Importance of effective communication

When was the last time you paid close attention to your facial features? Certainly, I am not referring to the time you stared hard into the mirror to examine those nasty dark circles or extra growth such as wrinkles and pimples. I am referring to the time you really examined your facial features. If you do a close examination of your facial features, you will be surprised to realize that many of our facial features actually come in pairs. For example, you have a pair eyes, a pair of eyebrows and a pair of nostrils. However, you will also discover something peculiar, you only have one mouth. Human beings are created in such a way that we have a pair of ears but only one mouth. The reason for this peculiar phenomenon is simple: we need to listen more and talk less. Hence, we should practise active listening more and learn the art of effective communication.

I would like to use an example to highlight the importance of active listening and effective communication. One day, I asked my mother in an indifferent manner whether she was going to fix dinner that evening. Before I could even finish the sentence, she responded in an impatient manner, “If you are not interested to have dinner at home, you do not need to come home for dinner anymore in the future”. In the end, this casual conversation ended off on an unpleasant note. This sounds like a normal tiff between a mother and her daughter. However, this tiff actually brings out the barriers to active listening and effective communication.

Firstly is the adoption of an inappropriate tone and language expression which led to poor non-verbal communication. Should I have adopted a more appropriate tone right from the start; my mother would not have misunderstood my intention. In addition, my mother has also chosen to use inappropriate language expression like, “If you are not interested to have dinner at home, you do not need to come home for dinner anymore in the future”. The original message which she wanted to send was that it is alright for me to miss dinner at home if I am busy. As a result, her message did not reflect the ideas and thoughts which she actually thought.

Secondly is the inability to practice active listening by interrupting the speaker. My mother should have allowed me to complete my sentence. I was intending to bring her out for dinner if she was not going to fix dinner that night. However, she did not give me the opportunity to convey my message completely. Therefore, she did not manage to get my whole message and distorted my message completely.

Lastly is the failure to understand the audience of the message. Both of us have failed to recognise that even members of the same family can come from different background and hence, they can have different interpretation of the same message conveyed. We should have taken the opportunity to check on the understanding of the message delivered by one another to clarify any misunderstanding or confusion but have failed to do so.

The above example has shown that the lack of active listening and effective communication can be detrimental to any form of relationships. By equipping ourselves with good active listening and effective communication skills not only will enable us to secure job employment, compete effectively in workplace and have better career progression, communication breakdown and in turn, strains on any form of relationships can also be avoided. Hence, we should utilize more of our ears and less of our mouth in order to be a better communicator and have higher productivity and better relationships.