Similarities and Differences in Communicating
According to the evaluations of myself
by me and others, I am an effective communicator. I communicate in a candid and
straightforward manner with respect for others. One of my strengths is my use
of sincerity and effective communication with staff and family. I have the
ability to connect with someone. I am a competent communicator. Competent
communication, by contrast, is more concerned with process, which measures the
success of communication by considering the methods by which an outcome is
accomplished (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012 p.14).
One thing that surprised me the most
from this evaluation is that because of different personalities, cultural
differences or past experiences, what one person intends to communicate may be
differently perceived by another. This week I learned that when we listen
effectively we gain information that is valuable to understanding the problem
as the other person sees it. We gain a greater understanding of the other
person’s perception. Communication helps us to understand a person or
situation, resolves differences, build trust, and problem solve. Communication
is only successful when both the sender and receivers understand the same
information. Communication is a two-way street. We must listen and look for
feedback and clues of comprehension.
Reference
O’Hair,
D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real
communication: An introduction. New York:
Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Robbie,
ReplyDeleteListening is certainly an important part of communicating. Sometimes I take that for granted. This exercise helped me be more aware of how others view me when I interact with them .
Judi
Robbie,
ReplyDeleteYour saying that the same messages are perceived differently by people with different backgrounds reminded me of a story about my friend. She is Japanese and she came to live in the US temporarily a year ago. She was upset about how people here kept asking how old her son was. She felt that she was being accused of letting her son do something age-inappropriate. This is because people in Japan usually either ask about the child’s name or talk about something else about children without asking names as a way to start a conversation. People do not ask child’s age to start conversations, it is just not part of the way strangers talk with one another. Since I’ve lived in the US long enough to know people often ask child’s age to start conversations and it is probably because age is not as personal as child’s name, this experience was interesting.