Friday, January 11, 2013

Competent Communication


Dana has been a long time friend of mine. We met when she volunteered to help with a not for profit I was working with at that time. Dana has always impressed me with her communication skills. She is relaxed, confident, and very well spoken. She has this inner strength that seems to come through in any situation that she needs to be herd or understood. It is hard to put into words how articulate and confident she is in the material she communicates. Dana is a middle school teacher and I have seen her communication skills in action during conferences, parent meetings, taking to co-workers. She is also on the board of her HOA (home owners association), the local little league board, and an event coordinator for Smile At Miracles. For me Dana is the definition of competent communication in a variety of contexts.
            I am constantly wishing I possessed her communication skills and with that the confidence. Her confidence is something to marvel over. She is never scared to try or to make a mistake as she see that as a time to learn. I, on the other hand, am terrified to look unintelligent or to fall on my face. I know that as time has passed I have learned form her and watched her body language. The simple changes I have made have helped me to improve my communication over all. I am still just lacking in the confidence. There is always something to work on and improve in ones self. I guess this is one of mine.    

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, I think we all have our own strengths in communication. I believe that the hardest part of communication for me is learning to speak rather than react because I am passionate about something. This I have found is much easier to do in a professional setting then at home with family and close friends. Identifying our strengths and weaknesses surrounding communication is the quickest way to begin work on where we want to grow.

teacherspet said...

Sharene,
Effective communication is difficult on good days for me! There always seems to be something I could have said differently for different results. I am really looking forward to learning how to be effective in this class so I can become more confident!
Thanks for sharing you story!
Deb

Catherine McGhee said...

Sharene,

Glad to be in class with you again! I agree with Crystal I think we all have our own strengths in communication. I have a hard time speaking professionally, but if I am with parents or among friends I have more confidence, not sure why this is. Maybe I will discover why in this course. I want to grow as a communicator and have that confidence I see in others.

Catherine

Sheila Lee said...

Sharene,

I can definitely relate to what you said about the fear of sounding unintelligent or incompetent in any situation. When you have a friend like the one described it is good to stick close to her and lesrn and all you canabout professional communication.