From emotional intelligence to business acumen, comms pros need to master a wide array of skills.
We asked communicators on LinkedIn to tell us the most important skill to succeed right now. More than 150 people chimed in, championing a huge array of skills. But the most-commented area where comms pros need to shine, by far, was business acumen.
Communicators see that, in a tumultuous business environment, being good at creating content or delivering messages isn’t enough. It takes a deeper understanding of the organization, its goals and how comms directly contributes.
But this was far from the only skill communicators need. Here’s a sampling of some of the top answers, lightly edited for brevity and style.
Business fluency and strategic judgment
Christina Garnett is chief customer & communications officer at Neuemotion.
Discernment is everything. It dictates when to act vs. when to wait it out, as well as what key points need to be made for the desired audience(s).
Matt See is a communications consultant.
The most important skill in communications right now is understanding the business.
Too many communicators are still optimizing for impressions and engagement while leadership is sitting there wondering: did any of this actually matter?
The best communicators know how to tie their work to something real: trust, growth, recruiting, retention, reputation, policy, revenue.
AI is probably about to expose the difference between people who were producing content and people who were driving outcomes.
Derek Herman is executive director of communications at CAI.
Strategic thinking, and I don’t just mean for our communications plans. We need to observe what’s happening in the company and connect internal and external audiences to the brand. How we do that is by inviting ourselves to decision-making conversations that impact the business. Narrative alignment is everything.
Dustin Siggins is the founder of Proven Media Solutions.
No question — it’s understanding the C-suite. Know how to speak the bottom line. If you’re a junior person, that means ensuring your boss can easily translate your success to executives.
Listening, audience understanding and reading the room
Joshua Kail is a communications consultant.
The ability to listen. I have sat in way too many client meetings where the PR lead barrels through their pre-set objectives or self-puffery, and by the end of the call, no one knows anything new about the client or campaign. The best skill for a communicator is to not communicate but to shut up and actively listen. Then the conversation can continue on a more fruitful path.
Ellen Gerstein is digital and social engagement lead at Vera Therapeutics.
An understanding of their audience(s). So many times we focus on what we or the company wants to say, and ignore the needs of the audience. Is it going to land well? Am I going out with a clear message? Are we leaving something out that will be the immediate follow-up question and how can we anticipate that. Communicators need to be relentlessly audience first to be effective.
Olivia Morrissey is communications manager at Ortho Molecular Products.
Not being afraid to ask “why” or to say that you don’t understand — if the comms team is confused, chances are the message won’t land as intended.
Suki Mulberg Altamirano is founder of Lexington PR.
Reading the room. You can be a brilliant writer or speaker, but if you’ve misread the audience, the moment or the mood, your message falls flat.
Relationships, collaboration and empathy
Amanda Ponzar is senior advisor, public and corporate relations at Kaptivate.
The single most important skill for a communicator right now is to have a good network due to the significant upheaval in almost every sector. Relationships matter. Doing good work and being good to people always pays off in the long run. Not exactly a skill but building lasting relationships with people is key.
Lindsay Lapchuk is head of GTM and communications at Notebook Agency.
Collaboration. The ability to put your ego aside, be a beginner with your colleagues, share what you’re learning and learn from every role and function around you. The teams that win over the next decade will be the ones that learn how to learn and relearn together, while blurring the lines between functions. PR, SEO/AEO, content and product marketing teams need to show up as one.
Kati Murphy is a communications consultant.
Relationship management. Whether with journalists, leadership or cross-functional peers, being able to build trust and develop relationships is up there for me. If you’re the best external communicator in the world but you can’t get buy-in from the higher ups on how you want to tell a story to an organization’s advantage, it doesn’t matter. And no, journalist relationships don’t mean they write every story you pitch, but being able to build that trust and relationship while you’re working together will absolutely move the needle toward a better story for both sides.
Carmen Collins is director of social media at Generac.
Empathy — for yourself, for your audience, for your colleagues. It’s the pivotal foundation piece for the “trust triangle”
Richie Escovedo is director of project management and PR specialist at Balcom Agency.
Compassion. We work best when we remember we’re working with (and for) real people.
Storytelling, writing and creative judgment
Orsi Korman is a strategic communications consultant at MassMutual.
The most important skill right now is translating information into simplicity, clarity and connection to drive decisions. Communicators have to be both thoughtful storytellers and trusted advisors — helping executives cut through noise and connect with various audiences in ways that are visible, relevant and actually move something forward.
Haley Brown is account manager at Woodrow.
Taste! That je ne sais quoi judgment and ability to elevate beyond the ordinary in a world where we all have access to a baseline “good” with AI.
Chad Corley is a strategic communications executive.
Writing will always be the most important skill a communicator needs. Full stop.
Ralu Gijbels is co-founder of Brands Untamed.
I feel it’s the ability to make people care about what you say. Anyone can generate content at scale now. But there’s always that specific detail or moment, that makes someone who wasn’t paying attention suddenly care. And it’s the one skill most at risk I think, because volume is so easy to generate now.
Resilience, humility and judgment
Chris Chiames, retired CCO of Carnival Cruise Line.
Courage. To say the right thing. Do the right thing. Ask the right questions. Make the tough decisions. Find out what you don’t know. Be prepared for what’s around the corner. Not be afraid to make a mistake. Handle the criticisms and all the well-meaning second guessing.
Jordan Valdés is founder of Varnum Street Strategies.
Resilience. Everything is changing constantly and everyone has an opinion about what to do. Our jobs? Remain calm, confident, patient, decisive and relentlessly focused. It takes a special sort.
Gregg Feistman is professor of practice in public relations at Temple University.
Don’t panic when things go off the rails. Keep a cool head, step back and see what the “real” problem is. Then address that, not the noise. Most crises happen because there’s a business problem. Take care of that and the crisis goes away.
Filomena Fanelli is founder of Impact PR & Communications.
The most important skill in communications right now is patience — to pause, to think independently, to question the quick answers, to reflect before replying, to build relationships ahead of results, to reason before reacting. So many of the missteps we’re seeing today are because business leaders, and the communicators who advise them, aren’t willing to slow down and take the steps needed to ensure they get it right.
Matt Burrows, media relations specialist at The Hoffman Agency
The ability to take “no” for an answer. I think a lot of hot water tech leaders, communicators and several other group of people get into is fueled by a bit of sunken cost fallacy, or an illusion of their own infallibility. It is not weakness to be able to take critique, and I honestly wish more understood that.
Moran Chavez is senior director of corporate communications at Globus Medical.
Sense of humor! It will get you through most anything, and usually helps provide needed perspective and clarity.
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