SOFT SKILLS

Reflective Essay- Communication Skills

NANCY
18010126257
DIV C
3rd year BBA LLB word count- 780
Reflective essay

Communication skills

If I’ve to tell honestly then, our class for soft skills is the class I’ve spoken in the most in all

my years as a student till now. Stage fear yes obviously, but also, I could never find myself

comfortable enough to speak up in front of people without the fear of being judged.

Somehow Ms. Debanki has created such an environment not just for me but for everyone

whom I’ve known to be the shy ones and quiet ones, now speak up their minds with less fear

than before, and that of course includes me. The change in our communication skills that

we’ve witnessed in the soft skills class will indeed positively reflect in our other classes too

and by bringing this up I just wanted to start my essay on not big enough but a humble thank

you note.

For me, having good communications skills has always been a difficult task and yet

something that I cannot escape. It is the key to any good relationship if talk about the

personal front, key to a good business and business relationship as in boss- employee

relationship. Talking about the boss employee relationship I remember one example/situation

discussed in our soft skills class where there was a communication gap between the boss and

the employee. The message given by the employee to the boss was not very clear and the

boss, being in a superior position didn’t want to go to the employee by himself to clarify the

message. Now in this situation either the task will be messed up or the employee will be

blamed for his incompetency to deliver the message properly. All in all, it is not good for

either of them. By this example I understood that there are many reasons for a

communication gap or not effective communication is ‘Ego’. Often times our parents do not

listen to us or does not give importance to our views and opinions because they think that the

position, they’re in as our parents, they can never be wrong and as their child it’s our blind
duty to listen to them and follow their instructions. Now every thing has an exception and

every parent is different but this the general scenario of a middle-class Indian family.

Communications is a two-way thing, there’s no doubt about that. But we usually forget the

first and the most important part of communication, listening. I brought this up in class also, a

lot of times when two people are having a conversation or when someone is telling you

something, they are often looking just for an ear. That means they don’t want a solution or to

make sense of what they’re saying, they just want you to listen and be there for them. Now

I’ve been told that I’m a good listener and people tend to trust me with their darkest secrets

and fear and at times it feels good to be trusted but also I feel obligated to keep their trust and

often knowing so much about someone makes it difficult for me to look at the person the way

I thought of them before knowing them in this way. This same skill of being a good listener

will surely help in becoming a good lawyer as the key to solve your client’s issue is that you

LISTEN to what he has to say rather than just trying to give solution.

This is another problem; most people out there just listen to respond or they just want to

conclude something out the conversation. They’re too focused on what’s right and what’s

wrong. Another thing that I’ve personally noticed is that often times and certain kind of

people, only listen to what they want to. What I mean by this is, that no matter what you say,

they’ll listen and interpret it only they way they want to. This usually happens because of pre

conceived notions about someone. This point if I remember correctly was pointed out by my

friend, shubhangi in one of our classes. So, for example if I think of someone very highly and

respect them a lot, it will be very difficult for me to accept that they can be wrong too

sometimes. And vice-versa.

What I’ve taken away from this essay and our classes till now is that communication skills

are a big part of our lives and in every sphere of it. I hope to improve mine drastically and
writing this essay has given me an insight on how far I’ve come and what more I need to

improve.