Apprehension And Public Speaking Anxiety: Analysis And Reflection

Importance of Communication

Discuss About The Apprehension And Public Speaking Anxiety.

Using 5 diagnostic tools related to communication, you are to analyse your own communication style across various areas such as verbal communication, active listening, non- verbal, and assertiveness perception. You will be given the individual diagnostics during the tutorials. Your tutor/lecturer will check and sign-off that you have completed each individual diagnostic during the tutorials.  This means that if you fail to attend some or any of tutorial you will not be able to receive and complete the diagnostics. The signed diagnostics must be submitted as a separate PDF file.

Communication is one of the most important aspects of the modern times, a sound communication system is needed everywhere (PeleckienÄ & Polajeva, 2016). It is one of the most important aspects of the personal and the professional fields as well. These can be best known for the use of the diagnostic tools. I used some of the well known diagnostic tools that have helped me largely to know the particular areas of communication where I fall weak. I have been provided with all the adequate resources given by the class teacher. I have scored different marks in all the different communication tools. This has largely helped me in knowing the strengths and the areas of weakness that needs to be worked upon. The first tool that I have used is self-perceived communication competence questionnaire. This has helped me to know what I feel about my communication style when I am in a situation where I have to speak in front of many different people. The second was the non verbal immediacy scale report that helped to know my own feelings towards communicating with people by using the signs like hand gestures. The third and the important tool that I used was a tool that helped me to gauge my competence I arenas of public speaking that is the Personal Report of Intercultural communication apprehension. The fourth being the talkaholic scale, which helped me to know my skill of speaking freely in front people. All these tools have really been very useful for me to identify the areas of my strength and weakness. I am very weak in the non verbal immediacy aspect that is I cannot really use the non verbal signs like patting on the back, or appreciating by joining hands and other such aspects. Whenever I try to speak in group of the intercultural people I often suffer from lack of proper confidence. This is because I am afraid that I might end up in hurting the emotions of someone (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015).

Diagnostic Tools for Communication Analysis

I know that I have to somehow overcome these situations because often I will have to speak with people who are coming from many different cultural backgrounds. This naturally means that all these people coming from the intercultural backgrounds will have difference in their thinking and preference patterns (Mehrabian, 2017). I have to make sure that I am not making any such comments that are hurting the emotions or sentiments of each other.

I feel that all these scores are really very similar to the present condition of my communication skill. I could very easily relate these scores to my personal communication situation. I feel that I really need to work very hard in the aspect of public speaking. This is because I need to talk in the public fronts. As I have stepped into the professional field I have to face this very often and this has really become a huge challenge for me. I am finding it to be a threat to my professional career. So I need to work more and more on these aspects so that I can develop my public speaking skills. In order to know all the strengths and the loopholes in my communication skill, I had to undertake many different tests. This helped me find out the intricate details of my communication skills and the areas where I need to actually work upon. My professors have really helped me a lot to work on this particular aspect.

1. b) You are to present the findings of the tools. The scores for each diagnostic must be included in your essay. In doing so you will show your understanding of the results as they apply to your personal situation

I have got many different findings of the communication tools that I have used. Working on these tools has really been very helpful as they have shown me the deep and the intricate details of all the communication tools. The first among them is the SPCC. This is the self-perceived communication competence scale and my score over there is 60 in total and I have also got different score showing my communication skills for speaking with different groups of people at different kinds of situation (Pearson, 2017). They are also different types of score that I have got on my communication skills with many friends, acquaintance, stranger, meeting, public and other such scenarios. This has been very helpful as it has shown me that I need to work on my public speaking skills. Particularly I have to groom myself a lot while I am addressing a large group of people in any meeting like any business meeting as my score was as low as 36.66. My score in then on verbal immediacy scale report was 88. This shows that I have to really work upon these aspects it is very much needed in conveying my attitudes and my feelings towards others through different clues and nonverbal signs and not through direct verbal speaking. Another tool that has been used is the personal tool of intercultural communication. I know that cross-cultural employment is one of the crucial issues of the modern day scenario and this are also very important for me to maintain in my professional life (Eaves & Leathers, 2017). My score over here is 39 which is not really very low but at the same time it is not very high either and so I have to work on it. I know that I will have to deal with so many people from different cultural backgrounds in any professional life and I have to develop my communication skill so that I can speak with them confidently and with proper respect. On the talkaholic scale, my score is 27 that is Evident of the fact that I am not really very open towards talking with people at all the different kinds of situation.

Areas of Strength and Weakness in Communication

Based upon your analysis of the findings you are to identify two key communication issues that you have identified as requiring development.

There are some key issues that I have got from the results of these communication tools. I feel that the 2 main issues among them are my inability to speak on the public front and also the inability to use the non verbal sign languages (Bargiela-Chiappini & Nickerson, 2014). This is because I lack the confidence that is needed while speaking at the business meeting and in front of any large business meet. I have to work on this as I have felt that I am comfortable in talking to people who are my friends or my close ones but I lose the confidence when I am speaking to a large number of people in any business meet or any kind of public and social places (Cole, 2017). I also realized that whenever I am speaking in a large group of people I feel that I will speak something unneeded or something that will hurt the emotions and the sentiments of the people around me. So I suffer from a kind of unknown fear. The second key issue is my lack of using the non verbal signs of communication. I am a very shy kind of a person and I often restrict myself away from the physical contacts like giving a friendly hug, handshakes or patting on the back and other such aspects.

Reflect on two recent professional interactions that you have had within the past 12 months. Analyse these interactions from the perspective of the two key communication issues that are

About a month back I was given the charge of speaking to a group presentation that I had prepared as a part of my office assignment. However, I did the writing part in a very good manner. I was feeling very nervous and tensed when I had to speak the same in front of the public. I was sweating and was biting my nails in fear. I plucked my courage. I know that I am working as an assistant manager and I need to talk to all my employees and also so many stakeholders so often. So I need to make sure that I am being able to speak to all the people properly and without any kinds of fear. Though I managed to speak properly I missed out many important points. This was my self-realization that I am not able to speak confidently and with my full potential. So, I realized that I really need to work very hard on this.

Professional Interactions and Communication Issues

The second thing happened when I was working as a team lead and was given the charge of looking after the team. While the team members were asked to give ratings to their team leaders and to share their feedbacks, I saw that most of them felt I was very disinterested and I did not ever appreciated them on their achievements. They were expecting things like a small hug, a little appreciation by patting them on their back or hand shaking with them whenever some deal was there. As I am very shy I often kept myself away from all these.

Glossophobia is the other name for the anxiety or the fear of speaking in public. This often becomes very dangerous, when I am not at all able to speak properly in front of people. There are actually many reasons behind this kind of behavior. One among them is surely the stage fear that I suffer from. This makes me very afraid whenever there is the instance of speaking on the public front (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015).

There are multiple reasons or causes that lead to the fear of public speaking. If any of these reasons are present in huge a count within any individual the this will really make those individuals try to restrict themselves from the act of speaking in the public places. The nervousness is of different kinds and there are reasons why a speaker struggles from stage fright. One is self-consciousness in front of the large groups (Sorrells, 2015). It is very common to hear that the speakers are very comfortable and confident in speaking in front of the friends or their known faces. However, they feel very nervous whenever they are speaking in front of the large group of people. This is also somehow related to the fact that the speakers often do not make any preparations to speak in front of large group of people. They must keep the habit of practicing properly in front of the audiences’ before they are going out for their final turns. The next is the fear of appearing nervous (Georgescu & Popescul, 2015). Often the speakers suffer from this view that they will become very nervous while speaking in front of the public in any kinds of public meetings then they will be bullied and will be appearing as nothing but a joke in front of all the people (Samovar et al., 2014). There is also this concern that they are being seen and being judged by others. This perhaps is one of the most harmful and the biggest fear of all that makes one very nervous whenever they are about to speak in front of a large number of people. They feel that they are really under a huge pressure and they are not in a situation of making any mistake. They feel that the audiences are judges’ and are judging each and every move of theirs. The past failure is also one of the major concerns. Often the speakers feel that they will be going through the same kinds of experience that they had earlier. This can so happen that there are some ill experiences that the speakers have in their past related to the doing of public speaking. They cannot get this bitter experience out of their minds and keep on thinking that they will be committing the same mistakes again and again. So, they often get afraid and they end up in doing the same mistake that they did earlier. The past experiences leave a strong mark in the subconscious mind if the speakers and whenever they see a large room filled with so many people, they feel that they are have forgotten whatever they have prepared and they suffer from a tension (Manusov, 2014). Poor and insufficient preparation is one of the major mistakes that can be made by the speakers (Quirke, 2017). Often they get overconfident and feel that they do not need to do any homework or any kinds of practice. They feel that they are ready with their work and they will manage it on the final day. However, they often fail to do so and they mess it up at the time of speaking in the public front. They often do not give much importance to practice and do not do any homework. Narcissism is another reason behind this. Often the speakers are preoccupied with themselves and they do not understand the fact that what matters is the connection that is being built between them and their listeners or the audiences. They often keep on giving undue importance to themselves. They forget about the fact that they are of secondary importance here and what matters is the audiences are of the prime importance (Roth, 2014).

Conclusion

So, the speakers who suffer from these fears of public speaking must be able to keep a strict eye upon this reason and they might try and find out some of the other kinds of solution that will help them to overcome this problem as well. Public speaking is one of the most crucial aspects of the business scenario (Hunter, Westwick & Haleta, 2014). The managers have to manage the working of the entire organization keeping this in mind that they have to be very sure and very confident about each and every move. There can be the problem of intercultural communication as well. Managers who have a moderate or a low intercultural communication skill are not able to address all the people belonging to other cultures and religion. The managers have to keep in mind that they must treat all their employees equally. They will have to learn and know about the language, religion and the culture of all the people and will have to speak with them in a very confident and an effective manner. They will have to involve all their co-workers including their subordinates in all the business meeting s as well.  They will have to keep in mind that they are to include all in the decision-making process and this will be possible only if they can freely communicate their motif and the goals. Communication is one of the most important aspects that one needs in order to achieve this target (Martin, 2015).

The second issue that I often face is the problem in the expression of the non verbal immediacies. In other words, I often find it very difficult to use the signs of non verbal communication which indeed is a very important aspect.

There are several reasons behind the tolerance of disagreement that is often seen by many individuals in the workplace. There are so many different reasons behind disagreement. There are actually so many reasons behind the arising conflicts and the disagreements that arise in the workplaces. One of the major reasons behind this is the fact that people keep some of the other kinds of loopholes in the communication. Improper ways of communication are one of the major reasons behind the conflicts and the mismatch of opinions that arise in the workplaces or even in the households of the speakers (Cardon, 2014). However, this is also determined by the place, situation and the people who are involved in the kind of the disagreement or the conflict. However, in the workplace, there are so many different reasons that are responsible for the arising conflict or the disagreement. This is one of the significant factors in the interpersonal communication as well (Ryan & Zuber-Skerritt, 2017). There are so many factors that can give rise to the conflict and the disagreement in the communication. They are argumentativeness, expressiveness, supportiveness and other such things. The way the managers communicate and address their subordinates within the official context has a major impact on the conflict or the disagreement that is arising in the workplaces. Conflicts in interpersonal communication can arise due to the lack of similarities in the thoughts and the opinions of the people. This is often because of the fact that people belong from different culture and religion. As a result of this, they have different thoughts and preferences (Quirke, 2017). In such cases, it is the managers who have to address the cross-cultural conflicts that may arise and make sure that he is being able to carry on the communication properly. There can be intergroup conflicts as well. There can be a huge conflict among the different team members. The only solution in such cases is a proper communication that will help in making the problems solved. However, if the manager is not able to speak properly with confidence then he will not be able to make the solution and there will be a huge problem (Feldman, 2014).

One of the best ways in which this conflict can be solved is by using the nonverbal immediacy communication system as well. Signs that initiate positivity like the nudge, smile, patting on the back and other such signs. However, I have to make an action plan that will be helpful in helping me to solve this problem. This action plan will help me to know the kinds of the resources that will be helpful for me. I will also be planning a kind of routine or schedule that will help me to plan out the time schedule that will be helpful for working on my communication gaps. I will be able to

What do I want to learn?	What do I have to do?	What support and resources will I need?	How will I measure my success?	The target date for review of results.
Undertaking specific short courses, to develop skills based on actual courses that are available.	As time is a very crucial factor, I will take part in this course and will make sure that I am UNDERTAKING PROPER LESSONS TO OEVRCOME THE COMMUNICATION GAPS.	I will need sources like joining the classes and undertaking all the  notes	I will measure my success on the performance that I do in class	August 15th.
Undertaking advanced post-graduate communication courses at CQU or other institutions.	I need to enrol myself in many of the courses that will be helpful.	Resources are like getting the proper class notes from the advanced p.g classes that I will be undertaking.	I will measure my success as per my performance and I will also get feedback from my peers and my colleagues.	15th sep
A reading plan to acquire conceptual knowledge, which may include specific communication texts and self-help books which must be specified. Books like- Difficult Conversations: How to Have Conversations that Matter the Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, and Roger Fisher	There are some books that have to be read on a daily basis.	I will need to know the names of the self help books and read them on a daily basis.	I will measure the success based on the ways in which I change my behaviour.	10th aug to 30 oct
Maintaining of personal journals reflecting on communication interactions.	I have to develop habits like maintaining a journal or a record of the practices that I am inculcating	Resources are like people to interact with.	The feedbacks that I get from people reading my communication

Activities	Month1	Month2	Month3	Month4	Month5	Month6
Undertaking short courses
Undertaking advanced post graduate courses
Reading self help books like How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Maintaining of personal journals reflecting on communication interactions.

Thus, it can be concluded that these communication tools have been very helpful in identifying the areas of my strength and my weakness. At the same time, I have been able to get a clear picture of the areas where I am really very weak and I missed work upon. I have found out the two major problems in my communication skill like the public speaking nervousness and the conflict and tolerance for disagreement. Among public speaking fear the cross-cultural communication skill is one of the major areas where I need to work upon. This will help me in gathering all the resources that will be helping me in overcoming these problems. I made the action plan that will be helping, me to follow all the resources that can help me in this. I will also get a proper time frame that will be helping me to solve this problem.

References

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Cardon, P. W. (2014). Business communication: Developing leaders for a networked world. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

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Cole, G. (2017). Making corporate social responsibility appropriate and effective: The importance of communication. Annals in Social Responsibility, 3(1), 65-67.

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