Analyzing And Improving Communication Skills

Diagnostic Tools for Measuring Communication Skills

Discuss about the Outcomes Of Clinical Simulation For Novice Nursing Students.

Human is the social animal and lives in a society where the individual needs to communicate and make interactions with each other. Thus, communication is considered as the most integral part of human life. Every individual have their set of skills in them and communication skill is one of those skills that needs to be developed with time. As and when the individual gets the exposure in the society, he or she learns to communicate with other people. There are certainly many diagnostic tools that can be used to check or measure these communication skills. These tools are requires so that the individual can judge his own weaknesses and can improve his communication skills in that particular weak area (Kurtz, Draper & Silverman, 2016). Some of the diagnostic tools that are being explained in this easy are SPCC that is called as Self Perceived Communication Competence, Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension also known as PRICA, another one is Talkaholic Scale along with NISS that is Non verbal Immediacy Scale and the last one is tolerance for disagreement. The essay below describes these diagnostic tools and also provides the action plan to make the improvements in the skills.

I have used many tools for analyzing and measuring my strengths and weaknesses in terms of communication. I have tested my communication skills so that I can work upon my weaknesses to make the improvements in the same. The first tool that I have applied is SPCC that is Self perceived communication competence scale. This is the tool that helps in analyzing the communication skills of the people in different situations (Nimbalkar, et al. 2018). This is because it is not necessary that if the person is good in communicating me one situation would be good in another situation. When I have implied this tool and scored myself, it has been realized by me that I have scored above 70% in the entire situation and scored 95% in communicating with my friends and small groups. This suggests that I have the competency to communicate well but the mediocre scores in others action left me with the chances of improvements.

Communication is not limited to the group or individual communication between the people from same culture. The world is becoming multicultural and thus the individuals have to make intercultural communication as well. Communication is very easy when the people who are communicating with each other belong to the same culture. This is because their level of understanding and perception about the things are very similar (Bambini, Washburn & Perkins, 2009). Issues developed when the people from different cultures communicate with each other. This gives rise to intercultural communication which is very common these days and advancement in the technology have fueled these types of communication. Another tool that has been used by me that is Personal report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension is the tool that aids the individual to judge his own anxiety and fear at the time of making intercultural communication. This tool comprises of 14 statement on which the individual needs to be scored. That scoring decides the intercultural communication skills of the person. As far as my scoring is considered, it has been analyzed that I have scored 36. As per the tool results, scores below 32 are considered as the low intercultural communication apprehensions while the score above 52 is considered as high intercultural communication apprehension. As suggested that is scored 36 that mean that I am in the middle of the range. As 36 are close to 32 thus, it has been realized that I am not good enough to communicate with other culture’s people and this is the skill that I should focus upon. It has been clearly suggested that I find it difficult to interact with the people who are not for my culture and this weakness may affect by future in negative way.

Using Diagnostic Tools to Analyze Communication Skills

As I have used the above two tools and gain the knowledge about my own personality, my interest developed more towards this study and I used one more tool to judge my non verbal skills. NISS is the tool that so generally being used to test the non verbal communication of the individuals. This is the tool that that involves wide variety of statements on which the scoring is to be done and thus it is has more validity than other tools. It is required to judge non verbal communication also because it is not just the words that form the communication or make the conversation healthy but non verbal gestures are equally important for the successful communication (Mavridis, 2015). As per the rules of the tool, the people or the males with 112 or more scores have high immediacy of non verbal communication and people with less than 92 have low immediacy for nonverbal communication. It has been realized that I have scored 93 which is very poor score and thus I realized that I have to develop myself in this area of communication. I have the confidence to speak but my gestures are not strong and I do not have the immediacy for the non verbal communication. It is a very famous saying that action speaks more than words and thus gestures have their equal importance in a conversation as of words. it is very much required by me to brush up my skills and develop a sense of showing positive gestures in a conversation to make it more powerful in nature. Eye contact, moving hands while speaking, etc. are some of the gestures that show confidence.  there are gestures that may turned into a negative meaning and thus the knowledge of showing the gestures at right time and at right place is also very important.

The next tool that I have used is Talkaholic tool. This is the tool that determines the ability of the person to talk. A talkative person is the one who talks within listening to other Person’s response and this is not considered as the healthy communication. The person who talks so much are not considered as talkative but the talkative person is the one who says the things that are not required or the person does want to listen to those things. It is not about how much a person talks but it is about what he speaks and how he speaks. When in any of the conversation, a person is talking more but is giving a meaningful content to the group then that conversation is also meaningless and the person is considered as talkative. As per the results of the test I scored 26 which is less than 30. This means that I am not a talkative person. I can talk but I know what to talk and where to talk. Thus, here I can rate myself good.  As per my scoring indifferent sections, I realized that I know where should I stop and how much I should speak. Thus most of the people like to talk to me and listen about what I say. I have a very friendly person and love to talk but I shut my mouth immediately when I realize that it is not required by me to speak as much. before this test, I used to have a thinking in my mind that I am talkative just because I talk so much but after this test I realized that I speak as and when required and I have the idea that where should I speak and where should I stop.

Identified Weaknesses in Communication Skills

The last tool that I have used is tolerance for disagreement. This is the tool that has been designed to measure the degree to which the person can tolerate the disagreeing behavior of the other people. The people who have high scores in the segment have high tolerance towards disagreement and the people with low score in the segment have low tolerance towards the disagreement. As per my scoring, I have scored 53. This is the score that is above 46 which means that I have very high tolerance towards disagreement. I am very proud that I have the capability to tolerate the people who are against me. I think this is the skill that helps the individuals to learn and to know about their own weaknesses. This is the major skill that a person should have because if the person does not have the patience to listen to what the other person is saying the it would be very difficult for that person to learn new things. Even if the other person is speaking in against but it should be heard patiently and the view of the other person should also be respected.

As per the all the tests and their results, it has been identified that I have two weaknesses; the first one is that I lack the skills of non verbal communication. My gestures are not that much string and thus this makes my conversation weak and non effective at times. Another major weakness that has been identified by the tests is about intercultural communication. I failed in communicating properly with the people who are not from my culture. Communication can be defined as the most important part of life and this communication is becoming easier because of the advancement in the technology. In today’s era along with the technical knowledge, communication skills are also one of the criteria to judge the people for any position in the companies (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). The diagnostic tools that are studied in the above section are designed in order to analyze the individual’s communication skills so that improvements can be made in the same. As per my results for the above 5 diagnostic tools, I have realized that I am lacking in two of the most important areas of communication that are intercultural communication and non verbal immediacy. Thus, I have to develop myself in these areas.

Intercultural communication is about the interaction of two people who have different beliefs and values (Baraldi, 2017). This is because difference in beliefs and values changes the perception of the people towards the situations and this can develop a sort of misunderstanding and conflicts between the people. It has been identified that the world is becoming a single market and the people from different cultures and background are coming on the same grounds and interacting with each other for different purposes whether it be business or job.

Improvement Plan for Intercultural Communication and Nonverbal Communication Skills

In simple terms intercultural communication is about the interaction of the people between the different cultures (Chaloupka-Risser & Füssl, 2017). For making the intercultural interaction, it is required by the individual to understand the perception of the other person and not to adapt the practices of the other culture. Another myth associated with intercultural communication is learning the language. No, it is not about learning the other language. It is about understating the other language but at the same time think about the fact that it is not always the words that are required to communicate (Choren, 2015). It has been estimated by the researchers that around 60% of the total communication that is been done by the humans is non verbal in nature. This suggests that more than half of the conversation involves gestures and not words (Dai & Chen, 2014).

The companies are expanding these days and the expansion is not limited to the local market but they are becoming multinationals. Thus, developing and expanding a business in a foreign country require the companies and the management to interact with the local people of the foreign country. This communication or the interaction definitely requires them to develop the skills of intercultural communication (Dolan, 2016). For developing the same, it is required by the people to have basic understating about the culture and their sensitive rituals which needs to be followed in making the conversations. Respect is also one of the biggest factors that help in catalyze the learning process. This is because if the people do not have respect towards another culture than it becomes difficult for them to understand their beliefs and values (Hirsh-Pasek, et al. 2015). Similar gestures have different meanings in different cultures and if there is no proper understanding of these meanings, the conversation can be misunderstood by the other person (Huang, et al. 2015).

Different authors have researched this topic and suggested many strategies that can be used to improve intercultural communication by understating the important aspects associated with intercultural communication. One of them is respect for all the cultures (Ihtiyar & Ahmad, 2015). The person who can have the respect for other culture can only get the skills of intercultural communication (Niles, et al. 2015). Different culture provides different experiences to the people and thus people develop different perceptions. It is required by the individuals to embrace such different experiences and beliefs of the people. Open mindedness is also one of the factors and the aspects of intercultural communication (King & Witt, 2009). The people with close minds can never accept the things that are not from their culture and thus cannot learn intercultural communications skills. Sincere open mindedness helps the individuals to develop a strong grasping power which in turn catalyze new learning (Koester & Lustig, 2015).

Another strategy that has been argued by the authors is the strategy of adaptation. There are several phases that need to be faced by the people in different country (Lieberman & Gamst, 2015). At the initial level, it becomes very interesting for the person to enter the new county but resistance appears gradually with time when the individual experience different values and culture around him. This gives him cultural shock which can be faced only when the individual tries to intestate with the new culture.

Another issue that restricts the effective communication is non verbal communication. Non verbal communication can be defined as the communication that includes sharing of feelings, emotions etc, through actions and gestures (Louis & Zeger, 2008). It is the expression and the body language of the people that communicates in the non verbal communication style. The body language part of non verbal communication is called as kinesics but it is much more than just body language. It also includes haptic that is about touch and proxemics that is about distance. It majorly includes the unspoken signals that are shown by one part to another party at the time of having an interaction (Neuliep, 2017). Non verbal communication can be developed by understating the gestures and their meanings. It is required by the individuals to have the knowledge about the expression and the gestures that needs to be shown in different situations to different people. This is because the wrong gestures or the wring expression can change meaning of the words that are spoken. Eye contact is one of the most important parts in non verbal communication (Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). Whenever an individual makes any interaction with other person, it is required to have a proper eye contact with the other person. Otherwise, the person is perceived to be under confident. There are different meanings associated with different gestures and thus it helps in judging the personality of the person. It is not that this words that are spoken does matter but the gestures along with the words creates an overall personality and aura of the person. Words can be copied but the gestures cant (Mehrabian, 2017). These are the true picture of what is happening in the mind of the person. The image and the personality of the individuals are thus based on the non verbal expression and the gestures shown in the communication practice.

It has been concluded that communication skills is the set of many different types of skills. Thus, the individuals have to be proficient in every skill to develop the communication skills. This literature gives the idea about the two main aspects of communication that are intercultural communication and non verbal communication (Reilly, et al, 2009). Non verbal communication is identified as the most important part in intercultural communication as well because it is not only the words that drive the communication but it is the gestures that make the communication effective.

As per the diagnostic tools, it has been analyzed that I have to develop intercultural communication skills and non verbal skills to be proficient in overall communication skills. The above literature provides many strategies and different aspects of communication skills and thus an action plan is required to be develop that can helps me in developing and improving myself in the weak areas identified by the diagnostic tools.

The plan below is designed with the perspective and objective of improving my communication skills within a given time period. It includes all such activities and mediums through which I can develop my skills. The break up actions along with the time periods are specified clearly in the below section.

Time description	Activities plan	Details
1 week	Recognizing skills required to be developed	The actions plan initiates with the step of identifying the skills that are required to be developed in me. This helps in making the further action plan according to my weal areas that are identified with diagnostic tools (Ruben, 2015).
1st to 3rd  month	Short courses	§  Taking on short courses helps in developing the professional knowledge about the weak areas of communication skills. The teachers or the course heads help the students or the learners to develop in their weak areas by educating them regarding the relevant topics (Samovar, et al. 2014). Below courses can help in the improvement: §    §  1 day professional development program will be performed for the personality development §  1 day course work training development program from Queensland institutional management.
3rd to 6th Months	Readings	Reading the books helps in gaining in depth knowledge and also helps in brushing up the vocabulary of the people (Shahbaz, et al. 2016). Frequent habit of reading different books and articles help in developing the knowledge regarding the latest communication patterns and the changes that are being made in the same.
1st to the 6th month	Personal journal	Personal journal is about creating own notes. This is the best practice to be performed in order to learn things. Making notes from different sources help in developing a wide variety of knowledge.
1st to the 6th month	Mentoring	Mentoring is the method in which a mentor aids the person or the learner to develop his or her skills. Mentors are the one who guides the individuals or the learners and provide them the plan to be followed. Mentoring is the best approach because the evaluating of the learning process can be done by the mentor and corrective actions can take on time.
4th to 6th Months	Evaluation and monitoring	This is the last step in which the improvements need to be examined and checked.

Actions	1 month	2 month	3 month	4 month	5 month	6 month
Recognizing skills to be developed
Taking on short courses
Readings
Personal journal
Mentoring
Evaluation and monitoring

Conclusion:

Communication has become the most important way to present and create a positive image in the society. Communication is not only about speaking well but it is about active listening and showing proper gestures thus developing communications skills require lot more than just having the confidence to speak in front of people.The overall discussion concludes that communication skills are must for every individual and there are many aspects of communication. Various diagnostic tools such as SPCC, NISS, etc are used to measure the communication skills so that weak points of the individuals can be judged and improvement can be made. I have some of the strengths in terms of communication and some of the weaknesses as well. Conducting these tests has helped me in analyzing those weaknesses in me and thus I can make the improvements in myself. I have concluded that majorly I have two weaknesses that were discussed are non verbal communication and intercultural communication. There are various strategies that can be used by me to develop those skills.

References:

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