Why Does Effective Communication Matter for You?
Communication is key. It seems like people are always saying something along those lines, but what do they actually mean? And are they right? For a subject that everyone probably agrees is super important, both in your personal life and your workplace, a lot of us have never learned much about communication. Most of what we know is just what we’ve figured out on our own, communicating with people in day-to-day life. There is a lot we can learn through lived experienced when it comes to communication, but there are still ways that we can improve! In this new blog series, we’re going to discuss how all of us can practice and grow in effective communication.
What is Effective Communication?
To define effective communication, first we have to make sure we can clearly define communication itself. What is communication? We might say communication is when two people are talking to each other. While this is a great example of communication, it’s not a definition. Communication, in the simplest terms, is the passing of information or ideas from one person to another. When one person tries to transfer what they mean in their own mind to another person’s mind. Effective communication is when that attempt at passing meaning is successful. Effective communication is when communication works – it’s communication at its best.
Here’s an example of ineffective communication. Say I need you to find an article for me so that I can include it in a project that I’m working on. I might mention it to you once, while reading something on my phone at the same time. If I asked you for the article like that, you might reasonably assume that I don’t need it urgently since I clearly wasn’t focused when I asked. But, maybe I do need that article urgently, but I was distracted by an important text from a family member, so I didn’t make it clear that finding the article was a priority.
In this example, I was trying to communicate one thing with my words, but, because my focus communicated something contradictory, I didn’t effectively make you understand what I meant for you to understand. That’s ineffective communication. Of course, there are endless examples of unsuccessful communication, but that’s a simple one to demonstrate what I’m talking about. Learning how to communicate effectively is not just a bonus skill to pick up whenever you have some extra time lying around! Effective communication is a necessity for the effective boss, the effective employee, the effective student, the effective mom, the effective friend. If you can’t consistently and accurately get your meaning across to the people around you, how will you accomplish your goals and maintain your relationships? This is important stuff!
How Can We Communicate Effectively?
I’m glad you asked, because that’s what this series is all about! There are many ways that we can grow to be better communicators, but I’ll go ahead and give you the first step right here to get you going. If you want to be an effective communicator, you have to be an intentional communicator.
One of the first things you learn in a class about communication is that we are always communicating. Everything we do and say communicates something to the people around us, even when we aren’t trying to communicate anything at all. The things we say, the way we say it, the expressions on our faces, the clothes we wear, even the things we don’t say – we are always communicating! This can be a little unsettling to think about, because we all know how easily communication can turn into miscommunication, but don’t be intimidated. We’ll never become effective communicators if we’re too afraid of miscommunication to even try to get better!
The quickest route to miscommunication is a lack of awareness. But if we are choosing our words, our tones, and our expressions with care, then we are already on our way to effective communication. You don’t need a crash course in communication theory to know that it helps to think before you speak! Effective communication starts with intentional communication.
That’s all for this first post, but next week we’ll start getting into specific categories of communication and how we can learn to improve! Communication really is key, but it doesn’t have to be confusing. See you next week!
