Communications and Career Success
Communication is important for any business person or entrepreneur. Being able to effectively communicate your ideas will help you build career success. Strong communication skills will also help you present your new ideas to potential investors, and lead your new team.
Our CEO and Founder, Jessica Chen, recently hosted a Soulcast Media | LIVE event on LinkedIn where she interviewed Founder and CEO of Chesapeake Bay Candle, Yes She May, and best-selling author, Mei Xu.
They shared key tips and personal experiences on why communications is key to career success. This Soulcast Media | LIVE event is brought to you by our amazing sponsors at NeedThat™
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Learning strong communications skills is vital for anyone if they want to see their ideas flourish in a competitive marketplace.
1. Effective Communication
Have you ever been in a situation where there was a breakdown in communication? Did the breakdown in communication lead to bigger problems? Most likely the answer is yes. When there is a lack of communication or a breakdown of it — misunderstandings and mistakes are often made.
During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Mei shared a story about her work with people living in the desert. She was working with an international aid organization to give people latrines. However, the people didn’t want latrines, they wanted hand pumps. There was a lack of communication between her team and the community. This breakdown in communication left her team working on solutions the people didn’t want or need. Thankfully, Mei was able to intercede and communicate with the community to find out what their actual needs were and get them what would actually be beneficial to them.
Communication is imperative for workplace succuess and the impression. you make.
There are many reasons why it is important to learn effective communication skills:
- Communicate Your Ideas – You may have a great idea, but if you don’t know how to communicate your idea in an effective way, your idea won’t come to fruition. This means being able to effectively share an idea in a way anyone can understand. For example, let’s say you have an idea for a product that uses recycled plastic to create shoes. However, every time you try to explain your idea, no one understands how it will work. This should give you an indication of your communications skills.
- Presenting To Investors – Almost every entrepreneur will need startup capital. In order to get capital, you will need to present to a group of investors. This group of investors may hold the key to moving forward with your ideas. You must be able to effectively communicate your business idea, how it works, who it helps, and how your business will make money. For example, let’s say you are presenting a new app to a group of investors. This app gives users the ability to set up dog walkers at their own convenience. The investors want to know why users will want this convenience. The investors will also want to know how payments are processed. If you are able to stand in front of them with confidence and show them how your app works, why it is important, and how happy users are, you will be much more likely to gain their trust and have them invest with you.
Effective communication prevents miscommunications and will help you explain your ideas so everyone can understand.
2. Social Awareness And Emotional Intelligence
For career success, being attuned to societal changes, and social awareness is a big part is seeing opportunities. During the Soulcast Media | LIVE event, Mei shared her journey to entrepreneurship. She said part of the reason she became an entrepreneur was her life was on hold due to circumstances beyond her control. Some of these circumstances were changes in society. Jessica agreed and shared about how being socially aware can create big opportunities for anyone looking to be more successful in their careers.
Understanding societal changes and social dynamics are closely tied to a soft skill called Emotional Intelligence.
The more emotionally intelligent you become, the more powerful you will be at communicating.
There are several reasons why emotional intelligence is key to communication and entrepreneurship.
- Building Relationships – In order to be successful in your career, you will need to build relationships. And relationships are built on communication. For example, having an advocate is one way to help you make connections with people you don’t have access to. An advocate is someone who will pick up the phone and call an associate on your behalf. This associate could be a potential investor. Building a relationship with an advocate takes consistent communication. You have to be willing to be genuine and authentic with an advocate in order for them to help you.
- Social Awareness – Being aware of others and social dynamics can help you become a better communicator. This is because social awareness requires you to look within yourself and outside of yourself. For example, knowing how you come across to others can help you as you communicate. If you come across as cold and aloof, you will want to work on being more warm and welcoming.
- Influence – Having high emotional intelligence will help you influence others. Being able to influence a team of investors, or even a group of potential clients is important for any career. For example, the way in which you communicate can help you influence a person’s decision. Therefore, having strong communication skills and high emotional intelligence are keys to influencing.
Being socially aware and having a high emotional intelligence will help you improve your communications. Effectively communicating your ideas will help you influence potential investors and clients.
3. Growth Mindset
During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Jessica emphasized the importance of your mindset. She said a key to career success is having an opportunity mindset. What this means is keeping your eyes open for possibilities, maintaining a good attitude about your circumstances, and pivoting when necessary.
Having a growth mindset can help not only entrepreneurs but anyone who wants to move forward in their career. There are several ways you can practice a growth mindset.
- Eyes Open – You will want to always keep your eyes open. What this means is looking for new opportunities. For example, this could be keeping a pulse on potential promotions within your company or perhaps jobs outside of your company. For an entrepreneur, this could mean seeing a gap in the marketplace and figuring out why this gap hasn’t been filled. If you are always keeping your eyes open, you will be more likely to see and seize new opportunities as they come your way.
- Attitude – During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, both Jessica and Mei shared how your attitude can play a big part in your career success. Jessica emphasized how it can be easy to sulk if your circumstances aren’t perfect. She said it is okay to feel that way, but staying in a bad mindset won’t help you. Mei said entrepreneurs don’t settle, they want to do something about what they see. Having a can-do attitude can make all of the difference.
- Pivot – Sometimes your circumstances aren’t conducive to your goals. For example, let’s say you want to be promoted to the Head of Marketing at your company. However, your company just put a hiring freeze because of budget cuts. You may not be able to get promoted at your company. So, you will need to pivot. Jessica shared how it is important for you to think about what you can do to pivot yourself if the environment isn’t conducive to your goals. This means looking beyond your environment for career success. For example, you can start taking classes to learn a new skill. You may also want to consider finding a new company to work for, or as Mei has done, start your own business.
Having a growth mindset will help you find career success. Keeping your eyes open to new opportunities, having a good attitude, and knowing when to pivot are key to reaching your goals.
In the end, having strong communications skills is imperative for anyone. The more effective they are at communicating their ideas, the more career success they will find.
If you would like to see the full LIVE version of Jessica and Mei’s conversation, check out Jessica’s Youtube Channel.
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