I’ve lost my voice.
A combination of an allergic reaction to all the pollen in the air and a throat infection has silenced me. Now, I’m not looking for sympathy, it doesn’t really hurt, its just rather inconvenient. I have meetings to attend and calls to make. I’ve got classes to give this evening.

We often take things for granted in our daily lives and we talk so much that the ability to do so is one of them. However, not being able to communicate is a more common occurrence than we might at first think.

For me, it is something I see every day. The lack of language skills denies people of their voices. I live in Spain and when I first came here I couldn’t speak very much Spanish and it was a real disability. Things got better very quickly of course - very much a ‘sink or swim’ situation - but I still have moments of doubt and gaps in my knowledge that leave me frustrated at times. More than that, it is a feeling of vulnerability to an extent.

We all have a fundamental emotional need to be heard, listened to and, subsequently, understood. It’s part of what makes us human. This is just as true in our work and businesses as in our personal lives. Communication skills are therefore vital to our wellbeing and if we don’t speak the language then we had better learn - quickly.