She shared with me her recent experience interviewing a candidate for a position that requires coordinating with stock traders of different nationalities.
“He pronounced Indian as eeeen-jan!,” recalls the supervisor, “at paulit ulit lang yung sinasabi niya (he was just talking in circles). ”
The result? The candidate was not hired because of disorganised thoughts and inability to speak well.
She was mortified at the thought of how this candidate would be able talk clearly, concisely, and fast to stock traders who usually work under time pressure.
Hearing this story only proves how critical communication skills are in today’s increasingly competitive global community.
Unfortunately, communication is one skill that most people take for granted.
Some would say, “We talk everyday anyway! It’s easy.”
For others, “It is not difficult to talk so why bother improve one’s communication skill?”
Yes, we talk everyday but are we communicating really well? Are we sending our message clearly to the person we are talking to? Or are we just aimlessly talking without thinking if we would be understood?
Some would even say, “But my work requires me to just be in my little cubicle and not to talk to anyone.”
I doubt, however, that there is any kind of work that requires zero communication – may it be spoken, written, verbal or non-verbal.
Therefore, no one is excused from improving one’s communication skills. The earlier one starts to practice, the better.
Being fluent is only a fraction of being a skilled communicator – the other part is having organised, clear, and concise speech (plus having the right pitch, intonation, vocal variety, and the list goes on!).
Nowadays, there are so many electives or self-improvement courses being taught in secondary schools – cooking, foreign language, business management, music, etc. Yet, oral communication or public speaking – critical skills that students must master and practice to pass interviews, land a job or start a business, and eventually communicate well with friends, customers, colleagues, supervisors and management – is sometimes, sadly, not even on the list.
America’s top CEO coach Mike Myatt points out, “Effective communication is an essential component of professional success whether it is at the interpersonal, inter-group, intra-group, organisational or external level.”
Graduation is coming soon. Many graduates will soon find themselves competing for jobs. The first step is to get that interview (which needs superb skills in writing a resume) and the second step is to pass the interview (which requires good communication skills…of course you must be fit for the job as well!).
I wonder how many would prepare well. I wonder how many would take time to improve their communication skill.
To quote British film music composer John Powell, “Communication works for those who work at it.”
So when will you start working on your communication skill?