Business communication skills are absolutely essential in every professional environment. This broad-ranging group of skills covers written, verbal, and visual communication, as well as more specialized applications such as business writing, email writing, presentations, public speaking, and negotiation.

Improving your business communication skills is important because it will benefit your career in any sector of the economy. Confident language skills allow you to communicate with clarity and accuracy, making your ideas come across powerfully in telephone conversations, meetings, emails, and written reports. And in addition to improving your vocabulary and grammar to make a greater impact in your speaking and writing, you can also learn how to structure and organize graphics and visual data for more effective slides, posters, and PowerPoint presentations.

Outside of the office, the ability to navigate cross-cultural differences and understand non-verbal gestures and facial expressions can energize your ability to network and socialize. With a growing command of the English language, you can express who you are in everything you do successfully whether you are a native speaker or learning it as a second language.

Great business communication skills can enhance your prospects in a wide variety of careers, whether you are collaborating with co-workers on new technology, writing promotional literature, or speaking at an industry convention. These skills are especially important for CEOs and other business leaders, as clear communication is needed to inspire, motivate, and coordinate employees both efficiently and effectively.

Business communication skills are essential for other roles as well. If you are a people person, a strong set of verbal and non-verbal communication skills as well as the ability to negotiate could serve you well as a human resources manager. Public relations specialists, web content managers, and media planners all need the ability to communicate with enthusiasm and generate excitement across multiple channels.

If you have deep technical knowledge and the ability to communicate it with precision, then you could shine as a technical writer. Technical writers must transmit complex information such as scientific findings or software operating instructions in a detailed yet understandable way, making these specialized communications professionals in high demand. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, technical writers earn a median annual salary of $72,850 per year, and the number of these jobs will increase steadily with the growth of new technologies and industries at a rate of eight percent over the next ten years.

Yes! Coursera offers a wide range of courses and Specializations that can improve your business communication skills. Whether you are learning English as a second language and are looking to build general skills like business writing, or are a native English speaker looking to improve in more specialized areas like negotiation or organizational leadership, Coursera has choices from top-ranked schools such as the University of Washington, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Learning remotely doesn’t mean learning in isolation, either. With opportunities to engage with faculty and your fellow global learners via live virtual office hours and collaborative projects, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice your communication skills - no matter where you are in the world.