If communication is important to you and you also like to think outside the box, this article is for you. In this blogpost, Jill writes about something called the Fifth Season and how to understand and use this time of the year to review the past year while preparing for 2025. You'll find analogies related to nature that'll help you establish yourself and your teams as thoughtful and effective communicators.

How to Improve Communication Skills in the Workplace by Embracing the Fifth Season

Autumn (also known as fall), is a time of harvest and reflection in The U.S.

In Chinese medicine, however, it goes even deeper than that. So deep that they call autumn the Fifth Season (I’ll explain it in a sec…)

But, let’s open today’s article by saying that fall is a unique opportunity for growth and development, both personally and within organizations.

As we transition (precisely these early September days of The Fifth Season) into autumn in the northern hemisphere, I thought we could explore how you can capture the  energy to enhance your communication skills, boost confidence, and foster an inclusive environment for all.

Wha’da’ya say?

First Things First: Understanding the Fifth Season in Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine recognizes five seasons, with late summer or early autumn being the Fifth Season. This period is associated with the element of Earth (which makes so much sense to me with all the abundance of vegetables and fruits available).

Having once studied Chinese medicine myself, I understand that both fall, and the Earth element, symbolize stability, nourishment, and transformation which can be wonderful words to aspire to when you look to inspire and lead through effective communication.

Stability, Nourishment, and Transformation in Public Speaking 

What would it look and sound like if your speech had elements of earth? 

Well, as this heading suggests, it would mean:

✔️ your message, voice, and body language are stable and grounded in confidence.

✔️ your participation in meetings and conversations is nourishment for others. 

✔️ plus, it could lead to transformation that drives the bottom line of your function and organization.

You’d feel worthy and proud to bring this uniqueness to work, wouldn’t you? These are just a few ways you can connect the dots between The Fifth Season and communication skills.

But, let’s keep going and see how you can plan for that.

Planning for Growth

If the Fifth Season is the right time to balance and harmonize, wouldn’t it make it perfect for planning and growth, too? It’s no wonder that we all, including organizations, use this time to wrap up our current-year goals to set up for the one ahead.

Here are some ways you can reflect and set goals with the Fifth Season (and communication) in mind:

For Individuals

✔️ Reflect on Past Experiences: Use these September days to take stock of what you’ve achieved in 2024 so far. (We don’t do this enough, right?!) You can journal about it and even ask some of your colleagues and mentors for feedback.

You’ll demonstrate your confidence and desire for improvement to yourself while gaining constructive criticism that’ll give you valuable insights into setting your development goals.

✔️ Do a Self-Assessment: Conduct a personal SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and create a skill inventory to identify what you have and what you need to develop.

The structured approach of the SWOT will be an easy document you can reflect back on as you lay out your upcoming goals and the skill inventory can break down the technical, soft and industry-specific knowledge you have and are looking for. Brilliant 💫 Love it 💋

✔️    Review Goals & Milestones: The above two actions aren’t enough, though. You need to take the next important step of reviewing your previous goals and assessing your progress. This reflection helps in setting more realistic and achievable goals in the future.

As you sit down to set your future goals and mark your calendar for milestone due dates, ask yourself questions like: Did I achieve xyz in 2024? If I did, did I set the bar high enough? If not, what were the obstacles and how can I overcome them in 2025?  

For Corporations

Each corporation will have its unique set of expectations which can be more stressful of an assignment. If you are a leader who has the responsibility for your people, take your time during the Fifth Season and allow yourself to remember why you love what you do and then dig into these important actions.

✔️ Performance Reviews & 360s: As you work with your leaders on conducting comprehensive performance reviews for their teams, I want to gently remind you the essential need for your global communications to go smoothly.

See what you can do to add a column for written and spoken communication as you discuss the achievements and areas for improvement for your top performers as you set the stage for their future goals. 

✔️ Data Analysis: This won’t surprise you when I say that as you innovate for 2025, ask yourself how you can champion KPIs and Metrics for communication, too. It’s not a one and done even if the organization still considers communication to be a soft skill.

And while you are doing your data analysis, see where you compared to some of your competitors’ communication performance in recent years, and ask how putting communication at the forefront of 2025 might be a strategy worth looking into.  

Consider this: Workplace statistics show 86% of employees and executives say the main cause of workplace failures come from a lack of effective communication.

✔️ Strategic Meetings: We all know the challenges of meetings, right? Hours and hours or “talk” with what feels like hours and hours wasted. Be the voice that makes your team discussions productive by holding strategic meetings.

Make the time to plan for them so that when you meet up with different departments to discuss achievements, challenges, and goals, you can encourage open communication and brainstorming for solutions.

Whether you are an individual reflecting and setting goals or in charge of your people in an organization, you know what I’m going to say next: keep thinking about communication both from a speaking and listening perspective.

You want yourself and your organization to be one that connects deeply, understands fully, and achieves personal and company goals!

Fostering Growth Personally and Inside Organizations

A plant grows because it is nourished. If you put a seed in the ground and hope for the best, you are relying on elements out of your control. If, however, you plant a seed and check for temperature, water, and weather daily, you’ll have an amazing harvest.

Keep in mind that the Fifth Season is a time of collapse. Yep! After the harvest, whatever remains begins to die and the evergreens prepare for hard months ahead. 

The end of the year is like that, too, isn’t it?

You may feel excited in September. I know for me there’s still a sense of new beginnings knowing there’s another push before winter arrives.

So, as you harness the positive energy that’s still around us because of the season, get ready to foster your growth personally and inside the organization because it’ll take every bit of your focus and energy as the pressure mounts to finish the year strong while you set important expectations for the year ahead. 

That means taking care of your health and reviewing and setting those goals as outlined in the previous section of this article.

Here are some quick times for fostering growth once the goals are in place:

➔ Know the temperature: Just like we take care of plants, you’ll want to know how your daily mood and performance of your company will affect the day.

See if you can put an app on your phone for each of those and if you are someone like me who knows the temperature every day because I look, then have a quick-see at your daily mood an company performance every day to help you know how to adjust your actions and communication with your teams.

➔ Add Water: I live part-time in Brazil and during the dry season there are days when there is not enough water to take care of the garden. So, when the hose is full and we can get enough water for the grass, flowers, and plants, it’s a day of celebration.

How can you celebrate your personal and team wins as a way of fostering growth?

✔️A box of donuts for you and your co-workers? (Not healthy, I know, but certainly delicious! 😋 )

✔️An extra day working from home?

✔️Or, if it’s a big win and you’ve got some budget left from 2024, how about a training session for yourself or a 50-minute workshop for the group on a topic of your choosing?

Whatever you do, don’t let your success or that of your team go unrecognized. Use it as a chance to boost your morale or motivate everyone to go further.

➔ Check the Weather: Weather is a little different from temperature in that it can include big and unexpected upheavals. Think hurricane, earthquake, or Tsunami.

Quite often we hear these may be approaching, but we don’t take them seriously until it’s too late.

You can really foster your personal and company growth by watching how these events are unfolding and ring the alarm if and when they are looking to touch ground.

You’ve planned for and fostered personal growth, now what? Leveraging the Fifth Season

Once winter arrives, you’ll start to feel the slow-down effects of your body and the activities at work. You’ll want to surrender to the urge, and you’ll need to learn how to stay productive while respecting yourself and your teammates.

But, remember, expectations won’t go away. Here are a few ways you can leverage the Fifth Season once the hoopla of years-end passes:

➔ Be SMART: In 1981, a guy by the name of George T. Doran wrote a paper titled "There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives."

The method became widely adopted in various fields, including business, project management, and personal development, because it provides a structured approach to goal-setting that enhances clarity and accountability.

You’ll need to go back to the Fifth Season to check on the goals you set and then use the model like this: 

✔️ Be Specific,

✔️ Stay Measurable,

✔️ Make Achievable,

✔️ Keep Relevant,

✔️ Create Time-bound goals  

➔ Stay grateful: You may have read during the past 9 months how I worked on gratitude in 2024. I had a Whats App group whereby a couple of friends and I wrote 3 things we were grateful for each day (wow, what a game changer that’s been!)

If you’ve never taken gratitude-tracking seriously, I highly recommend it as a way to continue to reflect and set new goals. 

You don’t have to share your thoughts with anyone, but writing them down is the best way to be able to review and use them to your advantage.

Plus, it’s a real dopamine boost unlike a like on social media!

➔ Collaborate with others: Yes, we all have enjoyed working from home and being more productive than ever when we do, but projects that require collaboration and communication can really help us to feel part of something bigger than ourselves.

Winter will drag us down. Have a virtual coffee with a colleague for 10 minutes to remember the power of the group. 

Use your Slack channel more and hop on video calls (YES, VIDEO CALLS) to hold yourself accountable. That’s going to mean putting on the right shirt and makeup if that’s your thing.

Just leverage the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and you’ll soar like never before.

Conclusion

I hope today’s post gives you the drive you’ll need to improve your communication skills at work while keeping insights from the Fifth Season in mind. It certainly has been fun and powerful for me to write.

Use what you remember, read the post a couple times this month to get the most out of it and please leave a comment below and subscribe to the blog so that you get every ounce of my guidance on you and your organization’s communication journey.