Competent communicators know how to translate their knowledge into communication skills—repeatable goal-directed behaviors and behavioral patterns that they routinely practice (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2002). Throughout this book, we provide you with skills you can use in all of the communication challenges you’ll face in life, so you can produce positive outcomes. To illustrate, consider two of the most important skills you’ll need in your communication toolbox: knowing when and how to use mediated communication competently, and knowing how to appropriately, effectively, and ethically interact with people whose cultural backgrounds differ from your own. As Chapter 3 discusses, using mediated communication competently means making wise choices regarding when to communicate online versus off, recognizing the three Ps of mediated communication (powerful, public, and permanent), and adapting your messages to ensure clarity. In a similar fashion, Chapter 4 will teach you intercultural competence: how to appropriately adapt your communication to other communicators, effectively balance their goals with your own, and treat them with the same dignity and respect that you want for yourself.
Of course, to use your knowledge and skills to improve your communication, you must also be motivated to do so. If you do not believe your communication needs improvement, or if you believe that competence is unimportant or no more than simple common sense, your competence will be difficult, if not impossible, to refine. But if you are strongly motivated to improve your communication, you can master the knowledge and skills necessary to develop competence.