Every life form communicates. Communication is what keeps us alive and going. A good measure to see if you are leading a great life is to see if you are able to communicate when it matters and accomplish what you seek.
Also one of the basic requirement for any job is having good communication. However, what is meant by good communication? There isn’t an agreement on what is good communication.
I’ve seen different interpretation of good communication, some of the common interpretations are listed below:
- Being able to speak grammatically right sentences, and of course you should be talking/writing sensible stuff that can be comprehended and is relevant.
- Be able to throw around buzz words, or flowery words to sound eloquent.
- When the speaker says exactly what the listener/hearer wants to hear.
- Excite, mesmerize, engage people.
- In India and a few other countries, speak decently well in English! Especially if you can speak with the right accent.
The above may be a pre-requisite but doesn’t amount to good communication skills. Good communication skills according to me are
- Being able to express oneself fully and fearlessly as the situation warrants.
- Being able to fulfill or meet the expectation of the need for communication. Like in a meeting for business, or communicating on status/risks/issues, brainstorming sessions. The pre-requisite of course is that all parties involved are on the same page, which is a bigger challenge. Most common issue I have seen in my 21 years of career in IT is that when we need to communicate the status, each one has their own interpretation of completion and then the communication is incomplete and incorrect.
- Enroll people to participate in things that matter. A simple one in recent times would be to appeal to people to wear masks, take precautions and stay home during the pandemic to fight and prevent the spread.
- Communicate to build ties, build bridges and bring people together.
- Communicate to encourage and bring out the best in people.
- Communicate to spread cheer and hope. This is what we all so badly need in chaotic times as this.
So when you seek to build good communication skills, seek to build skills to be able to enroll, inspire, share, build ties and create in the fewest possible words. Remember words are magic! Too much of anything is bad, same holds for words too.
Therefore good communication is when you speak little and achieve loads — 20% words resulting in 80% accomplishment. Rigorous and effective communication are the mark of a great leader.
