Key to Success by Jenna

Key to Success by Jenna - February 2023 Scholarship Essay

Throughout life, a person experiences many different goals, from a dependent toddler asking for food, to an inter-dependent college student working toward a degree, to a store manager running a private business. Despite the range of age and time in those experiences, all include one common factor: communication.
I often hear my parents tell me: "communication is key ''. Key to what? Everything, it seems. According to vibe.us, collaborative work occupies 85% or more of a typical employee’s work week. This includes staying in touch and effectively communicating both online and in person. A lot of the world figured out the importance of communication quickly when COVID-19 began and people no longer saw each other in person. We live in a generation now that makes it so easy to text, call or email others as a group or individually with questions or information.
Pat Miller, the CEO and founder of Team Resources Inc, said that "Excellent communication doesn’t just happen naturally. It is a product of process, skill, climate, relationship and hard work.” This is important to remember when working with a team- not everyone is going to automatically know how to talk and share ideas with each other. It is something you have to build and work on over time.
Besides team communication, effective collaboration with others as an individual is crucial as well. This can range from letting your teacher know if you'll be missing school to conversing with your spouse about times to pick up your children from a practice. I have had the opportunity to participate and staff a camp for three years through Venture scouting called National Youth Leadership Training, or NYLT. At NYLT, participants were split up into a patrol of 5-6 people, switching different leadership roles each day. Taking the course my participant year taught me how to work with a team, share a vision, manage my time, delegate and communicate with others.
Then, as both a troop guide and Senior Patrol Leader my two years as a staff member, I really learned what it meant to use communication as a critical tool. I had to coordinate meal times, activities and materials to different team members, share with my team what needed to be accomplished that week, use advertising and propaganda to promote the course and, most importantly, teach new participants the same important leadership qualities I had learned. All of these things taught me how much communication can impact how youth and adults learn and enforce skills.
A large portion of inefficient communication is when people only listen to reply, and not to understand. Not to be hypocritical, because we all do it, including me. To build strong relationships with other people and lead efficient teams, everyone who plays a part needs to be taught the important skill of communication. Classes such as Speech, Theater, Model United Nations, Debate and Journalism all help with communication and teach kids or adults how to collaborate well with each other. Experiencing quarantine and online learning a couple years ago forced many people to consider how they were teaching, talking to friends and working as a team member.
Steve Jobs has said that “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” Sharing ideas, thoughts and past experiences with others has proved beneficial and is becoming more and more important for businesses, schools and the workforce each year. Therefore, I believe efficient communication, a device used every day, is the most important soft skill.