COR109: The Benefits of Interpersonal Skills for an IT Firm CEO

This essay explores the importance of interpersonal communication skills, specifically listening, feedback, and questioning, for a CEO in an IT firm. It highlights how effective listening enables the CEO to understand employee and customer needs, fostering respect and collaboration. Feedback is presented as a crucial tool for enhancing employee motivation, building strong client relationships, and managing organizational change by addressing employee concerns. Questioning is shown to facilitate deeper understanding, encourage diverse perspectives, and gather essential information for project development and customer satisfaction. The essay concludes that these interpersonal skills are vital for creating a collaborative, efficient, and successful IT firm. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Student’s Last Name 1
Communication Skills
By (Name)
Course
Professor
University
Date

Student’s Last Name 2
Introduction
Interpersonal communication refers to the process through which people exchange
information, meanings, and feelings through verbal and non-verbal messages. Interpersonal
communication is not just made up of the spoken words but also the language used to pass the
information. Internal personal communication comprises of several elements which facilitate
effective communication. The first element is the communicating parties. For any
communication to take place, two or more people should be involved. This includes the sender of
the message and the receiver. Another element is the message. The message can be conveyed
through facial expression, body language, and tone of voice. Moreover, during the
communication process, noise distorts the message. In order for communication to take place,
there is need for a communication channel such as a telephone. The primary goal of this essay is
to elaborate on the benefits of the interpersonal communication skills of listening, questioning,
and feedback for a CEO of an IT firm.
Benefits of Listening
Listening conscientiously is a communication requirement and it is applicable to the CEO
of an IT company. As such, it is important that the CEO understands the importance as well as
the relevance of the interpersonal communication skill of listening to their IT firm. Listening
necessitates the interpretation of both audial and visual stimuli with the intention of gaining
clarification of a specific idea that is communicated from an outside source (Donnon, et al.,
2014, pp.514). As such, it is important for the CEO to acknowledge the different points of views
of every staff. By doing this, the CEO will encourage respect in the workplace. The IT firm
requires that the CEO listens to the customers’ needs and grievances to ensure that the
organization offers the best IT solution for their needs. In addition, listening is crucial for the
CEO if they are to help guide the customers in diagnosing their IT problems as well as develop
the best IT management tools. Nonetheless, the communication skill of listening gives the
employees of the IT firm an opportunity to contribute to the tasks assigned by the CEO both
formally and informally.
Listening is also important because it creates a synergy between the CEO and IT
technicians along with other subordinates. Such kind of synergy is important because it makes

Student’s Last Name 3
sure that organizational goals are achieved. It is important that the IT technicians and the CEO
keep consulting each other to make sure that understand the market which they operate in and to
make sure that quality is achieved in designing and developing IT solution tools. Listening
generates collaboration between the CEO and the subordinates (Erozkan, 2013, pp.739). As
such, the IT staff end up gaining trust in their CEO by acknowledging that their opinions are
heard and they can make choose practical work that they want to work on albeit informally.
Benefits of Feedback
The interpersonal skills of feedback involve the messages the receiver returns which
allows the sender to understand accurately that the measure has been delivered and received. The
types of feedback include verbal and non-verbal. The interpersonal communication skill of
feedback is important for the IT firm because it enhances motivation among the employees
(Chan, et al., 2012, pp.3190). This assists them to achieve the firm’s goals. The CEO of an IT
firm engages in communication through the application of feedback principles to improve a
collaborative work environment and produce outcomes in an efficient manner. Moreover,
feedback assists the CEO to build a strong relationship between the IT firm and the clients. The
CEO may gather information from the clients about their views on certain software that the firm
has developed or adopted. This assist the firm to understand the areas that can be improved to
satisfy the interests of consumers’ (Lolli, 2013, pp.295). On the other hand, the CEO may collect
feedback from employees and identify the type of training they may need in order to develop
their skills.
Many organization undergoes change which may be important for the success of an
organization. In such situations, an IT firm may want to adopt new technology and it is important
for the CEO to collect feedback from the employees about their view concerning the new
technology. This will assist the CEO to understand the number of employees who are not
comfortable about the new technology and the impact it will have on the employees. The
feedback received from the employees will assist the CEO to address the fears and insecurities to
the employees in order to reduce resistance to organizational change (McCarthy, Trace and
O'Donovan, 2014, pp.227). Nonetheless, feedback in an IT firm assist the CEO to encourage a
conducive working place through collaborative feedback from the employees. The interpersonal

Student’s Last Name 4
communication skill of feedback is beneficial for the CEO because it enhances feedback-seeking
behavior among employees. This increases efficiency in the firm. In addition, applying the
interpersonal communication skill of feedback will assist the CEO to clarify the direction of task
allocation if not well understood by the employees. On the other hand, the employees will
signify misunderstandings through verbal feedback.
Benefits of Questioning
Questioning is important for the CEO because it assists in analyzing and comprehending
the parties involved since questioning highlights what the IT technicians understand and the
meaning of a project (Bylund, Peterson and Cameron, 2012, pp.261). The interpersonal
communication skill of questioning is a soft skill that can assist the IT firm’s CEO to gain insight
into what remains unsaid, thus enriching a dialogue. By applying this soft skill either on the
clients or the IT technicians and other subordinates, the CEO proves that he or she accepts
differences in opinions and listens to their concerns. By encouraging a culture of questioning in
the IT firm, the CEO would ensure that a diverse range of meaningful outcomes are achieved.
Studies have shown that intuitive types are more open to solutions that are more complex and
function more collaboratively (Hagemeier, et al., 2014, pp.186). Such a personality trait that is
associated with social cohesion is beneficial for the IT firm because of the IT technicians’
curiosity in designing and developing new IT solution tools.
By asking questions, the CEO might state things that the staff might not fully understand
and thus want to ensure that they gaining knowledge about it. Questioning is also important in
instances where the CEO interacts with customers that may require the development of an app or
even a website for their business. Through questioning, the CEO is able to obtain information
regarding the features that they want to be incorporated into the website or the app. The benefits
associated with questioning can be tracked down into positive outcomes as well as the
performance of the IT firm (Hebert and Hauf, 2015, pp.37). Conducting questioning adds value
to the IT technicians’ operations in and around the company due to the intentional
communication exchange between the CEO, customers, and the IT staff as well as the
possibilities that result from that interchange.

Student’s Last Name 5
Conclusion
The interpersonal elements of communication such as listening, feedback, and
questioning are important to an IT firm. Since it is a technical firm, constant feedback is needed
to collaborate the firm activities. The CEO of an IT firm requires feedback to to identify the gaps
that may exist in the firm. The interpersonal communication skill of questioning is important to
the IT firm since it promotes a diverse culture of meaningful outcomes which increases
effectiveness in the firm. Another important skill is listening. This skill assists the employees to
listen attentively to avoid misinterpretation of information which may result to losses.

Student’s Last Name 6
Bibliography
Bylund, C.L., Peterson, E.B. and Cameron, K.A., 2012. A practitioner's guide to interpersonal
communication theory: An overview and exploration of selected theories. Patient education and
counseling, 87(3), pp.261-267.
Chan, T.M., Wallner, C., Swoboda, T.K., Leone, K.A. and Kessler, C., 2012. Assessing
interpersonal and communication skills in emergency medicine. Academic Emergency
Medicine, 19(12), pp.1390-1402.
Donnon, T., Al Ansari, A., Al Alawi, S. and Violato, C., 2014. The reliability, validity, and
feasibility of multisource feedback physician assessment: a systematic review. Academic
Medicine, 89(3), pp.511-516.
Erozkan, A., 2013. The Effect of Communication Skills and Interpersonal Problem Solving
Skills on Social Self-Efficacy. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 13(2), pp.739-745.
Hagemeier, N.E., Hess Jr, R., Hagen, K.S. and Sorah, E.L., 2014. Impact of an interprofessional
communication course on nursing, medical, and pharmacy students’ communication skill self-
efficacy beliefs. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 78(10), p.186.
Hebert, A. and Hauf, P., 2015. Student learning through service learning: Effects on academic
development, civic responsibility, interpersonal skills and practical skills. Active Learning in
Higher Education, 16(1), pp.37-49.
Lolli, J.C., 2013. Interpersonal communication skills and the young hospitality leader: Are they
prepared?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, pp.295-298.
McCarthy, B., Trace, A. and O'Donovan, M., 2014. Integrating psychology with interpersonal
communication skills in undergraduate nursing education: Addressing the challenges. Nurse
Education in Practice, 14(3), pp.227-232.