Evaluating Communication

The one thing that surprised me the most was the assessment done by my supervisor at work. She scored my communication anxiety inventory lower than my husband and me. My husband and I scored it fairly closely. I guess this means that my anxiety is hidden and I present myself better than I thought I did. My self-esteem and self concept do not exactly match how someone else sees me in my professional life. She does not know me on a personal level. She knows how I interact with children, parents, colleagues, her and the administration of the school. She also sees how I participate in staff meetings. In some of these cases, I do feel a bit of anxiety but I guess that she sees that I am well informed, articulate and confident. My self-concept is not quite as strong in my own head. In some cases, I feel as if my non verbal cues and body language give me away. I guess in her eyes, I present myself well in all interactions. I feel some self confidence boost.

This week I learned that the way we view ourselves may not always be how others view us. I learned that my behavior fits the situation that I am in at a given moment in time and in a particular context. In the aggressiveness scale, I rated myself the lowest of my husband and supervisor. My supervisor and husband rated me ten points higher. I rated myself low and they each rated me moderate. While moderate is still acceptable, I see that it is an area that I might want to look at for improvement and a goal. Our text was very interesting this week. I learned that how we communicate has a lot more to do with how we feel about ourselves than I ever realized. How we feel in any given situation will dictate how we communicate. Knowing ourselves will help us both professionally and personally.

I also learned that first impressions are very powerful. We cannot be too quick to judge a person just on an initial encounter. We come into every situation with a set of schemas. We have to engage in conversation, look for verbal and nonverbal cues, ask questions and be an effective listener. That will help us to know a person. This information will help everyone in their personal life and professional life as we are coming in contact everyday with children, families, colleagues, potential friends and others in the early childhood field. We are learning that we must truly learn and understand the people we communicate with. Competent communication will help us to be successful in all areas of our lives.

I learned through these assessments that our comfort level, our listening style and our verbal aggressiveness all contribute to being an effective communicator. Improving our skills in these areas will help us both in our professional and personal life. We will be able to make our points clearly, listen effectively and monitor our behavior while maintaining respect and consideration for other people and their points of view.