communication skills

communication skills

The Importance of Developing Effective Communication Skills

1. Introduction to Communication Skills

Effective communication includes not only the ability to show ideas and feelings but the ability to understand what others are saying. The competencies of successful communicators are often grouped under three general headings: the knowledge or information they have to communicate, the skills to communicate effectively, and the attitudes towards communication. Findings of research and policy reports, from academia, government, and professional bodies, have consistently pointed to the need for higher education graduates to be proficient in these three areas. Indeed, at various levels of study and learning, developing skills, knowledge, and attitudes in relation to communication is a frequently identified goal. Four types of communication are generally required: interpersonal (two or more people), public speaking, group (small group or organizational), and mass (writing, blogging, video, and other forms of media). Different classes focus on each type, as teachers and professionals with experience in all types respectively teach them.

Good communication skills are key to success in life, work, and relationships. Without effective communication, a message can turn into error, misunderstanding, frustration, or even disaster by being misinterpreted or poorly delivered. You must therefore practice and develop effective communication skills to enable you to communicate with impact and persuasion. Good communication traits include attentive listening, non-confrontational dialogue, a calm demeanor, and an interest in understanding the other person’s point of view.

2. Types of Communication Skills

When we talk about communication, we are referring to the interchange of thoughts and information between people. This is done through language or any other kind of the seven types of communication skills: sight, which is the ability to perceive things through vision; hearing, which is the ability to listen and be affected by sounds and recognize them; speech, the ability to express and communicate thoughts through speech; writing, the ability to express thoughts through writing; reading, which involves the capacity to interpret or understand written words; perception, to see, notice, and evaluate the subtleties of human expression in our relationships; body language, the ability to understand the subtleties of the body and the visual appearance of people; and tone, the ability to interpret the tonal values of people’s voices and detect tonal changes in their voice.

3. Benefits of Effective Communication

– Allows individuals to express their thoughts and ideas. – Promotes the legitimacy of social foundations. – Helps in the exchange and creation of knowledge. – Contributes to the flow of information into every organization. – Encourages corporate culture. – Determines organizational climate. – Develops meaningful relationships between organizations and employees. – Allows individuals to understand one another better. – Builds employee morale. – Makes punishment more healthier.

Benefits of Effective Communication:

Being an effective communicator can help career prospects, as most organizations are keen to hire employees who can effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas with co-workers. Moreover, the organizational structure depends a great deal on how individual staff members communicate with one another. Therefore, if an individual is able to develop effective communication skills, they are more likely to have a successful career equation. The cost of a good communicator can be high, but not many believe that they can actually become better at communicating. However, if individuals make an active effort to develop their communication skills now, they can notice a significant difference in their promotional opportunities and the overall fitness of their organization in the competitive business world. In addition, it can help to build social and, if allowed, business relationships. After all, the most popular and successful companies are those who can talk and listen to each other.

4. Practical Strategies for Improving Communication Skills

The T-E-A-M Approach: The aim of listening – identifying what is vital to the speaker – is an important part of the TOM philosophy. A useful way to remember and practice good communication of any type, either one-on-one or to a group, is to practice the T-E-A-M approach. These are the 4 major elements: T = Timing (Is this the best time to pass on this communication? Will the speaker be receptive?) E = Environment (Is this a suitable and distraction-free environment?) A = Audience (Whom do you need to reach?) M = Message (What do you hope to accomplish? Reflect on the contents of your message and your goal). By using this T-E-A-M approach, you are making a concrete effort to set the stage for effective and influential communication. And, even if the response seems adverse, sometimes results are achieved anyway.

How do you gain support, collaboration, and results from others, ensure that you understand what others tell you, and set the stage for effective and influential communication? We take for granted that we can communicate effectively, but, in fact, most of us can be more influential and more articulate in our communications. In this section, you will discover practical strategies including reflecting on your own style, adopting a T-E-A-M approach, using good language and listening skills, and learning from the best.

5. Challenges and Solutions in Developing Communication Skills

Instructors must be prepared to address the challenges of this diversity by developing effective strategies that accommodate differences in prior work and classroom experiences, help non-native speakers excel in developing both regional and corporate communication competence, and meet the needs of a curriculum that is increasingly embracing distance education, increased class size, and shifts in preferred modes of course delivery. Realizing that the standard approaches to large segregated classes and underemphasis on communication are likely to impact the long-term development of skills, the challenges must be acknowledged and educators must embrace communication effectiveness and efficiency in course design and delivery.

Although it is commonly known that soft skills are essential ingredients of employability and career advancement, the education literature is replete with concerns about the lack of development of oral and written communication skills in many business graduates. Why are these essential skills often underdeveloped in our students? What can instructors do to assist students in developing the communication skills required to effectively function in the demanding, ever-changing world of work? Major challenges in developing effective communication skills include the diversity in students’ prior experiences, the increasing use of non-native language classroom environments, and the lack of communication-centered education.