Communication Evaluation

I chose my fiancé Scott and a fellow Director Debbi to evaluate me.  Their evaluation concerning communication anxiety and listening were the same.  They both knew that I get extremely nervous with new people and public speaking.  I do much better one-on-one.  They also had the same results as I did with the listening assessment.  When listening to others, I am always concerned with their emotions and how they feel.  It is easy to build relationships.  The one draw back with this is that it can interfere with judgment and I am way to trusting.   However, I feel that I interrupt people way to often.  I get impatient during some conversations.  Scott and Debbi both saw me as respectful and believe that I try to influence others by using kindness.  I think that I use a good balance between respect for others while being able to debate information.

Considering the different types of relationships I have with Scott and Debbi, I was surprised at how closely the results were.  I thought one would have me as completely argumentative while the other would have me being overly nice.  Another thing that surprised me was that I thought that I was more aggressive than the assessment said.

I did gain some insights about communication this week.  The insights will affect communication in my professional and personal life.  First as educators, we will always have to participate in public speaking.  I need to develop strategies to eliminate the anxiety I feel every time I speak to adults.  Second, I think I need to improve my listening skills.  I need to slow down and let who I am speaking with finish their message before I respond.  I found this assignment very interesting.