conversational skills
Talking with others
Conversational skills are the abilities that make someone effective at talking with others—knowing when to speak and when to listen, reading social cues, asking good questions, staying on topic while allowing natural tangents.
Someone with strong conversational skills puts others at ease and keeps exchanges flowing: Her conversational skills made even awkward networking events bearable.
- rapport buildingCultivating mutual understanding
- turn-takingAlternating speaker roles
- active listeningFocused, responsive attention to speech
- eye contactDirect visual connection
- body languageUnspoken physical expression
finding common ground · gestures · reading the room · empathy · holding space · vocabulary · articulation · paraphrasing · open-ended questions · cultural sensitivity · emotional regulation · mirroring · adaptability · haptics · word choice · clarity · self-awareness · rhetorical devices
- etiquettemanners, politeness, etiquette, table manners, courtesy
- communicationtelephone, inform, hand signal, messages, dialogue
- hearingear, cochlea, hearing loss, deaf, hearing test
- mannersetiquette, manners, polite, rude, politeness
- speech trainingspeech coaching, vocal exercises, elocution, pronunciation drills, voice training
- vocal trainingvocal exercises, voice training, vocal warm-ups, vocal technique, vocal scales
conversational skillssocial awkwardness
poor communication · awkwardness · tongue-tied · inarticulate · halting speech
conversational skillswritten communication
Information conveyed through text
prepared speech · public speaking · monologue · prepared remarks
conversational skillssocial withdrawal
Retreating from interpersonal contact
reticence · taciturnity · muteness · uncommunicativeness · silence