The art of communication

Whether you are in marketing or sales, communication plays an important role in our jobs.  Sales managers communicate with their sales personnel by giving out instructions and sales personnel communicate back by way of their sales reports.  In addition, sales personnel communicate wth their prospects and customers in presenting their company's products or services in the best light and if such communications are not clear, the sale can be jeapordised.  Likewise, in marketing, communication also plays a vital role in the form of advertising to induce potential clients to buy.  As we also know, communication can be both verbal or non-verbal.  So what is COMMUNICATION?

Communication is a very human phenomenon and rather sophisticated reality. Only humans undertake communication of the shape and form we are now discussing.

'Communication’ is a word with a rich history. From the Latin communicare, meaning to impart, share, or make common, it entered the English language in the 14th and 15th centuries. The key root is mun- (not uni-), related to such words as ‘munificent’, ‘community’, ‘meaning’, and Gemeinschaft.

Interestingly, to listen, I believe, is the most important effort in communication. It involves communion or the sharing of some things and non-things in common. It is the foundation for community; a common sharing and caring for one another and each other.

Without listening, there is no communication; and especially between any ‘higher and lower,’ or any ‘bigger and lesser.’ True communication brings both speaker and listener to the same frame of reference, especially in meaning and feelings of caring and sharing. It is never a heady exercise, but always a heart-based one.