Friday, February 1, 2013

Evaluating My Communication Skills


This week has been eye opening for me. I feel like I have learned a lot about myself as a communicator and how others’ view me as a communicator. I personally have never felt 100% confident in my communication skills. I know that is some instances my pulse raises and I find it difficult to articulately say what I would like. However this is not how others’ view my communication skills. I had a family member and a colleague both use the three evaluations provided this week and I was shocked that they both came back with scores that speak very highly of my communication. This also has shown me that even when I am nervous I am able to stay calm in the eyes of others’ and communicate intelligently.
The one result of the evaluations that was most surprising was the fact that I tend to be overly empathetic and this in return causes me to be overly trusting of others (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009). My over trust in others has been a problem for me in the past both personally and professionally. So while this was surprising it was more so that it was a case of communication deficiencies and not being gullible. I really need to remember the balance of being professional and not becoming so emotionally evolved in families lives. Trying to maintain this balance will be vital to my communication skills and looking like the professional I am in the eyes of families and colleagues.
I am excited about the goals I have set for myself and know that they will help to make me a wonderful communicator. I am optimistic for the future and my growth within the art of communication.

Reference:
Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.) (2009).
Communication research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge. "Listening Styles Profile-16" 
Copyright 2009 Taylor & Francis Group LLC Books. Used with permission from Taylor & Francis via the Copyright Clearance Center.

3 comments:

Catherine McGhee said...

Sharene,

I too learned a lot about my communication skills. The two people I had evaluate me came back with me having more confidence and less anxiety than I think I have. I hope that we can all reach our goals to be the best communicators we can be.

Catherine

Sarah Ann Rose said...

I also become too emotionally involved in families' lives. This week I learned that my communication anxiety is much worse than I thought it was and I believe it is linked very closely to being too empathetic. You are right in that keeping a profession balance is important, I'm just not sure how to achieve it.

Carmellia Nickens said...

Hello Sharene,
I wonder if most of our classmates rated high on the empathic side. It would seem that to be in tune with children we have to be able to be in touch with a very sensitive side of our selves. I guess we have all learned from our past to keep a balance when dealing with the families of those we work with. I am happy that we can learn and then move on to make things better.