Reflective Practice For Improving Communication Skills

Diagnosis and Reflection

Communication plays an important role in both personal and professional lives of an individual. Hence the communication skills should be developed in the most critical manner. There are basically 5 diagnostic tools that help in evaluating communication skills and also there are some issues that limit the growth of the communication skills which further weakens the confidence while giving presentations and interviews. In this literature reviews there many conceptual and behavioural information discussed which helps in improving the competencies in the communication skills. There is also an action plan highlighted in this literature review which helps in identifying the activities and also helps in improving the communication skills. These communication skills will help in mitigating all the problems and issues while sharing information with each others. This report consists with several diagnostic tools which will help in improving the communication skills in determined approach.

To analyse the strength and weakness of my communication skills there are many diagnostic tools that were used and some of them are Johari window, interview skills checklist, communication style questionnaire, and interpersonal communication and assertiveness questionnaires. Johari window helps in identifying the skills for example the open area represents that I have understood my communication skills clearly (Koprowska, 2014).  It also gives an idea about when the verbal and nonverbal communication has to be done. It also helps in identifying the difference in the communication that occurs in among various cultures. The next quadrant which is blind area explains the fact that I am not aware of and other also don’t know. The third quadrant describes about the things that only I know and other don’t know about it which includes the ability to discern the emotions of people that are based on their tone. The last quadrant describes about the area which is unknown and skills here tend to promote the effective communication across all the cultural groups (Keech, et al, 2016)

Other diagnostic tool is communication style questionnaire.  This helps in highlighting the communication skills of an individual. Amiable individuals are the one who thinks that they are faithful, satisfying, and courteous and are very compassionate and only focus on the present.  Hence in the amiable score I scored a rating of 9 out of 18 which suggests that it is my dominant communication style. Amiable people have a different environment that includes formal, relaxed, personal, friendly and orderly setting. And due to this there is so much frustration that I feel as it becomes difficult to communicate in formal settings in interviews and official presentations. Amiable people also have other qualities such as they are quiet, a very good listener and are accurate in everything (Archer, Sarah Brick, 2001). If people engaged in communication with each other would follow proper diagnostic tools then they could enhance their communication skills in easy and determined approach.

Another tool that can be used to evaluate the communication skill is the assertiveness questionnaires. In this evaluation test my total score was 12 out of 15 when seen on the passive attitude scale. Although, I do not have an aggressive nature and basically gives my best when I have a lot of pressure. Effective communication is mainly limited by the assertiveness attitude as it can be seen in myself that I am not able to demand anything for myself and also have concerns regarding voice and always unable to confront my seniors (Baraldi, 2017). 

Literature Review

Other diagnostic tool is interpersonal communication skill that helps in identifying whether an individual can communicate with others or not. In this diagnostic test higher the values represents that an individual is a good listener. So in the self assessment test I scored 71 out of the 90 points. 71 is considered as good score but I still feel that I have to enhance my communication skills as these are not matured enough. Hence to improve such skills there is interpersonal communication training which improves those skills (Chaloupka-Risser & Füssl, 2017).Training and professional development program are the key intent for developing own skills and program in determined approach. If a person focuses on identifying his own drawbacks then by eliminating these shortcomings he could develop his own skills in effective manner.

In this diagnostic test that is interview skills checklist self assessment is done based on the communication that can be seen in the interviews.  Major weakness that was identified in this diagnostic test was that during the interviews I get stressed even after preparing well for it.  Moreover I start to fumble so that I even fail make an eye contact with the other person that results into the panic situation. Despite knowing all the answers and understanding the question that is being asked I fail to answer. There is also lack of strategies that might help in the interview anxiety (Choren, 2015).

Many communications issues such as problems in expressing thoughts, more specifically in the interactions during the professional interviews are mainly highlighted but these diagnostics tools. Long back in Hoi an, Vietnam I was called for the interview and there I was totally unable to make eye contact and in fact provided all the answers which were irrelevant or wrong and it happened all because of my nervousness. But later I made it to the interview. There was also other incident which identified my weakness where I had to interact with businessman all over the countries. Over there I had to fulfil the needs and demands of all the businessmen and even had to manage the time schedules. Moreover I had to provide them the important information which was a major challenge for me (Dolan, 2016).

With the help of diagnostic tools all the issues and the weakness were identified which occur during expressing the thoughts and even during the interviews. For example interview skills checklist identified the lack in the confidence where I feel stressed during the interviews. Other issue that is identified with the help of assertiveness assessment is that there is also lack of confidence when I interact with other people which also described my attitude as amiable. Communicators can also be aggressive and they should share their thoughts with other people also (Fearn-Banks, 2016).  Most of the effective communicators are mostly confident which makes it easier for them to convey the message which can be understood well. Today communication development is necessary as it depends on the ability that portrays the thoughts in the most confident manner (Lindenfeld, et al. 2014). Communication skills can be enhanced with the help of communication training and from interpersonal communications. These can also be enhanced with the help of interview skills. The development in the communication makes sure that the issues are mostly addressed in the training sessions (Henderson & Mathew Byrne, 2016).

Action Plan

As per the view of Reilly and Hynan, 2014 it is reflected that the diagnostic tools that were implemented were successful in identifying the weakness related to the communication skills which includes the problems in expressing the thoughts which further affected my confidence and made me panic.  Hence it has become the limitation in my interpersonal communication skills.  One of the major limitations that exist is that I am least expressive and is unable to express my thoughts properly which results into me being nervous and panic tone automatically arrives with the professionals (Kuhnke, 2013). The main reason behind this is that the attitude is wrong assertiveness which further limits the interpersonal skills. Therefore the passive attitude can be explained where an individual is not able to provide the ideas. So this passive style has turned out to be the limitation in the growth of the individual as well as in the interpersonal skills of the individual.  This can also be concluded that the individuals who have this kind of style are unable to attract the interviewee.  This can also be seen that the passive communication is generally a failure in rotating the information to other group members and also to the people who are important (Leutenberg, Liptak, & Brodsky, 2008). On the other positive side of this report, it is evaluated that if passive communication is implemented by organizations in easy manner then he could overcome all of its shortcoming in positive manner.

As stated by Shehada, 2016 it is revealed that it is very important to make a proper agenda of the topics that has to be discussed when an individual is appearing for the professional interactions. When an individual starts to express his feeling and the beliefs then this communication style can be considered as assertive. This style is only effective when the limitations are properly identified in the individual and hence further improvement can be done on the communication style. It is very required to evaluate all the positive and negative impact of miscommunication at the time when information is transferred between two persons. It is evaluated that individual while communicating information to other persons need to use specific words and ideas for the better communication path.

With the help of self assessment test communication style that was identified was amiable communication style which further has limitation makes the interpersonal communication even more little effective. Hence it is necessary for an individual to have an express communication style so the individual can express his feelings and thoughts in the most effective manner without getting nervous (McKay,  Davis & Fanning, 2009).  An individual who has effective communication skills can easily get into all sorts of environment and also have the ability to do what they want and support for the things that they actually feel for. This further completely changes an individual and also encourages them to express their views and thoughts. Moreover the way of introducing a person and perception about the different culture is also changed (Stueart, Robert, 2008). It is evaluated that when people are having different culture to each other then they could have problem in understanding each other language in the communication of their ideas and views.  

Other limitation that exists is the lack of confidence that I feel in myself and this is only due my non adaptive nature for the effective communication style. So many authors have also suggested that an individual should be confident in expressing their thoughts and views to the public and should also convey their messages to people properly. Communication apprehensive is the term used when there is anxiety while communicating with other individual personally or professionally (Simpson, 2015).  This also describes the level of nervousness while communicating in the interviews and the professional presentations. Hence there should be effective communication skill and there should be less communication nervousness (Vangelisti, 2016).

Many authors have also suggested that professional presentations skills are very weak because people are more or less feel fear about speaking in the public or in front of other people due to the lack in the confidence. A good communicator should boost up the confidence of the people so that they start to express their views and thoughts and develop an effective interpersonal skill.  And this can only be covered by preparing for the presentations before going for the interview. Moreover this will result into the rise in the confidence and will surely effect the communication in the most positive manner (Yew Wong, 2005).

The knowledge about the subject matter can be enhanced by preparing for the subject matter with a good strategy which will further overcome the nervousness in the time of the interviews and the professional presentations. Many authors have suggested that when a question is being asked in the interview then deeply think about the question and the give the answer according to that. However for the development of the interpersonal skill confident matters the most. And this can only be enhanced with the help of the proper communication training and the short term courses which provide a great help to the individual. Verbal and non verbal interviews communication also helps in the professional interviews and the presentations which are suggested by many of the authors. This will further help in analysing the reaction of the audiences to the communicator (Worth, 2009).

This is the plan which is prepared with a view to determine the plans and time period for implementing the selected activities of organizations.  All the details of task which are to be implemented have been divided into the interval of the months and their specified break up actions. 

Time description	Activities plan	Details
1st to 3rd  month	Undertaking short courses	There are several short courses which could be used to enhance the communication skill. § Australia institute management will provide best possible communication skill training. § 1 day professional development program will be conducted for the personality development § 1 day course work training development program from Queensland institutional management.
3rd to 6th Months	Reading plan	Books and article reading will help in framing right structure. There are several books which could be used. § Yew Wong, K. (2005). Critical success factors for implementing knowledge management in small and medium enterprises  Baraldi, C. (2017). Language Mediation as Communication System. Communication Theory, 123-143.
1st to the 6th month	Personal journal	A personal journal would be kept for 1 year. The journal would be used to only daily basis to evaluate all the key issues. It will also be used to reflect on the knowledge gained and concept learned from this study.
1st to the 6th month	Mentor	The mentor will help in learning key facts of communication skill and evaluating perceptions of other people. This mentor will help in determining how the communication will help in communicating thoughts and views with others.
3rd to 6th Months	Measurement of completion	After completion of 6 months, communication test will be implemented to gain proper understanding on the shortcoming of communication intents.  There are various test and diagnostic tools such as Johri Window, templates and questionnaire will be used to determine all the shortcoming an strength of this learned communication intents

This is the chart which reflects the graphical representation of action plan prepared by organization for completion of its activities. This chart will assist in understanding the time period for each and every activities of actions plan in graphical manner. This is the best suitable course of action to understand the time involved in particular activities in best and effective manner.                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                              Figure 1 Gantt Chart

Reference

Archer, Sarah Brick (2001), “‘Be All That You Can Be’: Developing and Marketing Professionalism in Academic Reference Librarianship,” The Reference Librarian no. 73, 351-360.Association, 271-279.

Baraldi, C. (2017). Language Mediation as Communication System. Communication Theory, 123-143.

Chaloupka-Risser, C., & Füssl, E. (2017). The importance of communication between cyclists and other traffic participants and its potential in reducing traffic safety-critical events. Transactions On Transport Sciences, 8(1), 24-30.

Choren, A. (2015). The Importance of Communication in the Workplace. IEEE Potentials, 34(3), 10-11.

Dolan, R. (2016). Branding Yourself Effective Communication Skills. FEMS Microbiology Letters, fnw289.(page 9)

Fearn-Banks, K. (2016). Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Routledge (page 9)

Henderson, K., & Mathew Byrne, J. (2016). Developing communication and interviewing skills. Skills for social work practice, 1-22. (page 7)

Keech, W., Kelly, J., Dowling, A., McBride, K. and Brown, A., (2016). The Importance of Effective Communication in Hospital Between Aboriginal Cardiac Patients and Health Professionals. Heart, Lung and Circulation, 25, pp.S316-S317.

Koprowska, J. (2014). Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Learning Matters.

Kuhnke, E. (2013). Communication skills for dummies (1st ed.). Chichester: Wiley.

Leutenberg, E., Liptak, J., & Brodsky, A. (2008). The Communication Skills Workbook (1st ed.). Whole Person Associates.

Lindenfeld, L., Smith, H.M., Norton, T. and Grecu, N.C., (2014). Risk communication and sustainability science: lessons from the field. Sustainability science, 9(2), pp.119-127.

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The Communication Skills Book (1st ed.). Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger Publications.

Reilly, A.H. and Hynan, K.A., (2014). Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: It’s not easy (really) being green. Business horizons, 57(6), pp.747-758.

Shehada, B.A.R.,(2016) Phase-Based Speech Enhancement (Doctoral dissertation, Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine).

Simpson, C., (2015). Science of coercion: Communication research & psychological warfare, 1945–1960. Open Road Media.

Stueart, Robert D. (2008), “Human Relations in Library Education: Relationships Among Colleagues,” IFLA Journal 15 no. 1, 44-49.

Vangelisti, A.L., (2016). On the importance of communication research. Communication Education, 65(4), pp.501-504.

Worth, R. (2009). Communication skills (1st ed.). New York: Ferguson.

Yew Wong, K. (2005). Critical success factors for implementing knowledge management in small and medium enterprises. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 105(3), 261-279.