\/strong><br \/>\nI think it&#8217;s easier to work with designers, printers, marketers, programmers and the like if you have an understanding of what they do. It gives you <a title=\"Using common ground for communicating\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2012\/07\/using-common-ground-for-communicating\/\">common ground when discussing a project<\/a>\u00a0and a better idea of how long is required to get something done. That doesn&#8217;t mean I think I could do their jobs (I know I couldn&#8217;t!) but at least have an understanding of their expertise helps.<\/li>\n<li><strong>confidence\u00a0to take feedback professionally, not personally<\/strong><br \/>\nNot all clients will be nice about changes to work you&#8217;ve done, and sometimes\u00a0criticism is harder to take\u00a0than others, so you need to be able to work with feedback rather than get offended. You also need to know when to <a title=\"Disagreeing with clients \u2013 the nice way!\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2008\/10\/disagreeing-with-clients-the-nice-way\/\">disagree with feedback<\/a>&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><strong>good communication skills<\/strong><br \/>\nBeing able to manage a communications program, maintaining website content, preparing reports and so on are the duties of a comms person BUT they must also be able\u00a0to communicate with clients and suppliers to get the job done. Clear communication saves\u00a0making errors and builds goodwill which you sometimes need to call on for urgent or difficult jobs<\/li>\n<li><strong>be versatile and creative<\/strong><br \/>\nDifferent clients like to work in different ways, projects require various amounts of work and different tasks, some projects will develop in unexpected ways &#8211; there are many times that flexibility and <a title=\"Making your business dough creatively\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2013\/07\/business-dough-creatively\/\">creative problem solving <\/a>come in handy.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_4698\" style=\"width: 261px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/connect_pieces.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4698\" class=\" wp-image-4698\" title=\"connect_pieces\" src=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/connect_pieces.jpg\" alt=\"connecting jiqsaw pieces\" width=\"251\" height=\"258\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4698\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Finding how things fit together is a valuable skill<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What other traits would you look for in a communications person to work with?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you come across a successful comms manager who doesn&#8217;t have all these skills and abilities?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was recently asked to name a skill that has really helped me as a communications manager\/consultant and for running my business. The conversation got me thinking about the skills and abilities that help make a good\u00a0communications person, and this is a list of the top\u00a0six traits I came up with. ability to write well [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[255,1553,90,185],"class_list":["post-4662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-communications","tag-communications","tag-coordination","tag-skills","tag-write"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4662"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6701,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions\/6701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}