You need to write an email explaining to the client why the order got delayed
You need to talk to a team member who’s been late to work frequently
You just got promoted and now have a team to delegate and inspire
One skill that is essential for an individual’s personal and professional life is effective communication.
At every point in your career, you will be required to communicate effectively to get ahead.
Beyond a point, effective communication becomes a requisite to do your job well.
WHAT IS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION?
In simple words, effective communication means having an ability to listen attentively and to convey information efficiently with empathy. It portrays your confidence and body language which is important while having a communication with people around you.
Effective communication brings improvement to your soft skills and has a positive impact on your career and relationships.
As a manager, effective Communication is needed to carry out the basic responsibilities of management, i.e., Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling.
It is needed to achieve goals of the organization.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
The problematic part of communication is conveying exactly what we mean to say. George Bernard Shaw once said:
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”
But this illusion can be taken care of once we really understand how communication can impact in different ways.
REASONS WHY EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IS IMPORTANT:
It builds and maintains relationships
Effective communication brings together all members in your team and organization to achieve the desired outcomes.
One of the reasons for relationships to succeed or fail is based on the quality of communication.
Lack of effective communication will make it tough to boost and foster productive relationships within an organization.
Communicating effectively not only builds relationships but also maintains it.
Read more: How to communicate confidently
It builds trust
Effective communication encourages the development of building trust with others.
The best way to employ trust is through communication.
With effective communication you gain ability to listen and embrace different points of view. This in turn helps others trust that you are making optimal decisions for everyone in the team.
This trust will extend to your team and they will feel as though they can trust their teammates to fulfil their duties and responsibilities.
It helps build the team as an effective unit
An effective team is built in an environment where open communication is encouraged.
Effective communication improves employee morale as staff members are allowed to freely express their thoughts and opinions.
Team members are told clearly their responsibilities and how each one of them can contribute towards achieving the common goals of the organization.
Listening is critical to effective communication
The Greek Philosopher, Epictetus famously said,
“We have 2 ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”
But in everyday experience, we can safely say that we find people talk more than they listen. The same goes for us too.
Active listening is as much an importnat part of two-way communication as speaking is.
The thumb rule to remember is – listen to comprehend and not respond.
Read more: Why are listening skills important
Given a little patience and practice it is not hard to become a better listener.
Read more: How to use effective listening skills in real life
It builds understanding with your audience
Effective communication gets your message across.
When you communicate effectively you capture your audience’s attention, you make sure your audience understands the idea you are trying to convey.
Tailoring your communication to suit your audience can make you even more effective.
In fact, before you decide what you want to say, spare a thought for the listeners.
Here is a detailed post on how you can analyse your audience for a presentation
Effective communication encourages innovation
Being able to freely brainstorm and share ideas at the workplace, without being judged or condemn encourages you to be creative and think outside the box.
This brings more creativity and innovation into an organisation. The employee motivation also goes up for being able to contribute to the overall growth of the company.
It increases employee engagement
It improves productivity in your workplace and enhances growth of business.
When the management of a company communicates effectively with their employees and values the work done by them, employees feel pleased and work as an incentive to bring out their best.
According to the Watson Wyatt Worldwide studies engaged employees are twice as likely to become top performers and miss fewer work days. Engaged employees also lead to better financial performance.
Effective communication is the key to keeping your employees motivated to continue to meet company goals. This directly makes the employees more productive too.
When employees are informed and motivated, they work harder to achieve better results.
Read more in this article from People Matters: Role of communication in employee engagement
It increases accountability and brings clarity in work flow
Effective communication gives employees clear and specific instructions which enables them to do what is expected of them.
Increase in accountability also increases productivity in the workplace. There will be no improvement if there is no accountability.
Sharing ideas gives purpose and helps in a clear and more streamlined workflow.
It goes without saying that all the above promotes team building.
To strengthen communication in your team effective communication is essential.
It helps in building strong team relationships.
This also increases team morale by taking every member’s perspective in solving a problem.
Working together as a team will ensure collaboration and long-term success for the organization. It creates a workplace environment where employees will enjoy their work and strive towards better performance.
Here are 5 tips to improve leadership communication
It helps with decision making
Effective workplace communication makes it easy to carry out discussions that are goal-oriented.
An environment is created where the team can decide what the goals of the business should be.
With effective communication every person gets a chance to communicate their points this helps the team to make better decisions for the growth of the organization.
Effective communication improves customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction depends wholly on quality of communication.
We all have sat through frustrating tele-callers trying to but failing miserably to solve our problems.
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This is a direct reflection of the poor place effective communication has in the value system of the organisation or the brand we are dealing with.
By communicating properly, it is easy to understand customer requirements.
Effective communication creates trust and encourages continued engagement and provides effective solutions. Hence, it improves customer satisfaction.
Read more: 17 ways to better serve your customers on phone
It reduces conflict
And this applies to our personal life too!
Whether it is the spouse or a team member, effective communication can be a life saver for relationships.
Communication is the key especially in an organisation where people with different perspectives try to work together.
As a result, conflicts may occur and problems may arise.
Only by communicating effectively can one resolve the conflicts at the workplace or otherwise. The communication channels should have scope for communicating and clearing the air with colleagues.
The senior management should lead by demonstration to create more openness to resolve conflicts quickly.
Photo by jean wimmerlin on Unsplash
In conclusion, it goes without saying that lack of effective communication skills can cause the collapse of your organisation.
Without proper marketing collateral and communication internally and externally, most organisations will struggle to survive.
It is not surprising why effective communication is a vital skill and a priority of many organizations these days in view of these benefits.
Do you wish to communicate with confidence and impact in any work situation?