The message or information that is provided from one person to another is called communication. The organizations try to effectively pass this information from the source to destination by the help of various tools. These tools are used to ensure that the communication between two or more parties is accurate. In this paper, various tools are used to get my self- reflection. My strengths and weaknesses are found by using different tools of communication such as Johri window, different questionnaires, etc. After finding the issues the need to improvement is discussed. Then a literature review of interpersonal communications is done with special focus on two of my weaknesses that were found during diagnosis. After all this study, an Action Plan should be made so that the improvements can be done to remove the weaknesses. This study will help in finding my weaknesses and will bring out my potential. In short, this study will enhance my overall personality.
When a piece of information passes from one individual to another, then it is called as communication. When this information is passed accurately from source to destination, then it is called as effective communication. To make this communication effective various tools are used and lack of utilization of those tools may lead to ineffective communication. The effective communication when used in business should utilize these tools properly. Here the effective tools of communication are Johari Window, Assertiveness Questionnaires, Communications Style Questionnaire, etc. and in different areas they will be analysed as verbal communication, active listening, non- verbal, assertiveness perception etc. This task is prepared to reflect the interpersonal communication skills.
To excel in communicating effectively, various diagnostic tools of communication can be used. The main tools for diagnosis that I will be using are Johari Window, Communications Style Questionnaire, Assertiveness Questionnaire, Non-verbal Assertiveness Questionnaire, and Active Listening Questionnaire.
Johari Window: It is basically a method by which an individual has a better understanding about oneself and the relationship with others. There are four parts in the Johari window namely Arena, Façade, Blind and Unknown. I can express my intentions to my colleagues with ease. I can communicate with them easily. When it comes to expressing my views socially or in social matters, I am quite clear. My peers have noticed that I pay attention to the information or message or purpose during communication. So, according to Johari Window, I find myself in the Arena block because my colleagues and I are very comfortable when it comes to expressing our viewpoint.
Communication style questionnaire: This questionnaire can help in finding effective communication style of an individual. After taking this questionnaire, I found that I am expressive when it comes to effective communication. I like to express my views on any topic or in general also, if I have to tell something to someone, I go into details. This style of mine has a benefit that I can influence or better say motive another person. There is a negative aspect also as because of being too expressive and involved in colleagues, I sometimes lose the context of information that I have to communicate.
Assertiveness Questionnaire: This questionnaire basically reflects how an individual express oneself. This questionnaire brings out the thoughts, necessities, and feelings (Researchcollaboration, 2017). When I got the answers of my Assertiveness Questionnaire, I found that I am an extrovert. My ability to understand the communication models better helped me to get this extrovert position. I get the message or information properly and transfers it to the respective person as clearly as it should be. Although there is sometimes a doubt in my mind that if I missed any information, then it can invite trouble to me.
Non-verbal Assertiveness Questionnaire: In this tool, I completely underperformed because it is the communication by body language i.e. non-verbal and I lack that. In today’s world, you are not only judged by your verbal skills but also by your non-verbal communication skills. To overcome my weakness, I should exercise in front of the mirror.
Active Listening Questionnaire: This was the last tool that I used to evaluate my efficiency of listening skills. The questionnaire was aimed and designed to explore my ability about effective listening. I was able to score better and it meant that I can effectively listen or absorb the information to be passed to another person. I pay attention when someone speaks to me and that helps me to be a good listener. I also ask them if I have any doubts or questions so that the information or message that I am getting during communication should be understood properly.
From the above findings, the two communication issues on which I need to improve are my expressive nature and I need to be more self-aware. It is good to be expressive but sometimes I found that I elaborate some talks so much that I lose the context of information that I am providing while communicating. To be an effective communicator, I need to focus on the context first because if context is lost, then there will be no use of expressing so much.
Secondly, I need to work upon my non-verbal communication skills. While taking the Non-verbal Assertiveness Questionnaire, I found that there is need to improve in this field. If I am more precise in my body language then I can express myself in a better way. There will be increase in my confidence and whether it is about communicating with an individual or a group, I will be successful at both the areas.
Here I am mentioning my two recent professional interactions where I failed. The first one happened when I was giving a presentation on leadership. I spoke so much about theoretical content that I forgot to speak about its implications in our life which was the main context. Because of my expressive nature, I missed the context of presentation and further lost marks in that presentation.
Second incident happened during interview for a part time job of promoting an educational website in college campuses. They asked theoretical questions and I answered them correctly but they found something wrong with my body language. My body language was not matching with my words. The interviewer rejected me and I realized that this happened because of lack of good non-verbal communication skill.
Both these incidents support my need for development in the areas of communication. I understand that I am expressive but this is no more a quality of mine because it is creating hurdles in my performance. Also, it is needed to be more expressive in my non-verbal communication. The time is changing and with time the communication styles of industry. These communication changes need improvement on regular basis. By improving myself in my weak areas and updating my knowledge about communication matching with that of industry, I can achieve great success in life.
Effective Communication is required to convey a message or information from one source to another. It should be noted that the information is not lost in the way, if it is lost, then it will no longer be effective communication. In an organization, effective communication means bringing an individual or a group of people together to get the message that fulfils the objective (Mukherjee, 2005).
The information that is exchanged as well as Communication, both are dynamic (Janusik, 2004). Moving forward, a communication is defined as conversation when one person replies to another person. After conversation, it comes talk where the giver or the receiver exchange sentences or phrases (Janusik, 2004). When it comes to grammatical correctness of these sentences or phrases, these might be incorrect but the persons talking will understand it. As talk is responsive and can be created again, conversation is considered as interaction, it is not just a collection or combination of actions. This idea depends upon the communications relational perspective (Janusik, 2004).
To make the communication more effective in an organization, various tools can be utilized such as Johari window, Communications Style Questionnaire, Assertiveness Questionnaire, Self-Awareness Questionnaire, and Active Listening Questionnaire among others. The styles of communicating can be used in different areas of communication such as verbal, non-verbal, effective listening skills, etc. These tools enhance the way of transfer of information and the message reaches efficiently to the desired person. This effectiveness also improves the quality of work in the organization as employees gets and delivers the information properly.
The Johri window can be applied in different communication systems. The supervisor can include employees by communicating verbally to investigate the competency. The window can also be utilized for assertive perceptions by employees. To know the quality of non-verbal communication, persons can examine this in free area. One more benefit of Johri window is that the staff members can closely watch the activities of Managers during the sessions of performance progression.
The two issues that evolved during diagnosis and reflection were my expressive nature and lack non-verbal communication skill. The literature review provides us the knowledge that the phenomenon related to communication are all interrelated. For example, I express so much that I forgets the context most of the times and also, my body language is not expressive but when I will improve my non-verbal communication, I will change my mindset and this phenomenon of changing mindset will deal with my other problematic issue. It was also found that effective body language increases the leadership qualities of a person (Reilly, Dominick, & Gabriel, n.d.). The leaders are expressive and knows how to motivate people for an action. The successful people in an organization are all good leaders. This change in mindset unconsciously works with us. For example, when we are with some known persons, we feel relaxed but when we are with someone unknown our mindset as well as our body language changes. We become alert.
In this rapid-changing world, effective communication gives the corporate leaders an edge and ability to give quality and precise output (Remund, 2011). While searching for the body language it was found that mare literature is about the different professions and the body language that is used or should be used in them. When more details were searched about body language, it was found that it depends upon the position of a person in an organization and what the person aims to be (Goman, 2011). This non-verbal communication can bring different results at different places and with different people. The non-verbal communication brings cross cultural differences. A person wants to express something and the receiver being from a different culture interprets it the other way. This situation of conflict emerges between the two just because of misunderstanding.
The difference in the cultures brings obstacles and people find it difficult to communicate with each other (Nnia, 2015). According to the author, the problems that occur because of the different cultures can be minimized by developing cooperation through collectivism. The barriers developed due to cultural differences can be reduced by interacting with people (Gut, Wilczewski, & Gorbaniuk, 2017). It was also found that non-verbal communication increases the confidence of an individual. A normal person will not be comfortable in new situations but a person with effective body language will always be ready to go to new places or meet new people. The friendliness and accessibility are the qualities of a person with good body language.
The various styles of communication move the attention towards the improvement and development in the business environment. The employee’s presentation reflects the communication style of the organization. When an employee is guided to use the chosen communication style by management, it improves the outcome for the company. The strategy for opting the optimum diagnostic tool can be beneficial or tragic for the employee. If the management directs towards wrong tool of communication, then the employee will perform poorly and if the tool is perfect, then the performance of the employee may escalate.
It is also found that Johari window is the most preferred diagnostic tool for effective communication in an organization. It provides a plan that represents the information about the group and individual. The information represented is about the emotions, opinions, different approaches, skills, intentions, involvements, and the degree of motivation from certain viewpoints. The labels are named as ‘self’ and ‘others’ where ‘self’ indicates oneself while ‘others’ represents ‘other people in the persons’ group or team. It is an extraordinary tool ranging from self-perception to public perception and therefore has become a medium of control to development.
Action Plan can be defined as a process or a set of tasks that helps in improving the defects. According to this self-reflection report, I need an action plan to overcome my weaknesses. To be successful, one should have effective communication skills. The individuals that have good communication skills have better positioning in the organization, they are confident in comparison to their peers and have good chances of developing career wise. They also overcome any obstacles in an efficient way.
I have developed my communication skill plan that will help me in overcoming my weaknesses and will ensure success in my career. I will be taking a Body Language Training Program in the month of June and in September. I will be enrolling for a 6 months executive correspondence course from CQ University. This course will be to enhance my communication skills. I will try to read as many books as I can on effective communication to develop my communication skills and they will be issued from city library. I will also maintain a personal journal for the months of July and August where I can note down my interactions and experiences regarding communication. I will also take the feedback from my supervisor for the months of June and July because they are crucial months and if I will receive feedback in the starting months, then I can do any needful changes in my action plan. After learning and improving my skills I will go out to test myself. I will attend some interviews and at last I will be practicing speaking less and my talks will be small and to the point so that I can improve my flaw of forgetting the context in expressing more. I will be practicing this for next six months and I will practice it with my colleagues. The months that will be consumed for tasks are marked with “Y” and the months where no activity related to the task will take place are marked as “-”. The action plan in the form of Gantt Chart is shown below:
|
Tasks |
June |
July |
August |
September |
October |
November |
|
Body Language Training |
Y |
– |
– |
Y |
– |
– |
|
Executive (PG) corr. comm. course at CQU |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Read the books issued from library about effective communication |
Y |
Y |
Y |
– |
Y |
Y |
|
Maintaining a personal journal reflecting on communication interactions |
– |
Y |
Y |
– |
– |
– |
|
Contacting Supervisor to get Feedback |
Y |
Y |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
Applying the learnings to the real world |
– |
– |
– |
Y |
Y |
Y |
|
Practice with colleagues about being less expressive |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
After completing my action plan, I will be the person that I want to be and I will be successful in every sphere of my life especially career. This Action Plan will increase my confidence level to 100% and I will gain stability and job security.
References
Ashley, Greg C. and Reiter-Palmon, Roni, “Self-Awareness and the Evolution of Leaders: The Need for a Better Measure of SelfAwareness” (2012). Psychology Faculty Publications. Paper 7.
Fielding, M. L., & Fielding, M. L. (2005). Effective communication in organisations: [preparing messages that communicate]. Lansdowne, Cape Town: Juta Academic.
Goman, C. K. (2011). The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help-or Hurt-.
Gut, A., Wilczewski, M., & Gorbaniuk, O. (2017, March). Cultural Differences, Stereotypes and Communication Needs in Intercultural Communication in a Global Multicultural Environment The Employees’ Perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 1(43).
Jain, N., & Mukherji, S. (2012). Effective business communication. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Janusik, L. A. (2004). Researching listening from the inside out: The relationship between conversational listening span and perceived communicative competence. Doctoral Dissertation.
Mukherjee, S. (2005). Organisation & Management And Business Communication.
Nnia, I. (2015, June). Conflicts Encourntered by Multinational Corporations in Cross-Cultural Communication and its Solutions. Journal of International Business and Economics, 3(1), 86-92.
Reilly, R., Dominick, P., & Gabriel, A. Understanding the Unique Importance of Self-Awareness in Leader Development. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2464649 Remund, D. (2011). Asking the right questions, involving the right people. Journal Of Leadership Studies, 5(3), 40-52. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jls.20231
Researchcollaboration. (2017). Questionnaire. Retrieved 2017, from https://www.researchcollaboration.org/uploads/AssertivenessQuestionnaireInfo.pdf
Ringer, J. (2017). Purposeful Communication.
Williams, C. B., & Griffin, E. G. (1966). Effective business communication. New York: Ronald Press Co.
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