Communication skills are abilities you use when giving and receiving different kinds of information. While these skills may be a regular part of your day-to-day work life, communicating in a clear, effective and efficient way is an extremely special and useful skill. Learning from great communicators around you and actively practicing ways to improve your communications over time will certainly support your efforts to achieve various personal and professional goals.

Communication skills involve listening, speaking, observing and empathizing. It is also helpful to understand the differences in how to communicate through face-to-face interactions, phone conversations and digital communications, like email and social media.

Types of communication
There are four main types of communication you might use on a daily basis, including:

Verbal: Communicating by way of a spoken language.
Nonverbal: Communicating by way of body language, facial expressions and vocalics.
Written: Communicating by way of written language, symbols and numbers.
Visual: Communication by way of photography, art, drawings, sketches, charts and graphs.