Why Are Communication Skills Important

Why are communication skills important?

Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin group, which controls over 400 companies worldwide has been quoted as saying that “Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess”. Let's find out why.

Hi, I'm Joshua Seth, keynote speaker on communication and presentation skills. And today we're going to be talking about why communication is even important in the first place. I mean, you know how to talk. You've been communicating with people since before you even had a vocabulary. 

I’ve got kids. I don't know about you, but when they were babies and they'd scream and cry and go, Waaaahhhhh. I knew exactly what they were communicating to me.

I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I need to go to the bathroom. I just went to the bathroom. 

So communication predates our capacity for language. But what does it do? What is it really? Well communication is the connective glue that binds us to other people. It's how we get across our wants and our needs and desires to them. And of course the other side of it, the listening, the receiving of it from them. It binds us together. 

So the better your communication, the better your connection to other people. And that's particularly important for leaders, because as a leader you need to get other people to do what you want them to do.

And so the better you communicate the value of yourself and your ideas, the more effective you will be in that endeavor. In fact, the better your communication, the better people will perceive you to be. You may have spent your entire life achieving excellence at your skillset, but you will be limited by your ability to communicate the value of those ideas to others.

What goo will the value of those ideas be if they’re stuck in your head? 

You've got to be able to communicate them to others and do so in a way where they will recognize your value and the value of what it is that you are saying and what it is that you want them to do. 

So the first reason that communication skills are important is that they influence the way that people perceive you and the value of your ideas. The better your communication skills, the better you and your ideas will be received by others.

The second reason why communication skills are important is because as a leader, you need to get other people to do the things that you want them to do. So the better your communication skills, the more effectively you will be able to get those needs and desires across to them. 

And the third reason that communication skills are important is because as you improve your communication skills, so too will you improve every relationship in your life, both personal and professional. 

On a personal level, think about the worst relationship you've ever had. Did the quality of communication play a part in it? I’ll bet it did. I know that's true for me. 

I've had potentially great personal relationships that simply fell apart because of a failure to communicate. As I grew as a person and developed my communication skills, the quality of my relationships, both personally and professionally have improved as well.

Think back to a work relationship gone wrong. My guess is there was some breakdown in communication. Interpersonal relationships in the workplace and in the home are dependent upon the quality of our communication skills, both to resolve conflict and in order to get across our wants and needs effectively.

And that goes both ways, of course, because as we grow as people and develop our communication skills as leaders, so to will our relationships grow in life, both at home and in the workplace. As a parent, I know that my ability to listen well to my children and communicate effectively with them defines our relationship.

The same thing is true in business. Your ability to be both a sender and receiver of quality communication will define the level of your relationships. It's sort of like the internet, the bigger your bandwidth, the more information you can get across and the better the connection will be.

That's why it's important to improve your communication skills as well, because it will expand the connection that you have to others, and it will make the quality of that connection, much more secure, reliable, and valuable now and in the future.