Our communication skills, our strength
By Jean Ricot Dormeus
One day, in a meeting, a colleague asked me a question related to my field of responsibility. I didn’t quite make sense of his query. Yet, I made an assumption and provided an unrelated answer. From that embarrassing moment, I learned to understand a question and its implications before venturing to reply. Also, that incident opened my eyes on the importance of sharpening our communication skills to understand, get understood and extend our influence.
Interpersonal communication opens a channel to the minds and hearts of our interlocutors. It involves verbal and non-verbal components. It includes a complex set of tools, from a smile to our choice of words, from a gesture to the tone of our voice, from our thoughts at the moment to our emotional state, from the circumstance to the setting of the communication. All this can be improved for more credibility and persuasion.
Improving our communication level takes continued learning and deliberate practice. Then, we will adjust to the sensitivity and the culture of our conversational partners. The better we know these partners, the more grace and effectiveness we can inject to our talks.
Good communication skills matter. For want of these skills, good intentions and hard work fail, great business ideas crash on misunderstanding, and wonderful love initiatives hit the wall of resistance before fading away into frustration.
Equipped with refined communication skills, we will readily reach the hearts and the minds of those around us, we will more often win our negotiation engagements, and we will nurture excellent relationships. And we will achieve this feat in a peaceful and pleasant way.
Isn’t that a compelling reason to hone our communication skills? Let’s build our social strength and live a more fulfilling life through better communication skills. How soon will start?
Jean Ricot Dormeus
Check out my book “Land of Dormant Dreams – A Walk into the Future” for great tips on building self and nation.