Sunday, July 27, 2014

Communication/Listening Skills

My blog is posted a little late because I have had trouble with my modem not working and finally giving out and the cable company cannot come until next Wednesday to replace it. It does not matter that I need it replaced yesterday……which I tried to communicate to the lady at the call center in Billings, Montana as she was kind and understanding and apologized to me but they are backed up and cannot get out to me until next week.  So I went to my son’s to download my application assessments and although I did them, my son did and a co-worker friend did, when I went to open up the saved material after competition they are blank. Is this a sign?

The information that I can share is the communication anxiety inventory. I was able to open mine because I did it last week at work.  All three of us scored low and saw that I have no anxiety when I communicate with others.  I feel that is a true representation of me.  The verbal aggressive scale we scored 60 for me, my son 61 and co-worker 65. The listening style, I was in Group 1 and my co-worker scored me there but my son put me in Group 2.

I am curious to see what the differences mean in Group 1 compared to Group 2. I feel good that my co-workers answers put me in the same group because evidently she sees me the same.  I would assume that my children do not think I listen as well as I should. Again these are only assumptions because I do not know what they mean. 

With the type of questions that were asked in the listening survey, I think there are outside influences that effect the way the I listen to others. I think to be fair to the other person I have to be in a situation where we are not rushed in the process so I do not have to continually look at the clock. I need to be n a room behind closed doors to give them my full attention.  I also need to listen to them completely and not finish their sentences because sometimes I do this.

This was a fun assignment. I think it is important to look at ourselves especially in the hopes of improving the ways we interact with people. 

2 comments:

  1. The most important comment you made was how honest you were about when you can appropriately listen and communicate and that is when you are not rushed. Many people will pretend as if they are listening even thought they are thinking about their time limit and then later on it hurts the relationship because there was not proper communication. I also think it is awesome that you enjoy speaking in front of others. I will definitely have to get some pointers from you. I do have some higher anxiety when it comes to speaking in front of others.

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  2. Diana,
    I agree, it is important for us to understand ourselves and improve in areas where we may be lacking in an effort to be effective communicators. I too find myself finishing other peoples sentences. The thing that annoys me the most is being distracting by others when I'm engaged in conversation with someone else.

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