While there are many skills that are necessary for success, communication skills are among the most important. Your communication skills can make or break your career. If you are good at communicating, there is a good chance that you will quickly advance in your career. On the other hand, if you are bad at communicating then it would be difficult for you to move higher in your career.

Unlike many other skills, communications skills can be used in virtually every field. Wherever you work, you always need to communicate with others. There is no job in this world in which you don't need to communicate with other people. Whether you are a teacher, a driver, a designer, or anything else, communication is an indispensable part of what you do. The good thing about this is your effort on improving your communication skills will definitely be fruitful since you can always use those skills. Communication skills will always be relevant though you switch to new careers.

The essence of communication is to understand and be understood. It is not as simple as it sounds. There are many occasions in which people fail to understand each other even if they come from similar background. Different points of view and personalities can cause them to see things differently and therefore misunderstand each other. There are countless problems that occur from misunderstanding in the workplace. If only people work to improve their communication skills, such misunderstanding can be minimized so that they can work in a mutually beneficial way.

Misunderstanding is just one problem though. Another problem related to lack of communication skills is the inability to market yourself. In this competitive era you need to be able to market yourself. Even if you have great value, people would not notice if you can't market yourself. You need to communicate your value to other people. When you have an idea, you need to convince others about the value of your idea. When you have an opinion, you need to convince others by communicating your arguments. Communication skills play an important role here.

For the reasons above, you need to start working on your communication skills. Learn to express your thoughts in different forms. Learn to understand what other people are saying not only through their spoken words but also through their body language. Learn to understand and be understood. Just like any other investments, it takes time before you can reap the results of your effort. But it's an investment that will definitely be rewarding.

Don writes about communication skills on Personal Communication Blog. http://personalcommunicationblog.com/