Analyzing Strengths And Weaknesses Of Personal Communication Skills

Importance of Communication

Discuss about the Effective Business Communication for Organization Studies.

Communication is an integral part of an individual’s personal as well as professional life. This particular reflection highlights upon my communication skills. The essay attempts at identifying the strengths as well as shortcomings of my communication. Communication is highly critical for organizations. Immense emphasis is given to effective communication skills in professional spaces. Which is why I have attempted to analyze my communication skills, identify my shortcomings and put efforts to resolve the same. In order to do this, I have made use for five communication tool to effectively diagnose my communication abilities. Upon conducting a diagnosis through these tools, I would conduct a literature review in order to analyze various theories related to communication. The purpose of the review is to help me identify solutions for the shortcomings of my communication skills. This would also aid me in finalizing an action plan which I can adopt in order to address my weaknesses and enhance my overall communication abilities. I have demonstrated this action plan with the help of a Gantt chart for the next six month. I solemnly believe that by adopting these strategies and following through the action plan, I would be able to address my weaknesses in an efficient manner and work towards improving my communication skills. 

These five diagnostic tools that I have shortlisted have been approved by my professor. These are all renowned tools that assist in thoroughly analyzing important facets of communication. The first tool that I started with was the “Talkaholic Scale”. This scale aims to measure compulsive communication habits of individuals (Worthington, 2014). Certain people are naturally driven to talk and face immense difficulty in being quiet. This tool helps in analyzing if an individual is a compulsive talker. After answering several questions, I scored 42. The score must be between 10 and 50. A score above 40 suggested that I am a talkaholic and a compulsive communicator. After conducting the test, I reflected upon various communication encounters where I realized that I spoke way more than what was required. Therefore I realized that I need to work upon this aspect of my personality as many of my professional and personal acquaintances have also given me a similar feedback.

The next diagnostic tool that I worked upon was SPCC or Self-perceived communication competence scale. This test helped me understand twelve situations where people require to communicate. Every individual may demonstrate a different level of competency while communicating in a different situation (Wright et. al., 2013). My scores for this diagnostic tool were 83.33 for public speaking, 80 for conducting meetings, 86.66 for group communication, 93.33 for dyad communication, 80 for communicating with strangers, 85 for communicating with acquaintances and 92.5 for communicating with friends.

Diagnostic Tools Used for Analysis

I have scored a high SPCC for most of my encounters. The results depict that I am mostly comfortable while communicating with my friends and during dyad communication. My public communication skills are also fairly decent and even when I reflect back I realized that I have always depicted confidence in my public speaking encounters. My score is least for communication with strangers. I specifically fear presenting a topic to strangers. This is where my stage fear comes into the picture. I really hope to improve upon this aspect of my communication because stage presentations are highly important in professional life. 

The third diagnostic tool that I undertook Non-verbal immediacy scale-self report. This tools helps in judging an individual’s communication skills using non-verbal immediate behavior (Bodie & Jones, 2012). While using this tool, I answered 26 different questions which highlighted upon how I use non-verbal forms of communication in order to connect with people better. I scored 107 in this tool which is a high score for male individuals. This helped me understand that I use non-verbal cues to communicate with people. However, I need to ensure that I do not over-do this. Over usage of non-verbal signs like excessive usage of hands for gesturing can be deemed as irritating.

Fourth diagnostic tool for communication that I used was ‘Tolerance for disagreement’. This test helps people in the identifying the degree to which an individual can tolerate other people disagreeing with what the individual believes to be true (Lee, 2012). In professional organizations, there might be a lot of disagreements within teams and hence it is essential that individuals learn how to agree to disagree. This helps in avoiding conflicts and creating a positive work place environment. I scored 59 in this test. Scores above 46 depict a high tolerance to disagreement.

However, in my personal life I have noticed that I appreciate disagreements with individuals but these disagreements often tend to get aggressive. I enjoy disagreements and discussions but I find it difficult to agree to opinions that vary from my own. This often leads to conflicts and adversely impacts my relationships with people. Therefore I need to work upon this weakness and work towards improving my relationships with people.

The last diagnostic tool that I used to conduct an analysis of my communication skills is PRICA or Personal report of intercultural communication apprehension. This tools was built to address different apprehensions that individuals might have while communicating with people belonging to different cultures (Oommen, 2014). The test also suggests that intercultural communication apprehension is somewhat related to overall communication apprehension faced by an individual.

Talkaholic Scale Results

After responding to various situations, I realized that I do not have a strong apprehension towards any kind of intercultural communication. This is important because the increasing advent of globalization has led to the creation of diverse organizations. In such a scenario, it is essential that individuals are not apprehensive towards communicating with people coming from different cultures.

All these diagnostic tools helped me in gaining a deeper insight about my communication skills. I realized my shortcomings as well as strengths. The two key communication issues that I face in my personal as well as professional life are my lack of ability to listen or being a talkaholic and my inability to agree to different opinions of people. I need to work upon these two attributes of my communication skills. I have also realized that these two attributes largely hamper my personal as well as professional relationships. Over a period of next few months, I would work towards addressing these two issues in order to improve my communication skills.

Last year, I participated in a group discussion with my team members and a few seniors of the organization. However, at the end of the discussion when a feedback session was conducted, many people mentioned that I did not give them a chance to speak and acted selfishly. I was also urged to remain quite during the discussion and allow others to speak. This made me realize that I am a compulsive communicator and often find myself speaking a lot in situations where I should have been quite. I felt very embarrassed about this feedback and decided to address the issue on an immediate basis. I have faced similar problems in my personal interactions as well. A few of my friends have also mentioned that I tend not to listen to people effectively.

A second situation arose when I faced a disagreement with my team leader. The leader had asked us to adopt a certain strategy to approach clients but I wanted to choose a different strategy as I believed that I might be more effective. My leader tried to highlight certain problems associated with the strategy that I wanted to apply but it was difficult for me to accept that. However, he then allowed me to adopt my own strategy and in his words “learn from experience”. After two weeks itself, I realized that the strategy failed and I could not complete my target. Post which, my team leader called me and explained me that it is sometimes important to listen to other people’s opinions rather than sticking on to our opinions. The leader had been associated with the project since a longer time and had more experience in the field. Post which, I realized that I should have listened to him rather than being so closed to a different opinion.

Self-perceived Communication Competence Scale Results

This experience was a source of immense learning. IT made me realize that my tolerance to disagreement is high but I simply cannot agree to disagree. I take it as a personal responsibility to make sure that the other person understands and accepts my opinion. Which is wrong. I must at least respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

These two experiences have taught me immensely about my own communication shortcomings. While conducting this reflective analysis, I have realized that these are the two important areas that I need to work upon and improve my communication skills in order to establish and maintain long term and positive relationships within my personal and professional circle.

Communication is critical to the success of any organization. Moreover, effective communication enables individuals to build and maintain strong personal and professional relationships. The concept of apprehensions in communication was first introduced by James C. McCroskey wherein he built a model for intercultural communication apprehension. He stated that besides emotions and thoughts that play role in communication apprehensions, he focused on barriers of culture and language (Neuliep, 2014). Some scholars have also depicted that the presence of anxiety also plays a crucial role in communication. This anxiety often takes shape while giving an interview or confronting people during uncomfortable situations (Gumus et. al., 2005).

Inability to listen effectively or being a compulsive talker can become a significant problem. Compulsive talking can ruin the communication and make it impossible for others to express their emotions in a transparent manner. Talkaholics have a tendency to over communicate compulsively and consistently in an uncontrollable manner (Frisby et. al., 2014). Compulsive talking can create a negative workplace environment and often lead to a lack of transparency in communication. It is easily identifiable but difficult to fix. Results have also shown that people who are compulsive talkers are often perceived as disrespectful and misbehaving (Sidelinger & Bolen, 2015).

Agreeing to disagree can be difficult but is often the best way forward in a conversation. Conflicts are common among two communicators. However, dealing with conflict and resolving it in an effective manner is the core of ensuring a positive long term relationship. People with a low tolerance to disagreement restrict their own growth and often conflict with others (Jha & Jha, 2012). Addressing conflicts in the workplace in an effective manner is essential else it may lead to a negative workplace environment and inefficient performance by employees (Markus & Conner, 2013).

Non-verbal Immediacy Scale-self report Results

These disagreements among people may arise by the virtue of the difference in their age, generation, bringing up, ideologies, culture or perspectives. It is recommended that individuals have a higher level of tolerance towards disagreements. This is possible upon understanding that disagreements may not necessarily arise from the intention of disrespect or disagreement. It is possible that two people with the same goal and the same outlook may disagree upon something.

The most effective way to address this issue is to make sure that individuals indulge in healthy disagreements with each other. Research says that leaders often create an atmosphere of disagreement or play the devil’s advocate in order to foster improved performance and creativity by fueling an individual’s thought process (Sonnentag, 2013). By adopting this strategy, teams are encouraged to perform better and enhance their levels of innovation. People can learn immensely from disagreements. If allowed, disagreements can widen individual horizons and hence lead to overall improved performance and a motivated work culture.

In order to create high performance organization, it is imperative that individuals of the organization are put through disagreements, group discussions and stress team activities (Katzenbach & Smith, 2015). This helps in enhancing employee morale but at the same time, this helps in grounding employees and helping them learn the art of coordinating and collaborating as a team and working towards desired goals.  

Communication plays a significant role in an individual’s professional career as well. People have to communicate with people within the same team including seniors, juniors and peers (Cooren et. al., 2011). This communication within the organization is the key to establishing a positive work culture in the business. Professional communication is conducted in the form of verbal, non-verbal and written communication. All the three forms of communication are important in establishing positive and long term relationships with people. Communication skills are an important part of an individual’s interpersonal relationships as well (Quirke, 2017). Many researches clearly depict that communication apprehensions often surface among individuals while they are communicating with strangers or during any form of public speaking.

Communication is that aspect of an individual’s personality that must be worked upon since childhood years. This helps in forming a strong base and helping the child in being a confident adult. This is why various schools and colleges pay a lot of attention to improve children’s communication skills. This largely influences their interpersonal relationships, level of confidence, ability to conduct public speaking and indulge in intercultural communication (Sugai et. al., 2013). With the increasing globalization, organizations are becoming more diverse in nature. Therefore, this makes it essential for organizations to train employees for intercultural communication (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). These training lead to improved communication skills among employees. 

Tolerance for Disagreement Results

Many scholars have laid emphasis on the importance of communication in an individual’s personal life as well as their professional spaces (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). Communication is the backbone of any effective relationship that exists between two people. Individuals must put efforts in improving their communication skills in order to ensure effectiveness of their interpersonal relationships (Piller, 2017). Improved communication skills also lead to a positive work place environment. This also instills trust and transparency within the organization and improved relationships among individuals.

In order to address my communication issues, I have decided to create an action plan and work towards improving my skills. First and foremost, I need to focus on reading more books and journals associated with communication skills. This would help me consistently be aware about the right communication practices. A daily reading habit also improves communication to a great extent (Paul & Norbury, 2012).

Secondly, I would start maintaining a journal where I can log important communications with people that I have in my everyday life. I would specifically ensure that I log all the disagreements that I have with people. In fact I would also make a conscious effort to make sure that I try to learn from my disagreements and make sure that my disagreements with people do not lead to increased conflicts.

I would also be attending workshops in order to address my issue of being a compulsive talker. This workshop would be held in July 2018 and September 2018. I would also take help from my mentor, parents and friends and seek genuine feedback regarding my communication. I would also put efforts in improving my listening skills by listening to audio books and seminars where I am unable to give an opinion. I would ensure that I will read a lot of literature in order to fully understand various facets of communication that I will encounter.

Also, in order to further improve my presentation skills, I would try to deliver presentations in classroom in order to overcome my stage fear. I would prepare cue cards so that even if I get nervous, I am able to communicate to the audience by taking hints from these cards. I would increase my interactions with my friends and classmates from the university. This would help in building interpersonal relationships and increase my confidence while speaking to strangers. As a part of enhancing my intercultural communications, I would visit religious places. My father recommends that visiting religious places would assist me in understanding more about culture and will help me in respecting people from different cultures and improving my communication with them. After three months, I would also enroll myself in a foreign language course. This would help me enhance my horizon of communication and would also assist me in learning about a different culture. Learning a foreign language is the first step to understanding a new culture (Johnson, 2013). 

Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension

Gantt chart depicting action plan

I plan to follow the above mentioned action plan in order to address my communication issues and enhance my skills. Communication is highly critical for any individual and therefore I would certainly make it a point that I overcome the habit of being a compulsive communicator and that I learn to agree to disagree. This course has been extremely helpful for me and has helped me gain a deeper insight about my communication skills. From my learning of this course, I would put efforts in being a better communicator and an orator who can lead and motivate people through communication. 

References

Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Bodie, G. D., & Jones, S. M. (2012). The nature of supportive listening II: The role of verbal person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy. Western Journal of Communication, 76(3), 250-269.

Cooren, F., Kuhn, T., Cornelissen, J. P., & Clark, T. (2011). Communication, organizing and organization: An overview and introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 32(9), 1149-1170.

Frisby, B. N., Berger, E., Burchett, M., Herovic, E., & Strawser, M. G. (2014). Participation apprehensive students: The influence of face support and instructor–student rapport on classroom participation. Communication Education, 63(2), 105-123.

Gumus, M., Hamarat, B., & Dursun, M. (2005). Intercultural communication apprehension: An empirical study on ANZAC people. Journal of Administrative Sciences, 3(1), 179-193.

Johnson, K. (2013). An introduction to foreign language learning and teaching. Routledge. United Kingdom.

Jha, S., & Jha, S. (2012). Antecedents of interpersonal conflicts at workplace. Journal of management and public policy, 1(2), 75-80

Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2015). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

Lee, F. L. (2012). Does discussion with disagreement discourage all types of political participation? Survey evidence from Hong Kong. Communication Research, 39(4), 543-562.

Markus, H. R., & Conner, A. (2013). Clash! 8 cultural conflicts that make us who we are. Psychol Sci, 20(444), 6.

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts. New York: NY: McGraw-Hill.

Neuliep, J. W., & McCroskey, J. C. (2014). The development of intercultural and interethnic communication apprehension scales. Communication Research Reports, 14, 385-398

Oommen, D. (2014). The relationships among perceptions of social support, Intercultural Communication Apprehension (ICA), and conflict management preferences in the context of cultural adaptation. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 43(3), 215-237.

Paul, R., & Norbury, C. (2012). Language Disorders from Infancy Through Adolescence-E-Book: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Communicating. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural communication: A critical introduction. Edinburgh University Press.

Quirke, B. (2017). Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy into action. Routledge.

Sidelinger, R. J., & Bolen, D. M. (2015). Compulsive communication in the classroom: Is the talkaholic teacher a misbehaving instructor?. Western Journal of Communication, 79(2), 174-196.

Sonnentag, S., Unger, D., & Nägel, I. J. (2013). Workplace conflict and employee well-being: The moderating role of detachment from work during off-job time. International Journal of Conflict Management, 24(2), 166-183.

Sugai, D. Y., Deptula, P. L., Parsa, A. A., & Parsa, F. D. (2013). The importance of communication in the management of postoperative pain. Hawai’i Journal of Medicine & Public Health, 72(6), 180.

Worthington, D. L., (2014). Talkaholic Scale (Compulsive Communication Scale)(TAS). The Sourcebook of Listening Research: Methodology and Measures, 566-572.

Wright, K. B., Rosenberg, J., Egbert, N., Ploeger, N. A., Bernard, D. R., & King, S. (2013). Communication competence, social support, and depression among college students: a model of facebook and face-to-face support network influence. Journal of Health Communication, 18(1), 41-57.

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