COMMUNICATION SKILLS
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What is Communication?
Communication is the activity of conveying and exchanging information.
Communication is a language based systematic process. Typically human beings communicate effectively in their own and native languages. Unfortunately, with the advent of technology and global demand, it became mandatory for us to communicate in English. The ability to communicate well in English distin- guishes one person from another and gives prominence over others, and that goaded us to learn English language for all purposes of communication.
Communication has been there since the time of Adam and Eve, and the primitive people communicated well without any barriers. As the human community grown in numbers and their mind developed over the period of time, while interacting with others, and felt necessity for effective communication.
Nobody, till today, has any convincible idea, how the ancient people developed the written communication so authentically, which paved the way for evolvement of hundreds of thousands of scripts for human communication all over the world.
May be, the primitive people didn’t have the knowledge about the primordial communication system they had developed and its usage in the future. But, we are very fortunately privileged to use various languages for communication at our own convenience. This is really a big boon for all the human beings in this universe.
Communication is of THREE types :-
- Oral or verbal communication
- Written communication
- Non-verbal communication
Things to learn to become effective oral or verbal communicator :-
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Simple, complex and compound sentences
Things to learn to become effective written communicator :-
- Punctuation marks
- Spellings
- Style of writing (Paragraphing, Precise writing)
- Use of Nouns, Adverbs, Adjectives and Phrases as necessary
Things to learn to become effective non-verbal communicator:-
- Body language (Postures & Gestures)
- Facial expressions
- Personal hygiene & body odor
- Clothing (Dress code)
- Eye contact
- Touch (Handshake, Patting, hugging ,)
- Articulation (Tone of voice)
Need for good Communication skills
There exists nothing without communication in the universe. We, human beings are social animals and can’t be aloof from society and there is a necessity to interdependent and interact with other people for comfortable living in the society. Then communication plays an important role in everyone’s life, whether It is a hawker, manager, child, student, teacher, priest or servant.
English language has become routine and compulsory in official communication. Poor communication skills, low confidence levels and improper body language makes the people unfit for high-end jobs in present day competitive world. People in all the organizations around the world spend more than fifty
percent of their daily time on communication through listening, reading, writing and speaking. Hence, Communication holds the key.
Technological advancement and economy are some of the major factors that have led to English becom- ing formidable language. Though language committees and regional governments have been trying very hard, through every effort to increase usage of the Hindi and local Indian languages in the country, its usage is still minuscule, and English language has been expanding consistently in rural areas of India in general, and in urban areas of India in particular. Some of the language chauvinists even conducted topic based competitions in TV programs to make conversation in Indian languages, without using English words. Unfortunately, 95 percent people were unable to talk, it’s noticed. It’s astonishing, but true.
In the past two decades of globalization, its use has increased manifold, governed by seeming fascination and underlying compulsions in the subconscious minds of people to survive in the system, driven by a market economy and technological advancement. Since the medium and glossary of market and technology is English-centric, familiarity with English became inevitable.
Importance of good communication skills in life
If parents communicate well with their children, most of the social problems will automatically vanish. It has been a conflict between parents and children over decision making towards betterment of life in present day culture in their respective and stubborn conscience. Nobody listens to anybody these days. Unfortu- nately, no reasons have been found. Today, communication skills have become one of the most essential qualities for overall development and success in one’s life, in addition to acquiring academic and technical skills. In almost all the jobs, people need to communicate at work places.
Executives, Managers, Leaders, Team heads, Supervisors, Faculties and Marketing personnel all need to communicate effectively to convey their message concisely across organization levels, to get the job done on expected lines. If the message is not clear, especially when it is going down the levels involving many people, the pereceived and expected results invariably not matched, thereby wasting the company re- sources and man hours.
The effective way of using communication is, so vital for the achievement of desired objectives. The purpose of communication is to get your message to others clearly and unambiguously. In fact, communi- cation is successful when both sender and receiver understand same information as a result of the communication. By successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively and the receivers feel comfortable. Effective communicators will easily motivate the people for better results.
Importance of good communication skills in business
Good leaders are effective communicators. Communication plays a part in almost every aspect of your business, so being able to communicate well can boost your overall performance. Good communication is essential in building a cohesive and effective team. It will enable you to work more closely with your team members, determine personal goals that will suit them and help them to work towards those goals. Team morale tends to be higher in a workplace where communication is good.
Good communication skills are essential to manage the performance of your team members, and if you know how to communicate well to large groups you can minimize the risk of industrial problems developing in your workplace. Good communication skills are a key part of managing individual employee performance.
Moreover, If you have good communication skills, you will know how to give clear feedback on perfor- mance while not denting people’s self-esteem. Good communication is essential for proper planning and coordination. Better communication helps better job performance. Effective and timely communication promotes cordial relations and work culture among the employees for increasing production, and creates healthy and happy environment within and outside the organization, which is good for everyone.
Profusely, communication skills plays active role in higher echelon, Since information is ruling the business world abundantly, effective communication skills plays major role in successful running of the organizations.`
Barriers of communication
Following are the problems in communication that blocks students and professionals:-
- Many students and professionals write well, but unable to speak out
- Many people speak fluently, but have little knowledge on grammar while
- Some people feel comfortable speaking with friends, colleagues and face problems while addressing larger
- Many people never listen properly, thereby losing the essential and crux points of the
Reasons
- Limited vocabulary
- Imperfect pronunciation
- Lack of active listening
- Inappropriate non-verbal communication
- Fear of speaking in public and making mistakes
- Fear of expressing certain views
- Lack of confidence
- Non-exposure to writing
- Not having group skills
- Not having assertiveness
How good are your communication skills?
In respect to : Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading Effectively
When we talk about Communication Skills, it is not just “Speaking and Writing”, it also brings about “Listening and Reading”. We talk to people, and we listen when people talk to us. We write emails and reports, and we read and reply rejoinders. For successful completion of these activities, the receiver must understand the message clearly, the way the sender was intended.
Writing skills
Writing skill is an ability to put one’s thoughts into words in a meaningful way and to mentally interact with the message. Writing develops the creative thinking process and produces several new ideas. Effective writing requires good command over the language in which you want to write. These skills can’t be developed by overnight, it requires patience and determination. With grammar and punctuation, one can have effective writing skills over a period of time.
In order to become effective writer, one needs to acquire the knowledge as per the points given below :-
- Improve your vocabulary
- Plan the subject and have a vision of what you want to write
- Check the spelling errors
- Use correct punctuation marks
- Write always with relevance to the topic
- Always write positive things
- Never deviate the aim of your writing
- writing should be reader centric
- Mitigate the excess use of verbose
- Edit your writing for its correctness
- Use simple words with concise and clear message
Here is a story denothing the importance of effective writing
There was a company namely “Tusbus Suppliers” at Hyderabad, in India, which supplies electro medical equipment to hospitals including corporate ones. In one of its deliveries to a hospital, the recipient found some spurious equipment. The material manager at hospital informed the same to Tusbus Suppliers, stating to take the spurious material back and send the good ones.
Inadvertently, the manager ar Tusbus Suppliers wrote a mail stating that “the material once sold can’t be taken back”. Implacably, on receiving the mail, the material manager at hospital drafted one more mail stating “Since there is an agreement to return the spurious equipment to Tusbus Suppliers, we earnestly requesting your good offices to replace the spurious equipment with good ones”, and sent to Tusbus Suppliers.
Enraged with the rejoinders, the manager at Tusbus Suppliers again sent a mail stating “We have already sent our reply in our previous mail. The matter is closed from our side. No more correspondence will be entertained in this regard”.
Plaintively, the material manager at hospital called their lawyer and elucidated the antecedents of the issue and sought legal action against Tusbus Suppliers.
Eventually, Tusbus Suppliers received court notice to replace the spurious equipment with good ones. Inversely, they also engaged their lawyer and the case had been in the court without any decree. It had been six years and no fruitful outcome for either side. But, the Tusbus Suppliers name had been spoiled and orders fallen down steeply, as the hospital authorities taken the matter to their communion. Hence, no more orders were there for Tusbus Suppliers and almost on the verge of closing, as they were longingly waiting for the judgement. Since it all started with the behaviour of the manager at Tusbus Suppliers, he was fired lately. A new manager came and he put his mind on the case. He traversed through all the nitty- gritty of the case. Now, he understood the situation and got the total grip on the case. Meticulously and judiciously, he drafted a mail and sent to his not-so-exhausted and fighting customer to bring back them into the company’s fold again.
The email reads –
“Dear valuable customer,
With reference to our pending case of court, we earnestly request your king honour to please send our spurious equipment lying at your hospital to replace with the good ones.
As a token of respect to your good gestures towards our company, please accept our cheque for a sum of Rs 1,20,560/- (Rupees, Twelve Lakhs Five Hundred and Sixty only), which you have deposited in our account towards the payment of spurious equipment. It is also to be noted that you do not have to deposit the amount for the new equipment that we are going to replace. You may please inspect the new equip- ment and proceed with the payment later on, at your convenience.
We are sincerely regretting for the inconvenience caused earlier, Hope to respond positively by accepting our apologies.
yours faithfully, Manager
Tusbus Suppliers”
On receiving the mail, the hospital manager responded positively by withdrawing the case from the court and accepted their apologies and continued their business relations unscathed. Had it been done earlier by the previous manager, the case should have been amicably settled and their business might have been flourished as usual. The new manager’s presumable and homily writing skills solved the case and the company gained its status as it once had.
Writing is beneficial in several ways:-
- Makes us to be perfect in respect to spellings
- Makes us to use our pool of vocabulary
- Increases our faculty
- Gives us an edge to command over language
- Increases our personal relationships
- Standardizes our awareness
- Good writing enhances our ability to solve conflicts
- Gives a vent in making new friendships
- Improves our personality
- Puts us in positive mindset towards the society
- Gives us the ability to motivate the people through writing
Reading skills
Reading is a pastime for many renowned people, which gives plethora of ideas. Reading is skill by itself, which requies aspirants to make simple changes in their approach to master the talent. For a better grip over communication and languages skills, the students and professionals should give sufficient time to reading every day. This should be done on a daily basis, so that you never feel dearth of ideas and knowledge. The students and professionals are hereby advised to keep the following points in mind while reading:-
Buy the books of your choice
If possible buy more books pertaining to famous people When buying grab some inspirational and motivational books Read news papers
Try to read and understand the editorials Follow particular author in editorials
Point out vocabulary in editorial and learn the meaning Accordingly use the learnt vocabulary
Try to learn English words pertaining to all fields use your creative brain while reading
Here is a small story on importance of good reading skills:-
Mr. Shyam is working in Karna enterprises as a sales manager for the last three and half years. He is a good manager and liked by all employees of that organization. The sales of the company are buoyant under his guidance. Hitherto, there has been no problem in the organization in terms of sales, profit and morale of the employees. Everyone is happy and complacent with their performance and life.
Suddenly, a new word comes up as “recession”, Nobody has any idea till date, What the recession is. Without anybody’s knowledge, the sales come down drastically and the organization started to reduce their staff to meet their financial obligations in order to keep their standards intact.
Ostensibly, organizational staff reduced to half, since there are no sales according to expected projections. Bonus and increments are a rarely contemplated and employees are happy with their present salary.
Amazingly, another word comes up as “inflation”. Everybody is hit with this word for its cloaked reflection and action. People can beat people. Things can beat things. Arrows can hit sparrow. Sparrows can easily escape arrows. And any arrow can break any shield in the world. And any shield can break any arrow. But nothing has ever been invented to beat inflation, unless it wants to pacify and beat itself.
Mr. Shyam has a pastime of reading several books that rangers from marketing to management, and innovative ideas to ethical leadership. As he has been reading several books, since he found ample time with sales going down day by day, he got an idea of opening his own company which can sell the items with lesser price than the best companies in the world.
Eventually, he opened his company and recruited some of the best marketing people known to him. In two and half months, his business flournished like anything and he opened 9 branches simultaneously and
became a millionaire in very short span of time. Not only he earned money, he also earned respect and credentials form the customers as well as employees. He has given jobs for more than 220 people to work in his branches during recession time.
Everything is fine! The idea that he got while reading books was crucial. Ideas never pop in our mind by just sitting idle. He has read several books and absorbed the ways and means adopted by the famous and renowned entrepreneurs in the world. His mind never allowed him to sit idle after reading the books. So, he started thinking about the ideas and developed in his mind and then put into practice.
Reading is beneficial in several ways:-
- Gives new ideas
- Improves understanding the concept
- Improves vocabulary, spellings and phrases and style of writing
- Improves writing and speaking skills
- Regulates the stress
- Polishes our thoughts
- Increases our knowledge base
- Gives us the opportunity to dig new areas
- Improves our communication skills effectively
Reading leads to contemplation. Contemplation leads to ideas. An idea leads to opportunities. An opportunity leads to success.
Speaking skills
Many people feel tigers amidst friends or at home while speaking, but when it comes to public speaking their mind become feeble. Eloquent speakers are the need of the hour in present day competitive world, whether he or she is a doctor or actor. Irrespective of one’s profession, speaking skills are very much required in almost all the fields. Knowledge, confidence and articulation are the basic elements of an effective speech and that requires training and continuous practice.
Public speaking : Public speaking is an opportunity to deliver the lecture on particular topic or issue, It is an event, where large numbers of people gather at one place to imbibe and enlighten themselves on the topics of personality development, social, academic and technical issues. Public speaking is a process of speaking to a large number of people in a well structured manner. Public speakers are usually change emotions of their communion. Public speaking event can be used for motivating people in larger extent. Speaking in public is a stressful task for some people, whereas some speakers are very good at it, in giving discourse on the selected topic to the targeted audience. Sometimes, even the best speakers go through the anxiety and stage fear before going onto the stage. Some speakers fumble during the discourse. This is because of not being equipped with proper vocabulary.
In order to overcome the problems in public speaking and to make an effective speech, the following points are required to be borne in mind:-
- Reach the venue well in advance
- Get acquaint with rostrum, microphone and visual aids (if any)
- Ask yourself why you are giving the speech and how it affects
- Come up with strong material
- Organize the topic material
- Plan beginning, body and conclusion of the speech
- Practice the speech
- Control stage fear
- Prepare the subject well
- Bring in humor spontaneously
- Greet the audience as they arrive
- Keep a gentle smile
- Introduce yourself looking at the audience
- Start with a presentation
- Start with a simple and plain language
- Facial expressions should be in assertive manner
- Never slouch; stand up firmly
- Emphasize strong points
- Encourage the audience to raise the questions
- Respond the questions with authenticity
- Keep your focus on the topic and the audience
- Use humor, personal, interesting and inspirational stories
- Never forget to say thanks for listening the topic patiently
Having equipped with good speaking skills, one can improve one’s personality.
Speaking is beneficial in several ways:-
People know who you are Improves your personality
It gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts with people It improves your communication skills
It gives you the recognition in the organizations and in society You will become more confident
It increases your value It makes you an expert
It makes you to help others to achieve their goal It will enhance your career
Here is a small story on importance of good speaking skills
There was a woman who got divorced from her husband and living with her two children and ailing parents. She was doing a job at private company as a Public Relation Manager. She had good communication and interpersonal skills. As her children were growing up, the monthly expenditure shot up with the time and requirements, and she was unable to meet the expenses. Since she had no support from any quarter except her monthly salary, she started thinking how to earn money to meet home ex- penses, parent’s medical bills and children’s education.
As she had excellent articulation, apart from interpersonal skills, one of her colleagues advised her to attend soft skills and public speaking classes so that she could start teaching part time, at corporate and professional institutions.
True to that, she started her own institution and gained the name and fame along with monetary benefits. Then she became the famous person in that city and started writing books on people skills and personality development. Her children joined in premier institutions and had been doing great on their own. She was busy with her schedules togging between famous institutions and corporate offices. She was then more relaxed and satisfied with her present life, and was living happily with her parents and children. What else she was needed more than that? It was all because of her eloquent speech talent.
Listening skills
There is a huge difference between LISTENING and HEARING. Listening requires total concentration, where as hearing requires mere physical presence. Listening skills are one of the important aspects of communication processes. Here are some of the characteristics of a good listener :-
- Show patience
- Openness and desire to understand
- Concentration and maintain eye contact
- Resist distractions and encourage speaker
- Keep positive facial expressions
- Focus on speaker
- Look attentive
- Don’t interrupt
- Show interest
How to improve listening
Listening requires concentration and attentive attitude. Active listeners always understand the situation and reciprocate appropriately. If we listen to others, we can learn many new things in a short span of time. One needs a higher concentration to be a good listenner. One should improve listening by concentration, patience and interest in the subject. Pay attention to the body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures of the speaker, Try to make discussion interactive and lively. It will give right perspective of the message. Attentive listening plays important role in team work to build better interpersonal relations at work place. Attentive and active listeners get better ideas, especially in decision making and problem solving situations. Attentive listeners are the people who get innovative ideas. A good listener is a good speaker and a good speaker is always a good listener.
Listening is beneficial in several ways:-
- Understanding in depth meaning of the subject
- Accumulate more information
- Might get good advice
- Gives the power in respect to patience and tolerance
- Can make friend’s easily
- Able to nurture relationships by being a patient listener
- Gain vast knowledge from the speech of eminent people
- Make the bondage among family members
- Enhances communication
- Entails academic success for students and work succes for employees
Here is a story on importance of effective listening.
It was very hot day during the monthe of May. Indian summer peaks under the scorching sun during this month. Gopi reached Secunderabad railway station well in advance by successfully lacerating the best indiscipline traffic to catch Rajdhani Express in order to attend his final interview at MNC in New Delhi. As he sat on the bench at ‘platform-1’ beside a woman seemed to be nonagenarian and started reading the magazine, while the railway authorities gave announcement of “Radhani Express is arriving shortly on platform-1”.
A few minutes later, another announcement came, “Rajdhani Express is arriving shortly on platform-9”. Gopi heard the announcement but did not put his total concentration and did not even bother to notice the hustle bustle movement of the people from platform-1 to platform-9. As he was still waiting enthusiastically on platform-1, Rajdhani Express left the Secunderabad station from platform-9, for its onward journey to New Delhi. Having lost all his patience after waiting for more than half an hour, Gopi went to enquiry office furiously and posed a question to the seemingly busy employee – “Why Rajdhani is late? – The employee instead of giving the answer, he posed a question to Gopi – Which Rajdhani? – New Delhi bound Rajdhani, Gopi replied – The Rajdhani left Secunderabad 45 minutes ago from platform-9, the employee said with coolness, not seen often thought”
Mournfully, Gopi returned home, as there were no trains for the day towards New Delhi, cursing himself for not listening the announcement with concentration.
This small story tells the importance of listening skills. Had Gopi listened to the announcement with concentration, he would not have missed the train. He heard the announcement but not listened. Hence, it
is important for everyone to concentrate while listening and this listening skill will easily be improved with time and practice.
How to improve communication skills?
Remember the old adage, “Reading make a full man, writing an exact man and speaking a ready man”. Make a habit of reading as your pastime. Listen great speeches delivered by eminent people. Speak eloquently with family members, friends, colleagues. If possible, attend workshops and seminars by experts.
In order to be an effective communicator, there is a process which requires constant practice. There is no life without communication and communication flows like a river. Communication is the life line of management and it is vital for good management.
Word is the smallest meaningful structure of a sentence. Word is the basic structure of a clause or sentence. When we study grammar to communicate well in our daily life, we must have the first hand knowledge of the word. Any language is dealt with properly only when one has the knowledge of grammer. But grammer is not a single word. It is a unit. It is a system of rules which enables us to understand the language well.
Thus When we talk of grammer, then we automatically feels the need, the various components like words, phrases, sentences, verb patterns etc. Grammer is that which makes us able to read, write and speak properly, Grammer, as has been often said, given rules for combing words to form sentences.
Notwithstanding the above, strictly follow the under mentioned points, in order to become effective communicator, whether it is reading, writing or speaking:-
Read and read and read…….. Speak and speak and speak
Write and write and write…… Listen and listen and listen
Learn at least a new word a day
Make the meaningful sentence with that word
Speak with colleagues or family members by using that word while making conversation Start writing small essays
Try to write articles and send to news papers Start writing a book as you grow with language
Do not be pre-occupied with grammatical accuracy
Once you become fluent, you should try to improve grammer Practice is very important
Keep a good dictionary with you as your companion
Read newspapers, stories, articles and cultivate the habit of reading Listen to English channels like BBC and CNN
Mingle with others freely
VERBAL VERSUS NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Non-verbal communication is little bit complicated in comparison to verbal communication. This is because of cultural difference. In most of the cases, people are not conscious about their non-verbal communication. Since hundreds of thousands of people immigrating to different countries, it became necessary to understand the existence of prevalent non-verbal communication of that particular place.
In India, a man blinking his eye while seeing at a girl is a lewd gesture and is liable to be punished, if complained and caught. And the same gesture is treated as wishing and welcoming people, in English countries.
What is an acceptable gesture in one country is a punitive crime in another country. In such situations, one needs to be very cautious before they pose their gestures and non-verbal signals.
Impact of good communication on personality and career
Remember tha old adage “SILENCE IS THE BEST COMMUNICATION WITH IMPECCABILITY” Unfortu- nately, with the advent of technology and countries around the world becoming as neighboring villages, this adage has been put totally on hold. With IT and ITes arrival, every job and profession made the people to communicate with the clients around the globe.
Hence, having good communication skill is an added advantage to one’s own personality and career. If you communicate well, your message will be sailed through all the gates and reaches towards its destination, without any ambiguity, and people who receive will subsequently reciprocate well, the way you wanted it should be. And people always use these skills to mediate conflict between people and organizations and successfully resolve them. Interpersonal communication is one of the most challenging and important aspects of a successful career and social recognition.
When you are embedded with crystal clear style of communication, your credibility will enhance the reliability that people around your always looking for. Having good communication skills will accurately portray the individual as an excellent personality in work place and in the society, which automatically increase the reputation.
When you learn to communicate effectively in the way the situation is required, you will be able to perform better and will reach your targets and achieve your goals with anticipated results
What is Communication?
Communication is the activity of conveying and exchanging information.
Communication is a language based systematic process. Typically human beings communicate effectively in their own and native languages. Unfortunately, with the advent of technology and global demand, it became mandatory for us to communicate in English. The ability to communicate well in English distin- guishes one person from another and gives prominence over others, and that goaded us to learn English language for all purposes of communication.
Communication has been there since the time of Adam and Eve, and the primitive people communicated well without any barriers. As the human community grown in numbers and their mind developed over the period of time, while interacting with others, and felt necessity for effective communication.
Nobody, till today, has any convincible idea, how the ancient people developed the written communication so authentically, which paved the way for evolvement of hundreds of thousands of scripts for human communication all over the world.
May be, the primitive people didn’t have the knowledge about the primordial communication system they had developed and its usage in the future. But, we are very fortunately privileged to use various languages for communication at our own convenience. This is really a big boon for all the human beings in this universe.
Communication is of THREE types :-
- Oral or verbal communication
- Written communication
- Non-verbal communication
Things to learn to become effective oral or verbal communicator :-
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Simple, complex and compound sentences
Things to learn to become effective written communicator :-
- Punctuation marks
- Spellings
- Style of writing (Paragraphing, Precise writing)
- Use of Nouns, Adverbs, Adjectives and Phrases as necessary
Things to learn to become effective non-verbal communicator:-
- Body language (Postures & Gestures)
- Facial expressions
- Personal hygiene & body odor
- Clothing (Dress code)
- Eye contact
- Touch (Handshake, Patting, hugging ,)
- Articulation (Tone of voice)
Need for good Communication skills
There exists nothing without communication in the universe. We, human beings are social animals and can’t be aloof from society and there is a necessity to interdependent and interact with other people for comfortable living in the society. Then communication plays an important role in everyone’s life, whether It is a hawker, manager, child, student, teacher, priest or servant.
English language has become routine and compulsory in official communication. Poor communication skills, low confidence levels and improper body language makes the people unfit for high-end jobs in present day competitive world. People in all the organizations around the world spend more than fifty
percent of their daily time on communication through listening, reading, writing and speaking. Hence, Communication holds the key.
Technological advancement and economy are some of the major factors that have led to English becom- ing formidable language. Though language committees and regional governments have been trying very hard, through every effort to increase usage of the Hindi and local Indian languages in the country, its usage is still minuscule, and English language has been expanding consistently in rural areas of India in general, and in urban areas of India in particular. Some of the language chauvinists even conducted topic based competitions in TV programs to make conversation in Indian languages, without using English words. Unfortunately, 95 percent people were unable to talk, it’s noticed. It’s astonishing, but true.
In the past two decades of globalization, its use has increased manifold, governed by seeming fascination and underlying compulsions in the subconscious minds of people to survive in the system, driven by a market economy and technological advancement. Since the medium and glossary of market and technology is English-centric, familiarity with English became inevitable.
Importance of good communication skills in life
If parents communicate well with their children, most of the social problems will automatically vanish. It has been a conflict between parents and children over decision making towards betterment of life in present day culture in their respective and stubborn conscience. Nobody listens to anybody these days. Unfortu- nately, no reasons have been found. Today, communication skills have become one of the most essential qualities for overall development and success in one’s life, in addition to acquiring academic and technical skills. In almost all the jobs, people need to communicate at work places.
Executives, Managers, Leaders, Team heads, Supervisors, Faculties and Marketing personnel all need to communicate effectively to convey their message concisely across organization levels, to get the job done on expected lines. If the message is not clear, especially when it is going down the levels involving many people, the pereceived and expected results invariably not matched, thereby wasting the company re- sources and man hours.
The effective way of using communication is, so vital for the achievement of desired objectives. The purpose of communication is to get your message to others clearly and unambiguously. In fact, communi- cation is successful when both sender and receiver understand same information as a result of the communication. By successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively and the receivers feel comfortable. Effective communicators will easily motivate the people for better results.
Importance of good communication skills in business
Good leaders are effective communicators. Communication plays a part in almost every aspect of your business, so being able to communicate well can boost your overall performance. Good communication is essential in building a cohesive and effective team. It will enable you to work more closely with your team members, determine personal goals that will suit them and help them to work towards those goals. Team morale tends to be higher in a workplace where communication is good.
Good communication skills are essential to manage the performance of your team members, and if you know how to communicate well to large groups you can minimize the risk of industrial problems developing in your workplace. Good communication skills are a key part of managing individual employee performance.
Moreover, If you have good communication skills, you will know how to give clear feedback on perfor- mance while not denting people’s self-esteem. Good communication is essential for proper planning and coordination. Better communication helps better job performance. Effective and timely communication promotes cordial relations and work culture among the employees for increasing production, and creates healthy and happy environment within and outside the organization, which is good for everyone.
Profusely, communication skills plays active role in higher echelon, Since information is ruling the business world abundantly, effective communication skills plays major role in successful running of the organizations.`
Barriers of communication
Following are the problems in communication that blocks students and professionals:-
- Many students and professionals write well, but unable to speak out
- Many people speak fluently, but have little knowledge on grammar while
- Some people feel comfortable speaking with friends, colleagues and face problems while addressing larger
- Many people never listen properly, thereby losing the essential and crux points of the
Reasons
- Limited vocabulary
- Imperfect pronunciation
- Lack of active listening
- Inappropriate non-verbal communication
- Fear of speaking in public and making mistakes
- Fear of expressing certain views
- Lack of confidence
- Non-exposure to writing
- Not having group skills
- Not having assertiveness
How good are your communication skills?
In respect to : Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading Effectively
When we talk about Communication Skills, it is not just “Speaking and Writing”, it also brings about “Listening and Reading”. We talk to people, and we listen when people talk to us. We write emails and reports, and we read and reply rejoinders. For successful completion of these activities, the receiver must understand the message clearly, the way the sender was intended.
Writing skills
Writing skill is an ability to put one’s thoughts into words in a meaningful way and to mentally interact with the message. Writing develops the creative thinking process and produces several new ideas. Effective writing requires good command over the language in which you want to write. These skills can’t be developed by overnight, it requires patience and determination. With grammar and punctuation, one can have effective writing skills over a period of time.
In order to become effective writer, one needs to acquire the knowledge as per the points given below :-
- Improve your vocabulary
- Plan the subject and have a vision of what you want to write
- Check the spelling errors
- Use correct punctuation marks
- Write always with relevance to the topic
- Always write positive things
- Never deviate the aim of your writing
- writing should be reader centric
- Mitigate the excess use of verbose
- Edit your writing for its correctness
- Use simple words with concise and clear message
Here is a story denothing the importance of effective writing
There was a company namely “Tusbus Suppliers” at Hyderabad, in India, which supplies electro medical equipment to hospitals including corporate ones. In one of its deliveries to a hospital, the recipient found some spurious equipment. The material manager at hospital informed the same to Tusbus Suppliers, stating to take the spurious material back and send the good ones.
Inadvertently, the manager ar Tusbus Suppliers wrote a mail stating that “the material once sold can’t be taken back”. Implacably, on receiving the mail, the material manager at hospital drafted one more mail stating “Since there is an agreement to return the spurious equipment to Tusbus Suppliers, we earnestly requesting your good offices to replace the spurious equipment with good ones”, and sent to Tusbus Suppliers.
Enraged with the rejoinders, the manager at Tusbus Suppliers again sent a mail stating “We have already sent our reply in our previous mail. The matter is closed from our side. No more correspondence will be entertained in this regard”.
Plaintively, the material manager at hospital called their lawyer and elucidated the antecedents of the issue and sought legal action against Tusbus Suppliers.
Eventually, Tusbus Suppliers received court notice to replace the spurious equipment with good ones. Inversely, they also engaged their lawyer and the case had been in the court without any decree. It had been six years and no fruitful outcome for either side. But, the Tusbus Suppliers name had been spoiled and orders fallen down steeply, as the hospital authorities taken the matter to their communion. Hence, no more orders were there for Tusbus Suppliers and almost on the verge of closing, as they were longingly waiting for the judgement. Since it all started with the behaviour of the manager at Tusbus Suppliers, he was fired lately. A new manager came and he put his mind on the case. He traversed through all the nitty- gritty of the case. Now, he understood the situation and got the total grip on the case. Meticulously and judiciously, he drafted a mail and sent to his not-so-exhausted and fighting customer to bring back them into the company’s fold again.
The email reads –
“Dear valuable customer,
With reference to our pending case of court, we earnestly request your king honour to please send our spurious equipment lying at your hospital to replace with the good ones.
As a token of respect to your good gestures towards our company, please accept our cheque for a sum of Rs 1,20,560/- (Rupees, Twelve Lakhs Five Hundred and Sixty only), which you have deposited in our account towards the payment of spurious equipment. It is also to be noted that you do not have to deposit the amount for the new equipment that we are going to replace. You may please inspect the new equip- ment and proceed with the payment later on, at your convenience.
We are sincerely regretting for the inconvenience caused earlier, Hope to respond positively by accepting our apologies.
yours faithfully, Manager
Tusbus Suppliers”
On receiving the mail, the hospital manager responded positively by withdrawing the case from the court and accepted their apologies and continued their business relations unscathed. Had it been done earlier by the previous manager, the case should have been amicably settled and their business might have been flourished as usual. The new manager’s presumable and homily writing skills solved the case and the company gained its status as it once had.
Writing is beneficial in several ways:-
- Makes us to be perfect in respect to spellings
- Makes us to use our pool of vocabulary
- Increases our faculty
- Gives us an edge to command over language
- Increases our personal relationships
- Standardizes our awareness
- Good writing enhances our ability to solve conflicts
- Gives a vent in making new friendships
- Improves our personality
- Puts us in positive mindset towards the society
- Gives us the ability to motivate the people through writing
Reading skills
Reading is a pastime for many renowned people, which gives plethora of ideas. Reading is skill by itself, which requies aspirants to make simple changes in their approach to master the talent. For a better grip over communication and languages skills, the students and professionals should give sufficient time to reading every day. This should be done on a daily basis, so that you never feel dearth of ideas and knowledge. The students and professionals are hereby advised to keep the following points in mind while reading:-
Buy the books of your choice
If possible buy more books pertaining to famous people When buying grab some inspirational and motivational books Read news papers
Try to read and understand the editorials Follow particular author in editorials
Point out vocabulary in editorial and learn the meaning Accordingly use the learnt vocabulary
Try to learn English words pertaining to all fields use your creative brain while reading
Here is a small story on importance of good reading skills:-
Mr. Shyam is working in Karna enterprises as a sales manager for the last three and half years. He is a good manager and liked by all employees of that organization. The sales of the company are buoyant under his guidance. Hitherto, there has been no problem in the organization in terms of sales, profit and morale of the employees. Everyone is happy and complacent with their performance and life.
Suddenly, a new word comes up as “recession”, Nobody has any idea till date, What the recession is. Without anybody’s knowledge, the sales come down drastically and the organization started to reduce their staff to meet their financial obligations in order to keep their standards intact.
Ostensibly, organizational staff reduced to half, since there are no sales according to expected projections. Bonus and increments are a rarely contemplated and employees are happy with their present salary.
Amazingly, another word comes up as “inflation”. Everybody is hit with this word for its cloaked reflection and action. People can beat people. Things can beat things. Arrows can hit sparrow. Sparrows can easily escape arrows. And any arrow can break any shield in the world. And any shield can break any arrow. But nothing has ever been invented to beat inflation, unless it wants to pacify and beat itself.
Mr. Shyam has a pastime of reading several books that rangers from marketing to management, and innovative ideas to ethical leadership. As he has been reading several books, since he found ample time with sales going down day by day, he got an idea of opening his own company which can sell the items with lesser price than the best companies in the world.
Eventually, he opened his company and recruited some of the best marketing people known to him. In two and half months, his business flournished like anything and he opened 9 branches simultaneously and
became a millionaire in very short span of time. Not only he earned money, he also earned respect and credentials form the customers as well as employees. He has given jobs for more than 220 people to work in his branches during recession time.
Everything is fine! The idea that he got while reading books was crucial. Ideas never pop in our mind by just sitting idle. He has read several books and absorbed the ways and means adopted by the famous and renowned entrepreneurs in the world. His mind never allowed him to sit idle after reading the books. So, he started thinking about the ideas and developed in his mind and then put into practice.
Reading is beneficial in several ways:-
- Gives new ideas
- Improves understanding the concept
- Improves vocabulary, spellings and phrases and style of writing
- Improves writing and speaking skills
- Regulates the stress
- Polishes our thoughts
- Increases our knowledge base
- Gives us the opportunity to dig new areas
- Improves our communication skills effectively
Reading leads to contemplation. Contemplation leads to ideas. An idea leads to opportunities. An opportunity leads to success.
Speaking skills
Many people feel tigers amidst friends or at home while speaking, but when it comes to public speaking their mind become feeble. Eloquent speakers are the need of the hour in present day competitive world, whether he or she is a doctor or actor. Irrespective of one’s profession, speaking skills are very much required in almost all the fields. Knowledge, confidence and articulation are the basic elements of an effective speech and that requires training and continuous practice.
Public speaking : Public speaking is an opportunity to deliver the lecture on particular topic or issue, It is an event, where large numbers of people gather at one place to imbibe and enlighten themselves on the topics of personality development, social, academic and technical issues. Public speaking is a process of speaking to a large number of people in a well structured manner. Public speakers are usually change emotions of their communion. Public speaking event can be used for motivating people in larger extent. Speaking in public is a stressful task for some people, whereas some speakers are very good at it, in giving discourse on the selected topic to the targeted audience. Sometimes, even the best speakers go through the anxiety and stage fear before going onto the stage. Some speakers fumble during the discourse. This is because of not being equipped with proper vocabulary.
In order to overcome the problems in public speaking and to make an effective speech, the following points are required to be borne in mind:-
- Reach the venue well in advance
- Get acquaint with rostrum, microphone and visual aids (if any)
- Ask yourself why you are giving the speech and how it affects
- Come up with strong material
- Organize the topic material
- Plan beginning, body and conclusion of the speech
- Practice the speech
- Control stage fear
- Prepare the subject well
- Bring in humor spontaneously
- Greet the audience as they arrive
- Keep a gentle smile
- Introduce yourself looking at the audience
- Start with a presentation
- Start with a simple and plain language
- Facial expressions should be in assertive manner
- Never slouch; stand up firmly
- Emphasize strong points
- Encourage the audience to raise the questions
- Respond the questions with authenticity
- Keep your focus on the topic and the audience
- Use humor, personal, interesting and inspirational stories
- Never forget to say thanks for listening the topic patiently
Having equipped with good speaking skills, one can improve one’s personality.
Speaking is beneficial in several ways:-
People know who you are Improves your personality
It gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts with people It improves your communication skills
It gives you the recognition in the organizations and in society You will become more confident
It increases your value It makes you an expert
It makes you to help others to achieve their goal It will enhance your career
Here is a small story on importance of good speaking skills
There was a woman who got divorced from her husband and living with her two children and ailing parents. She was doing a job at private company as a Public Relation Manager. She had good communication and interpersonal skills. As her children were growing up, the monthly expenditure shot up with the time and requirements, and she was unable to meet the expenses. Since she had no support from any quarter except her monthly salary, she started thinking how to earn money to meet home ex- penses, parent’s medical bills and children’s education.
As she had excellent articulation, apart from interpersonal skills, one of her colleagues advised her to attend soft skills and public speaking classes so that she could start teaching part time, at corporate and professional institutions.
True to that, she started her own institution and gained the name and fame along with monetary benefits. Then she became the famous person in that city and started writing books on people skills and personality development. Her children joined in premier institutions and had been doing great on their own. She was busy with her schedules togging between famous institutions and corporate offices. She was then more relaxed and satisfied with her present life, and was living happily with her parents and children. What else she was needed more than that? It was all because of her eloquent speech talent.
Listening skills
There is a huge difference between LISTENING and HEARING. Listening requires total concentration, where as hearing requires mere physical presence. Listening skills are one of the important aspects of communication processes. Here are some of the characteristics of a good listener :-
- Show patience
- Openness and desire to understand
- Concentration and maintain eye contact
- Resist distractions and encourage speaker
- Keep positive facial expressions
- Focus on speaker
- Look attentive
- Don’t interrupt
- Show interest
How to improve listening
Listening requires concentration and attentive attitude. Active listeners always understand the situation and reciprocate appropriately. If we listen to others, we can learn many new things in a short span of time. One needs a higher concentration to be a good listenner. One should improve listening by concentration, patience and interest in the subject. Pay attention to the body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures of the speaker, Try to make discussion interactive and lively. It will give right perspective of the message. Attentive listening plays important role in team work to build better interpersonal relations at work place. Attentive and active listeners get better ideas, especially in decision making and problem solving situations. Attentive listeners are the people who get innovative ideas. A good listener is a good speaker and a good speaker is always a good listener.
Listening is beneficial in several ways:-
- Understanding in depth meaning of the subject
- Accumulate more information
- Might get good advice
- Gives the power in respect to patience and tolerance
- Can make friend’s easily
- Able to nurture relationships by being a patient listener
- Gain vast knowledge from the speech of eminent people
- Make the bondage among family members
- Enhances communication
- Entails academic success for students and work succes for employees
Here is a story on importance of effective listening.
It was very hot day during the monthe of May. Indian summer peaks under the scorching sun during this month. Gopi reached Secunderabad railway station well in advance by successfully lacerating the best indiscipline traffic to catch Rajdhani Express in order to attend his final interview at MNC in New Delhi. As he sat on the bench at ‘platform-1’ beside a woman seemed to be nonagenarian and started reading the magazine, while the railway authorities gave announcement of “Radhani Express is arriving shortly on platform-1”.
A few minutes later, another announcement came, “Rajdhani Express is arriving shortly on platform-9”. Gopi heard the announcement but did not put his total concentration and did not even bother to notice the hustle bustle movement of the people from platform-1 to platform-9. As he was still waiting enthusiastically on platform-1, Rajdhani Express left the Secunderabad station from platform-9, for its onward journey to New Delhi. Having lost all his patience after waiting for more than half an hour, Gopi went to enquiry office furiously and posed a question to the seemingly busy employee – “Why Rajdhani is late? – The employee instead of giving the answer, he posed a question to Gopi – Which Rajdhani? – New Delhi bound Rajdhani, Gopi replied – The Rajdhani left Secunderabad 45 minutes ago from platform-9, the employee said with coolness, not seen often thought”
Mournfully, Gopi returned home, as there were no trains for the day towards New Delhi, cursing himself for not listening the announcement with concentration.
This small story tells the importance of listening skills. Had Gopi listened to the announcement with concentration, he would not have missed the train. He heard the announcement but not listened. Hence, it
is important for everyone to concentrate while listening and this listening skill will easily be improved with time and practice.
How to improve communication skills?
Remember the old adage, “Reading make a full man, writing an exact man and speaking a ready man”. Make a habit of reading as your pastime. Listen great speeches delivered by eminent people. Speak eloquently with family members, friends, colleagues. If possible, attend workshops and seminars by experts.
In order to be an effective communicator, there is a process which requires constant practice. There is no life without communication and communication flows like a river. Communication is the life line of management and it is vital for good management.
Word is the smallest meaningful structure of a sentence. Word is the basic structure of a clause or sentence. When we study grammar to communicate well in our daily life, we must have the first hand knowledge of the word. Any language is dealt with properly only when one has the knowledge of grammer. But grammer is not a single word. It is a unit. It is a system of rules which enables us to understand the language well.
Thus When we talk of grammer, then we automatically feels the need, the various components like words, phrases, sentences, verb patterns etc. Grammer is that which makes us able to read, write and speak properly, Grammer, as has been often said, given rules for combing words to form sentences.
Notwithstanding the above, strictly follow the under mentioned points, in order to become effective communicator, whether it is reading, writing or speaking:-
Read and read and read…….. Speak and speak and speak
Write and write and write…… Listen and listen and listen
Learn at least a new word a day
Make the meaningful sentence with that word
Speak with colleagues or family members by using that word while making conversation Start writing small essays
Try to write articles and send to news papers Start writing a book as you grow with language
Do not be pre-occupied with grammatical accuracy
Once you become fluent, you should try to improve grammer Practice is very important
Keep a good dictionary with you as your companion
Read newspapers, stories, articles and cultivate the habit of reading Listen to English channels like BBC and CNN
Mingle with others freely
VERBAL VERSUS NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Non-verbal communication is little bit complicated in comparison to verbal communication. This is because of cultural difference. In most of the cases, people are not conscious about their non-verbal communication. Since hundreds of thousands of people immigrating to different countries, it became necessary to understand the existence of prevalent non-verbal communication of that particular place.
In India, a man blinking his eye while seeing at a girl is a lewd gesture and is liable to be punished, if complained and caught. And the same gesture is treated as wishing and welcoming people, in English countries.
What is an acceptable gesture in one country is a punitive crime in another country. In such situations, one needs to be very cautious before they pose their gestures and non-verbal signals.
Impact of good communication on personality and career
Remember tha old adage “SILENCE IS THE BEST COMMUNICATION WITH IMPECCABILITY” Unfortu- nately, with the advent of technology and countries around the world becoming as neighboring villages, this adage has been put totally on hold. With IT and ITes arrival, every job and profession made the people to communicate with the clients around the globe.
Hence, having good communication skill is an added advantage to one’s own personality and career. If you communicate well, your message will be sailed through all the gates and reaches towards its destination, without any ambiguity, and people who receive will subsequently reciprocate well, the way you wanted it should be. And people always use these skills to mediate conflict between people and organizations and successfully resolve them. Interpersonal communication is one of the most challenging and important aspects of a successful career and social recognition.
When you are embedded with crystal clear style of communication, your credibility will enhance the reliability that people around your always looking for. Having good communication skills will accurately portray the individual as an excellent personality in work place and in the society, which automatically increase the reputation.
When you learn to communicate effectively in the way the situation is required, you will be able to perform better and will reach your targets and achieve your goals with anticipated results
