5 essential communication styles to boost your career success

5 essential communication styles to boost your career success
SEEK content teamupdated on 06 January, 2025
Share

Ever notice how the way you say something can completely change the atmosphere? Nailing your communication style at work is key for maintaining a harmonious atmosphere.

Striking the right tone in any situation helps you shine as confident and capable while maintaining great relationships with your coworkers. Since everyone communicates differently, adapting to various styles - whether you're in a customer-facing role or collaborating with your team, is essential for building strong connections.

There are five main effective communication styles for career success – assertive, passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and empathetic. 

An empathetic tone is useful in certain situations, but assertiveness is the most healthy style of communication. It's the most straightforward and effective way to meet your needs in most professional settings. 

We'll explore the importance of communication styles and discuss the five most common communication styles in the workplace. Let's start by defining communication styles and what they mean for you.

What are communication styles?

Communication styles are how we interact with others in various settings. Everyone has a personality that they present to the outside world, but we can change our communication styles. Knowing which style you lean towards and developing this is important, enabling you to be more effective in your workplace interactions.

The five main communication styles

There are five categories in workplace communication styles:

  1. Assertive: The assertive style is confident yet respectful. It's direct and speaks out honestly but takes others' feelings into account.

  2. Aggressive: This style can seem angry and perhaps driven by a sense of righteousness. An aggressive communicator can appear overbearing, hostile, and unwilling to compromise.

  3. Passive: A passive communicator is keen to avoid engaging in communication and can appear withdrawn. They may struggle to turn down requests because they fear provoking conflict.

  4. Passive-aggressive: A passive-aggressive communicator often appears angry. They may have a snide tone and a roundabout way of communicating displeasure. Passive aggression sows seeds of discontent within the workplace.

  5. Empathetic: An empathetic communicator prioritises the needs of others in their interactions and monitors how others receive their words.

While you may think you fall into one of these categories, most people can adapt their style when the situation requires it. For example, when giving constructive feedback, you may find an empathetic tone suits the situation better than an assertive one, depending on the person you speak with.

Below, we've provided an in-depth guide to the different communication styles.

1. Assertive communication style

An assertive communicator confidently sets clear boundaries while remaining adaptable and cooperative when needed.

Features that mark an assertive communicator include:

  • a friendly but direct tone

  • clarity of voice and instruction

  • eye contact

  • gestures that emphasise points

  • collaboration and contribution

An assertive style is generally the gold standard in workplaces. It allows for healthy but productive communication between colleagues and maintains a professional boundary without coming across as hostile.

Make certain your communication remains assertive by ensuring you're polite to others, measure your responses in face-to-face interactions, listen to others carefully, and provide space for them to respond.

Assertive communicators avoid using jargon except where necessary. They review any written work for clarity. Successful managers often use assertiveness to inspire their colleagues to engage with work. Assertive communication is the best style for delegating tasks and collaborating on projects. 

If you want to advance your workplace status, adopting an assertive communication style with others is a good way of demonstrating that you're a suitable candidate for promotion.

2. Aggressive communication style

An aggressive communicator may think they're being assertive, but their words don't have the intended effect because of their mannerisms and delivery style.

Likely characteristics of aggressive communicators include:

  • a quick temper, with the voice often rising to be loud

  • a use of demeaning terms when speaking of and to others

  • a self-centred approach to business

  • a tendency to interrupt others

  • a habit of invading others' personal space

While assertive and aggressive communication styles tend to be direct, an aggressive communicator is more emotive, inspiring fear in those they interact with. This can result in long-term conflicts and energy spent on debating rather than the tasks at hand. 

Aggressive communication can occur when two points of view clash within a meeting or as a defence mechanism when someone feels attacked. This is a style to avoid if you want to maintain a harmonious working atmosphere. While some careers need outward-facing aggression (e.g. security, sports), this is situational.

It's important to consider how others perceive your behaviours and to put your colleagues at ease wherever possible.

It's a good idea to identify any aggressive tendencies within your communication so you can reflect and work on improving this. It's best to contribute to workplace culture positively. This means moving forward and leaving any arguments in the past.

If you find yourself on the receiving end of aggressive communication, you could behave passively to defuse it. You could decide to leave the conversation, resuming at a later date when emotions are not running as high. Often, meeting aggression with aggression will only escalate any existing conflicts.

3. Passive communication style

A passive communication style may not be assertive, but it still sends a message about the communicator, often reflecting traits like caution or apathy.

Common characteristics of a passive communicator include:

  • agreeing to tasks with little conversation, never saying "no"

  • avoiding contributing to the discussion

  • avoiding eye contact and fidgeting

  • using a soft voice

  • displaying poor posture and a withdrawn presence.

Passive communication is quite common among people early in their careers who want to avoid conflict with others.

A more passive stance can benefit you in some circumstances, but as a guiding principle, it can cause you to take a back seat in your career. You can still be physically present without verbally contributing, even in a meeting teeming with thoughts you can't improve upon.

You may tend towards passivity if you avoid tricky conversations at work and leave most meetings without speaking your thoughts aloud. Over time, passive communication can influence coworkers' perception of you and make it more difficult to get your voice heard in the long term or to obtain a promotion.

4. Passive-aggressive communication style

We've all been guilty of passive aggression. Passive aggression is communication that suggests resentment of your working situation and your colleagues.

Some markers of passive-aggressive communication include:

  • making sarcastic comments

  • rolling your eyes

  • being upset and denying it

  • muttering speech that not everyone can hear

No matter the situation, passive-aggressive communication is unprofessional. When honesty isn't effective, pausing to rethink the situation can work wonders. Just one passive-aggressive communicator can affect the entire workplace's morale.

When teetering on the edge of allowing emotion to get the better of you, the best advice is to notice, pause, and reframe before you allow the interaction to spiral out of control. It's easier to leave things unsaid than to apologise later.

5. Empathetic communication style

We all know how good it can be to feel "seen" at work – to feel validated by a colleague's understanding and kindness. An empathetic communication style focuses on putting others' needs at the forefront. 

While some professions likely require more empathetic communication, such as health and social care, education, and HR, we can all benefit from incorporating empathetic practices into our communication.

Some tips to improve your empathetic communication are:

  • Really listen to what others have to say, paying attention to them and responding

  • Use words of affirmation to respond and show understanding

  • Take action to show you are willing to do more than just speak

  • Show your appreciation for other members of your team

A team that feels appreciated is a team that will go the extra mile for each other. Connecting on a human level allows for the best possible workplace environment, which almost always translates to the best results.

Additional communication styles

The above five categories are the most common in workplaces, but that's not a hard and fast rule. Here are some other effective communication styles for career success and some that you should avoid.

Analytical 

This form of communication deals with data and insights. This detail-oriented approach means no one is ever in doubt about the logic behind decision-making.

Intuitive 

An intuitive communicator moves at pace. They're often ‘blue sky’ thinkers who allow their intuition to guide them, and unlike an analytical communicator, they don't get bogged down in the details. Their dizzying pace tends to be offset by their optimism, and their big ideas can be inspirational.

Functional

Functional communicators take things step-by-step. They go through every stage of a plan to understand how every element will work before embarking on it, and they ensure everyone agrees.

Personal 

This form of communication is similar to empathetic because it encourages a focus on individuals and their feelings. Personal communicators connect on a deeper level. They truly listen to others and form long-lasting relationships. Personal communicators are often the glue that holds the workplace together.

Manipulative

Here's another form of communication to avoid. A manipulative communicator uses ammunition against colleagues to force them to listen to commands based on emotion rather than logic. This can lead to a build-up of resentment.

Identifying your communication style

Try reflecting to develop your communication at work. Which communication style do you think you are largely adopting in the workplace? Review the common behaviours – do any resonate with you?

If you're uncertain, consider your last few interactions with colleagues. How did those colleagues leave the conversation? Were you able to get across everything you needed to? Were the outcomes what you were looking for?

If you're an assertive communicator, you'll likely find that your conversations with colleagues run smoothly and meet your aims. Your communication style may be too aggressive if you struggle with interpersonal relationships in your workplace and think your coworkers perceive you as "prickly."

There are many online tools to help you, and quizzes you can take to help you identify your communication style. Once you've used one of these, it's still up to you to interpret the results and reflect on the next steps to improve your communication style in the workplace. 

Remember, you can always seek feedback from others to help you reflect on your practice.

How to develop and adapt your communication style in the workplace

Once you've identified your communication tendencies, it's important to consider your areas of strength – are you sharply focused on getting the best results? Do you try your best to ensure everyone in the room feels heard?

When you've decided on your strengths, you'll want to consider areas to improve. Look back at the last few interactions you had at work that didn't go how you would have liked. How could your communication have altered the outcome? Would adopting a different style have helped?

Flexibility is necessary in all communication. When dealing with others, we can't anticipate how they'll respond to external output. All we can do is react accordingly and ensure our communication is optimal.

You can demonstrate your ability to think and react in a way that'll impress others by adapting to different situations and code-switching (adjusting your style of speech, appearance, behaviour, and expression in ways that optimise others' comfort) to match the expectations of the conversation.

This is key to career advancement. Remember, one conversation does not define us. Affirm your goals for the day before you begin work, and remind yourself to aim for the most positive and productive workplace interactions.

Transform your career through communication

If you want to develop your career, considering how your communication looks from the outside is a great place to start. Picture the most successful managers you have come across. They will likely all have a common ability to communicate clearly and assertively with their staff.

The best way to show your passion for career progression is to become an adaptable communicator. Always show your best side and that you can rise to any occasion. Consider which habits you tend to exhibit and how you can use the most effective communication styles for career success.

FAQs

Here are some answers to commonly asked questions about communication styles.

What are the five communication styles?

There are five main communication styles in the workplace: assertive, aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive, and empathetic.

What are the benefits of assertive communication in a professional setting?

The main benefit of assertive communication is clarity in terms of delivering instructions that anyone can follow and also indicating where people stand in workplace dynamics.

How can aggressive communication negatively affect team dynamics?

People can perceive aggressive communication as intimidating, which can lower morale and cause dissent in team dynamics.

What are the long-term career consequences of passive communication?

The long-term career consequences of passive communication can be an inability to ascend the career ladder and a lack of trust from others about your competency to take on tasks.

How can I accurately identify my communication style?

Read through the habits of communication styles and reflect on which one you feel you mostly fall into. Seek feedback from your colleagues, and if you're still looking for confirmation, you can take an online quiz.

More from this category: Workplace skills

Top search terms

Want to know what people are searching for on SEEK? Explore our top search terms to stay across industry trends.
Select an industry to uncover the top search terms

Subscribe to Career Advice

Get expert career advice delivered to your inbox.
By providing your personal information, you agree to the Collection Notice and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.