"Poor Communication Costing Companies Millions"

If you are in any type of business that requires effective communication then you know how valuable it is for employees to communicate effectively with customers, peers, managers, and each other. If your bottom line depends strongly on the effectiveness of how well your business relates to its customers (on all levels of business activity), then you understand the significance of its worth.

Therefore, effective communication from top level executives to the ‘one on one’ customer relationship, is extremely crucial for the successful productivity and growth of the organization. As most businesses know, this equates to dollars and cents. This is why many businesses focus quite a bit of attention on this area.

It is without question that effective communication is extremely important for every successful business however, it is duly noted that poor communication cost companies a lot of money as well.

“David Grossman reported in “The Cost of Poor Communications”, that a survey of 400 companies with 100,000, employees each sited an average loss per company of $62.4 million dollars per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees” Buhler and Worden (2013).

Having said that, you would think that highly skilled and educated people in most companies know and understand this one criteria. Yet, it is no doubt that education skills have nothing to do with communicating effectively, unless it’s in the area of communication.

It was also noted “The critical problem—which you may also recognize—is that although worldwide surveys continue to confirm the importance of good communication, these same surveys consistently report that prospective and current employees are doing poorly enough to be labeled “deficient” in their communication skills” Buhler and Worden 2013.

In other words, we are good at talking about the importance of effective communication yet, we are doing a poor job at learning and implementing these vital skills. Why is this? How is it that we recognize the importance of effective communication, yet rarely practice skills that validate its worth? In my many years of counseling, I’ve learned something that I believe is a crucial to this understanding and may offer some valuable insight to this question.

One of the reasons why Americans communicate poorly is because we’re not taught how to at an early age. Sure, we are taught English, Literature, and Social Studies, but these subjects do not equate to effective communication. Still, what is also quite apparent is effective communication skills are taught in higher learning schools such as colleges and universities however, this vital subject need to be taught on the elementary level.

It is known and taught among psychologist that all kids learn the basic foundations of life from 0 to 8 years old. If this is true, then it would seem apparent to me that poor communication begins at home. If poor communication begins at home, it should be painfully obvious that effective communication starts here as well.

By the time most kids go to school, the foundation for poor communication is already established. Furthermore, since the educational opportunity to learn better communication skills is not offered until college or, at the least high school, it would seem obvious why we are struggling in this area.

If you sincerely take the time to evaluate the past experiences of your life, you can certainly recall events in a relationship(s) that occurred between you and a spouse, significant other, sibling, parent, friend or employee, that could have turned out much better if you both were communicating effectively.

How many relationships have ended poorly, or were severely damaged because of your inability to communicate effectively? You see, one of the characteristics that we Americans have is placing or misplacing blame. Interestingly enough, this is what we don’t like, blame, (condemnation) although we practice it routinely. Consequently, we write off relationships because we either blame the other person and/or minimize our own liability in the matter.

Furthermore, the problem is substantiated when we don’t learn from the damage we caused directly or indirectly because of our inability to communicate effectively. Consequently, we take or damaged souls to the next relationship/job. Most of us think outwardly, to the degree that we rarely realize that a great portion of our failure in relating to others is from our own inability to communicate our inward desires and objectives.

To make matters worse, many people never get counseling, (to say the least adequate counseling), after the end of a relationship. Whether it’s a job or significant other, we look for validation because we long for acceptance and closure. We turn to friends and loved ones for this closure, primarily because they love us.

Most friends/loved ones actually never help us mature or become better, simply because they’re focused on making us feel better. They try to comfort you by telling you how beautiful you are and that you are better than him/her or the job, and that you deserve better. They say things like, "you're smart, intelligent, you will find a better job, boyfriend, or girlfriend etc. They sincerely want to help you but…it’s usually superficial.

Don't misunderstand me, we need emotional support at times, but we also need skills to help us do better so we don't end up here again and so that we evolve into better people with successful relationships.

The companies that lose money due to communication problems could be stronger and more viable if it had better skilled people in communicating. Likewise, the couple with great communication skills could be economically more viable and stronger if they knew how to communicate better. If money is our greatest endeavor, we all could be more economically stable if we communicated effectively.

Right now, the majority of American minds are predisposed to one major objective, “how do I make more money without working so hard or so long”. For most of you, it is so pervasive that it is natural to think this way yet, you never think how unnatural it is to pursue money over effective communication. In other words, it’s sort of like breathing oxygen, you don’t think about it, but it’s evidently present all the time. Yet, you never worry about having or running out of oxygen, but we’re always thinking about how much money we need/want.

On the other hand, effective communication is like oxygen, it’s necessary because it is the impetus that propels your life upward toward higher levels of success and productivity resulting in a better income and of course better relationships.

Be different, change! Pursue learning effective communication skills and learn to be a great listener. Learn to sincerely care about what the other person is saying, not just seeking to obtain your own selfish pursuit. Which reminds me of a great book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. I strongly recommend it!

Deeply examine your own pursuits and ask yourself, If I had my way or what I want, is it better for the whole or just better for me? You see, some of us need some lifestyle changes, and no class is going to do that until you decide to make some internal changes first.

You be the catalyst that makes the difference in your relationships. First heal yourself and stop pointing the blame at others, after all, you are part of the equation. Sure, it’s easy to see other people failures and lack of skills but what part did you play in the breakdown of the relationship? You’d be surprised that if your communication skills were better you probably would have saved a great relationship.

Find workshops on communicating effectively, take them personally and do it for you, not just because the job recommended it. Teach you kids at a young age how to communicate effectively. Don’t wait till they go to high school or college, believe it or not you can teach them early as 5 years old.

Businesses have lost enormous amounts of money as a result of poor communication skills and relationships are failing due the same problem. Effective communication is vital and necessary for financial success in both business and personal relationships. Effective communication should be taught early as childhood and continued throughout adulthood. Change is necessary for the success of any endeavor. You be the impetus for change learn great effective communication skills and success and wealth shall follow you all the days of your life.