‘Effective communication is more a journey than a destination,” says Gary Mills, co-founder and chief operations officer at Pinnacle Performance, a communications-skills training company in Chicago.

“Great speakers are made, not born,” said Mills during a fast-moving, 75-minute session during the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM 2018) conference. “We’re all trying to get better.”

And for good reason. Today’s knowledge-based economy has created new demand for communication skills. Findings from a Pew Research study found an 83-percent increase, since 1980, in hiring for jobs that require strong social skills, including interpersonal and communication. Employers want people who can listen, convey information clearly, and engage with others in a way that fosters productivity and morale.

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