Overall, my communication skills as assessed by this week's resources did not surprise me. The one are that was a bit different that I may have expected was the aggressiveness scale. I scored higher than I realized I would. I'm not entirely convinced that I am at all verbally aggressive (actually, even the thought strikes me a completely counter to my entire personality!) but then again, it is not out of the question that I exhibit behaviors that may be described as aggressive. Specifically, it may be true that, when I disagree with a person, I attack their character instead of their ideas. While I can't think of a single time when I actually verbalized an attack on their character, my communication style may come off that way.
This is important information for me. If this is the case, I can now be more intentional about what I say and how I say it. I can make sure that I am arguing against someone's ideas and not them as a person.
The other insight that struck me as I read the results from my co-worker was that she observed a lower level of anxiety that I self-assessed at. This makes sense to me in that I may not express any anxiety I feel in an outward manner, even if I am feeling it a bit on the inside. It also occurred to me that perhaps this particular co-worker is not observing me in those cases where I am more outside of my comfort zone and feeling and demonstrating higher levels of anxiety.
Overall, this week's exercises were very helpful in seeing just where I can grow as a communicator!
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