Who Am I As A Competent Commuicator?

This we are asked to reflect on how we perceive ourselves as a competent communicator and how others view our abilities. To accomplish this task I used the three assessments Communication Anxiety Inventory, Verbal Aggressiveness Scale and Listening Styles Profile (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009; Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009). These assessments came as a surprise to me. For Communication Anxiety I was viewed as someone who feels comfortable communicating with others in most situations and feel confident in anticipating such encounters. The other two persons who evaluated me in this area also saw me just as how I had perceived myself. What surprised me though, I never recognized that I was so keenly observed when making presentations in group meetings. I took much of this communication thing for granted because I was exposed to making presentations from a very a very early age (as young as ten years old to be in the lime light). And I guess this exposure has influenced my communication skills. My listening skills I believe really reflect who I am. In group 2 my listening style is “Action-Oriented.” This is so true of me. My job is very time consuming and demands much observation, interviewing techniques and listening skills. All of this has to be done in a timely manner and I guess after doing this job for nearly five years I have perfected this skill. It is true that my efficiency is respected (as the job demands this) but may intimidate more sensitive listeners. The two major insights that I have gained for the past week is (1) how we perceive ourselves and (2) how others perceive us. O’Hair & Wienmann states, “your awareness and understanding of who you are –as interpreted and influenced by your thoughts , actions, abilities, values, goals and ideals is your self –concept.” I have found myself in some situations where I have to really speak to myself and tell myself that I am just as good or even better than my competitors and colleagues because I felt intimidated by the crowd. I had a supervisor that made every effort to make her subordinates feel less than who they really are. She found fault with everything and reprimanded us as if we were children. Instead of feeling sorry for myself I found strategies to overcome the challenges I faced with her. You must have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself. How others perceive us can really be a challenge and it can cause communication to be awkward. How we dress, where we live, what we drive, the social groups we find ourselves in heavily influence the way people perceive us at first sight. At work there are group of development officers that I communicate with both on a professional and personal basis. Why? I can relate to them easily because we have a so much in common. We are not fussy over the latest motor vehicle on the market, we have children in the same age group and we are currently pursuing our M.S. But there is another group of D.O’s I just can’t relate to personally because we just do not share the same concerns and values. These D.O.’s are more concerned with the latest fashion etc. They tend to judge persons by the outward appearances. You would be surprised to recognize how very simple things can affect the way we communicate with each other especially in the workplace. Reference O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., & Sypher, H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.