Effective communication skills

Introduction

Boom! Here we go! My first blog!

I thought I’d start by introducing myself and telling you about a key principle to our work at pres. My name’s Gethin Jones and I am the co-founder of pres - a marketing consultancy which specialises in helping businesses reach their target customers in unique and creative ways. I see pres as a creative outlet for the skills I have developed as a professional civil engineer working in the water industry.

In 2013 I graduated from Cardiff University with a first class honours MEng degree in Civil Engineering. Little did I know, my education was only just beginning! Soon after graduating I joined a small engineering consultancy as a graduate engineer. The learning curve was steep. Every day I would learn new skills and gain knowledge in a wide variety of aspects of water engineering. This continues to this day and I believe it will continue for the rest of my career. I can honestly say that I have learnt far more during my professional life than I ever did when studying at university. This inspires me immensely!

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to help junior colleagues develop their skills and knowledge. I have found this very rewarding and it has been a key part of my inspiration for starting pres. Seeing others develop with my guidance has helped me realise that others outside of engineering could benefit from the skills and knowledge that I have developed as a professional engineer.

Below is the first in a series of Top Tips which I will be posting regularly.

Top Tip 1 - Big words = unclear message and loss of interest

One of the biggest lessons I have had to learn, is how to communicate effectively with people of all sorts of different backgrounds. Often, I am required to communicate very complex technical issues to clients or colleagues who do not have a technical background. Simplicity is key. I try to communicate concepts accurately whilst using plain, simple language. This ability to make the complex seem simple is valuable across all types of communication.

I find that often, when people write formally, many have a tendency to use big, long words, particularly at universities. There is a term for this: sesquipedalian. Sesquipedalian is an adjective which: "describes a word that's very long and multisyllabic" Vocabulary.com Dictionary. A person who overuses big, long words can also be described as a sesquipedalian.

This, I believe, is often done because people believe that using these big words will make the reader think that they are intelligent for knowing such words. However, in my opinion, the opposite is generally true. Whilst yes, using big words shows a wide vocabulary, it also tends to make the text hard to read. If someone doesn’t understand the meaning of a big word that you have used in your text, they stop reading and focus instead on finding out what this word means. They get distracted, lose interest or maybe even become frustrated! It is especially important to avoid this in marketing communications.

In this modern world, the people reading your work probably don't have time to waste on trying to decipher text that doesn't read easily. Therefore making things as easy to read as possible is definitely in your interest.

As an example, in my role as a civil engineer, it is often critical that what I write or say is easily understood, especially where health and safety is concerned. Anything I write or say which could affect the health and safety of people working on a project must be easily understood immediately by all. If action is required by someone to ensure the safety of workers or members of the public, I must ensure that they are very clear about what they need to do. Therefore using big words in this context is a recipe for disaster.

An even worse habit is people using big, long words which they do not understand. This of course will lose you all credibility. Therefore if you must use big words, be sure that you fully understand them and how they should be used.

So next time you write something, I would suggest that before issuing the work, make a cup of coffee and then read through your work considering: “is there a simpler way to say something?” or “can I make this clearer?”. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and think, “will they understand?” and “could they get confused?”.

Complexity benefits nobody! Impress your reader with your content not the extent of your vocabulary.

For more information about how we can help your business communicate more effectively, visit our website at www.prescreative.co.uk .