Developing Communication Skills For Professional Success

Importance of Communication Skills in Business Management

Communication is an important aspect of business management. Every professionals need to develop proper communication skills to enjoy success at workplace mentally and financially. The assignment will first help me identify my issues in communication. Depending on it, a literature review will be conducted which will be followed by an action plan. 

The first tool that I have used is the tool that determines how well I feel when I have to make a presentation. Researchers are of the opinion that good presentation has an outstanding impact on the audience which helps in becoming successful and thereby helps developing a good rapport with the audience. Starting from sales speeches to training lectures good presentation as well as perfect public speaking skills are the secured way to many influential roles in today’s globalised business world. With the help of practice every day one can develop presentation skills. In the test that I have conducted there are 14 questions which need to be answered depending upon 5 grading .s. It starts from ‘not at all’ that is marked 1 to ‘very often’ which is marked as 5. After calculation I got the score of 49 which stands in the category of medium presentation. Score 14 to 32 shows that the presentations that I provide will be weak Scores 33 to 51 shows that my presentations will be ok and will be of average time. Score 52 to 70 shows that I provide excellent presentation. However my grade lives in the medium category and therefore I find myself to be an average presenter. The impression that I leave on the audience is neither good nor bad. It can be said to be essentially nonexistent as my message will be likely to be forgotten soon. Therefore I want to develop myself in way so that I can you provide an outstanding impact on the listeners and thereby achieve my goals.

The next tool that I have used for my self assessment of communication attribute is the nonverbal immediacy scale self report. Researchers have defined nonverbal immediacy as the behaviour as well as the signals which help in signalling positive feelings towards the other person who is engaged in the communication (Richmond, McCroskey & Johnson, 2003). The grade that I obtained in this report should be judged on the basis of gender. Here I had to fill Up 26 situations with grades from 1 to 5 . 1 States ‘never’ and 5 states ‘very often’. After calculation I got a score of 86. In case of males the score which is above 104 is considered to be High nonverbal immediacy and the score which is below 83 is considered as low nonverbal immediacy. As I had achieved 86 I was in the middle category. I have moderate nonverbal immediacy. However I am towards the lower side, therefore I have to develop my nonverbal immediacy skill so that I can make a good impact on my colleagues as well as with the other business clients hat I will be handling in the future.

Diagnostic Tools for Communication Efficiency

The third tool that I have used for assessing my communication skills helps in determining the soft skills of individuals. Management of soft skills are extremely important for an individual who dream of leading people or aspire to become a leader in the future. Soft skills also help an individual to work collaboratively within a team of professionals and help to achieve the objective successfully. There are 16 questions which are to be answered depending upon a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being ‘not at all’ and ‘very often’ been 5 .. After calculating the total marks I got a grade of 55. According to the score card it shows that score of 16 to 36 states that the individual has more technical skills than soft skills and therefore he will be not be able to develop proper relationship with others in the business world and will have a limiting growth in the career. Again 37 to 58 scores indicate that the individual tries to work well in the workplace collaboratively and is gradually developing day by day. However there is room for improvement. They should be careful that old habits do not come back in these individuals during the time of stress and tensions. So they have to properly makeup plans so that they can successfully develop proper people skills and can work effectively with other members. Score 59 to 80 shows that individual has good people skills and can properly handle Complex situations with good understanding of how to use proper skills in the right place to impress others as well as to achieve objectives. As my score is 55 it lies within the moderate level. So there is high scope for me to improve in the future so that I can walk more collaboratively with other and even do not feel pressured during the complex time. I should also make sure that my old habits do not creep into me during the time of stress and pressure.

The next tool that I have used for the assessment is called the self Perceived communication competence scale.. In this test, individuals are able to understand whether they have the ability to communicate effectively with different types of people and in different types of situations (McCroskey & Mcroskey, 1988). There are 12 situations which need to be graded between scales of one to hundred.  I got a moderate SPCC score in public, meeting, dyad, group, stranger, acquaintance as well as in friend category. After the test, i realised that I do not have a high SPCC. I do not have communication competence with either basic communication context like such as in cases of public group, meeting, dyad as well as with the receiver such as strangers, friends and acquaintances,. Therefore I believe that I have to develop my communication competence with all the groups so that I can promote myself as an expert professional and can see myself in the leading position in the future days.

Self-Assessment Tests for Communication Skills

The next tool that I have used for this assignment is called the verbal communication skills self assessment test. Here there are 20 situations which need to be graded from a scale of 1 to 7 by 1 being ‘very little’ and 7 being ‘a lot’. Here I received a score of about 110. The scoreboard says that a score between 20 and 50 shows the individual wants to work alone rather than developing interpersonal relationships. 51 and 80 shows that that the individuals have some of communication skills but other set of communication skills are absent. These individuals know their limits which is important for personal development. Score between 81 and 110 shows that the individuals are at ease with the world of interpersonal relationships. They just need to define the skills they already possess and enrich their repertoire of responses so that they can become successful .score over 110 shows that the individuals have mastery of all mediation skills. I have got the score between 81 and 110 which shows that although I am in an ease with the interpersonal relationships but there are still scopes of development. Thereby I will try to develop my non verbal skills so that I can become an expert professional.

By conducting the above 5 Diagnostic tools for communication efficiency, I realised that I have two major issues in two aspects of communication. The first issue that I faced is that I do not have proper people skills or soft skills which are important for conducting effective leadership. I do not have active listening as well as feedback giving skills. I also failed miserably in socializing with others and developing a good relationship with them. I also did not know how to motivate others by complimenting them with the positive traits and helping them with ideas to develop their negative traits into strengths. For all these reasons I could not consider myself as an effective business professional. Another issue that I also realised from the Diagnostic tool scores was that I do not have proper confidence of presenting myself in front of a group or public. I cannot talk effectively with strangers which is very much important for striking deals in business world. Therefore I have to develop my people skills as well as my presentation skills by overcoming the nervousness and lack of confidence in the future days.

I was given the responsibility of leading a group of 8 members who had newly joined the organisation. I was given the duty to lead them in the set of activities that was given to us by the higher officials. The new members were freshers and they had no idea about how to proceed with the task as I did not have active listening skills and was an inpatient listener. I always cut them short for which they became quite frustrated and never approached me. I also did not have proper feedback giving and receiving skills for which they could not understand their mistake and could not get the scope of rectifying themselves. I also did not have proper socializing skills for which I could not develop proper relationships with the employees. I could not ‘break the ice’ between each other and therefore they could not share their concerns with me. They gradually become frustrated and developed job stress which was affecting their performance. I am quiet introvert and as a result of this I also could not motivate them properly as I did not have proper communication skills. Therefore the employees had a hard time settling themselves with the task that were been given. Within a very few days they developed job stress and was on the verge of leaving the organisation. At that very time my position was taken by a senior member of the organisations who conducted a proper transformational leadership and helped them understand and align with the organisational objectives.

Personal Experience of Missed Opportunities

Another situation I also faced which made me understand, that I need to develop my presentation skills. I was to develop a presentation for clients who had been coming from Japan. Our company had the deal of selling laptops to the company for three consecutive years. Therefore it was an extremely important deal and I conducted an extensive Research and prepared an interesting presentation to impress the organisation of Japan. However on the final day, I failed miserably as I could not clearly present my speech to the Japanese officials. I fumbled continuously and as a result of this the officials got very irritated and distracted. I got nervous seeing their expressions and was feeling distressed. However I completed the presentation and was held by my seniors who conducted the rest part of his own presentation. This presentation was quite interesting for which the Japanese officials accepted our proposal. From this experience I realised that I have issues while making a presentation as I become nervous and lose my self confidence in front of a group or meeting or even strangers. This is a negative point and I need to develop this so that I can emerge out as a better business professional in my career in the future.

People skills can be defined as behavioural interactions among group of individuals and the patterns of the displayed behaviour (Robles, 2012). It is an umbrella term that encompasses three different kinds of capabilities that are interrelated, namely, intercession skills, personal effectiveness and interaction skills (Levasseur, 2012). According to research evidences people skills can be broadly defined as the area which explore how a particular individual behave with others. It also encompasses the way by which behaviour of the concerned individual is perceived by surrounding people regardless of their feelings and thinking (Chuang, 2013). Thus, effective people skills manifested by an individual of an include demonstration of empathy towards others, problem solving capabilities and display of a willingness to work in collaboration with the aim of achieving a directed vision.

Research evidences suggest that people skills illustrate the dynamics which exists between different aspects of personal ecology and their association with a plethora of personality styles expressed in wide range of environment (Drennan & Richey, 2012). The effective, spiritual physical and cognitive dimensions of personal ecology are generally elaborated by the term people skills. The skills are crucial to achieve productivity at workplace. Having excellent people skill facilitates respectful interaction with others and also assists in the development of a productive working relationship (Yukl, 2012). This in turn helps in minimising conflicts at workplace and maximizes rapport between team members. On the other hand, these skills also play an essential role in building trustworthiness towards the leaders and enhance agreeableness, thereby minimising demonstration of impulsive behaviour.

Strategies for Improving Communication Skills

Several research studies have been conducted which unanimously agree on the efficiency of a wide range of people skills for success at workplace. Findings indicate the need of skills such as building effective relationship and customer service at job postings (Ray et al., 2012). Lack of these skills, therefore result in psychological handicap among the workers. Hence, these skills help in engaging individuals to take responsibility of their work, and enhance their basic attitude, which in turn gets reflected by the level of performance in the organisation. Evidences from research findings also indicate that leaders and team members facing difficulty in demonstrating adequate people skill often manifest technical in computer and fail to hold their job (Drennan & Richey, 2012). Furthermore, demonstration of inadequate people skills among members of the top management or administration in an organisation often results in harassment and bowling of employees at the workplace (Branch, Ramsay & Barker, 2013). Search harassment issues are commonly faced due to lack of adequate motivation, communication gap and absence of empathy towards the subordinates (Batool, 2013). Hence, adequate training in interpersonal and people skills has shown positive influence in increasing the dignity and moral at work.

According to Katz’s 3 skills approach, human, technical and conceptual skills are essential for an effective administration on leadership. While technical skill focuses on specific knowledge and proficiency in the concerned field of work, human or interpersonal skill refers to proficiency, when working with people regardless of their linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Matteson, Anderson & Boyden, 2016). Evidences state that human skills are based on knowledge of the concerned individual about surrounding people, their behaviour, feelings, attitude and motives, and an effective communication with them (Yukl, 2012). Therefore, this theory states that people are human skills are essential for effectively influencing pears subordinates and superiors in order to achieve organisational goals. These skills work towards empowering a leader for influencing group members to function in collaboration to accomplish the intended objectives. Proficiency in people skill therefore refers to the fact that the leaders are well aware of their thoughts on different kinds of issues, in addition to being cognizant of thoughts of team members. It shows consistency with the skills model proposed by Mumford and his colleagues owing to the fact that it recognises motivation, personality, intelligence and perceptual processing capabilities as the major attributes required for a good leadership. It states that presence of effective personality skills help team members to cope with complex situations that arise in the organisation and improve the overall performance (Mumford, Medeiros & Partlow, 2012).

On the other hand, presentation skills refer to the qualities that are needed in order to deliver an engaging and effective presentation to a huge audience. These skills cover some specific areas such as design and structure of the presentation, body gestures and tone of voice (De Grez, Valcke & Roozen, 2012). Demonstration of excellent presentation skills creates an impression that the individual is aware of what is being addressed, which in turn helps in gaining trust of the audience and influences them to pay more attention (Germain, 2012). Maintaining a logical flow of such presentations require excellent public speaking capabilities. Research studies suggest that public speaking refers to the kind of speech that is deliberately structured with the aim of informing and entertaining a small or large group of audience (De Grez, Valcke & Roozen, 2014).

According to Lasswell’s model of communication there are 5 Essential elements that form the core of public speaking, namely, the message, communicator, audience, medium and effect. Having good presentation skills serves the purpose of transmitting accurate information and motivates people to achieve a common goal (Brentani & Reid, 2012). Thus, the art of public speaking plays an essential role during delivery of presentations and speeches. Effective public speakers are always at an advantages position to deliver the intended message in the presentation across the workplace (England et al., 2012). Furthermore, according to research findings, presence of a lacklustre speaker in a team is often responsible for making an important proposal look less than enticing. Research evidences also suggest that presence of good presentation skills in a leader can be identified by the ability of the person to speak loudly, enunciate clearly and with the use of good grammar, without verbal crutches (McDonald & Derby, 2015). Proper timing, correct facial expression, body language and vocal tone have been found to make a boring presentation come out engaging and interesting. Hence, it is necessary for the leader to construct speech that is coherent, easy to understand, and rational, while covering all the essential aspects of the presentation (Schreiber, Paul & Shibley, 2012).

According to research studies, the aforementioned presentation skills are based on the foundation of self-confidence. It refers to a sense of self-assurance and self-esteem that makes a person believe that one can bring about a difference (Mittal & Dhar, 2015). Demonstration of self-confidence helps leaders to prevent ignoring or procrastinating conflicts, and directly empowers them to present ideas to other team members (Bedwell, Fiore & Salas, 2014). Therefore, it is essential for building a positive image in the workplace. Bandura’s theory states that people demonstrating higher self-confidence and efficacy are found to seek new challenges and attribute to the overall success of a team, due to their effort and ability (Cherian & Jacob, 2013). However, people demonstrating low confidence and presentation skills often adopt avoidance behaviour, become anxious and result in failure. On the other hand, the sociometer theory states that a minimum threshold of social belonging or inclusion is imperative for reproducing and surviving with adequate self esteem that functions as a social meter (Reitz, Motti-Stefanidi & Asendorpf, 2016). This ability to determine reactions of others people facilitates maintenance of meaningful working relationship.

In addition, Monroe’s motivated sequence focuses on the technique that is required to organise persuasive speeches, which in turn inspired the audience to take action. It illustrates the importance of getting attention of the audience during a presentation with the use of shocking examples, quotations, dramatic statistical data, and a detailed story (Coombs, 2015). It states that having a sound understanding of the psychological needs of the audience helps in providing specific solutions, thereby assisting the audience to visualise the scenario. Thus, development of personal presentation and communication skills are crucial for the growth of a leader.

Action Plan:

Skill to be developed	specific	measurable	attainable	relevant	timeline
People skills or soft skill	In order to develop the skills, I need to undertake researches over the internet websites and different communication theories which will help me learn the different soft skills that I require (Thompson, 2015). I will also go through several journal papers in order to see what researchers have recommended to develop proper soft skills. I will also discuss my issues with my professors and mentors and will also take interview of business stalwarts. These will help me realise my mistakes and short comings and help me evolve as a personal.	I will regularly fix a meeting with my mentor as well to discuss over the advancements I made in my attempt. I will also request them to test my skill so that I can measure my level of success in my attempts. I will also conduct a mini interview of my colleagues where their effective feedbacks can help me measure how well I am performing	Researching over the internet and reading of journals will not cost me much. They are easy to access and I can even manage time for them according to my schedules. Therefore they are easily attainable. However, I might face problem while setting up appointments with my mentor in my busy schedule. I believe that if is make proper arrangement beforehand, I can successfully communicate with my mentor according to both of our conveniences. Therefore, these goals are attainable.	The goals are also relevant as different websites and research journals contain recommendations and also provide knowledge about how soft skills can be developed (Cortrell, 2015). Moreover, help from my mentor would act as a constant support in guiding me through proper development of the skills. So the initiatives taken are relevant	It would take four to six months for completion.
Presentation skills by developing confidence and overcoming nervousness	I will assign myself in community workshop classes on developing of communication and presentation skills. I will practice speech-giving in front of the mirror so that I can overcome self consciousness and emerge victorious. The workshops would also guide me in different ways to develop my confidence and overcome my nervousness (VanEmden & Becker, 2016).	The workshop will take tests and screenings weekly to ensure my progress.	I will visit the workshop on weekends so that I do not have to hamper my regular academic and professional life. Therefore, I will face no barriers and can easily take the classes for long hours on weekdays to overcome the barriers.	Workshops do ensure that proper skills are developed in presentation giving and large number of my colleagues has got good results (Kalelioglu, 2015).	It will take 6 months

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