The ability to effectively
communicate is a skill that is helpful both in my career path and my everyday
life. Chapter 1 of Business Communications Essentials listed ten skills that
employers look for. While I feel that each one could help me, the three that I
feel would be most beneficial for me would be organizing my ideas and
information logically and completely, communicating ethically - even when the
choices aren’t crystal clear, and using my time productively. (Bovee &
Thill, 2010).
Skills to Improve
Organization, in general, is a tool
that I could use a bit more of. While I do feel that I can communicate in a
semi-clear manner, I have always had a struggle with organizing my thoughts. I
tend to get frustrated when writing papers or attempting to get a point across
due to this. Working on organizing my thoughts and ideas logically and
completely will give me the ability to put everything in the order it needs to
be in as well as in the proper detail necessary to get my messages across with
little to no confusion on behalf of my audience.
Another skill that ties into this is
using my time productively. I hate to admit it, but I am easily distracted. It
seems as though every spare second is taken up with one of my children needing
something, cleaning that needs to be done, an appointment that I forgot about,
etc. If I sat aside time to break down all of the things that need to be
accomplished in the day and listed those things in order, it seems reasonable
that I would be able to accomplish more throughout my day and make my
interactions much more effective.
The third skill that I feel would be
beneficial is communicating ethically – even when the choices aren’t crystal
clear. I have had quite a few experiences throughout my life where I feel that
I did not communicate or interact with someone as well as I could have because
I just did not know how to handle the situation I was facing with in an ethical
manner. Once, when I asked a supervisor at a previous job how to best handle
those situations, they told me “fake it ‘til you make it.” I am not a believer
in faking or lying as I feel that being honest is the best policy. Not necessarily
the most popular, but it goes a long way towards credibility if you can be
honest in not knowing something. I do not feel like I have a full solution on
how to handle all ethical situations yet. What I try to do is ask myself if I
have taken everything into consideration, what kind of impact my response will
have on the person I am speaking to, is the answer for the greater good, and am
I comfortable with my decision. I always try to ensure that I am responding to
a customer or audience in a manner that I would be comfortable being plastered
publically for all to see.
This course has been a good lesson
that while my communication skills are not terrible, they could use
improvement. With all educational ventures, there will be some struggle and
frustration. However, I believe that if I follow the steps outlined above I
will be on the right path.
References
Bovee, C. L., & Thill, J. V. (2010). Business
Communication Essentials (4th ed.). : Pearson Education.
