Workplace success starts with confidence and clear communications. Communicating well with your peers enhances your credibility and increases trust.

"The most underrated skill that successful people, especially introverts, have is the ability to write clearly," explains Juliette Han, a neuroscientist, biotech executive, faculty member at Columbia Business School, and academic advisor at Harvard Medical School, in a recent CNBC article. “If you are a thoughtful and strategic writer, you’ll be more confident in your interactions—in emails, public speaking or even just small talk.”

Han shares these five tips to improve your communication:

• Choose the best format. Consider the information you are seeking to convey, and how to best present it. Perhaps complex data is best presented as a chart in a PowerPoint presentation or as an infographic.
• Avoid jargon. To communicate clearly, use plain language. Industry terms and acronyms can be confusing to people outside your field and can be complicated to understand.
• Make it easy for your audience. You want to make it easier for people to access and understand the information you provide. This could mean improving your format, providing necessary context, and calling out action items clearly.
• Show your work. When discussing complex ideas, show your audience your thought process and how you arrived at your conclusions.
• Write carefully. Boost your credibility by ensuring your work is error-free and to the point.

For more advice, read Han’s article, “Harvard neuroscientist: The ‘most underrated’ skill all successful people have—‘especially introverts.’”