Who am I as a communicator?

Blog week 4

 

Who am I as a communicator?

This week, we are assessing our levels of communication anxiety, verbal aggression and listening styles. Communication is vital and it is the key to success in all aspects of our lives. The self-assessment tests for this week are quite revealing and exciting. It involves areas that I could never have thought was important. Two other people evaluated me using the questionnaire – My husband and a professional colleague.

Communication    anxiety                          39                       39                34

Verbal Aggressive scale                         67                        60                64

Listening style                              Group 1              group 1          group 1.   

Even though they used the same questionnaire, the scores are slightly different but generally agree on some points. In communication anxiety, they agreed that my anxiety is at the mild level, which means that I feel uncomfortable in some situations but generally okay to speak.

 I have a moderate level of Verbal Aggressive Scale. I have a good balance of respecting and considering other people’s viewpoints, and arguing fairly without attacking people. As a people-oriented listener, I am empathetic and concerned with others. My listening style is very surprising as the tests revealed that I belong to group one, I am people oriented, I feel concerned about them and I build strong relationships.

The tests opened my eyes to the many aspects of communication. Same things can be said in many ways. Acquiring these skills is essential for success in the field of early childhood.

The insights I have gained include the fact that communication is a process and I need to concentrate on learning the appropriate skills to use in different situations for better results.

 I also see that other people perceive us differently. They are possibly seeing something that the speaker is not seeing. I thought that I should be in group two in the listening profile because I perceive myself as an ‘action oriented’ person but by the time we were through with the tests, I saw that my perception was different from the real me. I am people oriented; this means I even showed more empathy than I imagined and also gained insight into the fact that communication strategy should change according to the situation and the circumstances, making it easy to communicate with people at their level.

As an early childhood professional, my communication needs to improve, to care about children and their families and identify their needs and communicate appropriately to them how they may be helped.

 Making connections through effective communication is the foundation of success in any childhood program.