We All Need to Communicate Well
We can all pinpoint a time (or 12) when a misunderstanding or a wrong assumption made our lives difficult. From email to social media, text messages to deep conversations, we have all been guilty of being bad communicators at some point and probably in more than one area of our lives. If everything we do is communication, that gives us plenty of opportunities to mess it up.
When I tell people I work in communications, they often assume that means I only help people with fancy titles and big budgets. I understand why. There was a time when big companies were the ones hiring PR pros to help them make a big splash or spin a bad story, and my peers continue to push to get executives to realize the value of our work in big corporations. You rarely see someone working in a small business with a communications job title. Or even worse, someone assumes I work in telecommunications—and I promise you I am useless in that field, sorry.
But have you ever searched the online classifieds for "communications"? You get a lot more than PR jobs, that's for sure. From a retail cashier to a vice-president of innovation, I've seen thousands of job ads looking for good communication skills. That's because being a good communicator makes you a great addition to your team, whether it's an entry-level position or the top dogs.
Some people are naturally good communicators. In my experience, these people are empathetic and considerate. They take the time to think their points through, and look at all angles and points of view. Some are great at the big picture while some are very detail oriented, and they usually align themselves with people who compensate for the areas where they are weak. These truly natural communicators are rare, however. It usually takes time, work, and lots of mistakes to build good communication skills.
Other people assume they're good at communicating because they don't make grammatical or spelling mistakes, but that's a very small piece of the puzzle. You can string together a perfectly correct sentence that doesn't make any sense; that's not good communication. Or you can write a report that makes sense to your co-worker, but goes right over your boss's head—also bad communication. Even if you're saying exactly the right thing to be understood but you're saying it to someone who can’t help you, you're still missing the mark.
We've all worked with someone who is a terrible communicator, and it's frustrating and time-consuming to deal with all the mistakes and fights that crop up because of it. (And I'm not even going into all the bad communicators we've dealt with in our personal lives…yikes.) That's why I say good communication benefits everyone. Saying the right things to the right people at the right time helps us reach our goals.
It doesn't matter what our job title is or what industry we work in, we all have goals, and good communication makes it easier to reach our goals. It forces us to be clear about what we want, what we need from others, who can help us, and how we can all work together to achieve great things. Or the necessary things that pave the way to great things; let’s not get too big for our britches, now.
We can all be better communicators if we put in the time and effort, and especially if we learn from the right teachers. I'm happy to help you, your staff, or your company become better at communicating—though I draw the line at counselling sessions; I'm even less qualified for that than telecommunications work—so if you need a helping hand, drop me a line!
