During the ice breaking session on Monday, I was asked to give a reason why good interpersonal skills are important. The first thought that came to mind then was that it would be useful when we step into the working world. On hindsight, that was too superficial a thought. Effective communication skills are important as communication is inherent in our day-to-day life. Whether it is telling the canteen vendor what you want for lunch or discussing a project with group members, effective communication skills are required in order for us to complete our daily tasks.
I believe that effective communication skills will be important for me to excel in my academic life and eventually my career. Communicating effectively would ensure that everyone know what they have to do in a group project and no ill feelings are developed. In the working world, the interpersonal working relationships would be much more complicated and thus effective communication skills would be important to make sure that there is understanding among colleagues.
However, there is much more to life than simply studying and working. More importantly, I feel that effective communication skills are needed for building and maintaining meaningful relationships with my loved ones, especially my family. I realise we tend to be harsher on those whom we are closer with since we expect them to understand us. This lack of judgement could be detrimental on the relationships we hold dear. Hence, having effective communication skills is important to me as it would help in improving my relationships with people I care about.
UCS1001 S21 Tri1 2024-25
3 weeks ago
Hi, Geok Ting,
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with you that effective communication skills play an important role in maintaining good relationship with family and friends. One of your sentence reminds me of some observations I had long ago. If we observe carefully, people some times tend to be harsh and pushy on their intimate or close friends but they would become nicer when talking to new people. Because they feel secured with closer friends, and they know their family and friends won't leave them, they easily take friendship for granted. Sometimes, because of this phychology, we unknowingly hurt our loved ones. So, effective communication helps us realize this mindset which exists in many people, and it helps us learn to be grateful, and learn to always encourage and help those who are nearest to us.
Hi Geok Ting,
ReplyDeleteUndeniably, effective communication skills will be able to help advance in one's career, especially when it comes to building good relationships with people who have an influence over your career advancement.
However, in my opinion the real challenge is to use these skills proficiently and yet convey a message to fellow colleagues that one is not boot-licking. This is something that i foresee to be an extremely delicate issue that every employee will have to deal with at some point in their work life.
Ji Wei
Thank you, Geok Ting, for a well written, thoughtful post. I like the way you explain that your first thought in response to the question about the value of interpersonal skills was "superficial." You then go on to elaborate with good insights.
ReplyDeleteHey Geok,
ReplyDeleteI agree that effective communication is important in our day-to-day tasks as well, and I like your example about the canteen vendor.
I also agree that effective communication is important when it comes to relationships with anyone (friends, family, colleagues... etc.) since, as someone had mentioned in class, we may not know when we need their help.
hi geok ting!
ReplyDeleteI love that nice sweet ending you gave to your post. Yes! Indeed! We sometimes communicate so nicely to people outside and return home saying mean things to our family members. Especially when we get tired and angry, we tend to say hurting things that we don't really mean. We definitely need to constantly remind ourselves the importance of family. Without them, there will not be us!
Hi Geok Ting,
ReplyDeleteI love the point you brought up about communication among family members. Yes, I do agree with you that we tend to be harsher on those whom we are closer since we expect them to understand us. That's a little taking them for granted isnt it? Words such as 'please', 'thank you' etc are not used as often when talking to our family as compared to talking to friends or other associates. We should always consider the feelings of our loved ones when we talk to them to prevent unhappiness.
Thank you for sharing! =).
Hazel
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. Seems like everyone feels the same as me about communicating with your loved ones. Hopefully, after realising it, we'll give them the communication they deserve. =)
Yup, Ji Wei, I agree we would have to use our skills proficiently. Communication is indeed an art.