What Are the Benefits of Effective Communication in a Career?
Career advancement requires mastery of a number of skills, but few carry the importance or significance of communication. Effective communicators can both convey and receive messages concisely and accurately, and efficient information handling can position both managers and employees for career advancement. These skills rarely come naturally, though, and considerable communication training can further boost a career.
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Purpose
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Both employees and managers must frequently communicate in a business environment. Managers communicate with employees to relay organizational news and provide instruction on performing tasks; in addition, though, managers also communicate with other managers to coordinate efforts and communicate with senior leadership to both position and promote the work group. At the employee level, workers must communicate with managers to clarify instructions and position themselves for career advancement in addition to communicating with colleagues to achieve organizational objectives. These communication practices, according to the Fred Luthans textbook "Organizational Behavior," serve as the primary drivers for communication in a career.
Types
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During workplace communication, participants typically take the role of either a sender or a receiver. While receivers absorb messages and provide feedback, senders may operate in a one-to-one or one-to-many capacity. In addition, both senders and receivers may rely on a number of communication channels, like face-to-face discussions, telephone calls, conference calls, web conferences, instant messages and emails. While real-time, synchronous communication provides instant feedback that can help quickly achieve business objectives and advance a career, a significant amount of career-related communication takes place through asynchronous channels like web forms and email.
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Process
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When communicating in the workplace, according to the career website Maximum Advantage, employees and managers generally follow a standard communication process. This process starts with a sender's message, and the sender encodes it for delivery through a channel like voice mail or email. The channel transmits the message and the recipient decodes it. The recipient then interprets the message and provides appropriate feedback. Although this process contains several steps, it can take place in a matter of seconds as an employee delivers a message in a voice conversation, then a colleague provides feedback in the form of facial expressions after interpreting the message.
Benefits
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Effective communication can provide a number of career benefits. Effective communicators help enhance efficiency by concisely delivering relevant information through a channel and in a format the recipient can easily understand. In addition, active listening is a characteristic of an effective communicator, and active listeners minimize mistakes by carefully interpreting incoming messages and clarifying any potential misunderstandings. Finally, managers who effectively communicate information about a work group and its processes can position themselves for more rapid career advancement by demonstrating and conveying the effects of leadership.
Considerations
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Although most humans communicate in some form or another every day since birth, effective communication and active listening skills are rarely an inherent quality. Developing these skills to have a positive career impact can require a considerable amount of training, education and practice.
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References
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