Along with basic academic skills like math and reading, you’ll find that most workplaces require communication with others – coworkers, customers, and supervisors just to name a few. This exchange of information between two or more people is called interpersonal communication. 

There are many ways to send and receive information. You can make an announcement over a speaker. You can post a public message online. You can watch a commercial. But interpersonal communication is communication that takes place between people. It is a building block of relationships.

To communicate well with other people, you need to have certain skills. For example, you need to know how to express your thoughts and feelings. You need to be sensitive to other people’s feelings. You need to know how to listen. You need to stay calm when someone else is angry.

You also need to deal with problems directly. You might hope that they will go away, but if you don’t address them they usually only get bigger.

At the end of this lesson, you will have two options for a final writing assignment. You can write about a recent argument you had, or you can write about someone you know who communicates well. Keep these options in mind as you move forward and learn about developing good communication skills for the workplace.