Saturday, September 29, 2012

WK4: Similarities and differences between my evaluations and other people’s



I asked my coworker who is the lead teacher in the preschool class I am assisting and my husband to evaluate my communication. The scores are below.

 
Person who evaluated--- Communication Anxiety Inventory, Verbal Aggressive Scale, Listening Styles Profile

Me   41, 55, People-oriented

Junko(Japanese)---34, 57, People-oriented

My husband(American)---53, 55, People-oriented

 

The scores are slightly different but the categories I was evaluated into were all the same.

 

I have a mild level of anxiety in communication and communication is not a problem but I have some situation I feel unconfident in (public speaking). I have a moderate level of Verbal Aggressive Scale. I have a good balance of respecting and considering other people’s viewpoints, and arguing fairly without attacking people. As a people-oriented listener, I am empathetic and concerned with others but this may interfere with proper judgment by trusting them too much.

 

The surprising thing is that the evaluations are so similar even though Junko and my husband are form different countries and I have relationships with them in different areas. I had expected to find that people from different cultures perceive my ways of communication differently. It is interesting that I can tell why the scores were a little different. I need to hide and overcome my anxiety towards communication at work and I try to have and show my opinions more clearly at work than at home.

 

One of the insights is that from the similar results from people with different backgrounds, I noticed that I slightly change my ways of communication unconsciously depending on who they are. I believe that we need to pay attention to the changes we make unconsciously.

 

The second insight is that there are many ways of communication that are appropriate. By reading comments that were not applied to me too and found out it is not a right-wrong topic but about styles and preferences. I believe that we can learn from other people and choose to use the styles we do not usually use in certain cases if we think these ways will work better.       

4 comments:

  1. Aya,
    I was surprised too with how similar the evaluations were that my co- worker and a long- time friend completed. I have always felt comfortable speaking to groups but having someone else affirm that increased my confidence even more. I agree that there are many styles of communication we use depending on the circumstance.
    Judi

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  2. Aya,
    It is neat how your scores fell in the same category even with different cultures in play. I agree that we unconsciously change how we communicate depending on who and what we are communicating.

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  3. Hi Ayako,
    I enjoyed this assessment assignment. I was surprise that some of my scores were aligned with the evalautions of others. I also agree that effective communication depends on the circumstances of the topics. I enjoyed reading your blog!

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  4. Hi Ayako,

    You gained some great insights regarding your communication skills by comparing the results from your husband and your coworker. By doing so, you have transitioned from an unconscious competence to a conscious competence. Thank you for your reflective and informative post!

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