7 Skills for Communicators in 2024
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What are the skills needed for communications success at work? I took a look back at the top skills identified by leaders I interviewed this year. These 7 skills stood out as key from the following leaders:
⚽ Jennifer Levine: Embrace Positivity
🛒 Dani Dudeck: Know Your Product
🍎 Carmen Boon: Manage Crisises
🚀 Sylvia Acevedo: Speak Confidently with Stories
🏥 Claudia Ball: Build Relationships
🎨 Zofia Ciechowska: Be Curious and Courageous
💫 Brooke Kruger: Be a Team Player
Top 7 Skills
⚽ Jennifer Levine: Embrace Positivity
Positivity. My entire upbringing has been focused on being glass half full. This applies to work too. If I'm going to spend more time at work than I am with my family, I want to find joy and positivity. For me, it’s about bringing that attitude to my jobs everyday and trying to inspire the people around me to laugh.
🛒 Dani Dudeck: Know Your Product
Communicators need to have the same level of fluency when it comes to the product roadmap and the technology as product managers. You need to be able to sequence and run your launch calendars across your team to recognize opportunities. Communicators also need to keep a commercial point of view to strategically serve the business. It’s important to stay connected to the financial point of view.
🍎 Carmen Boon: Manage Crisises
Risk assessment and anticipation are key. I’ve worked in multiple emergencies and crises involving the lives of millions of people. In those moments, it’s very important to look at the forest from the trees.
🚀 Sylvia Acevedo: Speak Confidently with Stories
It’s an important skill for leaders to speak confidently in front of people. I started my career as an engineer and I had to spend a lot of time working on developing speaking skills. I remember the first time I spoke in front of a group of kids at an elementary school, they were very bored and they didn't even ask me one question. What helped me with my speaking skills is to learn how to be a better story teller. It’s important to have a relevant narrative and to answer the who, what, why and when you are trying to communicate and motivate.
🏥 Claudia Ball: Build Relationships
Relationship building and building trust go together. It’s about authenticity, honesty and transparency in the work we lead. You must be agile and able to pivot under different circumstances. You have to be willing and able to give honest, constructive feedback. All of these skills can make you successful whether you're writing, planning an event or creating a comms strategy.
🎨 Zofia Ciechowska: Be Curious and Courageous
Be a voracious learner who listens, analyzes, debates and writes daily. Learn faster than others. Have a bias for action. Your goal is to become encyclopedic about your customers, the business, your product and key metrics. You need to be eager to discover root causes, never settle for the first answer, and know how to think in systems and see all of the parts connect. Curiosity is key…
Courage is about being proactive about finding and clarifying the ambiguous areas that lurk in your organization. Often, strategy, goals, owners of work are unclear and create inertia. It can be really uncomfortable calling it out, but you need to be brave, bring it up respectfully, and find a path forward.
💫 Brooke Kruger: Be a Team Player
You also have to be able to have the attitude and willingness to do it all — you can bring in support when needed, but you always want to be a master of your craft, and not too far removed that you can't pick up the phone to call a reporter or do a quick brief with an executive. You need to be strategic and tactical — always willing to execute when necessary. If you were called upon, could you do the work you’re asking someone else to do?
🍽️ The Paper Plate Awards: Most Welcoming
Congratulations to Jaime Pfeffer who was nominated by Gideon Pfeffer. Celebrate her!
Jaime’s dedication to building a warm, inclusive culture has truly transformed our onboarding program.From the moment a new hire accepts an offer, Jaime personally reaches out with emails, voice notes, and messages to ease their pre-boarding experience. Her thoughtful touches, like making sure they receive customized swag on or before their first day.
In 2022, she launched “onboarding buddies” and frequent check-ins throughout the first month, along with 30/60/90-day alignment questionnaires between new hires and supervisors. New hires are treated to a welcome lunch with some members of the onboarding committee on their first day and lunch with our US team on day three. The company's Team Member Connections" initiative, also instituted by Jaime, pairs new hires with key colleagues for 30-minute meetings within their first two weeks, helping them build strong connections from day one.
Jaime’s passion for inclusivity and genuine care for every team member has had a lasting impact. Her dedication to fostering a welcoming culture deserves recognition.
Thanks for tuning into this edition of The Switchboard. If you enjoyed this article, share it with a colleague or your network. Signing off — Julia
Many of these skills sound like a recipe for succeeding in life as well. Happy “Howl-idays” to you, your pets and your loved ones, Julia!🥂🤗
Excellent list and ideas, Julia. Thank you so much!