Why Effective Communication?
1) It is vital in building good relationships.
Communication is an essential part of our everyday life. Whenever we meet someone on the streets, subtle and obvious body languages, such as the movement of your eyes and the words uttered out from your mouth, are part of communication signals received and interpreted by the other party. Human relationships, in fact, are very commonly built on the communication signals received by the various parties. Admittedly, much of my impressions of people are based on the first few communication signals I receive from them. Hence, effective communication is the foundation of relationship building skills.
2) It maintains the relationships built.
In my view, it is harder to maintain a relationship than to start one. The constant interaction between people creates plenty a chance for friction and unhappiness to occur. These frictions, I feel, are often created due to nothing more than just miscommunications or misunderstandings. Hence, effective communication skills prevent such misunderstandings from occurring.
3) It is a vital skill required in the working society.
Knowing how to communicate to superiors, subordinates and colleagues is important in one’s career advancements. Such is the reality of the working society that one who enjoys good relationships throughout would tend to succeed more than another whose relationships with people are questionable. Secondly, effective communication skills among team members are important in ensuring that the team can work effectively as a team.
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Hi Raydon,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that effective communication is a necessary ingredient for fostering good relationships between friends, superiors and colleagues. However, I would like to add that, it is also just as important within the family. Since all types of interpersonal relationships involve mutual interactions between persons. The examples of broken families, divorced parents and delinquent children suggest how a breakdown in effective communication could be damaging in kinship ties.
You mentioned that "much of [your] impressions of people are based on the first few communication signals [you] receive[d] from them". I agree with you that first impressions are usually influential. However, I feel that while we take into account the first impressions that others give us, it is important for us to stay mindful that we should not fall into the trap of making conclusions about others largely from first impressions alone. This is because in our first encounters, we have yet to fully understand the other party and thus judgments made based on first impressions may be incomplete or even bias. Besides, we should realise that not everybody has the same level of competency when it comes to communication skills. Hence, judgements made based on first impressions could be misleading.
With regards to friction between people, I agree with you that miscommunication is one of the important reasons. At the same time, I would like to add that though conflicts are inevitable, it is how we manage conflict and reach a mutual agreement on matters, based the knowledge we have on conflict management that makes one a successful communicator.
Just my opinions on these issues, hope they are useful to you.
Cheers
Caroline
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI think that the first impression is very important too. Just a quick glance and an evaluation based on the mannerism, body language and the way you dress can be done in a matter of seconds and this would affect the receivers greatly. Fortunately, it may not be necessarily negative for a good first impression can facilitate communication too.
It is important that we, as Caroline mentioned, try to avoid the traps of making unfair judgments based on first impressions but at the same time, we can look at how we can create a good first impression and make use of those traps. =)
And I agree that effective communication is a vital skill required in the working society but in general I guess it is required in every aspect of our lives too. Be it family, peers, boy/girl-friends, effective communication comes across as an important life skill.
Just my one cent worth,
Tan Ching
I think it is inevitable that we all make judgments on people whom we are meeting for the first time. And to prevent ourselves from being judged negatively, we are all in this module, hoping to impress people with the few effective communication skills we have picked up.
ReplyDeleteHowever, all is not lost for those who have been incorrectly judged during the first meeting. This is because whether at work or with friends, we are often given a second chance to leave a second impression.
Hence I like to add that while it is the responsibility of a person to pick up good communication skills, it is also important for his/her listeners to be open minded and forgiving. Being too affected by the first impression creates a barrier to effective communication.
-Samantha
Hello Hong Quan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that "it is harder to maintain a relationship than to start one".
Therefore, building and MAINTAINING relationships including interpersonal-intercultural relationships are vital to succeed.
To add to Samantha's comment, I agree that "Being too affected by the first impression creates a barrier to effective communication". However, most first impressions usually last or do not change drastically in my opinion. Thus, creating a good first impression by writing effective resumes and job application letters are crucial and hence, job search communcation skills cannot be ignored.
hi Hong quan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that this email doesn't represents as a Business correspondence letter due to the lack of 7Cs which is the very essential factor for a business writing.To add up your point,this email sounds really courteous which makes the reader feels like forcing for to do some acts.Tone,grammatical errors,informal words and the approach of the letter on the whole makes this email ineffective.
First impression is indeed important. However, once we get to know a person better, the impression on him or her will change gradually after further interaction.
ReplyDeleteMore often than not, I will unintentionally judge strangers mainly from their body language. However, once I start interacting with them, it often proves most of my assumptions wrong. For instance, a person could look quite unfriendly at the first sight. In fact, he or she could be very cheerful and friendly when it comes to interacting with people.