Effective communication promotes a sense of trust at its core. Conveying words, facial expressions and hand gestures ineffectively can destroy home and work relationships. Leaving out details in your communication, forgetting to communicate important information and not listening actively prevent you from being able to properly communicate in a way that is essential for sustaining a relationship.

Whether it occurs on a farmer’s cornfield or in the high-rise office cubicle of a New York City financial firm, poor communication can contribute to tension and overall financial failure at work. This happens when colleagues start to feel reticent about sharing information with each other or the boss does not receive the information he needs from his subordinates to be able to fulfill his role. An order of fertilizer, for example, might not get shipped on time because an email to order did not get sent when it was supposed to. Poor communication in a work environment can disrupt the structure of a workplace and cause strained employee relations, lower productivity and diminished problem-solving capacity.

Communication is the glue that holds marriages together. Regardless of what causes communication breakdowns in a marriage, they can cause rifts between partners that are hard to fix. Poor communication can create a sense of dissatisfaction, confusion, restlessness and fear between partners. It can also lead both partners to wonder if the other person is being faithful or whether he might have found someone else. Failing to communicate on a regular basis at the very least can cause people in a committed relationship to feel less connected to one another. It is not as important for married people to always agree with one another as it is for each partner to express himself clearly and try his best to listen deeply to, and understand, the other person.

Not communicating properly or failing to communicate enough with your children can cause your bond with your children to diminish. Without having regular, open channels of communication with parents, children can feel as though they are lacking guidance and support in their lives, which can lead to them developing low self-esteem and not having a sense of direction or purpose in life. Poor communication with children can also lead to your children getting into dangerous activities like drinking alcohol, doing drugs, having unprotected sex and unhealthy relationships.