Following one of my recent articles on how physicians can improve their communication skills and ultimately help attain better patient outcomes, I received an interesting comment from a physician. It went something like this: “Sorry, but I’m not an actor.”
This response typifies a small (but not insignificant) subset of responses I get when I’m discussing and promoting techniques that any doctor can utilize to better their skills in this area (I secretly also enjoy trying to engage doctors like this and convince them to see differently). And while I don’t claim to have any monopoly of eternal wisdom on this issue, I do think I’ve got a sense of people in general, and what our patients tend to respond to. The art of communication is, after all, also a science. Absolutely anybody, no matter what field you are in, can improve their communication skills and take themselves up a few notches on the ladder. All they have to do, is be motivated to do so.
Why is this important? Well, whether you are talking about doctors communicating with patients, any other professional communicating with their “clients,” or even someone who just wants to climb the career ladder — having good communication skills is the single most important life skill you can have. And seeing the returns of this, in your everyday interactions, is extremely rewarding. It not only makes you more successful in general, but also happier in your work too. At the other end of the spectrum, having suboptimal communication skills, is probably holding you back in ways you couldn’t even imagine.
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