Who I am as a Communicator?

When completing the communication styles and skills assessments and comparing the assessments from others I found it interesting in how I thought of myself as being a bit more aggressive verbally than my evaluators.  While my assessment and the assessment of others put me in the same category as being moderate with verbal aggressiveness, my number was higher than theirs.  The moderate category describes me as being balanced in regards to being respectful and considering others' view points and arguing fairly by attacking the position and not the person .  I was actually glad that I viewed myself a tad harsher than others did.  While my number was in the moderate range it was at the high end of being moderate and the others rated me as being in the mid-range.  Therefore  I do want to be more aware of my level of aggressiveness while communicating and be on the lower end of moderate.

This week I also gained more insight about how our schemas and myopia really does shape how we judge people just by looking at them.  In turn these judgments and biases impact how we communicate with people.  It is important to remember not to  be so judgmental in order to be more effective communicators.  I also learned how uncomfortable I truly was when being asked to make determinations about someone's life by simply looking at them.  I think this will allow me to not rush to judgment when first meeting someone and will allow me to be open when communicating with people as I work to remove the biases and stereotyping. 

Communicating Among Diverse Groups

I do communicate differently with various groups of people.  Depending on the relationships and situations in which communication is taking place I interact differently with different groups.  When communicating with my family and friends I use both formal and informal language and at times the language is slang.  I have a deep knowledge of my family and friends and feel I can be more myself in expressing my thoughts and opinions.  When interacting at work I have different relationships with different people therefore my communication will vary depending on those relationships.  Many of my co-workers are friends and many co-workers are just co-workers.  With my friends that are co-workers the topics of conversation are more in depth and go beyond "shop talk" and may go into personal information.  With the co-workers that I have just a professional relationship with the topics are related to "shop talk" and may consist of general small talk but I would not go in depth with personal experiences and such.  Typically conversation with co-workers I use more formal language than informal language.   With people that I have just met I am more mindful of what to say as I do not have the relationship with them yet and will need to establish boundaries in order not to offend them.  With communicating with those that are culturally different than myself it again depends on the relationship.  I have friends that are culturally different from me and I interact with them differently than those that are culturally different from me that I do not know as well.  For me my communication is different based off of the relationship and environment verses just than being culturally different. 

Three strategies I would use to help me communicate more effectively are to put myself in the other person's shoes in order to gain perspective, put aside my own myopia in order to help me gain perspective of others, and last be an active listener.

 



 

 

Communication and Assumptions

I found this assignment to be fun as well as insightful.  The show I chose to watch was VEEP.  It is an HBO original series.  I have heard about the show but never watched it before.  I knew the main character was either the President or the Vice President of the United States but was not sure until I watched the show with the sound on.  While watching the show with the sound off I was able to determine there was some sort of crisis going on.  The characters  facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language were that of frenzy, panic, and concern.  However I was not able to determine the exact context of what the crisis was.  Also I misinterpreted some of the interactions.  Interactions that I thought were in the context of joking around were actually the characters not liking each other so the interactions were such and not meant to be a joke.  I also misinterpreted the relationships between two of the characters.  While the was sound off I thought they might have a romantic relationship going but when the sound was on I found out they were trying to build alliance to keep themselves from getting fired.  While the closeness in sitting next to each and what appeared to be whispering was true the context was incorrect, the two were plotting to save their jobs not flirting or being romantic. 

The aha moment I had was in essence that while body language, facial expressions, and gestures emphasize our verbal language, without being able to listen it is easy to draw the wrong conclusion and misinterpreted the information from body language and facial expressions alone.   You need to be able to listen in order to gain the proper context of what is happening.  This assignment really demonstrated the importance of listening and how without listening how the real context of our messages can get lost.  Listening is key to competent communication.

Competent Communication

A person that demonstrates competent communication is a co-worker of mine. Her name is Teri.  She is able to express herself as well receive information in a professional manner.  When she speaks she is not only articulate but she also exhibits confidence in how she presents herself.  When she engages in conversations she is respectful and will allow all to express their opinions. She will also ask to clarify something and not jump to conclusions.  What I most admire about her communication skills is that she has integrity.  She does not participate in the workplace gossip and actually handles such very well.  During a meeting in which our boss was being very unprofessional in regards to talking about someone's work performance without that person being present, Teri stated in a very professional and matter of fact manner she was not comfortable discussing issues without the person being present and not being able to speak for themselves.  In essence she put a stop to the gossip during that point and time.  Teri puts into practice the ethical principles of both the National Communication Association and the NAEYC.