Reflective Essay on the Significance of Communication Skills

This reflective essay explores the critical importance of communication skills in both personal and professional contexts. The essay begins with an introduction defining communication skills and then delves into a main body that discusses the author's personal experiences and observations regarding the significance of effective communication. The author reflects on the role of communication in academic settings, particularly in group projects and presentations, highlighting how strong communication skills facilitate collaboration and understanding. The essay also emphasizes the importance of communication in professional environments, including interactions with colleagues, superiors, and subordinates, and the impact of communication skills on leadership and organizational goals. The author also identifies challenges in improving communication skills, such as inconsistency and reliance on technology. The conclusion summarizes the key takeaways, emphasizing the need for continuous self-reflection to enhance communication abilities. The essay references relevant literature on communication skills and reflective practices.

CW1: Reflective
Essay

Table of Contents
REFLECTION.................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................1
Main Body...................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

REFLECTION
Introduction
Communication skills are those skills with the help of which an individual makes
transfer of facts, ideas and feelings from one person to another in an effective and
understandable way that it reaches to the second person in the same form in which the
first has delivered it (Cottrell, 2017). The following is the reflection of my own experience
which I came across at the time of completing my studies and this reflection is related to
the importance of communication skills in the life of an individual both in personal as
well as in professional life.
Main Body
The importance of communication skills in the life of an individual is of great importance.
As such in the starting my communication skills were not good as I was not able to
express my views and ideas clearly in front of other people. The requirement of this skill
in the field of study could be known with the help of different tasks which are completed
and provided by the teacher in the class such as presentations, projects, group
presentations and for the successful completion of which it is very important to have
communication skills in an individual. There are different benefits of this skill which
could be taken by an individual such as related to improvement in the interaction,
knowledge of speaking, changes in behaviour and many more with the help of which not
only personal but the professional improvements are made in an individual (Winnicott,
2018). For example, when teacher provides group presentations or projects in the
classes, so there are a number of students in the group and they also interact with each
other and presents their views and suggestions to each other. This all is the part of
communication skill. With the help of this skills only, it is possible for them to make
proper communication with each other and make them to understand about the things
and issues which are faced by them. Along with this, communication skills will also help
them to put their issues also in front of others and teachers as well so that effective
solutions could be provided to them and the accomplishment of provided tasks could be
initiated in an efficient and effective way. In academics as well, an individual will be able
to understand and deliver their own ideas only when they are capable enough of
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understanding and expressing their own views in front of others in an understandable
way. So the fulfilment of this requirement by the candidates will provide them with
positive results in present and future as well. In case the individuals does not consist of
these requirements than it will not be possible for them to survive for long period of time.
The requirement of this skills is not important only in the case of personal level
but at the professional level as well (Reynolds and Vince, 2017). Professionals are
required to make their interaction with employees in the organisation at different level
such as to their seniors, juniors and colleagues and for proper working and achievement
of organisational as well personal objectives, it is important to have coordination and
cooperation in between the employees and the organisation so that they could
understand each other and respect the ideas and suggestions of each other. So the
requirement of communication skills is of great essence as coordination and
cooperation could not be established without the help of communication skills. The
leaders also influences other people with the help of their words, which means that they
possess good communication skills.
Along with this there are also some challenges that could be faced by them while
make improvement in their communication skills by different individuals (Baldwin, 2016).
As it is not as much easy to make improvement in communication skills to which it
seems to be. These challenges could related to inconsistency in communication, relying
on technology for disseminating messages, not listening to others, not making
communication as a leadership function, thought of assuming everyone as excellent
communicator are some of the important reasons due to which it is not possible for
individuals to make improvements in their communication skills. So the avoidances of
thee kinds of challenges is important for the individuals both the in personal and
professional contexts. The importance of communication skill is also in the education
and learning as well. As while learning new things, there are possibilities of being
doubtful related to some topic so with the help of communication skills, it will be possible
to make improvement and make their doubts clear at the earliest possible so that the
needed rectifications in the work could be made possible.
At the time of completing my studies, I understood about the importance of
communication skills in the life of an individual student. This is because of our teacher
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who provided us with the project which was group presentation and also divided the
complete class in several groups as the project was big and it was not possible to
complete the presentation for a single individual in short period of time. At that time, I
understood the importance of communication skill because in starting the
communication in between our team was not good and without effective communication,
it was not possible to make the completion of the assignment in a successful way. This
also impacted upon all of us in negative way as negative behaviour, conflicts and many
more which also caused deviations in the work. So in order to make the completion of
project within time, it was important to make improvements in communication skill so
that the project could be completed in time. So the importance of communication skills
in both the personal and professional level is of great importance for the successful
completion of different tasks. Various measures were adopted in order to improve
communication in between the team members such as listening each other's ideas and
suggestions, clear and consistent communication and some more with the help of which
the overall improvements was made and the presentation was also completed being in
time.
Conclusion
From the above reflection, it has been concluded that the importance of reflection
is at utmost priority for an individual as it helps to know about their strengths and
weaknesses for the betterment of their future both at personal and professional level.
Additionally, the conclusion has been drawn about importance of communication skills
which are also important providing individuals to put their views and points in front of
others.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baldwin, M., 2016. Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization.
Routledge.
Cottrell, S., 2017. Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Reynolds, M. and Vince, R., 2017. Organizing reflection: An introduction. In Organizing
reflection (pp. 15-28). Routledge.
Winnicott, C., 2018. DWW: a reflection. In Psycho-analytic explorations (pp. 1-18).
Routledge.
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