Importance of communication skills:

I will present the Importance of communication skills in three different scenarios which should give you a pretty good picture about communication skills and its importance in our everyday life.

Communication skills in Medical profession:

  If you type "importance of communication skills" as a search term in Google, it will come up with numerous references to doctors and importance of them being trained in communication skills. It did not make any sense to me. It took some time to understand the whole issue of importance of communication skills in doctor’s profession.

Let’s see if I can help you understand this better. Here is a quote from one of the studies by a medical professional:

"Doctors, too, appear to benefit from communicating well. There is evidence that doctors who are anxious and lack confidence in responding to patients’ emotional needs are those who are at most risk of 'burnout." - Ramirez AJ, Graham J, Richards MA et al. Mental health of hospital consultants Lancet 1996; 347: 724–728.
 

One more:

"Good communication is a basic component of good clinical care, without which even the technical aspects of medicine cannot be effectively delivered" - Phyllis Butow Medical Psychology Research Unit University of Sydney.

According to these studies, in spite of all the superior technological advances, if the doctor gives out bad signals non-verbally or communicates lack of confidence to the patient, all those treatments and medicines are of no use.
Till I heard this, I did not recon that communication skills are so high even on the high paid doctor’s agenda

Gone are the days of the tight lipped upper class Fellow of Royal School of Surgeons. There is an ever increasing need for them to be more approachable and to be communicative with their patients. Infact, recognizing the importance of communicative skills, they have made it mandatory for all doctors to go through a communication skills training now a days.

Richard was saved from that doctor’s mind binding curse. What about the other people who hear the same? Lives are at stake due to a doctor’s inability to communicate well.

Importance of Communication skills in Industry:

A friend of mine did a study on job applications on Monster, an internet site for job seekers. Guess what the single most repeated phrase in the Qualification Requirement was?
"Candidates with good communication skills"

He told me that almost no exception was made in any job category about the need for good communication skills, in any industry. The most surprising aspect is that none of us are taught any kind of communication skills anytime in school or college. To add to this, it is marked always on a subjective scale. In effect, the importance of communication skills has spread through the society not as an overt requirement, but a covert necessity.

This is what a North Carolina state university sponsored study had to say about the importance of communication skills in work place:
"Communication skills were considered more important than either technical knowledge...or computer skills."

 
We have mass communication and a few allied fields as a major in college. Most of these studies are in the specialized level and only for those who want to build a profession either in talking; writing or such things. It is high time everyone is given at least the basic training so that each one of us can understand the implication and importance of communication skills.
 

 Communication skills in School:

School is a place of learning. Sadly we often do not get chance to learn about the things that really matter to us there. Most of us learn all our morals and other primary skills in school. This one, some how is missed out.

Importance of communication skills has been heavily discounted in any kind of formal education that we undergo. It is the same with the other two very important things in life, money and sex. We are always shunned from talking about it as if it were some kind of sin. But everyone is doing everything to attain either of them. Thank god. the scene with communication skills is not so bad; nevertheless it is high time we all realize this.
 

Importance of communication skills and how to master them?

In the coming days, the importance of these sills will only increase due to closing of the gap between cultures and there will be an even bigger need for people who can interact with different cultures and survive. but going so far is only possible for those who are willing to take the first step. if you are wondering what the first step is, check out the what's next section below