Blog Week 4
· Think about the similarities and differences between how you evaluated yourself as a communicator and how others evaluated you. What is the one thing that surprised you the most? Why?
The one thing that surprised me the most was that my husband evaluated me similar to what I evaluated myself. I speak out a lot more when I am around him so I thought that my communication anxiety would differ from his. Another surprise was how different my husband sees me as a communicator than my coworker. My coworker sees me more comfortable in a larger group than myself and my husband. I need to work on my public speaking and becoming more comfortable with it because my job requires me to speak in public often and in large groups. I am working on gaining confidence to help calm my nerves down when speaking in large groups!
· What other insights about communication did you gain this week?
I learned that I am a people pleaser and that could hurt me in my professional career. I am too trusting and need to keep my guard up a little because if not then it could bite me in the butt J Knowing this will help me in my professional life because I will be more aware of letting people run over me. I have also learned that I do not need to judge a book by its cover! I need to get to know someone before I make assumptions. I will be more aware in the future of doing that. Understanding both of these will help me in my professional and personal life.
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteI used to be like you...a people pleaser. I would worry if I could not make everyone happy all the time...especially when communicating with them. I didn't know how to say, "No." Noe I am much more confident with myself and no longer let others make decisions for me. I learned how to say, "No," in a respectful way and have since been enjoying myself more and I think others show me much more respect as a result of my being straight-forward and assertive when I stand up for myself.
Karen,
ReplyDeleteI am a people oriented person also. My trusting dispostion leads me to believe others have positive intentions, it often leaves me disappointed or betrayed. I still prefer to be optimistic than pessimistic and assume ill intent. Perhaps I need to increase my awareness of nonverbal cues and the incongruety of words and behavior?
Dear Karen, Kim and Wendy
ReplyDeleteWell aren't we just all peas in a pod? I too am very trusting and despite being hurt repeatedly, I tend to pick myself up, dust myself off and console myself by saying 'I am bigger than this'. Wendy, after watching the youtube video you shared on 'Who Took My Cheese?" I have decided to step out of my comfort zone and make my own sign "What would you do if you were not afraid?" I know for sure that I would be more involved in sharing my knowledge, but there is always this niggle of self-doubt and what if I have it wrong feeling? I guess these fears stem back to my school days where we had to stand up in class and present prepared and unprepared speeches. I hated standing in front of the class. The stress would overwhelmed me and caused me to go blank. I always felt so incompetent. I cannot believe that these feelings still have such a huge impact on my life. I also need to learn to be respectfully assertive, just as Kim suggests. Wendy, I don't know if a greater awareness of nonverbal cues will solve our ability to predict if others have good intentions or not. I think our issue is that we let it bother us when people let us down or abuse our trust. I think we need to persevere despite our disappointments and always have hope that somehow, somewhere, someday the light will go on for these people. If there was a recipe to follow, we would be living in Utopia!