Blog by Anna James

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]Before I was lucky enough to land my role at Rapid Results, I would have searched through hundreds (possibly thousands – there is no way I was going to keep count) of job descriptions. After rifling through so many of these –there is one thing that stood out. It was not the frustration that ensued (as a recent graduate) after seeing a job titled ‘ENTRY LEVEL’ and then went on to say ‘6 years’ experience required minimum’. It was not the astounding number of jobs out there for trained baristas. It was not even the hilarious ‘must have excellent typimg skills’ mistakes. It is what almost every job description/requirement I saw was asking for – someone with excellent communication skills.

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]Most of the time, I breezed over this thinking ‘well, how hard can that be? …it’s not like they’re asking for expert excel skills’ (I won’t get started on my rocky relationship with excel). Communication seemed to be such a blindingly easy task to me – how hard is it to talk to each other? Admittedly, I thought this despite a few mishaps in the past where I had played a part in poor communication. The obvious one that springs to mind came with student flatting.

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]It involved an over-flowing wheelie bin, a rubbish truck, and a lot of running. I won’t go into too much detail – but let’s just say our rubbish was always put out well on time after that. It is only since starting at Rapid Results that I have come to learn why almost every employer is seeking someone with excellent communication skills – communication in business really is everything. Luckily for me, on commencing my role I was told that open communication was one of the, if not the most important feature in this organisation – and so it has been. I cannot count the number of times I’ve said in my head ‘wow – it’s lucky we all knew that.’

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]But I won’t make you jealous with the experts in communication that work here at Rapid Results. Instead, I will enlighten you with 3 key things I have learnt about communication since I have been here;

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]1) Communication does not always necessarily mean just words. It is everything – body language, tone of voice, even a simple look you can interpret as ‘ah, I know what that means.’

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]2) If effective communication is not in place – things can fall apart very quickly. People can get angry. Clients can become unhappy or confused. Sales and profits can be lost. It’s no wonder it pops up so often on job requirements.

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]3) Everybody has a preferred method of communication. For some it’s written, others verbal. Learning someone’s preferred method of communication can do wonders for ensuring your message won’t just be sent – they will be effectively communicated. By taking the time to understand how your colleagues like to communicate, everyone will know what’s happening, how it’s getting done, and who is in charge of doing what. It may take some time, but it will be well worth it. Your business will run like a well-oiled machine!

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]In my previous naïve state of thinking communication is painfully easy, I have since learnt that it is much like any other skill – it takes practice. It will come more naturally to some people than others, but anyone can be an efficient and effective communicator with the right resources. We offer a large number of courses that have a strong focus on communication skills – coming up on March 2nd is our highly popular Lego Serious Play Workshop. This course involves great practice in communication, with no fear of even the most introverted being left out. Once the Lego comes out, everyone is keen! Creative thinking and team building skills are also utilised in the fantastic workshop – as a previous self-admitted sceptic, I took part in the course personally 3 months ago and still can’t stop raving…ask just about anyone I know.

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]It certainly hasn’t taken long for me to understand why communication is so important in business – and why it is such a high priority on many employers’ wish-lists for new employees.

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]Whoever said ‘communication is key’ sure knew what they were talking about.