Communication: An Art

Over time, and especially because of the kind of work I have been doing over the past 3+ years now, I have realized the importance of communication. I like to refer to it as an “art”.

I have been working as a Project Engineer for quite some time now. The job entails A to Z of any Project, and that includes getting sanctions for Projects and then also actually executing them. The former part includes, amongst many facets, presentations to senior management and the latter includes jobs right from the grass-root level, like interacting with the worker-class involved in say, some construction site.

The spectrum is quite wide and the rule of communication is straight-forward; everyone likes to listen only what matters or sounds interesting to them. Everyone has his own priorities, and has only some time for you. It is during that time that maximum impact has to be made to achieve or drive the individual/system towards the desired end goals. For instance, it is one aspect to actually talk to a workman and encourage him to work and to put in his best, and it is an altogether a different ball game to successfully present your Project proposal to say, the CEO of your company.

The most important part of communication is psychology. It becomes really important to get into the shoes of the person opposite you, and communicate to him in a language and tone that will have the most impact on him.

I believe it is just with the right set of communication skills that a person succeeds in life. Look at the politicians, the ones who are popular are only so because they speak well, or in other words, are those who are able to enter our psyche and influence it by their choice of words. Forget politics, look at any company. After a certain level in the management hierarchy, what remains or matters is how efficiently a leader is able to extract work out of his sub-ordinates. And all that only requires an ability to effectively and precisely communicate the intent or expectation from the assigned job/task.

I sometimes feel good about the fact that I have made this realization early in my life. I call it an “art” not without any reason. And through this brief article, I just wish to communicate to my friends and the readers of this snippet the importance of communication and the tremendous potential it holds in shaping one’s growth curve.

Suggestions/comments are of course welcome.