Being "wordly wise" in the corporate world

[Sunitha]

Folks…this is one of my pet peeves. Something I ponder over quite often. In the corporate world, good communication skill is as important as one’s technical expertise. There is always a glass ceiling beyond which one cannot progress armed just with a sound knowledge on the subject matter.

Though I talk out of my experience in the software industry, I think this holds good in each and every field. Be it engineering or medicine or business or law! It really pains to see a colleague who has a proven technical expertise, being misjudged just because he\she is not able to put forth thoughts and ideas clearly and succinctly. Not just misjudged but also misunderstood. One need not necessarily have the gift of the gabs, but should definitely be “wordly wise”. Any solutions in mind?

[lovetowrite]

I agree with you Sunita...my cousin is a subject matter expert in Law but finds it tough to get hold with clients due to poor communication skills. Feel so bad for her . I am curious...are there any online resources that help one improve their communication skills? I could pass on the links to her. Thanks in advance.

[Lakshmi]

Sunitha & lovetowrite,

I thought I was the only one seeing this. I notices these things in new recruits today

-They are extremely good subject wise BUT their articulation skills are so poor - just about high school level - and I am talking about qualified professionals.
- They have issues with basic grammar that gets in the way of effective communication
- They have very heavy vernacular influences in the way they talk - For ex: using the word "means" in the place of the Hindi word "mathlab"
- Written communication also suffers due to bad punctuation and capitalization

I think the way to solve this is to have stricter hiring standards? let's see what others think..

[Swati]

Sunitha : There couldnt have been a more relevant topic!My heart goes out to those super talented professionals in their field of work whose career growth gets stuck due to not being able to shine through with their communication skills.One of the MOST underrated and neglected aspect of school and corporate education simultaneously, communication skills HAVE to be emphasised and propagated as if not THE most important skillset required at least one of the most important.No curriculum should be without a separate segment on it.Otherwise we will end up having a coterie of the finest engineers,doctors,scientists etc who cannot come up with a few words.

I find it especially ironical that this should be one of the most ignored aspects of our education system when it is communication alone that can salvage this world.Every relationship,every interpersonal interaction is fragile and can break down if the communication is not right.We surely dont want a situation like that,do we?

[Sunitha]

@Swati, I agree with you totally. Communication skills is one of the most neglected subjects in a curriculum, be it in school or college or the in-house training in the corporate world.

@Lovetowrite: These are just flaws one can rectify through careful introspection of one's weaknesses. There are a lot of online courses which cater to this. There are some CB courses too which you can look into. Will look around and add the links here.

@Lakshmi: Bingo! The only solution which I can see to it is hiring right. Corporate houses should also concentrate on the communication skills along with marks while recruiting. Here again, we have a helping hand from CB. Have you had a chance to look into the pre-hiring assessments that we have here? here is one such link:
Hiring and Pre-hire testing in India

[Swati]

Sunitha:The problem is at both ends-applicants and candidates who unfortunately cant groom their communication skills due to lack of good subject matter and courses as well as HR professionals who look for people with good communication skills.A classic demand-supply thing,in economics parlance!

The CB course is neat in that it offers a pre-employment assessment which the HR deptt of any organisation would love to get done for a prospective employee.Every HR orientation I have personally undergone has a frazzled HR spokesperson lamenting the existence of such tools that help to gauge communication skills.Once a weak spot is identified,its so much easier to work on it,they say.Cant disagree!

[Sunitha]

Swati: Exactly!! You have summed it all up so well. Training an associate it much easier when that one weak spot is identified. One more thing I noted about the course is that it caters to writing\communication needs of variety of fields of work. Looks like a one stop destination for the HR department of any company.

Now to view the problem from the employee or a prospective employee's point of view. How or what can a fresher do to fine tune his\her communication skills. Or to be particular the business communication skills. There doesn't seem to be any emphasis laid on this particular aspect of a student's development. I know there is a paper on business communication in english in the first year of Engineering. Beyond that the student is more or less on his own. So, for the gen-next which thrives on SMSese and the online dictionary of their hi-end mobile phones, where does the solution lie?

[Swati]

Sunitha : I am guessing-in their hi-end mobiles?The solution I mean?

Jokes apart,you know Sunitha,its worse I suppose when this communication problem begins to impact people psychologically.I know quite a few people who have even stopped pushing themselves in their organisations or for new job openings because they feel they cant express themselves.Isnt that so sad?There has to be a way out where recruiters and applicants find a happy medium through communication.

[Shabnam Shaikh CB]

A fabulous discussion out here!!! I come from an HR background & there has been several instances, where I faced this dilemma whether to reject or hire an applicant who has strong potential - subject wise but communicated poorly. Unfortunately, there's a cut-throat competetion to recruit volumes and somewhere the quality is suffering, especially where the technical hiring is concerned. Most definitely the root cause I feel is the education institutions as Swati has rightly pointed, where the focus is not enough on communication skills. The base has to be corrected & more awareness has to be created at school & college levels.

Communication skills can not be developed overnight. It has to be practiced & one must realise early that its a vital ingredient as one grows up the ladder! Such recruits with weak comm skills, must be put through rigorous internal training programs(Communication), so that it can get better if not great.

Referring to Lakshmi's point in terms of having stricter hiring guidelines. Surely, there must be certain benchmarks of considerable comm. skills but the problem is far more acute than it seems to be. Out of my experience, there were several applicants who had all the desired skills(subject-wsie), possessed excellent academic records & had great attitude...it would have been only unfair not to give them an opportunity because of weak comm skills.

[RekhaSridhar Chillibreeze]

Career Coach: Are writing skills necessary anymore? - This post echoes the discussion on this thread.