Why communication is important

Effective communication is often seen as a soft skill. I think this undersells the importance. Your ability to communicate not only has a profound impact on your career, it affects how successful you are at your job. I believe communication skills are essential leadership skills, for you and your organization.

Effective communications save time. Every conversation, e-mail, meeting and presentation is an opportunity to advance an objective. If you are able to recognize the opportunity embedded in a situation and have the skills to capitalize on it, you will be able to make better use of the hours in your day.

Clear, concise, message-focused communications foster better decision-making. The facts don’t speak for themselves. The better you and your peers are able to clearly and concisely articulate a point of view, the better your chances at making a good decision.

Good communications help build relationships. Good relationships both inside and outside the organization are essential to achieving goals. Communication is what relationships are built on.  The better your communication skills, the better the relationships.  It’s really that simple.

Positive communications increase employee engagement. Employee engagement is one of the biggest challenges organizations face. From the CEO on down, leaders need to be able to communicate strategy and inspire employees throughout the organization.

Focusing on communications helps leaders achieve strategic objectives. Every strategic objective has a stakeholder attached. Stakeholders are people or groups of people that need to be convinced of something and pointed in the right direction.  By focusing on communications, leaders will be more successful at achieving their goals.