Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Why effective communication skills are important to me!

During my course of internship as a sales intern at Lucenta technology during the 3 months vacation I realized how important communication skills are. To be honest, I don’t find myself to be afraid of approaching someone or starting a conversation. Nevertheless I realized there is more to communication then just being confident and not afraid of speaking.

During my internship I met with many clients, gave many presentations. During these presentation/meetings I was very comfortable to be standing in front of a number of staffs and executives and convey my message clearly. Hence I was well appreciated for being a good speaker. However, this was not the case of the first impression I gave my supervisor.

The internship itself was a very different experience. Firstly, the working environment and the people were very different to those I meet in school or my family and friends. Hence when it came to communicating with the staff, I was rather hesitant and afraid of offending them or saying something wrong.

On my first day, I started off being as formal as possible and talked little. As the days went by my supervisor was under the impression I was a rather quite person… However when I started my meetings with my clients and presentations my supervisor was rather taken aback… and he said to me I was like a mouse that suddenly went boom (I don’t remember the exact phrase)… But what he really meant was that my first impression was that of a person who was very quite and shy. But when he saw how I did my presentations and led my meetings he realized that his impression of me was very wrong. I believe this was because of the wrong image I portrayed during the first few days of my internship. This could have been due to my lack of knowledge on how to communicate and behave in different environments. This case of an office environment is just an example, there are bound to be many other scenarios. Hence it is very important to understand the different modes of communication and how to communicate with different people. This is the reason why I have taken this module and why effective communication is important to me.

Cheerios:D
Keerth

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Keerrthanaa,

    I like the way that you make use of a single event (in this case, your internship) to showcase the opposing effects between poor and effective communication. Indeed, as you have shown, how you interact with people will have a big impact on their judgement about you. I feel that your post is very original and heartfelt as you are writing from personal experience.

    I hope that it will be alright if I just point out one minor spelling mistake. It should be spelt as quiet. I also feel that this part “However when I started my meetings with my clients and presentations my supervisor was rather taken aback..” is not very clear. This is because I am not quite sure what to make of the “presentations”. Perhaps it would be better to simply omit it and write “However when I started my meetings with the clients, my supervisor was rather taken aback..”

    Cheers and let’s continue to work hard and learn from this course!

    Regards
    Russell

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Keerth,

    I agree that communication is more than just being confident and not afraid of speaking. Communication is about understanding your audience and knowing what to say and most importantly the way to say it.

    With regard to your supervisor's first impression on you, I believe everyone of us has a different self in the eyes of different people due to the closeness, hierarchy, relationship, past experiences with them, etc. However, I prefer to behave humbly and speak minimal yet sufficient when I come to a new environment. I will observe how do people communicate and their preferred style before I make decision to how I would present myself.

    I am happy to be able to share with you some thoughts of mine. See you in class tomorrow! =)

    Regards,
    Jason

    ReplyDelete
  4. Heyas Keerth!

    Unfair as it is, first impressions do last. Sometimes it takes a lot to change that, if you've given an impression that was wildly off-base. But I guess most people realize that it's not prudent to judge a book by its cover, so to speak.

    However, I don' think there's anything wrong with being seen as quiet and shy, even if you're not necessarily so. If you delivered results and gave good presentations (which you did), then you'll be lauded (which you were). All in all I'm glad things worked out for you at that internship.

    A minor nitpick though, you used 'quite' instead of 'quiet.' That aside, a "mouse that suddenly went boom" made me laugh.

    See you in class tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi everyone, thanks for your comments. It was a silly mistake from my part - 'quiet' not 'quite'.

    Russell: thanks for your comments. Next time I will take note to write in a more clear and concise way =)

    Jason: thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s interesting to know that you would wait and see how others react before speaking up.

    ReplyDelete