Essentials of Communication Skill and Skill Enhancement

7Understanding Communication Performance Deficits: The Role of Ability and Motivation

The first chapter of this book left us with something of a puzzle. Recall that, from the “communication skills paradox,” even though communication skills play a vital role in our lives (e.g., careers, relationships, personal well-being), communication performance deficits are common. People routinely “mess up” in their interactions with others, and this happens in countless ways: We fumble for the “right words,” “lose our train of thought,” let our anger “get the best of us,” fail to “stand up for ourselves,” “zone out” when we should be listening, forget the punch-line to a joke, come across as arrogant when we want to seem confident, cause hurt when actually ...