The single most important skill you will ever master, with the greatest impact on your current and future success, is your ability to communicate, or more importantly, your ability to be effectively understood. Effective Communication is the essential, defining element required for: Dynamic Leadership Effective Management Prolific Teamwork Superior Sales Hiring and Retaining Winning Talent A Vibrant Corporate Culture
A happy family life
Good relationships
Positive parenting
Ask yourself:
Are the people you communicate with receiving your message on terms that are meaningful, relevant and comprehendible, to them, at their level? If they're not, you're wasting your time, and theirs.
George Bernard Shaw summed up communication best with his observation that " The problem with communication is the illusion that it occurred"
Communication is, simply stated, your ability to be effectively understood. Now please do not confuse this with your ability to be heard. That ability you already have but reality is that most people have no idea if their message has been properly or effectively received. They really don't communicate, they just talk and leave the responsibility for understanding to the listener. That simply could not be more foolish. How can the listener have even the remotest idea of what you intend your message to be?
The way I see it, the responsibility for effective communication lies totally with the deliverer of the message. Comments like "she didn't get it", "he just doesn't understand me" or "I can't get through to him" are just lame excuses made by those who do not, or will not, take the time and make the effort to understand and apply the principles of effective communication.