Why effective communication skills are important for me?

I have been pondering about the goals of my life for a long time. “What do I want from life?” I asked. My answer to this typical philosophical question is a happy family and a fulfilling career which provides financial support for a decent lifestyle. The most crucial soft skills, communication skills, in some sense, are the means to the ultimate ends.


In family life, I wish to carry a listening ear, converse eloquently and send the right non-verbal clues to show that I care about my family members dearly. Due to generational gap, there are some inevitable frictions between my parents and me. If communicated badly, an insignificant issue could quickly explode into a huge fight. Most of these incidents can be avoided if we are all patient and active listeners.

In working life, excellent communication skills could not be more emphasized. No one carries any glamorous education certificates around to impress. What really impresses is the way they communicate. People who can speak and write well also tend to progress faster in their careers. In fact, in a networking session, if we observe carefully, we could more or less know who the higher ranking people are, simply by judging at their communication skills.

Here, I would like to share some of my past observations. As interns or fresh graduates, we often face difficulties adjusting to the corporate world. In offices, we, in our twenties, need to work with people of different age groups. Some of them are as senior as my father or even grandfather. The education in school does train us to work with classmates, but we seldom have the opportunity to work with senior people. Hence, when we communicate with them, it is better to show more respect for their seniority and rich experiences.

Life is not going to be a bed of roses when we just launch our careers in the future. It demands sheer hard work and a high EQ. It is indeed the time to start to improve my EQ now.