Humans are very relational creatures and we enjoy having
company and building relationships. This happens through communication. However bad communication can easily give
rise to misunderstandings and arguments, which I am sure many of us has
experienced. I am definitely no
exception. While reflecting on this
topic, I recalled a few such incidents and thought that things could have
turned out very differently. I found myself thinking: if only I had better
communication skills.
Good communication skills are useful for everyone in all
aspects of their lives: school, work, family, friends just to name a few. Having good communication skills can help a
person build up relationships. For example, practicing active listening among
friends and family can show others that you care, or learning how to read body
language can give you real time feedback during a presentation at work. In the near future, I can see how effective
communication will be useful. I will be commencing my final year project next
semester, and that will require professional presentations. And upon graduation, job hunting will mean interviews.
I will let you all in on a secret about
myself: I am terrified of interviews as most of the time I am not confident
about myself and my abilities! However I believe that learning and practicing
effective communication skills will help me to be more confident and help me to
express myself clearly, concisely and confidently.
I can see many benefits of improving on my communication
skills and I am glad that I registered for this module even if it was a last
minute decision. Now that I roughly know what is installed for me this semester,
I am excited. I’m going to take an ‘imaginary
photograph’ of myself now at the beginning of the semester and another at the
end just to make a comparison and see how much I have improved as an effective
communicator! Just a suggestion, but perhaps all of you could do the same. (:
I agree that effective communication skills are very important not just because of miscommunication and misunderstandings but also because the present working environment is very competitive. Everyone wants to be heard and chosen over everyone else. If you are able to convince someone that you're the better choice for a certain job,it brings you that much closer to being hired.
ReplyDeleteAs for interviews, you are most definitely not alone in fearing them. I fear them as well because I find them incredibly stressful. It does not help much knowing they're evaluating you as a candidate.
Perhaps we should all take "imaginary photographs" of ourselves to see how far we've progressed at the end of the semester.
Hi Priscilla,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and think that you have explained the importance of having effective communication skills well. And i think it was great you brought in examples to substantiate your point.
I like your idea of taking an 'imaginary photograph' of ourselves at the beginning and compare it with the one we take at the end of this module. It seems to suggest that we aim to fulfill our goals and working with an end in mind. Furthermore, it also conveys a willingness to be open in improving ourselves. And I share your view on this too!
Thank you for sharing :)
Hi Priscilla,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your reasons for the importance of Effective Communication. In fact, they are quite similar to what I believed as well. Effective communication is the key to building strong and sustainable relationships.
I liked the way you structure your post, it was very organized and concise. Thanks for sharing your secret with us. I believe you will improve and excel in the future :)
Cheers!
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ReplyDeleteThank you, Priscilla, for this initial post. You survey the general need for effective communication skills quite completely, in 300 words or less. You also relate the importance to how commonly failure/miscommunication happens; and then you mention some of your own general needs. Like other readers, I also appreciate that final thought, of taking an imaginary photo of yourself now and at the end of the term. Good idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat I feel might give this post more substance would be for you to add at east some detail to your statement of personal needs. Have you been through an interview, for example? You say you have no confidence in such a situation. Why not? What made your interview experience so taxing? What could you have done differently?
In other words, interjecting a bit of story-telling in this post would have made it more memorable for us readers, and in the end, a better way for you to set your sights on a specific goal.
Do you see what I mean?
Jieying: Glad to know that I'm not the only one terrified at interviews! I'm sure that becoming more effective communicators will benefit us in the future at work and also with our relationships with all those around us!
ReplyDeleteCarol: Thank you for your comment! It is important for all of us to firstly have the desire to want to improve, and also to be ready to give and receive feedback among ourselves, and lastly using those feedback to learn and improve.
Yiqun: I hope that I would be able to perform better at interviews in the future through the course of this module. Do you not get nervous when public speaking or at interviews? I'm looking forward to learning about how you or the others are able to talk in a formal setting without being too nervous! Thank you for you comment nonetheless it is encouraging.
Brad: Thank you for your advice on how to to improve my future blog posts. Especially after the lesson yesterday, I have realised how story telling can help to make a speech or text more memorable and leave a more lasting impression on readers. It can also help to drive across a point that one would like to make and also make a post more personal and sincere to readers. Thank you (: I will try to improve on the next post.
Hi Priscilla,
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of taking imaginary picture of yourself before and after the course to see if you have changed. It is exactly this willingness to recognize that there is a part of yourself that you wish to improve and commit to making the improvement that results in a better self. Your post reflects that you are well on your way to self improvement.
Zhi Qin
Hi Zhi Qin
DeleteThank you for the encouragement. All of us in the class are definitely all keen and willing to improve on our communication skils be it presenting, speaking or just communicating more concisely and clearly as an individual. After about three weeks of lessons I really see the need to communicate better with others around me. Be it at home or with my friends, or in school during lectures. I believe that though this course is titled professional communication, what we will be learning from our sharing and experiences can be applied in our areas of our lives.
Hi Pris,
ReplyDeleteFully agreed with the imaginaryy picture thingy. I praise your attitude and respsonsiveness to improvement. You sure gonna be one helluva communicator in future!
Cheers to that!
Hi Caster
DeleteThank you for the optimism and positivity! That is something I definitely need. The imaginary picture was just a random thought, but we are definitely visual creatures so making a contrast between the us now and in a few months shall be interesting. Are you from one of the other ES2007 classes? Thank you for commenting nonetheless!