Communication Skills

THE quality of our lives depend on the quality of our communication skills. In fact all the time we are communicating either with ourselves or others. We communicate with ourselves in terms of dialogue, self-talk, thoughts and what some call auto suggestions. We also need to communicate with others, so as to put our messages across, elicit response, sell our ideas, get information and relate.

These and many other uses of communication make it extremely important that we master the art of excellent communication skills and achieve excellence in our lives.

But to do that, we need to find answer to some basic questions :

• What is communication!
• Why do we need to communicate?
• What are the major areas of communication?
• How do we acquire excellent communication skills?
• What is communication?

There are many definitions of communication but simply put communication means the exchange and understanding of information being of information between and among parties. From this definition we can pick up a few major aspects of communication.
Firstly, communication is meant for the exchange of information and ideas between and among different parties. The term parties means the exchange of information is not only between and among human beings but also between and among human beings and machines, and between machines themselves. People interacting with computers, computers interacting with one another are some examples where the parties involved include not only human beings but also machines.

Why do we need communication? Communication is life, as from the birth of a person till his death, one needs to communicate with others.

The following are some of the reasons which emphasize the need for communication:

· MAKING OTHERS AWARE OF OUR EXISTENCE The cry of a child at the time of his or her birth communicates to the world an arrival of a new person. People are made aware of the baby and acknowledge that a new person is going to exist. This existence ceases when the person’s heart beat stops thus communicating the end of his or existence. This may sound too philosophical but communication is the main factor which will make others aware of our existence. People who acquire fame and fortune and high visibility are the people who share their ideas and make it known to others. Contrarily people who remain in obscurity and remain unknown are the once who though may be highly intelligent and possess great ideas, fail to share their ideas with others. This is such a powerful reason necessitating why we need to communicate effectively.

· WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE The very purpose why God made us with a mouth, eyes, hands, face and a physical being is for communication. Otherwise He would have created us in another form, like stones which don’t have these possessions. Man is social animal and as a social animal he is sentenced to communicate. No person can afford not to communicate. Communication truly does not have an opposite. These is no way for human beings not to behave, and all types of behavior have possible communication value. Whether we speak or remain silent, whether we act or do not act, all these actions in some way effect others. They in turn will respond or remain silent, both of which are forms of communication. Many people have the wrong concept, not considering silence as communication. Even when we don’t speak and remain silent we still communicate. At times silence can be a very powerful form of communication. Happiness, anger, anxiety, honesty, sarcasm, attraction and many other feelings and signals are relayed to others mostly through our facial expressions and body language. This means that we can not communicate and if that is the case why not learn how to do it effectively.

· DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS This point which relates to the previous means that to survive in life we need the help and support of others. To seek and get the help and support from others we need to ask them and ask in a manner which will motivate them to extend it thus re-em-phasing good communication skills. A recently published book called Emotional Intelligence has revealed some amazing facts about the role of communication skills in a person’s success or failure. According to the book, previously a person’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was considered to be a major factor in his or her life success. But the research conducted by the author reveals another dimension, that is although IQ is a good thing to have, a more important trait for someone to succeed is what he calls “Emotional Quotient(EQ). Emotional Quotient in simple words is the ability to control our emotions and also get along with others. A person’s EQ is very much dependent on communication skills.

· PERSUASION From asking people to make major changes to asking for small favours one needs persuasion. Persuasion is very mush dependent on good communication skills. It has been witnessed many a time that one idea presented by two different persons elicit different responses from others. One person succeeds in persuading others in whatever that person wants them to do. While another person presenting the same ideal fails to get the support and commitment of others. The key factor which results in two different outcomes is communication skills, which properly deployed can persuade others and if not properly used, dissuade others.

Communication is life and to spend life effectively one needs to acquire good communication skills. The understanding of the meaning as well as the importance of communication will enable us to become aware of its role in achieving success, and mastering the art of good communication skills helps us achieve excellence and reach our fullest potential. Thus to avoid failures and achieve success, and to come out of obscurity and attain fame and prosperity, all of us need to get armed with good communication skills.