Having reviewed my first post, I realise that I have new insights to add on, now that I have gone through the process of improving my communication skills.
Three months of learning about professional communication has been an eventful albeit uptight learning journey. This module is relatively low on textbook or written content but can offer one a steep learning curve on soft skills.
Firstly, I found out that good communication skills alone are insufficient in professional communication. It should come with wise and effective decision making skills. The combination of both will probably yield the best result in professional communication in a workplace or in school. Good decision-making skills facilitates good communication because when a decision is made to do something, one will have a clear focus of what is to be done, so that a clear and logical description of what is to be done can be effectively relayed to other parties. Basically, a confused person, who does not know where he is headed towards, will not be able to find his direction, let alone lead others.
Secondly, I have come to appreciate face-to-face meetings with my project group mates; because I felt that completing the project together in the computer laboratory was the most efficient way of finishing our tasks. I am glad to have time-conscious group mates who make an effort to meet up despite pressing Final Year Project (FYP) deadlines. Moreover, during meet-ups, ideas can be exchanged more fluently and quickly, and the mood of discussion can be adjusted accordingly to facial expressions, body language and tones. For example, if you sense urgency in someone’s manners, you should quickly aid your friend in the task he is doing or change your tone to calm him down. Meetings also reduce misunderstandings that can take place during text message or email exchanges, which are more likely to be short and curt, thus are insufficient to fully express one’s ideas or concerns.
Thirdly, I realised that different expectations of a project can result in conflict and inefficiency. Due to our different priorities, my group mates and I have different expectations of the project. In fact, there was constantly a tug-of-war within me on whether to delegate workload fairly without consideration for the FYPs my 2 other group mates were doing. Fortunately, effective communication with my group mates by expressing my feelings and concerns definitely helped to straighten things out. Eventually, we all had to make sacrifices, be it family time or FYP time to complete our project.
Likewise, even though work places do emphasize on a common goal or motto, it is not possible to impose the company’s values on all employees. Some will put their families as top priority while some will put career as their top priority, so how do people of different priorities work together? Maybe the boss of a particular company will have the foresight to allocate important projects to only career-driven employees, if not, a lot of effective communication will be needed.
Fourthly, all the letter writing skills picked up from this module will be very useful. I can apply them to emails and letters to my professors, corporate companies when applying for jobs and internships and organisations when doing a project. There are many minute details in the letter format which I failed to notice prior to taking this module, for example the alignment of the content and the punctuations.
Lastly, I have never felt that it was a burden to participate in this class, because there’s always subjectivity in the content and no definite answers to how professional communication can be carried out. Therefore, classes were enjoyable, especially with interesting and spontaneous inputs from my fellow classmates that are encouraged by an approachable teacher. In fact, I was often surprised by the various insights about cross-cultural communication shared by my classmates. As a result, their opinions have broadened my view of things.
I do appreciate these rare opportunities of learning from the experiences that others have to offer. Thank you for reading about my experiences too!
Three months of learning about professional communication has been an eventful albeit uptight learning journey. This module is relatively low on textbook or written content but can offer one a steep learning curve on soft skills.
Firstly, I found out that good communication skills alone are insufficient in professional communication. It should come with wise and effective decision making skills. The combination of both will probably yield the best result in professional communication in a workplace or in school. Good decision-making skills facilitates good communication because when a decision is made to do something, one will have a clear focus of what is to be done, so that a clear and logical description of what is to be done can be effectively relayed to other parties. Basically, a confused person, who does not know where he is headed towards, will not be able to find his direction, let alone lead others.
Secondly, I have come to appreciate face-to-face meetings with my project group mates; because I felt that completing the project together in the computer laboratory was the most efficient way of finishing our tasks. I am glad to have time-conscious group mates who make an effort to meet up despite pressing Final Year Project (FYP) deadlines. Moreover, during meet-ups, ideas can be exchanged more fluently and quickly, and the mood of discussion can be adjusted accordingly to facial expressions, body language and tones. For example, if you sense urgency in someone’s manners, you should quickly aid your friend in the task he is doing or change your tone to calm him down. Meetings also reduce misunderstandings that can take place during text message or email exchanges, which are more likely to be short and curt, thus are insufficient to fully express one’s ideas or concerns.
Thirdly, I realised that different expectations of a project can result in conflict and inefficiency. Due to our different priorities, my group mates and I have different expectations of the project. In fact, there was constantly a tug-of-war within me on whether to delegate workload fairly without consideration for the FYPs my 2 other group mates were doing. Fortunately, effective communication with my group mates by expressing my feelings and concerns definitely helped to straighten things out. Eventually, we all had to make sacrifices, be it family time or FYP time to complete our project.
Likewise, even though work places do emphasize on a common goal or motto, it is not possible to impose the company’s values on all employees. Some will put their families as top priority while some will put career as their top priority, so how do people of different priorities work together? Maybe the boss of a particular company will have the foresight to allocate important projects to only career-driven employees, if not, a lot of effective communication will be needed.
Fourthly, all the letter writing skills picked up from this module will be very useful. I can apply them to emails and letters to my professors, corporate companies when applying for jobs and internships and organisations when doing a project. There are many minute details in the letter format which I failed to notice prior to taking this module, for example the alignment of the content and the punctuations.
Lastly, I have never felt that it was a burden to participate in this class, because there’s always subjectivity in the content and no definite answers to how professional communication can be carried out. Therefore, classes were enjoyable, especially with interesting and spontaneous inputs from my fellow classmates that are encouraged by an approachable teacher. In fact, I was often surprised by the various insights about cross-cultural communication shared by my classmates. As a result, their opinions have broadened my view of things.
I do appreciate these rare opportunities of learning from the experiences that others have to offer. Thank you for reading about my experiences too!
