Importance of Communication Skills: Development, Barriers, and Solutions

This report discusses the importance of communication skills in personal and professional life, the different types of communication, and ways to develop effective communication skills. It also covers the barriers faced while communicating and how to overcome them. The report includes personal experiences and references to support the content.

IMPORTANCE OF
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Communication...........................................................................................................................3
Importance of communication skills...........................................................................................4
Development of effective communication skills.............................................................................5
Barriers faced while communicating and how I overcome them................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The process of exchanging thoughts and ideas to others is called communication. It is
most important part of not only of general public but also for students. For higher studies
effective communication is very important as they have to exchange ideas with each others and
with teachers also. Bad communication is the reason for lack of motivation for them as they
cannot effectively express their thoughts. For effective communication they should be provided
with better environment,encouragement,positive feedbacks and various activities which improve
their skills. Classrooms must be interactive and two way so that they can learn and develop
communication skills.
MAIN BODY
Communication
Communication process is taken for granted as it is happening all the time. Ideas and
information communicated should be understandable to everyone who is conveyed as large time
amount of time is spent communicating. Communication refers to the sharing of information or
idea to other human being. Effective communication is the most important skills of life which
helps us to pass information to others. Information can be passed vocally,written,verbally or non
verbally(Baik, Larcombe and Brooker, 2019). Communication helps individuals to convey
feelings effectively. These skills help them to develop confidence,public speaking and grow in
their life. Saying random things are not enough, what you say must put a impact. Good
communication skills will take you far in life. Some people struggle a lot in conveying their
message but can improve by practice. There are various types of communication skills. Some of
these are-
 Verbal communication- The most common type of communication skills. Face to face
interactions,phone chats, video conferencing are some of the types of the verbal
communication. Many people use common language to communicate as it is easily
understandable.
 Non verbal communication- Body languages,gestures and facial expressions are some
of the various non verbal communication types. In today's world most of the people
prefer this type of communication as it is the most honest way of communication.

 Visual communication- Minimal use of words and numbers is used in this
communication type and pictures,maps,drawings,graphs etc. are used. It is the most
intelligent way of communicating the messages and is very hard to become a good visual
communicator.
 Written- Communicating by writing the messages is gaining popular day by day. Today
people use writing as their main way of communicating like, text messages,email etc.
This skill can be mastered(Claro,and et, al., 2018).
Importance of communication skills
Communication skills help in all aspects of life from personal to professional. Accurate and
clear information is very important for effective communication. For professional endeavours
good communication skills are vital as they can change the phase of life. Good skills help other
people understand the message of the person easily. It makes you more confident and assertive.
It makes easy to make friends,and have good relationship with family and friends. Daily
functioning improves and causes less stress. Many students suffer due to poor skills and affects
their ability to understand. Good communication skills helps in improving their grades and they
are able to understand the subjects very well and excel in their career. For professionals this skill
is very important as it helps in performing the job well and build relation with colleagues. It also
improves their body language. Teaching requires good communication skills as they have to
teach students who are the future of the country. They must be able to solve the queries of
students effectively and teach them all the subjects very well(Gillies, 2019). It opens many
opportunities for them. Communication skills are very important in businesses as they are many
departments like marketing,sales and many more. Proper functioning will ensure the success of
the organization. It helps in acquiring new customer and retain old customers which results in
sales leading to more profits. Building a brand also requires this skills as they are able to
communicate the message to the potential customers. These skills can be acquired by many
ways. Some of these are-
 Improve body language- It is the form of non verbal communication where you have to
communicate with others through body language. By improving body postures,keeping
shoulders straight and making eye contact are some the things which will improve the
body language.

 To the point- Wasting time on unimportant things is one the major factors for
miscommunication. While communicating the message should be short and simple. Point
should be directly conveyed.
 Listen- Listening is one of the major part of good communication skills. The conveyor
of the message should be good listener also it will help in two way of communication
channel.
 Read- Knowledge is required for becoming good communicator and for this the person
must read,know everything about the industry. Reading will improve knowledge and
increase vocabulary.
Effective communication with others is essential as it improves and increases performance. It is a
two way channel and by effectively communicating it will be easy for people to communicate.
So this tells that good communication is very important for achieving success in life(Hora,
2019).
Development of effective communication skills
While interacting with my group members my communication skills were improved as I
used various methods for communicating with them of them are-
 Zoom meetings- I used this medium to connect with my team members as they live far
away. This platform is used for interacting with others via the means of video
conferencing. Me and team connected whenever it was needed and it saved our time and
energy too. Earlier, I used to hesitate to talk to my team members physically as I did not
have the courage of speaking with them as some of them are more knowledgable than me
and I sometimes felt very shy. But in zoom meetings I was able to express myself in a
better way as I do not have to talk to them face to face and if required I can turn off the
camera and speak ,this improved my communication skills a lot and boosted my
confidence. In zoom meetings my all team members were encouraged to speak and share
thoughts. This motivated me a lot and help me to remove my fear of not speaking(Pettes,
2021).
 Group discussions- We all have to do discussions for our project. For this purpose we
had to meet and discuss about the topics. I am not good speaker but group discussions

helped me to speaks and express my opinion in front of my group. We all had to
contribute in the project and speak and listen about the various topics,this removed our
fear of speaking in groups. Thee were many participants in the group and each had would
get a chance to speak and create a impact. We got knowledge from various participants
and they all had different thoughts about the topic. Speaking in the group made my tone
and voice more convincing than before. My communication skills and way of expressing
my thoughts were at next level. I became a good listener too and attentive to the
discussions .
 Classroom interactions- In our classrooms, our teachers created a environment of
healthy interactions between students and them. They encouraged us to ask
questions ,give suggestions and even share our knowledge to others. This helped me to
speak in front of whole classroom which removed my fear of public speaking and my
teachers were very supportive and corrected my mistakes politely. They told all of us that
we can any time ask any questions related to the topic as they wanted to clear all our
doubts. Classroom interactions increased my self esteem and we all students interacted
with each other. Asking doubts lead to better understanding of the topic.
 Text messages- Sometimes our group members were not been able to attend group
discussions and zoom meetings so they were texted about the brief of meetings ,which
helped them to grasp the information. By the use of the chat messages I was connected to
my teachers,team members. They could text me any time for any urgency. Using text
messages helped me to avoid long phone conversations. Chat messages made me to write
my thoughts in short and single sentences as sometimes I was uncomfortable in taking or
meeting with the person due to some issues but text messages helped me to conveyed my
messages to them in a quite easy manner. My vocabulary and grammar mistakes
decreased as I was communicating by writing(Vogler, , and et, al., 2018).
 Listening- I developed the art of listening others which helped me to know the thoughts
of other team members. It made me to effectively engage with them and receive the
messages accurately. Without listening I was not able to grasp the messages effectively
earlier. It helped me to perform my duties well as I was able to take the instructions from
teachers properly.

Barriers faced while communicating and how I overcome them
Communication barriers are hurdles that prevents from receiving and sending the
information to others. They restrict us from effectively communicating our messages to team
members(Uwagwu, 2021).
Types of the barriers are-
 Psychological barriers- I faced this barrier while communicating with my team
members as each of them psychological condition is different ,sometimes they were in
stress,sometime in anger when I was communicating with them they were not been able
to interpret the message effectively. I overcome this barrier by talking to them and
understanding their behaviour and reason for it. I conveyed my messages to them by chat
as when they are free they can see it and grasp it,this solved this problem.
 Physical communication barriers- I was unable to communicate with my team
members who were staying far away. When I wanted to convey any urgent message I
faced very difficulty,but with the use of video conferencing this problem was solved as I
was able to communicate with them any time and long distances did not matter. Modern
technology solve the problem of this barrier.
 Language barriers- Each and every member belong to different regions of the country
where they speak different languages ,but I faced challenge of communicating with them
as language here was the main barrier but I overcome this barrier by communicating
according to the need of the receiver and sent them emails regarding the
information,which helped a lot in transferring messages.
 Attitude barriers- Some team members had personality conflicts which become a hurdle
in effective communication. I was not been able to communicate them well(Kuntz and
Carter, 2019). This problem was overcome by structuring the message in a simple
manner and follow up communication to know whether they have get the information or
not.
There are various reasons which become hurdles in effective communication. The message sent
by the sender may not be received by the other person as same so it becomes very important for
the sender to take the feedback from the other to ensure that information is delivered accurately.
Listening may help but to some extent as hurdles can come at any stage of the communication

channel. Barriers lead to confusion in messages and information. Effective communication
overcomes all these hurdles and convey clear message.
CONCLUSION
This report concludes that communication is very essential part of human life. We all
communicate with each other for sending and receiving information. They help in building
relationships with family,friends and colleagues. We have discussed various types of
communication and importance of communication skills in every aspect of life. Different ways
of improving these skills were also discussed. Various ways by which I developed my
communication skills by interacting with team members of my group and how I was encouraged
by my teachers for public speaking were also thoroughly studied. Types of barriers which create
hurdles in conveying clear messages and how I overcome them were also discussed.

REFERENCES
Baik, C., Larcombe, W. and Brooker, A., 2019. How universities can enhance student mental
wellbeing: The student perspective. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(4),
pp.674-687.
Claro, M.,and et, al., 2018. Teaching in a Digital Environment (TIDE): Defining and measuring
teachers' capacity to develop students' digital information and communication
skills. Computers & Education, 121, pp.162-174.
Gillies, R.M., 2019. Promoting academically productive student dialogue during collaborative
learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 97, pp.200-209.
Hora, M.T., 2019. Beyond the skills gap: Preparing college students for life and work. Harvard
Education Press.
Kuntz, E.M. and Carter, E.W., 2019. Review of interventions supporting secondary students
with intellectual disability in general education classes. Research and Practice for
Persons with Severe Disabilities, 44(2), pp.103-121.
Pettes, D.E., 2021. Staff and student supervision: A task-centred approach. Routledge.
Uwagwu, A.M., 2021. Perceived Influence of Business Education Curriculum on
Entrepreneurship Skills of University Students (Doctoral dissertation, Kwara State
University (Nigeria)).
Vogler, J.S., and et, al., 2018. The hard work of soft skills: augmenting the project-based
learning experience with interdisciplinary teamwork. Instructional Science, 46(3),
pp.457-488.