Assessment Reflections

The one piece to the evaluation that surprised me the most was the time I allot myself to truly listen to others in a professional setting tend to be limited. In my personal life I am a chatty person, however I thoroughly enjoy listening to others share their stories and experiences. In my professional life timeliness is highly important I need to ensure I take time away from other parts of my day to ensure to give others the time and respect they deserve when they communicate with me.

Reflecting on the results from the self-assessment and the assessments completed by my husband and colleague I am pleased that I am doing a good job overall professionally and personally as a communicator. I do need to learn more about the situations I have a difficult time communicating in, such as confrontational times, and learn to be more skilled and readily able to communicate in these situations. Learning the perceptions to be as positive as they were of the others allowed for me to gain confidence in my communication skills.

Professionally training employees can at times be difficult due to many reasons learning style differences, commination issues as well as other issues. Learning to remain calm when communicating with others is highly important. Active listening, being respectful and engaging in a positive manor ensures the information I need to share can be done in a manner that others understand.

Personally I like to be the positive, effective communicator is something I strive to be. Modeling for our children to respect others, engage in conversations in a positive light, and listen is highly important to me. Being able to learn how to be an effective communicator and learn a listening style to achieve these goals is great to learn to improve and adapt through situations.

Culturally Diverse Communication

I do find I communicate differently with those around me adapting to the situation as well as the gender, language barriers, and the political orientation. These three aspects I find myself accommodating most for others when communicating.

First, gender when speaking to those who are male I tend to be firmer when communicating. I work to ensure I keep verbal as well as nonverbal cues highly professional ensuring the messaging being sent is received as intended. When communication with females I tend to be more sensitive and use a more relaxed tone in my voice. I work to show a softer side, yet still highly professionally ensuring both verbal and nonverbal cues convey the same message.

Second, when the possibility of language exists I must ensure to speak slower as I tend to be more rapid with my speech when I talk. I also must remember to annunciate my words not being lazy with my English to ensure clarity in my message. We have learned in our work so far words can mean different things in other languages so clarity is important as I use my verbiage.

Third, political orientation is an important situation to be familiar with when communicating with those around us. I tend to stray from political discussions keeping preference to myself until I am aware of the political orientation the other person identifies with. I do this due to the large divide political orientation has over those in society it can alienate individuals rather rapidly for that reason I stray from sharing my own views and ideas with others.

Reflecting on the readings this week I believe being mindful of others is a very important skill to take into consideration as I communicate professionally and personally. Always keeping in mind what the other person is thinking or what their beliefs may be is important to properly engage in effective conversations. Building empathy for others is also another important idea to be mindful of. When learning about others and their situations being empathetic and not placing judgement is important to effectively communicate with those around you. Finally, embracing and engaging regularly with the Platinum rule. I live by the golden rule each day and the Platinum rule builds on and strengthens my beliefs and values professionally and personally.

Straightforward Communication

For this exercise I chose to watch the show Sinner, my husband’s current go to show I had not watched with him yet. The show has many characters with many complex relationships watching with and without volume was an interesting tell of how the characters actually interacted.

With the volume off I learned quickly the show is filled with raw emotion. Each character had a high level of anxiety and stress throughout the episode. Anger was also displayed throughout the episode through physical harm as well as facial expressions. Arms being crossed was in almost every scene by the detective and the other main character who committed the murder. When the volume was off it was difficult to tell who actually was trying to work together and who got along.

When turning on the volume I was surprised to see the strongest relationships and clearest communication was done between the detective and the suspect. I learned the man who played the husband, who I thought was possibly a brother, communicated very irrationally with each character, yet was able to control his nonverbal the best. The detective displayed many nonverbal emotions, however when the volume was on he was a very clear communicator along with the other main character.

This exercise has identified the importance of connecting your verbal and nonverbal communication skills. When sending different messages through the different communication styles messages can be unclear. Channel discrepancy was very evident throughout the show the characters had very unclear emotions as well as communication throughout (O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J., 2015, p.96). 

Reference

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J.  (2015). Real communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's