Quality Communication Skills: Stay Effective and Professional
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At a communications conference, the speaker asked how many of the attendees used iPhones? Hands shot up. “How many of you use Twitter?” came the next question. “How about FaceBook?” Again hands–at least every other person’s–waved in the air.



Obviously, the audience had become adept in social networking and the associated electronics. But, then came the question, “How many of you communicate effectively?”



The room became quiet and only a few hesitant hands went into the air.



If you communicate with clients, vendors, team members, and/or management, it’s not about how instantaneous your communications are. It’s all about how clearly and concisely you send your messages…and once received, if the message is understood.



And even with cell phones, hand-helds of every description, and the Internet . . . management across the country continues to place poor communication at the top of their list of challenges. Here are the results from a recent corporate survey to encourage us all to evaluate the quality of our communications:



* 85 percent said their business has lost money due to ineffective presentations, proposals, or e-mail.



* 55 percent said employees could not easily find information they needed.



* 45 percent said information for business use is either inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.



* 44 percent said information they use often lacked adequate detail.



* 44 percent said an average of 30 minutes to an hour was wasted each day due to ineffective written communications within the company.



Be careful! While today’s electronics are far superior to anything we’ve ever known, let’s not forget the importance of language and writing skills—the basics of communications for all of us—as we employ these electronic tools to stay in touch with clients or as a resource in order to achieve a higher performance level.