Do you feel as if you fall short while communicating with others? Do you struggle to think clearly?
Communication Skills are a part of our daily life, and how we communicate and interact with others shapes our relationships with the people around us. Relationships that help us achieve our career and life goals. Ineffective communication can affect us negatively in our day-to-day life in ways we don’t even realise. Whether it be academically or professionally, these skills are vital for you to evolve and thrive.
Importance of Communication Skills
1. Teamwork
Efficiently sharing your ideas with your team helps everyone to achieve your goals efficiently and smoothly. It also helps in keeping everyone on the same page. As a student, possessing good communication skills will enable you to work well with your peers.
Also Read :-Why Is Play-based Learning the Best Way for Kids to Learn?
2. Critical Thinking
Expressing your thoughts clearly will help you question and analyse information and come to a logical conclusion. This can, in turn, help you in tackling difficult tasks and challenges and improving your overall problem-solving skills.
Also Read :-Missing Out by Not Using Project-Based Learning? Find Out Now
3. Removes Misunderstanding
Delivering clear messages reduces the chances of a conflict between people. If a dispute does arise, having healthy communication skills plays a key role in de-escalating calmly and effectively. Clearing any form of misunderstanding is important to securing a job.
4. Improves Adaptability
As a student, it is crucial to adapt to new environments and situations, whether it be a new school, a new teacher, working on group projects, or even switching jobs. It plays a vital role in blending into and feeling comfortable within different and new environments.
5. Career Opportunities
Excellent communication skills are essential to achieve your career goals. They can assist you in acing an interview, networking with people from various sectors and industries. It can help you manage your relationship with a client or a customer. They can also help in improving the way you pitch your ideas and how effectively you communicate with your seniors and other teams and departments.
How Lack of Communication Skills Affects Students?
In younger school children, communication issues usually stem from their inability to process their emotions or the inability to articulate their thoughts. This can lead to isolation or behavioural problems.
One study done by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association found that children with poor communication were at a higher risk of social and behavioural problems as adults. Another study, which spanned 29 years, found that children with undeveloped communication skills are more likely to struggle with reading and writing tasks.
Lack of communication can affect university students as well. A study conducted on Second Year literature students at Debre Tabor University concluded that only 16% of the students found high motivation to speak with their classmates and teachers.
Inadequate communication can affect students not only academically, but also affect their overall growth.
How Lack of Communication Skills Affects Your Work Life?
The ability to convey your ideas and thoughts clearly and effectively is the thread that holds together the different moving parts of an organisation. The inability to communicate affects the day-to-day life of the business in various ways. It can reduce the morale of the team. This might lead to employees being stressed and burned out. It can also damage the relationship between the business and the customer. This can happen due to delays in project timelines, an increase in errors, and misallocation of company resources. Hence, clear communication is a core aspect of an institution’s growth. This is highlighted in a study published in the Global Science Research Journal.
As you can see, strong communication across all business channels is crucial to meet your business goals. This is true especially in multinational corporations that incorporate people from various parts of the world. A study published in the International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences found how language and cultural differences affected communication in the workplace.
These are just a few ways in which our lives can be affected because of bad communication. But now, let’s look at how we can improve them.
Ways To Improve Your Communication Skills
1. Active Listening
Active Listening is a skill that involves listening to what people say. The keyword here is ‘listening’ instead of ‘hearing’. There is a difference between hearing the words that fall on your ears and actively listening to what the words mean and what the other person is saying.
This helps you fully process and understand the conversation and then respond accordingly. There are various ways to improve your active listening skills:
- Being present in the conversation
- Asking questions
- Paying attention to body language and signs
- Being non-judgmental
- Keeping good eye contact
2. Body Language or Non-Verbal Communication
While having a conversation, your expressions, gestures, and posture tell as much of a story as your words. This is known as body language or non-verbal communication. It includes eye contact, touch, space, and the tone of your voice. It is important to pay attention to how, not just you, but how the person you are talking to is communicating non-verbally. Some common tips to improve non-verbal communication are:
- Face the person you are talking to
- Nod periodically
- Keep some distance and give the other person some space.
3. Public Speaking
Improving your public speaking skills is beneficial when communicating to a large audience. Public speaking is a good way of persuading multiple people at the same time. When working in an organisation, it is a handy skill that can improve your chances of successfully pitching ideas and support your presentation skills.
4. Use of Technology
Technology has always kept transforming how people interact and communicate with each other. In the modern world, communication has been digitalised. E-mailing websites, messaging apps, and social media can help you effectively coordinate with your peers without the need to have a conversation in person. Video calling and video conferencing apps let you have a conversation face-to-face, thereby eliminating the need to rely solely on written communication.
5. Written Communication
One needs to rely on written communication when meeting in person is not possible. It is important to deliver your message clearly, especially when there is no other communicative indicator like body language or nonverbal communication. Hence, improving your written communication can help you express yourself, especially if you feel unconfident in your verbal skills.
Conclusion:
In the end, communication skills boil down to conversing with the people around us. It helps us in building healthy and meaningful connections. And even though it may seem as second nature, the little intricacies of how you build your communication skills will define where you stand in the world.
As Richard Branson said, “Being able to effectively communicate is the most important skill any leader can possess”.
