Essay on Communication

Communication Skills

First Draft

Question 1

Describe how you will develop and enhance your communication abilities and skills in the future.

Introduction

History has shown that mankind was able to advance and evolve only by being able to communicate with others. Through communication, people were able to work together for common goals that were beneficial to all. This is the basis upon which communities were formed and societies followed. Today it is easy to see that all breakthroughs that have transformed our lives have been achieved through well coordinated team work. Such complex team work would not have been possible if effective communication was not an integral part of the process. In this paper, I shall discuss the role and importance of communication in the business world and from that, describe a plan of how I can develop and enhance such skills.

Discussion

The Communication skill is characterized by the ability to transfer a message, thoughts, and visions and at the same time understand different points of view. To ensure the effectiveness of a communication process: sender, message, receiver, feedback ("Communication process," 2011), the parties involved must have the ability to address information clearly; to create a strong bond of trust with the those involved by protecting the confidentiality of the information; and to listen to what is being said and understand it. These represent the key elements of communication; and without them, the process of communication is interrupted. According to Forster (2011), "through various media of communication, companies all over the world make decisions that affect millions of people; the activities of thousands of employees are organized; complex management systems are coordinated, and the success or failure of businesses are determined". Accordingly, to be able to communicate effectively in a certain environment or workplace, one will have to focus heavily on developing good communication skills. There are different ways of communication and choosing one depends entirely on the situation at hand. One might choose to speak face to face with others or over the phone, or one might choose another medium where no human contact is involved, e.g. memo, e-mail, SMS, etc.

According to Forster (2011), "Communication between individuals and groups is essential if organizations are to function effectively and cope with the increasingly turbulent international business world of the 2000's. If an organization has problems with communication, the chances are that it will not be operating effectively. If you remove communication completely, an organization cannot even start to function. We all know from personal experience that communication breakdowns between individuals and groups within organizations occur frequently and, sometimes, can be very costly"

Most of the problems in organizations are due to weaknesses and gaps in the communication process. The development of communication skills helps to create interpersonal relations and to improve the mutual transfer of information. It is a two-way process through which the information flows between two parties. McCauley et al (2004) considers that a communication process can be effective if it's able to increase the level of inspiration and motivation within the followers. Communication can take place through meetings and briefings among the members of the organization.

In his book on Maximum Performance, Foster (2011) emphasizes on the need of developing communication skills to become an effective leader. In order for a leader to be effective, he/she must be capable of communicating his/her goals to the team of employees and explaining the process and plan to be followed to achieve these goals in a convincing, clear and effective way. The leader should be able to make this plan easily understood and easily implemented through proper channels of communication so that he/she can utilize the capabilities of the employees in the best way possible. Therefore a successful business plan may equally succeed or fail depending on how well it is implemented according to the plan set. Successful implementation of a business plan can only be achieved if the working team clearly understands the process and steps to follow systematically; and this can only be attained by the team if the process to follow and steps to implement are well defined and communicated in an effective way. Such a communication process can be done verbally in the beginning with the team, followed by written guidelines and the setting up of a well coordinated reporting system where the input of the team and performance can be checked and monitored for analysis and assessment.

Forster (2011) argues that in order to develop communication skills, one should start by enhancing self-awareness that involves self-assessment which can be maintained through personal trust and honesty with oneself. Self-assessment can be practiced through developing and focusing on emotional intelligence, using self-assessment tools like taking tests and quizzes which are readily available on-line, and accepting feedback from colleagues, higher level managers and close friends. No effective communication skills can be built without self acknowledgement of one's weak points in that regard, and the positive will to want to improve on those weaknesses. Like they say, when there is a will, there is a way.

Due to the importance of communication, as a "must" skill in the business field, academic institutions offer to teach methods and techniques on how to become an effective leader through academic courses. However, we should always keep in mind that this issue is subjective and therefore an individual's personal input is equally important if such academic training were to have positive results on one's enhancement of his/her communication skills.

On a personal level, I know the importance of successful communication at all levels. I further realize its significance to me because I am currently enrolled in the Business Management program after which I plan to work in our family owned construction company. As a member of the management team in our company, I know I have to be able to have effective communication skills because I will be dealing with a lot of different people who have different educational back grounds. I will need to be able to understand engineers, project managers, architects, electricians, plumbers and the common workers when I talk to them. I must have an effective