Communication Skills Can Improve Your Life

People can improve their lives by communicating more effectively.

This may seem like an extravagant claim, but it’s worth putting to the test. If people can make themselves heard and understood better, the more likely they are to achieve what they want.

Success And Money

Good communication skills don’t guarantee success and money – but they have a role to play.

Take a job application, for example. To help get a job, a candidate must submit a well written and neatly presented application. Similarly, a CV must be free from spelling and grammatical errors, and easy to read. Good written communication skills are therefore important.

Further on in the process, at an interview, good oral communication can be the difference between landing a job or not. An interviewee must speak clearly and concisely, and adopt a suitable tone of voice. He or she must also listen to what members of the interview panel say, and reply positively to all questions. Few interviewers like to repeat themselves when interviewees fail to listen properly.

Health And Happiness

Communication skills don’t improve health, but they can bring peace of mind. This in turn can lead to a sense of well-being.

For instance, almost every day, people come across a difficult individual, or a conflict of some kind. Such confrontations threaten their peace of mind.

Good communication skills can help resolve these situations. The ability to remain polite and calm, to listen, and to explain, can bring the most awkward predicament to a successful end.

Poor communication, on the other hand, may inflame an already irate person or make a troublesome problem far worse. All parties involved are then upset and angry.

Even using good communication skills in these circumstances, however, doesn’t necessarily lead to success. Just making the effort to resolve a problem, though, can bring a sense of satisfaction.

Work

At work, poor communication can lead to stress and lack of motivation. Curt commands from managers can cause anxiety; poor explanations from an employer about targets and working practices can create confusion among staff.

Employees can also be at fault. Offhand remarks to customers, for instance, can lose business.

The answer is positive communication based on mutual respect. This can improve the work environment, and result in better relations between employers and staff, and between staff and clients.

Home

Everyone seeks a contented home life. Proactive communication between family members can be the route to such fulfillment.

It’s easier to say this than actually do it, though. Laying down rules about communication at home doesn’t always account for such issues as deep-felt emotional problems.

Nonetheless, those families that make the effort to speak to each other about their lives and their concerns often see benefits. When people express themselves to others they can trust, they find they can cope better with life’s problems.

Obstacles

It’s not always possible, of course, to simply adopt new communication skills. For most people, there are obstacles posed by upbringing and inclination.

The first step is to realise that good communication can improve lives. This can provide the impetus to start acquiring the skills of speaking, writing, and listening effectively. There is, after all, nothing to lose.