Sharpen communication by building on emotional intelligence
Written by Dan Parry • 22 October, 2025
Interpersonal Communication Skills Article
In a world of LLMs, AI bubble angst, doom-scrolling, geopolitical crises, and OMG uncertainty, where can you find stability? Distraction through brain-rot social media can be unsettling. Better to rely on reality. Only a package of essential ‘in real life’ (IRL) skills can help people stay grounded and connected, skills that businesses depend on in the face of disruption and change.
A survey in April 2025 found that over half (64%) of UK employers prioritise soft skills when hiring. This is perhaps because new hires struggle with communication, active listening, resilience, and adaptability, according to research. Analysis of training sessions across Europe found that “businesses are increasingly…balancing investment in new technologies with a renewed focus on uniquely human skills.”
Organisations need people who can come up with great ideas, develop them through clear thinking, communicate them well, and see them through. This capability comes down to a package of ‘in real life’ skills that develop authenticity, resilience, and character. In the words of Edward Brooks, director of the Programme for Global Leadership at the University of Oxford, “character is not a ‘nice to have’; it is a core driver of personal and business success.”
By developing resilience in the face of change, IRL abilities basically help people keep it together. Think of these skills as bottled ‘grown-upness’, the secret sauce that enables meaningful conversations, deflates tension, and builds the relationships that lead to new roles, products, and clients.
IRL human skills in communication, presence, storytelling, critical thinking, and managing uncertainty are vital elements of workplace life. By building meaningful connection, they ensure that a shared understanding of reality is more than just a meme on TikTok. When office politics feels like an episode of Traitors, it’s useful to know how to replace tension with trust: it’s either that or mentally sending a postcard to a tricky colleague telling them they’ve been murdered.
Connecting with others starts with emotional intelligence – the nuanced mix of perception, curiosity, listening, interest, humour, and warmth that gives energy to relationships. IRL skills, underpinned by emotional intelligence, unlock incommunicative colleagues, overcome knee-trembling challenges, and drive life-shortening meetings towards focused thinking and decisive results.
IRL skills include:
Emotional intelligence (EI) isn’t a buzzword, it’s your ‘people radar’, enabling you to notice what’s not being said, spotting tension before it hits, and understanding moods. It’s patience: giving others the time and space to explain and to reveal their thinking. Reading the room means more than glancing around, it’s sensing energy shifts, knowing when to push and when to pause. It’s self-awareness too: catching your own knee-jerk reactions before they derail a conversation.
When you get it right, EI leads to relationships that stick, influence that works, and decisions that land. EI is strategic, subtle, and often the difference between chaos and clarity.
The basics of communication are essential, especially in influencing and persuasion. Know your message and deliver it simply, without jargon or waffle. Active listening builds trust and ensures you respond to what’s really being said. Open body language signals confidence and encourages collaboration.
Show interest in others, read the room, and adapt your tone. In meetings, set clear objectives, give everyone a voice, and keep discussions focused on outcomes. Skilled communicators don’t just speak well, they create understanding, alignment, and momentum.
When managing difficult conversations, better to seek peaceful resolution than an outright win. Stay calm when things escalate so that you can focus on the real issue and rise above the noise around it. Set the tone, staying respectful and steady, and avoid drama by responding to what’s said rather than pre-loading your next comeback.
Acknowledge emotions (including your own) and focus on facts, not blame. If things escalate, slow the pace, silence can be more powerful than steamrolling. And when it’s over, follow up. Clarity after the conversation is just as important as control during it.
Executive presence doesn’t rely on a job title, it stems from how you respond under pressure. Speak carefully with calm confidence and without arrogance, choosing words that land and finding the time to listen. This careful approach carries weight, especially when amplified by body language. Posture, eye contact, and subtle gestures should communicate a sense of being in control.
People follow leaders whose competence and composure exhibit effortless influence. Build presence over time through consistency and credibility, making clear decisions that are delivered without theatricality.
Storytelling is the best way by far of conveying information to other people in a way that helps them understand and remember it. Frame ideas in a narrative that carries your audience from a simple start through to the explanatory middle ground and on to a clear conclusion, perhaps ending with action points or a plan for next steps.
Start with a hook, build tension, and resolve things with a takeaway that sticks. Bring abstract concepts to life through the use of characters and emotion, and keep it human – people remember feelings more than figures. Make your point clearly, come to your conclusion then bring things to a close with your ending ringing in the ears of the audience.
Role play training sessions allow participants to try out new skills in a safe environment, rehearsing for real-world situations by working with a professional actor under the direction of a skilled facilitator. Participants don’t act, they remain true to themselves, trying responses they would give in a genuine situation.
Immediate feedback allows people to refine their response, sharpen instincts, and build confidence. Role play enhances training sessions by revealing subtle interpersonal dynamics that lectures can’t show. Done well, role play turns insight into ‘muscle memory’, preparing people to perform under pressure.
Critical thinking is the ability to analyse information objectively, question assumptions, and make reasoned judgments. Rather than accepting ideas at face value, it involves stepping aside from emotion and examining evidence with the eye of an objective critic.
By exploring a variety of perspectives, and identifying biases or logical flaws, critical thinking helps people respond thoughtfully rather than react emotionally. By encouraging curiosity and structured reasoning, it supports better decision-making, problem-solving, and innovation. In training and leadership, it empowers people to move beyond habit and arrive at well-supported conclusions.
In recent years, teams would spend five days a week together. There would be watercooler moments, time to chat before a meeting, and after work drinks. However, in a world of hybrid work patterns and virtual meetings, fewer informal moments mean less time to build human connections. Conversations have become more functional and relationships have become more strained.
Working in a place that doesn’t quite get what it is to be human is less than ideal, especially now that AI is blurring the boundary between human and tech ways of working. In a downturn, a less than human approach is potentially problematic. Businesses exposed to disruption will struggle if their people lack the emotional intelligence and critical thinking to adjust to new trading conditions.
IRL skills can be taught through training courses, giving people the opportunity to practise them until they become instinctive. At Working Voices, we offer a bundle of IRL skills specifically curated to build confidence and connectivity. Help your people find IRL resilience and purpose, and lay the foundations that will protect your business before the next geopolitical crisis hits.
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The founder and CEO of Working Voices, Nick Smallman has been at the top of his profession for 25 years. Advising global blue-chip clients on engagement, productivity, and retention, he counsels leaders on increasing revenue via simple cultural adjustments.
Overseeing the successful expansion of Working Voices across the UK, the US, Asia, and the Middle East, Nick supports the leadership and communication capabilities of clients in a wide range of sectors. In particular, he has advised companies such as JP Morgan, Barclays, Sony, Nomura, M&S, and Blackrock for more than 15 years.
Developing his reputation for thought leadership, in recent years Nick has been leading work on The Sustainable Human, the subject of his forthcoming book. A concept unique to Working Voices, The Sustainable Human offers a package of solutions focusing on leadership enablement, future skills, and cultural harmony.
Working closely with HR specialist Mercer, Nick has developed solutions to four key modern workplace challenges:
“I’m excited to share the conclusions of three years of research that, if implemented, can make an immediate practical difference to leaders and their organisations.”
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