Coaching an Employee with Poor Communication Skills: What to Say and How to Help
Coaching an employee with poor communication skills means helping them change specific habits, such as rambling updates, unclear emails, or not speaking up when needed in meetings.
If the employee is otherwise doing well, bringing up how they communicate can feel awkward. But some communication challenges continue because the employee doesn't know there is a problem or hasn't been shown what to change.
When communication challenges aren't addressed, they can lead to missed details, repeated work, and decreased productivity. Over time, they can affect morale and retention rates. Raising the issue early and in private gives you both a chance to talk openly about the problem and work on it together.
In this article, you'll learn what poor communication can look like, what can cause it, what to say first, and how to coach step by step. This article is for managers and team leads who want to help an employee communicate more clearly at work.
Key Takeaways
Name the behavior: Specific, recent examples help employees see what to change and keep the focus on observable behavior rather than personality traits.
Look for the cause: Communication challenges can come from unclear expectations, nerves, or skills the employee hasn't learned yet. Working in a second language, stuttering, hearing loss, or ADHD can also affect communication, but don't assume any of these is the reason.
Coach in small steps: Agree on one or two communication goals with the employee, let them practice in real meetings and emails, and give feedback along the way.
Know when to get help: A communication coach can help when an employee needs more practice than you can give, or when their skills aren't improving.
What Does Coaching an Employee on Communication Involve?
Examples of Poor Communication Skills in Employees
What Causes Communication Problems in the Workplace?
How to Coach an Employee on Communication, Step by Step
When Should You Get Help from a Communication Coach?
What We See Working with Clients
Frequently Asked Questions About Coaching Employees on Communication
What Does Coaching an Employee on Communication Involve?
Coaching an employee on communication means naming the specific communication problems and agreeing on one or two goals. The employee then practices the specific skills they are working on, and the manager gives feedback and checks on progress. The coaching process usually continues through several conversations, with practice and follow-up between them.
Coaching focuses on practicing and improving skills, while a performance review evaluates an employee's work. A performance review usually evaluates an employee's work over a set period. Coaching gives them chances to practice specific communication soft skills as part of their professional development.
Examples of Poor Communication Skills in Employees
Poor communication skills can show up in speaking, writing, nonverbal communication, and listening. At work, these signs of poor communication can cost the team time, slow collaboration, and reduce productivity. Focus on the specific behavior you want the employee to change rather than calling them a poor communicator.
| Type of problem | What it can look like | What it can cost the team |
|---|---|---|
| Speaking | Rambling updates, mumbling, interrupting, or avoiding phone calls | Long meetings and clients left waiting |
| Written messages | Long emails that hide the request, missing details, or no recap | Repeated questions and different ideas about who is doing what |
| Nonverbal cues | Little eye contact, closed-off body language, or flat facial expressions | Coworkers can read a lack of interest or defensiveness |
| Listening | Missed instructions, answering a different question, or replying too soon | Mistakes and work that has to be redone |
| Connected Speech Pathology | connectedspeechpathology.com | ||
Spoken Communication Issues
Spoken communication problems can be easier to notice during meetings and conversations. Some employees give rambling updates that make it hard for listeners to identify the main point. Others mumble, and people may frequently ask them to repeat themselves.
Some employees interrupt or speak for so long in team meetings that others have less opportunity to contribute. Others avoid making phone calls they need to, which can delay communication with clients.
Written Communication Issues
Poor written communication can show up in emails, chat messages, and reports. In a long message, the reader can have trouble identifying what the sender is asking them to do, and missing details can lead to repeated questions and communication breakdowns. If a meeting ends without making it clear who is responsible for each task, people can leave with a different understanding of who is doing what.
Nonverbal Communication and Body Language
Nonverbal cues, such as eye contact, body language, and facial expressions, can affect how coworkers read a message. Some employees rarely make eye contact but are still listening closely, and coworkers can mistakenly assume they are disengaged. Communication styles vary by culture and by person, so bring up body language only when a specific behavior is getting in the way of work.
Listening Issues
Poor listening skills can be harder to spot because an employee can seem to pay attention without fully understanding what was said. Possible signs of a listening problem include often missing parts of instructions, answering a different question, or starting to reply before the other person has finished speaking.
Active listening means paying close attention and checking your understanding, for example by restating the main point in your own words or asking a follow-up question. Active listening can also include noticing emotional cues, such as changes in the other person's tone or facial expression. Coaching on effective communication often includes practice with active listening.
What Causes Communication Problems in the Workplace?
Communication problems in the workplace can come from unclear expectations, a skills gap, nerves, habits, or stress. Understanding what is contributing to the problem can help you decide what kind of coaching or support makes sense. Before you assume you know what is causing the problem, ask what is getting in the employee's way.
Unclear expectations: The employee may not know what information your team expects them to include in an update or email.
A skills gap: Organizing a message, writing concisely, and leading a meeting are essential communication skills. Some employees have had limited training or practice with these skills.
Nerves and confidence: Some employees speak faster than usual, lose their train of thought, or stay quiet when they feel nervous or are put on the spot.
Habits: An employee can speak quickly, over-explain, or interrupt without realizing it.
Workload and work environment: Stress, tight deadlines, or a tense company culture can make it harder for employees to communicate clearly.
What If It's Nerves, a Second Language, a Stutter, or ADHD?
Nerves, stuttering, hearing loss, ADHD, or working in a second language can affect how an employee communicates in some workplace situations. You can focus your coaching on specific workplace communication goals, such as giving clearer updates, while considering what the employee says they need. If the employee says nerves are part of the problem, they can rehearse an update or practice what to say before an important meeting.
A manager should focus on the employee's workplace communication rather than trying to determine the cause. Describe the behavior you've noticed, ask for the employee's view, and let them decide what personal information they want to share.
An employee can choose to share that they stutter or that ADHD affects their communication at work. If they do, follow your organization's process for workplace accommodations, which may involve HR. If an employee wants professional help, a speech therapist can evaluate speech, language, and fluency, and an audiologist can test hearing.
Some employees who work in a second language choose accent modification training to improve their pronunciation, rhythm, or intonation. Whether to pursue it is each employee's decision, not the manager's.
How to Coach an Employee on Communication, Step by Step
Effective coaching focuses on observable behaviors rather than personality traits. This simple coaching process can help you work on one communication skill at a time:
Collect examples: Before you talk, note specific moments in meetings, emails, and calls. Specific examples help because vague feedback, such as "communicate better," doesn't show the employee what to change.
Have a private conversation: Describe the situation, the behavior, and its impact, then ask for the employee's perspective before suggesting a plan.
Agree on one or two goals: Choose specific communication skills or behaviors to work on so the employee knows what to practice. For example, they can practice opening an update with a direct request or sending a written recap after a client call.
Practice during the workday: Give the employee opportunities to use the new skill in upcoming team meetings, emails, and calls. Role-play difficult conversations before they happen, such as telling a client or senior leader that a deadline isn't realistic.
Give quick, clear feedback: Share short, direct, constructive feedback in private soon after a meeting or call, while the situation is still fresh.
Check in and track progress: Have short, regular check-ins to review the employee's progress, ask what's helping, and decide whether to keep working on the same goal or choose a new one.
When employees already receive specific feedback regularly, a coaching conversation can feel less unexpected. Managers can also demonstrate the communication skills they're asking employees to practice.
How Do You Tell an Employee They Need to Communicate Better?
Start the conversation in private and use specific, recent examples to explain what you have noticed. Explain when the situation happened, describe the behavior you observed, and explain its impact without guessing at the employee's motives.
For example, a manager can say, "In Tuesday's client call, you gave a lot of background before saying what you needed, and the client asked twice what you wanted. I'd like to work with you on stating the request earlier."
After you explain what you noticed, ask for the employee's perspective. Ask an open question, such as "How do you think that meeting went?" and listen before you respond.
Keep the conversation focused on the specific communication skill, and give feedback that is direct and respectful. If the communication issues are affecting the employee's job performance, follow your organization's process and involve HR when needed. Be clear about when you're coaching a communication skill and when you're raising a formal performance concern.
How Do You Know the Coaching Is Working?
Track progress by observing how the employee applies the new skills in their regular work. Look for specific changes that match your goals, such as more focused updates, clearer emails, or fewer follow-up questions about missing details.
When Should You Get Help from a Communication Coach?
A communication coach can help when an employee needs more individualized practice and feedback than a manager can provide.
An outside coach provides the employee with a separate place to practice and receive feedback, without their manager leading every practice session. Explain that communication coaching is meant to help the employee develop specific skills, and involve them in choosing the goals.
What Happens in Communication Coaching Sessions
Coaching sessions can start by reviewing how the employee communicates now, such as through a recorded update or a sample email. The coach and employee review the employee's communication style, choose a few skills to focus on, and practice using situations and messages from the employee's work. Between coaching sessions, the employee practices at work and discusses what went well or was difficult at the next session.
Group Communication Training or One-on-One Coaching?
Group communication training, such as a workshop on effective communication techniques, can teach the whole team the same communication strategies.
One-on-one coaching can focus on the specific skills and workplace situations an individual employee wants to improve. Some teams use both, with group training for shared communication skills and individual coaching for employees who want to work on specific goals.
Communication Training Programs for Employees
Learn how communication training programs for employees are set up and what they usually cover.
What We See Working with Clients
We work with many adults who want to improve their workplace communication skills, including employees who have received feedback from their managers. The examples below are based on real clients we have worked with. Identifying details have been changed to protect privacy.
One client, a project manager, came to us after her director said her updates were hard to follow. She knew her projects well, but in team meetings she explained the details chronologically before getting to her main point. By the end of her updates, stakeholders were often unsure what they were supposed to do.
We worked on opening each update with her main point and request, limiting supporting information to a few key ideas, and pausing rather than adding unnecessary detail. She recorded her weekly update, and we reviewed it together for pace and structure. Over time, she gave more concise updates, and she said colleagues were asking fewer follow-up questions.
Another client, a software engineer, worked in English as his second language. He avoided phone calls with clients and rarely spoke up in team meetings. His manager interpreted his quietness as a possible sign that he was losing interest in the job.
He told us he felt confident in his technical skills but worried about being misunderstood when he had to respond without preparation. We practiced common call openings, slowing his speaking pace slightly, and giving a short summary at the end of each call to confirm what had been agreed. He also rehearsed questions he could ask about agenda topics for upcoming meetings.
He began handling more client calls and asking more questions in meetings, according to his manager.
Frequently Asked Questions About Coaching Employees on Communication
1. How do you manage an employee with poor communication skills?
Managing an employee with poor communication skills starts with identifying the specific communication behaviors that need to change. Have a private conversation about specific, recent examples, agree on one or two goals, and check in regularly. If the employee isn't making progress toward the goals you've set, or needs more practice and feedback than you can provide, a communication coach can work with them individually.
2. What if the employee gets defensive?
Some employees can react strongly or disagree when they receive feedback about how they communicate. Return to the specific example and ask for the employee's perspective on what happened. If the conversation stops being productive, you can pause and agree on a time to continue it later.
3. How long does it take to improve communication skills at work?
How long improvement takes depends on the skill the employee is working on and how much opportunity they have to practice it. With focused practice, an employee can become more consistent with a specific skill, such as opening updates with the main point. Broader goals, such as communicating more clearly and feeling more confident in various workplace situations, usually involve multiple skills and take longer to achieve.
4. How do you coach an employee who works in a second language?
When coaching an employee who works in a second language, start by asking what they want to improve. Focus on the situations where they want to communicate more comfortably or clearly, such as calls and meetings, and on the skills they choose to develop, such as pronunciation, pace, or organizing their thoughts. Organizing a message clearly and ensuring everyone shares the same understanding can help in any language.
5. Is communication coaching the same as speech therapy?
Communication coaching and speech therapy can overlap, but the right approach depends on what the person is working on. Speech therapy evaluates and treats communication disorders, such as stuttering or a voice disorder, while coaching focuses on communication skills, such as giving clear updates at work.
How Connected Speech Pathology Can Help
At Connected Speech Pathology, our communication coaches are licensed and trained in speech-language pathology and have expertise in areas such as voice, fluency, and language. This background helps us look closely at how an employee communicates and identify the specific skills that could make a difference in the workplace.
We start with the situations the employee finds most challenging, such as client calls or team meetings. In online, one-on-one sessions, we use examples from their own meetings, calls, and emails to practice skills they can apply directly at work.
We offer online communication coaching for individuals and communication coaching for companies.
Summary
Coaching an employee with poor communication skills starts with a private conversation about the specific communication behaviors you have noticed. Next, ask for the employee's perspective and agree on one or two clear communication goals.
Then give feedback as the employee practices specific skills, such as giving focused updates, writing clear emails, or using active listening during meetings and calls. If the employee needs more individualized practice and feedback than you can provide, a communication coach can work with them on those specific skills.
About the Author
Allison Geller, M.A., CCC-SLP, is a communication coach, speech-language pathologist, and founder of Connected Speech Pathology, an international online practice providing professional communication coaching and speech therapy for children, teens, and adults. With more than two decades of experience, she has worked in medical and educational settings and published research on aphasia. Today, she leads a team of specialists who help clients improve their skills in public speaking, vocal presence, accent clarity, articulation, language, fluency, and interpersonal communication.
