During my working experience in a few manufacturing organization over the years, I have gained one valuable lesson which made me realized why communication is so important in our daily lives. Effective communication does wonders in getting work done efficiently.
Being an assembly supervisor at a young age, I have to manage more than 90 manufacturing assemblers, technical personnel and support staffs in AT&;T Ptd. Ltd, Singapore (1987- 1994). This was my second job after graduating from WIT.
I was promoted to handle night shift operation, the first Malaysian to manage 3 assembly operation lines. 90% of my downline workers are females. The came from Malaysia, China, Thailand and South Korea.
Handful of Singaporean was in my team because their preference is to work in the day shift.
Each associate under my care had a different personality, character likes and dislikes and they came from varied cultural backgrounds; multinational and multicultural under one roof!
Can you just image the intensity of mental turmoil I went through, counselling each and everyone's personal issues in order to get them to meet production target with superior quality standards?
Here, I learned the art of communication, getting them to produce outstanding results almost all the time.
Good communication skill is an added value management art process. Many take communication skill for granted. How did I manage these associates?
Basic communication skill learned from the pages of Self- Realization, the River of Life booklet given to me by one of my college mates in 1989., but then, nothing was mentioned about communication written in this booklet, It simply provides basic answers in understanding soul nature, where it comes from, where it is heading for and what is the purpose of life?
The understanding comes from the fundamental question we all ask ourselves, Who Am I? Where do I come from?, and Where am I going?
Gurudeva mentioned that we are souls emanated from its original source, living to experience all the lives and then back to it source This source we named it as God. There is no difference between the Source(Paramathma and the light, Jivatma). All soul is essentially One but goes through different experience cycle.
I realized one important thing then, it means all of us are not different. My feelings are similar to theirs. Therefore, I must not be a leader but be part of them. This requires me to know each and every one of them personally and treat them as my extension. I showed empathy to their plights and always tried to provide solutions.
Sometimes just listen to their problems without any comment, ending with encouraging words at end of the session.
I may not able to solve all their problem, but a listening ear release their burden. Stress release while transferring their information to me.
Therefore, I knew then, listening is a key step to being a good communicator.
