Soft Skills
EFFECTIVE
BY FAHAD KHAN
12:00 am. It was pretty quiet at the airport, although there were many families with kids present to board the flight at the same as mine, along with several other flights leaving around the same time.
I stood up and started walking towards the cafeteria to get a coffee when I noticed the real reason of silence at such a busy airport. Every single head was using a smart device. A phone or a tablet; almost every pair of eyes were glued to either facebook, twitter, youtube, Linkedin or another social media site. There were almost a 1000 people at the airport at that time, and irrespective of their age group, more than 90% of the attendance was engulfed by a device. In short, they were not communicating with people; they were conversing with themselves.
The smart device utilization graph has grown exponentially in the past two or three years, making a person opt for a device rather than communicating with people to converse, find answers or gain knowledge. A smart device is a perfect tool for you: It sings, plays with you, shows you videos/movies, and entertains you with knowledge and conversations with friends anywhere around the world. But, the fact that drove me crazy at the airport was that no one was there ‘communicating’ in real.
In every walk of life, communication plays an important role to develop you into a more mature, more competent, and more equipped person with the acumen you desire to achieve. To and fro communication, feedback and advice are the key to be competent in every walk of life.
Communication with one another is termed and ranked as the most important factor in contributing to a successful professional and personal life. Problem solving, conflict resolution, effective working and personal relations are greatly altered once you communicate. And mind you, its communication we are talking about, and not conversing. Yes, there is a major difference.
What is the real essence to effective communication?
It's nothing but ‘awareness’. If we look around and study the great communicators of all times, we
find that the difference lies within the word ‘communication’. You will find them talking about themselves, their ideas, aspirations, and emotions. However, the communication is interactive.
Effective communication is an extremely essential component of success, no matter whether the conversation is interpersonal, organizational, or at an external level. It seems easy to understand the skill involved in effective communication but appropriately using the skills is what everyone hopes to achieve. What are the key traits to maximize the effectiveness of our communication skill set to ensure success?
54 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST Q3 2015
COMMUNICATION