To perfect the art of communication?

At the first glance, the question that came to my mind was really whether I should discuss about verbal or non verbal communication. Having worked through countless part time jobs, it occurred to me almost instantly to be a good co-worker, regardless of the role you play as an employer or an employee, good communication is the key to make things work. We humans are animals that function optimal as a team, not as a lone soloist; so if so we were to apply the former setting to everyday life, interacting with people is perhaps a social obligation, yet it is undeniably the driving force that allows us to accomplish tasks and assignments the prim and proper way.

It is not hard to imagine the day where some misunderstandings happened just because of a silly breakdown in communication, allegations and untrue rumors could so kill your reputation! It could be as simple as an innocent gesture, a harmless joke or even a comment (with the wrong choice of word sadly) which the listening party chose to take it a little too harshly. Congratulations and look what you have found- a new enemy!

The simplest form of communication is a 2 way process, (yet ironically) such a complex, unpredictable and exciting; in the sense for we are acquiring and transmitting in information and the risk of opportunity for error and/or failure being endless. Good listening skills will of course facilitate the course of communication, but this will branch out to another completely different realm of “art”. Is written correspondence better, or would a personal meeting or a telephone call be more sincere? Have you used spell check to eliminate all grammar and spelling errors and proofread them? Forwarding a letter full of errors will make you appear to be sloppy and unprofessional. In a nutshell, how well we communicate has a direct implications on how “successful” you are in life, avoid and resolving problems and conflicts. This skill is undeniably crucial, and of course worth some time of yours to dwell on how you can go about perfecting it.

************************************************************************************

EDITED:

I thought I should at least describe how miscommunication occurred in my workplace before (so as not to disappoint my fellow friends!) I guess the most common misunderstanding caused was between my boss and me; where instructions was not passed down properly and thus delayed the progress of work.

Just 2 years ago before I started university I was helping out in this civil engineering company and was the assistant for the boss, a professional engineer. I look up to him with all my respect, not only because he is close to 60 years old, but also the amazing tactful way in which he handles work and that won him his fan. Occasionally when work starts to pile up, he would get a little “cranky” and frustrated; despite the fact that I do try very hard to assist him (which was my job of course), his method of delivering messages and passing instructions down wasn’t clear sometimes and if I too absent-mindedly didn’t pay full attention, the aftermath will be comparably catastrophic.

For example if he had an appointment and needed some specific information, he would request for it but when I couldn’t find them, it would probably be because he had used them last time and forgot to put them back from where he took. Or he would want me to dial a cab for him and he meant 1 hour later but I didn’t hear the latter, and here we got a cab which came 1 hour earlier.

Frankly speaking, I believe in any conflict there is no innocent party, so in any situation where I see a potential argument happening, I would rather play safe to apologize for my mistake first. It doesn’t matter if the other party does admit his felony or not; I would be the “winner” at the end of the day when I bring a story and lesson learn home.