Me As A Communicator--Week 4

When doing the surveys this week I tried to be as honest as I could be so that I could learn the areas that I need improvement in.  While I am not surprised by my results there are some things that I have come to realize that need to be changed and that I can be a better communicator if I work toward those changes.  I know that my score of 54 for communication anxiety was on target.  While I do speak in groups on a regular basis and in public, I am not always comfortable but I do my best to try to appear so.  When I had one of my co-workers to complete the communication anxiety for me it revealed a score of 42/Mild and she recognized that sometimes I appear weary but it depends on what is being discussed and how I feel about discussing it.  But when I read the last line telling me about that score it said that communication is something that I don’t worry a great deal about and that couldn’t be far from the truth because people form assumptions about the way that other communicate and I would like for those assumptions to be correct.  When I got my eldest sister to do the Communication Anxiety for me it revealed a score of 51 so she feels that I communicate on a moderate level as well which is the score that I revealed from this test.  It’s good to know that my co-worker views me as a better communicator than I do myself because she knows me on a more professional level where my sister knows me on a personal level and this is the reason why I may have scored a better score with my co-worker than my sister and I know that I tend to “save face” when I am at work.  I do wish to improve my confidence so that the anxiety won’t be noticeable in my professional or personal life.

With the Listening Styles I fell in the Group 1 Category and this is the group that I fell in with my co-worker and my sister.  It is good to have empathy for others but to the point where it is interfering in my judgments isn’t good.  I have always tried to give people a chance to prove themselves that they are the person that I think they are and it almost always comes back to bite me and the has been a big hindrance on my professional career especially in the position that I hold.  I was told when coming in as a Center Director that it is a lonely place in leadership and when hold those types of positions that are sometimes how it needs to be.  Being more people-oriented as the chart suggest has it’s downfalls and can sometimes hinder judgment’s which could hinder professionals and personal relationships depending on situations.  All in all I’m glad that I fail into group one and understand that being in group one could cause a lapse in judgement and I need to ensure that this doesn’t happen.