The following essay on intercommunication will look into the two most important interpersonal skills. It will also delve into the company where this skill will suit appropriately. The final bit of this essay will delve into two pairs of activities with application to Tesco employees and have use in training the employees of the company those two important interpersonal skills.
The Skills. The first most important interpersonal skill is that of listening. This is the ability of being attentive and focusing on a person so that one can hear or understand what they are communicating. Irrespective of its vitality as a major interpersonal skill, it is the most ignored, as many people are not naturally inclined to have this skill.
It requires inner strength and commitment in order to develop it. Listening entails not only just hearing alone but also providing the necessary feedback as you listen through nodding in agreement or other facial expressions. Listening also involves an aspect of empathy where one gets into the shoe of the person who is communicating and feeling what they are feeling (Knapp, 19).
The other important interpersonal skill is the ability to communicate clearly. Communication is the ability or the means in which ideas or information is conveyed to other people in a way, which they will understand.
The channels of communication are at times cluttered with noise and to overcome this obstacles along the communication channels the ability to express oneself in clear terms is very critical. Without clear communication, one may be misunderstood. The messages communicated are likely to suffer from distortion and the message will not have the effect, which it should have (Duck, 668).
The Company. Tesco group of company is the organization, which we will look into this assignment. Tesco is the leading grocery store in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world such as Thailand, South Korea, and Singapore. It has over ten thousand employees and of these employees, three thousand work in the chain stores as attendants.
Since Tesco has many branches worldwide, our focus will be on the branches located in the United Kingdom. Most of the employees from the UK branches are from within the country. Most of the store attendants are college graduates or people who have just graduated from tertiary or midlevel colleges waiting to get into the university. Their age is between twenty to twenty five years.
The employees’ work involve welcoming customers to the store and providing the basic assistance to the shoppers such as showing them where particular products are located as well as assisting them to push the shopping around. Sometimes some of the customers who pop in there come from work tired and they may be rude or irritating when they are making their demands.
There is need therefore for this employees to listen to the demands of this customers who out to them and others who are stranded in the premises not knowing where to locate certain products in the store. It is the employees work to assist such customers.
The pair of activities. The following are the pairs of activities which the employees need to sharpen their interpersonal communication skills and enable them to interrelate well with customers through listening to them and communicating to them clearly. The first pair of activity will be in focus groups where they will hold discussions.
These discussions will provide an opportunity to build their skills of listening and providing the necessary feedback to the one who is communicating. This group discussion is a pair of activities as it involves both listening and talking. Every member will have an opportunity to talk and to listen to the others and ask questions from what others have said (Duck, 694).
This will provide a chance to engage in a close-knit activity and engage each other for mutual understanding. These group discussions provide an opportunity for expressing oneself and for ensuring that there is proper cohesion in the organization. The group discussion will enable the employees to engage and communicate clearly in formal settings.
The real activity will be mountain climbing where the members will compete in groups to climb mountains. This is a pair of activity, as it will involve talking and expressing oneself to the team-mates for assistance and careful listening to others in order to accord assistance when needed.
This will call for proper expression of oneself as well as the ability to listen to others as this will ensure that the team members communicate with each other and strive to understand what the others are saying in a situation cluttered with noise and obstacles. Skills such as use of gestures, communicating loudly and confidently, are important in this situation to ensure that there is progress (Knapp, 25).
This will enable the employees to improve their interpersonal communication with their fellow employees as well as with customers as they can express themselves clearly and understand the customer messages similarly. This will enable the attendants to identify stranded customers and approach them appropriately to offer assistance. It will also enhance teamwork within the organization because of clear communication between the employees, as they will listen to each other and communicate with each other effectively.
Conclusion
Communication is an important aspect of life and great communication skills are of great benefit to the organization as well as to the individual. Striving to improve ones interpersonal communication ability will bring success to one in many life aspects such as in one’s job and even in family. It calls for one to express oneself more clearly and to understand others with similar clarity.
Works cited
Duck, Stephen. Social and Personal Relationships Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1985. Print.
Knapp, Mark. Interpersonal Communication and Human Relationships. Boston: Allan and Bacon, 1984. Print.