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American University of The Middle East *
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126
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Communications
Date
Nov 24, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by JusticeGiraffePerson656
Introduction In the current competitive business world, having workers with effective interpersonal communication skills is very critical. Interpersonal skills are considered when building a permanent workforce because they help workers work collaboratively, resolve conflict, and create strong relationships. INT 102 professional communication skills with a strong emphasis on communicating and sharing ideas. The paper will discuss my self-reflection on interpersonal skills as learned in class and completing and avoiding as conflict mode of handling my conflict.
Interpersonal communication skills have contributed significantly to my personal development and communication skills. I have interacted with my students throughout this semester, focusing on increasing my communication skills. The course material has provided a fundamental understanding of communication skills, which include nonverbal communication skills, empathy skills, unconscious bias, and ethical communication. I apply the knowledge I have learned in this
course when relating with others, such as colleagues at work, family, and friends. During role-
play activities, I practiced paraphrasing, where I could try translating the information expressed by another student to show that I understood them. Role play activity has enabled me to develop
empathy skills where I would focus on other perspectives to understand their story and viewpoints. Through empathy, I could understand other people's emotions and feelings, enabling me to relate effectively. Notably, during my role-play activities, conflict will arise due to misunderstanding. Sometimes, I would have a different perspective with other students. However, through active listening and paraphrasing, I solved the conflict effectively.
Based on the evidence I acquired from other students and my tutor, I have learnt about my personal growth in communication growth. I received positive feedback regarding my verbal expression. Also, some students suggested that I was confident and assertive during the role play, where I contributed constructively. However, one of the students indicated that I could improve my non-verbal communication since I was not maintaining direct eye contact effectively. Receiving feedback has enabled me to focus on my weaknesses, specifically on maintaining direct eye contact to improve my personal development in communication skills. Even though I have made more progress in developing my personal development, I experience moments of nervousness. I felt nervous after realizing it was my turn to conduct my role play when another peer observed me. Following my African Ascent, I was uncomfortable expressing my points and had self-doubt. However, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing let me calm down and reduce my discomfort. Further, I change my attitude when I change my perspective on role play. Initially, I viewed role play as a class assessment, but I changed my perspective and started viewing it as an essential opportunity to relate with other peers to improve my learning and experience. Even though nonverbal cues help improve communication skills, role-play activities show some instances where some conflict with verbal communication. For example, when many students start their role-play activities, they tend to say they are fine, and this conflicts with tense
body language, thus showing the opposite of what they are saying. Also, nonverbal cues contribute to the expression of inappropriate gestures, which contributes to misunderstanding. For instance, a lack of maintaining direct eye contact makes other students disinterested, thus affecting communication.
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Role-play activities with other student have enabled me to develop active listening skills where I can listen attentively to others and focus on their spoken words to respond effectively. The reason
why active listening is important is that it helps the listener to respond appropriately. According to active listening occurs in the form of verbal and nonverbal behavior. In this regard, active listening allows the listener to monitor nonverbal signals, thus understanding the message. Also, active listening help to show empathy to others, thus showing the individual care for what other is speaking. As a result, active listening can improve relationships because it helps people understand verbal and nonverbal communication. Attending is critical when individuals concentrate on the speaker and observe them. Attending skills are recognized through eye contact, reflecting the speaker's nonverbal communication. Attending is illustrated by facing the client, sitting in an open structure, maintaining eye contact, and maintaining calmness and relaxation. Attending behavior helps to develop rapport and connection with the speaker, thus improving their relationship. However, attending behavior differed from one culture to the other. For example, direct eye contact among indigenous people is seen as intrusive, and it may serve as an invitation to fight. The listener should use attending to be attuned to the speaker's non-
behavior and what they are feeling. Relating to my experience, I can attend to listeners. For instance, in a class setting, I am able to sit squarely, illustrate the open structure, express facial expressions, and lean slightly forward.
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As a potential community worker, I have learnt to use a personal-centered approach to manage communication with my client. A personal-centered approach will help to use empathy, active listening, paraphrasing, and reflecting, which will help solve client needs. Through empathy and
active listening, I will hear client thoughts regarding their requirements and preferences, which will help me focus on what they feel. Also, empathy will help show my client I can perceive their problems as they see them. As a community worker, I will use empathy as a mode of communication to help the client explore their feeling openly and express their experiences and understanding. As a community worker, I will show respect and support for the client's thoughts, experiences, and choices without being judgmental, thus enabling the client to feel safe and comfortable. Following Thomas Kilman's Conflict Mode result, I scored highest in completing and avoiding. I scored 9 in completing, which, according to this tool, I am assertive and uncooperative. Competing conflict mode occurs when individuals believe that their ideas and objectives may be more important and valid than those of other people. This means that a person takes a risk by resisting other people's objectives while being aware that resistance may lead to an ineffective relationship.
According to Thomas Kilman's Mode result, avoiding is another my conflict mode where I scored 9. According to O'Toole(2021), avoiding is described as both incorporative and unassertive since the individual will always postpone conflict while not satisfying other people's concerns. Avoiding conflict mode surfaces when an individual decides to step aside from the conflict and ignore the conflict scenario. The individual chooses not to engage in conflict and may withdraw from the conflict scenario. Avoiding mode is used when conflict is believed to
have no value and when the individual thinks that there is great importance in saving their time and energy for other critical issues. Additionally, avoiding conflict mode is used when a person needs more time to gather facts or even change the setting of the conflict. Example I agree with the result provided by Thomas Kilman tool. I am assertive, and in many cases, I am always less willing to compromise with other people's concerns. Last month, we had a group work where each individual was required to provide their copy. We had three different copies, and I would convince the group members to agree with my work. However, one of the group members resisted, claiming that some of the few points were inappropriate. This led me to provide evidence where I was supporting my argument with scholarly journals, which I used. Even though we completed our group work successfully, I feel that my relationship with that group member was negatively impacted.
I agree with result related to my result on avoiding conflict mode. Avoiding has enabled me to overcome conflict with my younger brother, who believes he must win in every argument. My brother is so competitive and sarcastic, and he will use all means to ensure he wins house conflicts. I always avoid family meetings to solve our conflict, but I will always miss the meeting
because I feel it has no value. In the end, the conflict ended after some time, and I got along with my brother.
In the future, I would like to develop accommodating conflicting modes. Accommodating mode
will help me satisfy my and other people's concerns. Accommodating relationships will help me to avoid risking relationships. Also, this handling mode will help me actively listen to other people's opinions and understand that I cannot always win.
In conclusion, INT 102 has enabled me to develop my communication skills and knowledge of conflict-handling styles. Professional communication skills have provided ground to understand
nonverbal communication skills, empathy skills, unconscious bias, and ethical communication. Receiving feedback from role-play activities has enabled me to focus on my weaknesses, specifically on maintaining direct eye contact to improve my personal development in communication skills. Through the professional communication unit, I have learned avoiding and
completing are key styles in handling conflict. However, I will work toward developing an accommodating conflict mode to consider other people's concerns, avoid risk, and manage my relationship with other people.
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