Is communication the backbone of your business? Well it should be
Have you ever noticed that most jobs require applicants to have “excellent communication skills”? In most cases, this requirement often comes before any other, even before academic training qualifications. HR staff know that applicants will have more or less the same technical skills and educational knowledge, but the winning factor is having the best communication skills.
Communication is simply important in just about everything, family life, school, friends, and all other relationships. The way we talk to our children, parents, friends and family has been shown to make or break the relationships we maintain. By having good communication skills, arguments and fights between people are less likely to occur.
Businesses also thrive on good communication every day. Communication from senior management to communicate their plans for the company to subordinates. Different communication channels are used in the workplace. From the conventional ones like phone calls, emails, notes and memos; to more recent forms such as the use of social networks such as Twitter or Facebook where policies, reports and proposals as well as complaints are transmitted throughout the company through effective communication through these different channels.
Front-line employees of companies must also master the art of communication when interacting with customers. The sales team and customer service representatives are often the first a customer talks to and are representatives of the entire company. The way they speak to a customer will also reflect how the company treats its customer.
People are taught to speak and express themselves at a very young age. However, as society has shown, there are problems communicating effectively and often cause huge and complicated problems. If we think about it, language is taught to read and write, but listening and speaking is something that we are not formally taught in school. This is natural. Rather, the proper decorum that speaking and listening entails is only taught to us within the social circles in which we are involved, such as within our family and friends.
Communication has many facets. And to be effective in communication, one is to understand what the communication process encompasses and what are the things that make communication effective or ineffective.
Communication skills are more than just your ability to listen and speak. The way our body responds to someone speaking, the gestures we make when we respond, our facial expressions and tone of voice are also part. When we make a full commitment to actively listen to the person we are talking to, we can respond appropriately and accordingly, and we also better understand the message that is being conveyed to us. This is effective listening.
Most people are crazy about multitasking. However, multitasking in itself can damage the course of good communication. When you are on the phone, for example, and at the same time replying to an email as well, your attention is divided between the person you are talking to and the email you are composing. This is an ineffective form of communication, when you don’t fully immerse yourself in the conversation you are having. The tendency of this is that the information that you pass, enters through one ear and leaves through the other. A lot of time is wasted in these kinds of conversations. You spend more time coming and going without understanding much of what they tell you; hence the conversation does not end. Instead of completing more tasks in less time, it takes longer to complete simple tasks due to lack of concentration.
The ability to listen and speak is something you will learn even as a child. But the ability to listen actively and speak effectively are skills that you will hone later. You will also learn that communication skills are one of the most important skills you can have that you can use in all aspects of your life.