Although I have almost reached the end of my Undergraduate studies, I feel as though I’m still in kindergarten when it comes to interacting and socialising with others. I’m certain that most of you will be able to empathise with this feeling.
Bearing this in mind, one cannot underestimate the importance of interpersonal communication. Be it a formal meeting or an informal gathering among friends, one cannot escape communicating and interacting with others. In most cases, future employers, acquaintances and even your lifelong friends will judge you based on how you present yourself more than how learned or qualified you may be. Even a trip to the grocery store will test your communication skills.
When one thinks of communicating, speaking automatically springs to mind, however, listening effectively and attentively also plays a major role in communicating “effectively”. By learning to listen, speak and interact with others better, you can expand your personal and professional networks and get your ideas across without causing offense while not appearing like a pushover. It might even give you an edge over other similarly qualified individuals when job hunting or trying for a promotion or a raise.
Therefore, I feel that this is an essential life skill that any person hoping to succeed in life should master as well as or even better than their chosen profession.
Please feel free to tell me what “effective communication” means to each of you on a personal level.
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I know what you mean about feeling like a novice in the communication game as indeed we are in that every encounter presents a fresh challenge. Even those familiar to us don't have fixed ideas or emotions and change over time so yesterday's response may not be apt for today. The research findings (Goleman AT&T Labs and David Campbell's) outlined in the reading EQ Factor by Nancy Gibbs is alarming insofar as few people have attached much importance to 'people skills' until recently.
ReplyDeleteMrs Richardson
Hi Anushangi!
ReplyDeleteSomehow I thought people do judge you based on your educational level and from there, they
have a preconception on how skilled your communication qualities should be.
More often, you hear from people having this skewed mindset that a University graduate should have effective communication skills and this expectation goes lower with lower education.So, I was just wondering, why is there such a mentality that higher educational level accompanies more effective communication skills?
Doesn't this preconception put us, being future University Graduate, in a unfair game whereby people of lower education can have the excuse not to have good communication qualities yet maintain a relatively better impression in the employer? :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the insightful comments you made on my post. I think people expect those with higher levels of education to be more knowledgable about social norms and also what is considered proper and acceptable since they have had more exposure to the intellectual world. Although this maybe considered as discriminating against our less educated couterparts, I feel that there is a certain truth in that assumption. For example, a university professor will be more eloquent than a high school drop out simply because of his educational and social background.
ReplyDeleteI think this preconception has its pros and cons when it comes to the job market. You have mentioned that a less educated person may have a better chance at impressing employers because they will have lower expectations of such a person. But I think this all depends on the type of job you are applying for.
Hi Anu!
ReplyDeleteYes, i do agree with you when you said that having the skill to communicate better and more effectively will give you the edge in the competitive world of job hunting and eventually in the pursuit of the coveted promotion. And yes, i do experience some degree of uncertainty mixed with nervousness when communicating with unfamiliar people as well as in front of a large audience. and i do believe the one of the key to effective communication is practice. Once you get the technique down to a tee.. it would be much easier..
As for the discussion with Grace on "higher educated" people who were preceived to have better communication skills, i think it is more of a preconceived notion that the society has been conditioned to think. I think it goes hand in hand with the notion that better educated people will be more successful in life. I also do believe that some people have natural ability to connect and communicate with other regardless of their educational level.
Hey Anu,
ReplyDeletePotential employers would expect more from us when we graduated, even more when we graduated from one of the top universities in the world. This assumption is not necessary true. I would agree that we still have problems when it comes to communicate with acquaintances, with me included. Communicating with friends is different totally but sometimes we also tend to think over what we're about to say to avoid any misunderstandings and hurt feelings.
Hi Anu,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you. Even a short trip out to do groceries require good communication skills. It is especially so in the work place, people often judge by first impressions and one way is by the way they communicate and how precise fluent they are with their language. It can be quite a cruel world when they form negative impressions of a person with a funny accent or broken English.
That said, I do believe that being able to communicate effectively, with peers, co-workers and even authority is key to excelling in the workforce.
Hey Anushangi,
ReplyDeleteIt is alright to be a novice at communicating with others, as most of us are just as terrible as it is. Haha. It takes courage to admit that we are not that good in communicating with others, and it takes even more courage to make that first step to make a committed change to improve ourselves in this area.
It takes time to brush up these skills and also a constant, conscious effort to look back at them to seek ways to improve it as we go. Sometimes role-playing a script of your own in front of a mirror can help you get over the nervous moments.
Just remember to have fun while doing so, you can trip over stones and rocks in brushing up your communication skills, but you will definitely not trip over a mountain on the real thing itself!!