Personal Communication: Evaluating Communication Capabilities And Problem Solving Mechanisms

Definition of Personal Communication

Question:

Discuss about the Integrating Theory and Research Practice.

Personal communication can be defined as the manner in which humans relate with other human beings around them. Personal communication is very important in life since it enables people to enhance their livelihoods through making good use of the daily opportunities that do come their way. Not only does personal communication place one in a better position to understand his/her shortcomings but also it helps them develop mechanisms to make necessary adjustments to fit in the society. In this work, individual evaluation has been done and analysis made concerning communication capabilities and possible problem solving mechanisms required to overcome them as well elaborated. This aimed to help in developing a scheme that is useful in rectifying the existing problems with regard to available timelines. This will cover different dimensions of the day to day communications styles that are exercised within different domains. (In Flanagan, In Allen & In Levine, 2015).

This technique seeks to evaluate one’s communication skills with great attention to accommodating other people’s ideas and giving response. The procedure revealed that more personal effort was needed to help improve the score.  It was evident in the results that much effort was directed towards offering solutions to any anticipated problems early in time before they could manifest themselves. Some of the individual shortcomings involved postponing of a majority of things and not embracing symbolic communication aids.

The communications style questionnaire involves assessing the various communication techniques that are available and applicable to interactions. This method places an individual in a better position to understand the various situations in each conversation, be able to identify their flaws and perfections and then make the required adjustments.

The questionnaire results were as follows: Out of the analysis, inner strength-confidence was evident in my undertakings. Logical approaches are applied in the day to day interactions and association with other people. Xenophobia and self-awareness were also noted as personal strong areas. There is a strong individual belief necessary in winning other people’s resilience. The individual strengths realized include; keen attention to detail during response evaluation while weaknesses include, poor listening skills with intent to dominate conversations without exercising turn taking. (De, 2015).

With the aid of the assertive questionnaire, an individual can boost his/her learning experience since it mitigates one’s challenges in communication without considering the situation or context. The assertiveness questionnaire places people in a position to speak out their ideas in every situation in respect of others’ opinions too. With the aid of collaborative research website, the results indicated individual possession of etiquette and decorum virtues during interaction with people. Graded on a 100-point scale, the score was an A. Translating to good results though there was need to adjust some areas including working on individual listening techniques and being accommodative to other peoples’ views irrespective of how they are inconsistent with personal views. (Green & Chartered Institute of Public Relations, 2016).

Individual Evaluation and Analysis of Communication Capabilities

The Johari window does place people in a position to have a good understanding of how they relate with other humans in society as well as understand and appreciate them. This procedure is greatly applied in this paper to aid in selecting the appropriate identifiers to personal description. In applying this procedure, five friends were selected and tasked to highlight the qualities they found fit for personal proficiency in communication and personality at large. After successfully highlighting and selecting, the results were outlined and presented in a consolidated manner.

The results depicted in the first column showed an individual with knowledge of full existence, brilliant, orderly and confident. A sense of authoritativeness and confidence in interactions was also detected. This is in line to the ideas of good communication. According to (Biafore, 2015) who claims that it is very important to express self-confidence in the process of communication. The second column showed an individual who is radical, somehow proud and possession of levels of anxiety in particular situations.  Additionally, personal attributes of being a seasoned introvert was also realized as well as efforts to be a considerate individual. The third segment portrayed an individual who is tolerant and flexible. On the other side, some friends alluded that there were traits such as being intolerant and non-accommodative of other people’s views and more often anger was used to coerce others from expressing their views. Kindness was portrayed in the fourth segment as well as being a realistic and a calm individual. The perception of possessing some different values in the eyes of different people is important (Biafore, 2015).

When it comes to development in personal and academic issues, one very necessary appliance is exercising practical reflection as this helps one build essential capabilities in leadership skills in one’s academic life. Valuation of an individual’s deeds, character and rules are key elements in personal reflects. Out of the obtained results, it was individual realization that spirited approach to challenges arise from the fear of committing errors and letting good chances go. Believing in oneself could be very useful in making decisions because finding out that one does not support something; chances of  avoiding the same were high, a component which  possibly limits ones thinking (De, 2015). The study’s results indicate the need for one to work on their active listening and decisiveness. This was evident in interviews, group works and in personal studying process. On top of that, the manifestation that individual dominance of conversations and exercise of confidence on presentations contradicted personal judgments.

Communications Style Questionnaire

Personal interactions with different people throughout the semester revealed weaknesses in active listening and self-assured perception, making these skills a critical aspect needed to work on for improvement. Going by the aforementioned researches, both intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli are responsible for a person’s reaction in a dialogue (Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2014). An important point to note is adequate revelation of self-assurance and tranquility can be achieved using individual characteristics and distinctive psychological set up. For instance, self-possessed and collected people find it easy to express themselves aptly compared to unsteady and ungrounded individuals. In his study, Biafore (2015) argued that moments are likely to traumatize such individuals, given that they expect nothing less than favorable results.

 The findings of The Australian Psychological Association confirms that a person’s outward character is greatly influenced by such stimuli. In light to this, it becomes essential that individuals identify their strength and weaknesses, bearing in mind how hard it can be for a person to exhibit his/her strengths in an appropriate manner exclusively. Taking this step is beneficial when it comes to underlining an individual’s strength as it facilitates a cover up for his/her shortcomings.  It is the same reason that makes De (2015) in his research emphasizes that that failure to follow this step has the likelihood of causing uncertainties to a person, making him/her tense and less confident when engaged in a conversation with others.

It is considered an important feature in any learning process as it ensures that learners pay close attention, figure out responses and memorize the content that is bestowed to them. After undertaking a test on personal communication abilities, it was a personal realization that active listening skills were weak, hence needed perfections. This would help equip oneself with adequate capacity to acquire significant information, grasp and appreciate the process of learning essential notions (Brown & Smith, 2017). In addition, it was personal realization that the failure to reach consensus with peers as being a result of low levels of attention when engaged in a dialogue. Apparently, there were personal problems in comprehending new ideas taught in class due to the inability to pay close attention to whatever was being taught until the end of any particular lesson. In regard to this conduct, there are individual efforts to come up with new techniques of checking these behaviors to ensure that they do not worsen and affect personal undertakings negatively. Below are some of the approaches developed (Hoppe, 2015).

Assertiveness Questionnaire

This method comprises intense meditation and extreme devotion to the speaker while acknowledging points from their presentations. Furthermore, it is vital to ascertain their verbal and nonverbal signals. Some of the ways intended for use include maintaining an eye contact with the speaker, preclude any obstacle that seem to be distractive, keep off contradicting notions and pay precise attentiveness to the speaker’s body language. The rationale for adopting such strategies is to ensure that one ends up with sufficient comprehension of whatever is being passed across.

The significance of body language is to disclose whether one is listening or not. It also establishes the level of concentration. A good example is nodding, where suitable and applying facial illustrations are all influential since they enhance my attentiveness during dialogues and when attending lessons in class.

Feedback in any communication ensures that the listeners grasp the message being delivered appropriately, hence, considered an important aspect. In light to this, framing feedback or providing appropriate responses to messages while being attentive to detail portrays that the receivers of that particular information comprehended it adequately. Certain phrases are commonly used, such as "What I'm hearing is," or "Seems like you are saying." According to the results from a research carried out by Green & Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2016), the implication of accurate feedback to speaker is that his/her listeners pay ultimate attention to his/her content. The speaker can also utilize other approaches such as asking his/her listeners’ relevant questions from whatever he/she was teaching and using the feedback he/she receives to emphasize on the details and explore the content.  A recent study (Green& Chartered Institute of Public Relations, 2016) managed to establish that coming up with periodic summaries of the content helps the listener to acquire a glimpse of the whole conversation since significant pointers only are the ones that are reflected on to provide a faster recollection of the conversation’s focal points.

The results of the analysis, done on personal skills revealed that in some cases  there were scenarios of being uncompromising, especially when the prevailing opinions contradict personal  verdicts. In this regard, it is essential that one formulate some approaches to ensure that they remain constructively assertive regardless of their peers’ inferences. This will require that one remain persuasive and not prehistoric, given influencing any results requires one to put in more effort and deliberate the judgments of others. In doing so, one will be able not to base their conclusions on past instances that may be void in existing scenarios. Thus, one will be in a better position to prevent disagreements with their peers when having a dialogue (De, 2015).

Johari Window

Another method worth adopting is by identifying and respecting participants’ opinions in a discussion based on their personality as a way of establishing the variances between individual personalities and how they can be beneficial based on the situation at hand (Drury, 2014).

The methods discussed above are crucial in overcoming individual flaws when having a dialogue. One way of establishing them is via procedural implementation and deliverable timelines in any particular setting, given the changing aspects that exemplify a learning atmosphere, including interaction with others. As per the research finding of a study done by Green & Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2016), one will be in a better position to determine the preferred transformation that can ensure exceptional conversation with others.

The process of self-analysis will be pinnacled by drafting an action plan that shall oversee the execution of necessary program aimed at trying to assume the lodged profile. The activities will be Important in perceiving the desired outcomes within the laid timelines as indicated below.

Handling a communication course covering how to create skills in active listening in the course of the first three weeks of the implementation program. This approach will place an individual in a better position as an active listener as one can employ application of positive opinions in the process of relating in a schooling domain. On top of that, one can fit to any domain feasibly (Craig & Martinez, 2016).

To aid an individual in improving any weak areas that might be present after execution, it will be an individual initiative to commence an advanced postgraduate communication program at CQU. The program is intended to contribute positively to building personal career as required in the job market. Such a domain needs well developed and good skills in communication relevant in utilizing any emergent chance.

On top of that, reading of any available and relevant stored documents that comprise of journals and books  rich in mechanisms through which a person can advance his/her skills in communicating. Besides promoting individual communication skills, reading also will bring to light a number of contexts that would demand implementation of these skills and in the long run help in equipping with the necessary skills to fit in any domain. Competence and ability to exercise flexibility with regards to sending and receiving messages is also inevitable in some situations and this is to be accomplished within four weeks.

Necessary Appliance for Development in Personal and Academic Issues

Noting down to record every step in the process is an essential way of keeping a personal account. The journal is expected to give the groundwork for improving where personal progress will not be concurrent with the preconditions. The anticipated results will also guide the process of making improvements to help keep one on the right path.

Moreover, identifying a mentor will be vital because personal assessor will give a sense of direction in the practices necessary to perform. In this situation, it will be an individual effort to utilize the head of the CQU communication. They are likely to be productive in defining cases of consistency with the training timetable and offering aid in identifying areas which require powerful reinforcement.

The Gantt chart can give the deadlines as well as the activities which will be undertaken to achieve the expectations. It can be utilized in measuring what is expected at a certain period because the entire implementation process will occur for two months. Other programs can be undertaken concurrently implying that it can consume less time than planned. After, accomplishing, it will require personal effort to measure the improvement according to personal behavior of interaction with other individuals. A positive implication should be encouraged while the contrary will necessitate that one engage in relevant practices which will aid in eliminating the mistake (Burnard, 2017).

References

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Burnard, P. (2017). Effective communication skills for health professionals. Cheltenham, U.K: Stanley Thornes (Publishers) Ltd.

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Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (2014). Studies in pragma-dialectics. Amsterdam: International Centre for the Study of Argumentation.

Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (2014). Speech acts in argumentative discussions: A Theoretical model for the analysis of discussions directed towards solving conflicts of opinion. Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications.

Craig, S. C., & Martinez, M. D. (2016). Ambivalence and the Structure of Political Opinion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

De, K. E. J. (2015). Assertive religion: Religious intolerance in a multicultural world.