I believe the most important skill you can have is communication. And I admit I am biased, because I make my money with communication, but think about why roles such as mine even exist in big companies. Communications is more important than ever, for businesses for sure, but also for us personally, and today I want to focus more on the power of communications for us personally, and that has more to do with my passion than with my job.
So when I was younger, my parents taught me, you know, the art of hard work. I studied, earned good grades, and everyone was happy. Yeah, I had to present every now and then at school and at university, but it was never really the core of my activities. It was more what my success depended on. Then I had to apply for a job [?] the interview processes, and I entered the working world. And I realized: it was becoming more important to convey information than to know information. So communication, the way I communicated, had a significant impact on my success. Probably all of you are right now thinking about what to do with your future lives and what to study and what to work, right? So let’s do a little thought exercise together, a time travel. 20, 25 years from now, how will your work life look like? What will you be doing? Can you imagine yourself? Will you sit at a desk? Probably not. Will you type? Probably not.
Let me give you some pointers. Some technology developments that are already becoming apparent and shaping the world we live in. Big data will optimize our decision making. Artificial intelligence in general will completely transform the way we work, because all of the accounting tasks will be taken care of machines, with the highest levels of scalability and precisions. And all manual tasks will be taken care of by robotics and automation, and even performing actual surgeries, can you imagine?
And I'm not saying, "don't study medicine" or "don't study finance." Of course not. Because wherever machines take over part of the job, there is more possibility for humans to add value in a different way.
But what is this value add? What I'm saying is that this value-add part will have a lot to do with communication, in any job. So let's stay with medicine and let me give you an example. Artificial intelligence will be able to perform the accurate diagnosis. A robotic surgeon will then perform the most precise and least invasive surgery.
And what will the human doctor be doing? She will take in the information and form a vision, a story. She will then share this story with the patient, right, and discussing options with the patient so the patient can make decisions together with the doctor. Decisions he or she can feel good about. The doctor will address fears and concerns with the highest level of empathy. In other words, the human doctor will communicate. Yes, the way we communicate will become even more impactful.
It will be more important to convey information, and to charge information with meaning, than to simply know information. You all know that. You grew up with Google and Wikipedia. Facts are easily accessible. But the question is, how do we convey it, to use the power of communication?
And, our whole economy is transforming into a service based one. If you think about it, when all manual tasks will be automated, the relationship building costs will be reserved for the humans. Which is the most... Which is, you know... The relationship building is communication, it's the most human side of communication. And the question is really, what's next? Right? We are only scratching the surface right now. Because when most of the operations are being operated, you will need strong visionary leaders that inspire these operations, that shape and oversee them. And then you will need strong communicators that share this vision and story with the communities that are impacted by it. And those two roles, those two personas: The one that share the visions and the one that communicates it, they don't have to be two separate physical people. We are moving, we are transitioning into a world where traditional values are really blurring and competencies are converging. It's really up to you what you make out of it. Your generation can work off of a white canvas. So how can we tap out of all of these possibilities? How do we use the power of communication for our selves? For you this is not a future scenario. You know that, probably. But you are communicating all of the time. Weather you talk with people or you don't. Weather you send that email or you don't. Your social media activities weather you do them or not, you are sending a message. You cannot not, communicate. You are going through your days communicating. The question is what is the vision that we form? What is the meaning that we give to things? What is the story that we tell? And how do we convey it to others? How do we enable others to make decisions? That's the question? So I think the first, the most important thing is really to become aware of it. And to communicate the purpose, because if you don't you can create outcomes in your life that you don't want. But if you start communicating purpose, your power of communication will help you to achieve the things that you want to achieve. In my work as a communications manager and a coach, I come across people so often that ask me for advice, and their concern is: How do I become more impactful? How do I position myself as a leader? And most of the time, almost 100% of the time I think their issue is that there aren't communication skills. Every successful person has superior communication skills. So my case is to use the following: We are living in a world of change at scale, and the pace of this change is unprecedented in human history. But what doesn't change is the fact that we are human. Humans with human needs. And one of these needs is meaning. And another one is connection. And both of them can be really achieved by communication. So I haven't given you any practical advice yet, on how to improve your own communication skills. And really the goal for this talk was to raise awareness and help you understand why this so important.
But If I could give you one piece of advice, the one piece of advice that I always give the leaders that I work together with, my mentees, my friends, the following advice: It's about you. Communication is not about you. We naturally start to think about ourselves when preparing a communication. What do I need to say? What do I want to say? What do I want to achieve? And I'm not saying that these things are not important. But where you can really make the difference is all the elements that focus on others. If you only start focusing on others then your communication's impact will be boosted to an entirely new level. So ask yourself the question, what do they know about the topic? The people that I'm talking to. What do they need to know? What are their aspirations, and what are their emotions connected to the topic? The last one is very is important, it links to that human side again. And it's the thing that you can learn that face to face is the easiest thing, because you can just look people in the eye and start to tune into what they feel. And think about them. Rather than yourself. So in closing, let me just stress again: Communication is about meaning, and is about connection. Both of which, are human needs. That will persist whatever the technology changes are. And if you only remember that. And focus on the purpose of your communication and start to think a little bit more about others that yourselves, then the power of communication will carry you through your life. And others. Thank you.
