If you can manage to get yourself a personal communication coach, you'll improve even faster. There is an art to voice-mail. Conversational skills will bring you into comfortable contact with new customers, leads, jobs and friends and you will be grateful for this fluency for the rest of your life. Dr. Fleming's audio series, The Serious Business of Small Talk contains all the instruction you may need to become fluent and easy dealing with new contacts. Comfortable small talk develops new business relationships, and it also makes you more at ease at the water cooler, at office parties and when it's up to you to 'melt the social ice' in any social situation.
Small talk is one of the most subtle and under- appreciated social skills.
All prominent people are very good at it. This may be the only contact people have with you. Clarity and accuracy are especially important when dealing with official documents, but everybody appreciates a written message that is easy to read, gets to the point and doesn't distract attention with errors. Check out past articles written by Carol Fleming.