Why Effective Communication Skills Are Necessary For Happiness

We’re told from middle school onward that we need to possess excellent communication skills. Yet we seldom hear why effective communication skills are necessary. We end up thinking it’s all about getting a diploma, then a job. However, we use communication in everything we say and do, and that’s why we need them to be happy.

Just about every business CEO touts great communication skills, but most CEOs need to look at their own communication. Few can tell you why great communication is essential to a well functioning business, and even fewer know how to communicate well. Effective communication goes far beyond marketing and making money, though it’s effective in both realms.

Most CEOS don’t know why effective communication skills are necessary for happiness.

CEOs unfortunately seldom go beyond the 2Ms, and their communication departments are the first place they look to cut a tight budget. That’s a huge mistake. “For a leader, communication is connection and inspiration,” says Gary Burnison in The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership. “It’s the leader’s information highway.”

In fact, few leaders know how to speak or write effectively let alone persuade. Yet few spend the time to improve their communication. Communication helps a leader explain why they’re doing something, how it’ll be done with transparency and clarity. If a leader is telling employees about how an organizational change is affecting them emotionally, it’s an added bonus that will usually lead to employee support and buy-in. Yet the reason CEOs don’t realize the benefits of communication is simple.

That’s because most people don’t know why effective communication skills are necessary for happiness.

That doesn’t have to be you. The same skills that apply in business also apply in the rest of your life. I use my journalistic interview skills in business, just as I use my business speech writing in marketing myself, and my marketing skills in family negotiations. Communication is knowledge. It encourages connection. Communication breeds action.

We can’t really know something or fully integrate a concept unless we can explain it to others. We can’t really connect if we use our own private language that no one else can understand.  Communication is the most holistic, useful, and obvious skill one can pursue.

Effective communication skills:

• earn a diploma.
• help you find your dream job.
• assist in the art of persuasion.
• increase your visibility and reach.
• make you popular at family dinner parties.
• allow you to reach a satisfactory resolution in family conflicts.
• Learning effective communication is one of the best ways to increase self-confidence.

All of these life events can make you more connected, and connection is our main road to happiness.

Effective communication skills increase our ability to be heard and understood,” says writer Shannon Terrell. When we feel understood, we feel more empowered to speak out. Communication allows us to lessen that internal dialogue or voice in our heads that tells us we aren’t good enough. Communication leads to friendship, and those who have friends are happier. Plus, the more we share ourselves through disclosure and words of affection, the more we deepen these relationships. These connections, and the gratitude they catalyze, lead to happiness. And a little joke thrown into the mix doesn’t hurt either. See? More communication.

At their very core, communication skills give us a voice and a personality, they build our relationships, and they keep them real and authentic. Communication skills are people skills.

The way we communication can enlighten, entertain, or explain, and express unique identity. The best communication goes far beyond what words can express. Sometimes a smile is what’s called for. A hug can say more than an entire sonnet. Yet it’s crucial we know when and with whom to use a hug. If the person you hug doesn’t understand what meaning is behind it, you might lose that relationship. That’s when speaking and listening come into play. We can’t find or keep friends if we don’t communicate effectively. We need to use all our communication tools–and use them well–to find the connections that will lead to our own version of happiness.

If you’re struggling to communicate with a boss, colleague, friend, or loved one, I can give you some more tips. Connect with me for an individual tip sheet to guide you toward your true self–and happiness.