We all communicate with each other on a daily basis. The amount of communicating we engage in and the fact that we do with lots of diverse people can make our communication difficulty and complicated, hence ending up creating barriers in one’s interpersonal communications. It is thus important to note that effective communication is a vital perquisite for the attainable of any great relationship. No business or group can flourish without good communication. My experience at D&S Community Services program made me understand better on the subject matter.
Working with the community has always been one of my passions since I was young. Last summer I had the opportunity to work with D&S Community Services program. This was my first volunteer experience with the agency. For me working with the community helped me to improve all aspects of my life . Through my services, I had the opportunity to develop my communication proficiency not just theoretically but also practically, encountering real life experiences with the clients. I had a lot of contact with the clients with various needs, who needed my assistance and guidance.
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My volunteer experience made me realize the importance of having effective communication skills which are crucial in the delivery of services in a diverse community. I found that sometimes clients can be frustrated and inpatient when you do not understand what they really want and I was sure that with the diverse community, I would come across clients with strong accents that will make it difficult for me to understand their message clearly. Furthermore, some clients were not able to communicate freely with me. Therefore, to identify what they want, I had to be able to read both the verbal and non-verbal communication. This aspect was essential as it helped me build a rapport with the community members.
From my experience, I also learned that effective communication creates a stronger relationship between the community and the workers. The experiences were also a good boost to my mental health, not to mention the good rapport that I created with the community members. It feels great when one is able to communicate their intentions and thoughts effectively ( Babatunde, 2015) . My working at the agency helped me build my confidence in communicating my thoughts and intentions effectively without fear or doubt. As a result, I have a better hope of getting a good job that will lead to a successful career. Since my passion is working with the community, communication will help me express myself more freely and eloquently.
Communication helps one build stronger and lasting relationship with people. At D&S Community Services program, I met interesting people whom we have become great friends since then. With constant communication, we have been able to keep in touch with each other despite the long distance ( Upchurch , 2018) . People have a tendency to grow accustomed to one type of lifestyle. Effective communication has helped me to find a balance between celebrating or discriminating a particular individuality in life. I am able to uniquely express what I want as well as understand what others need. Therefore, thanks to effective communication, I am able to understand and relate to other people better than before.
Working the agency also granted me an opportunity to interact with key stakeholders and donors at the agency. Through effective communication, I was able to share my ideas with them. On the same note, I was able to persuade the community to adopt my ideas of seeking alternative ways of tackling their arising problems. With constant communication through community meetings, we came up with tailor-made solutions to the identified community issues such as expensive housing among others.
. Conflicts can arise from small actions and cause a great destruction among the community. Notably, effective communication is essential for conflict resolution Working with the community has helped me manage conflict through creating a communication bridge between the two conflicting bridge. From my experience, I believe conflict arises as a result of poor communication or better still misunderstanding, which can be resolved through effective communication. Thus as a person, I no longer run away or dread conflicts or arguments anymore, I simply work them out through effective communication.
Babatunde (2015) explains that communication has vital effect on the workgroups that are in the organization as it is a channel where information, policies and even resources flow. At D&S, I realized that the workers were able to work better and faster. This observation was brought about by the fact that we were given clear information that prevented any chances of miscommunication or misinterpretation of the information provided. Due to the provision of clear details, we were able to prioritize our work in order to deliver work that is as per the expectations of the community and the organization. With the help of effective communication, we were able to minimize misunderstandings that can be time-wasting.
We are in an era where people are digitalized and thus, can easily get lost in their own world provided they have a screen to facilitate working towards our personal goals ( Upchurch , 2018). Due to digitization, people have resigned to working through their devices than working directly with other people. As a result, social skills have reduced. I experienced this challenge when I first started working with the community. However, I learned how to create pleasant relationships with my colleagues at work through effective communication. I became more comfortable and able to communicate clearly with the other people I was working with which in turn boosted my social interaction skills. At the workplace, people were easier to work with and our supervisors were more understanding because we were able to express our concerns clearly. As a result, I was able to overcome all the communication barriers I previously had.
Our work involved working with diverse people in terms of gender, race, faiths and ethnicities. Therefore, the relationship formed was delicate as it was easy to offend another person unintentionally because of the words and phrases one used. However, I came to understand that the ability to communicate effectively reduces these instances, as we were able to identify and understand the variations that exist in the diverse community we were working with.
Effective communication helped promote motivation and enthusiasm among the employees in D&S Community Service organization. Doucette (2018) explains that effective communication strategies foster a sense of identification between the employees and the organization. This statement is true as we were all motivated to work with the organization and nurture its beliefs and vision. We all worked hard to achieve the mission and future of D&S Community Service organization. Personally, I made sure that I presented myself in a way that communicated the image of the organization
All in all, with the digital revolution becoming an integrated aspect of our lives, we need to identify and relate with the human aspect of our professional lives. Factors such as empathy, creativity as well as how we communicate with others are important when working with the community. These factors can be brought out fully through effective communication between the the employees and the community. Despite being beneficial in the smooth running of the organization, effective communication is essential in understanding and relating to the community. At D&S, the employees had improved sense of motivation and worked efficiently due to receiving clear information that helped us to prioritize our work as well we as identify the goals. As for the community, effective communication helped them to express their concerns in a way that we were able to understand and effectively address the concerns. Personally, effective communication helped me to build stronger and lasting relationship with people, conflict resolution as well as persuasion techniques. My passion for working with the community has been heightened due to the development of effective communication skills such as being a keener listener and being observant of non-verbal cues.
References
Babatunde, O. (2015). Importance of Effective Communication in Public Organisations. Issues in Social Science , 3 (2), 78. doi:10.5296/iss.v3i2.8596
Doucette, C. (2018, October 25). Advantages of Effective Communication at the Workplace. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/info-10041931-advantages-effective-communication-workplace.html
Upchurch, D. (2018, February 8). How to better communicate with your community. Retrieved from https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/features/how-better-communicate-your-community
