1.2 Why Is Communication Important?

Communication is key to your success—in relationships, in the workplace, as a citizen of your country, and across your lifetime. Your ability to communicate comes from experience, and experience can be an effective teacher, but this text and the related interpersonal communication course will offer you a wealth of experiences gathered from professionals across their lifetimes. You can learn from the lessons they’ve learned and be a more effective communicator right out of the gate.

Why is something so important in our lives so complicated? There is no easy answer, but if we agree that knowledge is power, it makes sense to learn as much about it as possible. As part of that learning process, we can break down complicated concepts into their components and use theories to explain why things happen repeatedly. Once we start perceiving patterns, we can then take steps to influence and improve our interpersonal communication. Of course, in real life, we hardly ever give it a second thought—and that might be part of the problem. What we take for granted as natural may, in fact, simply be a bad habit that we learned from someone else. In this book, we will examine interpersonal communication in many ways. Improving your communication skills will help you learn to apply them in the kinds of situations you are likely to encounter throughout your career and life.

We all share a fundamental drive to communicate. We want to be understood and want to know others, but drive and motivation are simply not enough. We may know what we want to say, but not how to say it. We may lack the words, expressions, or experiences to communicate effectively. Our perception of our ability to communicate can influence how and when we communicate. Communication can be defined as the process of understanding and sharing meaning. You share meaning in what you say and how you say it, both in oral and written forms. Sometimes we take it for granted.

If you could not communicate, what would life be like? A series of never-ending frustrations? Not being able to ask for what you need or understanding the needs of others? Being unable to communicate might even mean losing a part of yourself. You communicate your self-conceptWhat we perceive ourselves to be.—your sense of self and awareness of who you are—in many ways. Do you like to write? Do you find it easy to make a phone call to a stranger or speak to a room full of people? Perhaps someone told you that you don’t speak clearly or your grammar needs improvement. Does that make you more or less likely to want to communicate? It may be a positive challenge for some, while for others, it may be discouraging. In all cases, your ability to communicate is central to your self-concept. 

One important element of effective communication is recognizing that communication is a learned skill. You learned from those around you, but you now have a new opportunity to learn lessons from communication professionals that you can consider, adapt, and make your own. You can improve your written performance, polish your public speaking skills, and make a positive difference in how others perceive you, as well as how you perceive yourself. 

Your communication skills help you understand others—not just their words, but also their tone of voice, nonverbal gestures, or the format of their written documents provide you with clues about who they are and what their values and priorities may be. From a mask to a badge, scrubs, or a uniform, we take cues from each other that guide our expectations. Listeners have expectations of the context, themselves, and about you. Do you perceive your expectations for yourself to change or are they influenced by what you wear, for example? Active listening to yourself and others is part of being a successful communicator.

When you were an infant, you learned to talk over many months. When you got older, you didn’t learn to ride a bike, drive a car, or even text a message on your cell phone in one brief moment. You need to begin the process of improving your speaking and writing with the frame of mind that it will require effort, persistence, and self-correction. You learn to speak in public by first having conversations, then answering questions and expressing your opinions in class, and finally by preparing and delivering a “stand-up” speech. Similarly, you learn to write by first learning to read, then by writing and learning to think critically. Your speaking and writing are reflections of your thoughts, experience, and education. Part of that combination is your level of experience listening to other speakers, reading documents and styles of writing, and studying formats similar to what you aim to produce.

At your first job, you learned what to do and what not to do. You learned whom to talk to, whom not to talk to, how and when to ask questions, and to interpret new words and phrases that all held meaning within the context of the conversation. At some point, you may have made the transition from someone who struggled to follow the conversation to someone who could lead it. Communication involves learning the context and its expectations, and influences interactions and their outcomes. As you study communication in general and interpersonal communication specifically, you may receive suggestions for improvement and clarification from speakers and writers more experienced than yourself. Take their suggestions as challenges to improve; don’t give up when your first speech or first draft does not communicate your intended message. Stick with it until you get it right. Your success in communicating is a skill that applies to almost every field of work, and it makes a difference in your relationships with others. Remember, luck is simply a combination of preparation and timing. You want to be prepared to communicate well when given the opportunity. Each time you do a good job, your success will bring more success.

You want to make a good first impression on your friends and family, instructors, and employer. They all want you to convey a positive image, as it reflects on them. In your career, you will represent your business, company, team, or brand in spoken and written form. Your professionalism and attention to detail will reflect positively on you and set you up for success.

Let’s consider, for example, your online profile in a social network like LinkedIn.com, recognized for its business emphasis and professional profiles. The image you post of yourself on that site, along with information about your current and past positions, reflects not only on you as a professional but on the people with whom you associate, including your employer. Pictures and photos that may be acceptable for Facebook, known for its family and friends focus, may not work for your professional profile. In the same way, words that you use on LinkedIn.com may include “achieved,” “managed,” “resolved,” or “created,” often with quantified results, as in a specific percent increase in sales, for example, while words you use on Facebook may be less formal, less professional, and more familiar to family and friends.

Instead of portraying yourself as stuck in adolescence, unqualified, or lacking experience, consider how you can portray your skills and abilities across these desirable traits that many employers, whether they state it or not, are really looking for:

You will benefit from having the ability to communicate clearly. These are skills you will use for the rest of your life. Positive improvements in these skills will have a positive impact on your relationships, prospects for employment, and ability to make a difference in the world.

Oral and written communication proficiencies are consistently ranked in the top ten desirable skills by employer surveys year after year, and as we learned during the pandemic, Zoom meetings required all of the communication skills. In fact, high-powered business executives sometimes hire consultants to coach them in sharpening their communication skills. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the following are the top five personal qualities or skills potential employers seek:

According to the annual NACE surveys, we observe that communication skills continue to rank at the top. Professionalism, which includes how we present ourselves, critical thinking, and both oral and written communications, are all ranked in the top three career readiness competencies considered absolutely essential by the survey respondents. How we communicate, present ourselves (in-person or as a remote employee), and represent our business or company counts in today’s modern workplace, from health care to business and beyond.

According to a National Institutes of Health article (Jankelová and Joniaková, 2021), effective, supportive communication in the nursing environment is an extremely important workplace tool that is in high demand.

In business, Cushing Johnson and John Gantz (2013) highlight several trends that drive employers’ needs that holds true, including:

Each trend identifies an important area of business growth and development that is closely tied to communication skills. An increasingly diverse customer base involve interpersonal and intercultural communication. Relationships with patients, customers, and clients involve interpersonal communication. Partnerships and globalization involve strategic communication, internal communication, external communication, and organizational communication. Mobile customers may involve both mass communication and interpersonal communication, and global virtual teams underscore the importance of effective group communication. Ernie Sampias, the former Chief Financial Officer for McDATA, highlights the importance of communication in business and organizations in “The Importance of Communication in Leadership”.

Once again, like NACE’s survey and countless others, Sampias demonstrates that oral and written communication skills are key to success, reinforcing why good communication skills are the highest-ranked among the skills potential employers look for in job seekers. An individual with excellent communication skills is an asset to every organization. No matter what career you plan to pursue, learning to express yourself professionally in speech and writing will help you get there.

Interpersonal communication is a powerful force in our lives. It impacts how we think about ourselves and others. It modifies and shapes what and how we learn. It represents our professional image and corporate reputation. It represents our employers to the world. Because it controls so much of why we do what we do at work and home, those with effective communication soft skills are highly prized by business and industry.