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Andrea Hansen

COMM 1010-833-303

Professor Stephen Haslam

14 Jan. 2019

Myself as a Communicator

Every person communicates every day of their lives, however, not everyone possesses the

skills necessary to communicate effectively. When participating in any type of activity, I try to

act, and interact, appropriately. I will examine my communication assessment scores, while

describing how I perform as a listener, how effectively I articulate my needs and opinions, and I

will list my communication strengths and weaknesses.

The scores I received from taking the six assessments were accurate, and helped me to

see in which areas I can improve. For example, the test showed that I listen well, however, I

believe I could work on being a more active listener. I sometimes catch myself thinking of other

things when I’m supposed to be listening to someone talk, which obviously is not active

listening. The remaining scores that I received from the assessments showed me that I am highly

self-aware, highly adaptable, highly empathetic, and have excellent perception.

I believe I am self-aware about my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to

communicating. For instance, I feel little pangs of guilt when I realize I interrupted someone

when they were speaking, or when I fail to actively listen to someone. Interrupting people is

something I often struggle with, and have been working on fixing. Whenever I cut someone off

while they’re speaking, I instantly regret it. Then, my mind is flooded with thoughts of how I

need to be patient when listening to others. While I believe it is a good thing to understand that

interrupting people when they’re speaking is not effective communication, I only wish my brain
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would hold off on the thoughts flooding in, about how bad it is to interrupt people. Once I cut

someone off, I begin to spiral and lose the ability to really hear what they’re saying, because the

thoughts of guilt and regret over having interrupted them completely take over. I believe one of

the reasons I interrupt people while they are mid-thought, is because I am impatient. Sometimes,

I feel as though people are not getting to the point fast enough, and so I often attempt to guess

where they’re going with their thought. This is also not a good trait of effective communication,

because it puts my impatience front and center.

I always try to show others than I am engaged in what they are saying by making eye-

contact or nodding when I agree with something they have said. With that being said, I do still

need to work on making sure that I’m not focusing too hard on showing them that I’m listening,

and make sure that I actually am listening. Since I became aware of this, I have been working on

improving it.

Everyone has strengths when it comes to communicating, and I believe that my strengths

are being empathetic and adaptable. When talking with a friend or family member about

something that has been bothering them, whether it be a situation or a person, I often place

myself in their shoes, so to speak, and imagine myself dealing with their struggles. This helps me

to feel the emotions, or think the thoughts, that they may be experiencing. I feel that this helps

me to provide advice or insight about what they could do to improve their situation.

Consequently, if they are speaking to me about a tense situation, I often feel anxious or even

angry on their behalf. Sometimes, I end up living vicariously through them, and will start feeling

stressed or nervous for situations that I do not actually have to deal with. Because of this, I tend

to feel emotionally drained after spending time with a person who has a lot of things, whether

good or bad, going on in their life.

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My ability to adapt can be thought of as both a strength and a weakness. It is a weakness,

in that I tend to mimic others’ mannerisms, opinions, and behaviors, even when I don’t

necessarily want to. Because of this, I am not always effectively articulating my opinions and

views. I have always been the type of person who avoids negative confrontation, and if I have

opposing views with someone, I usually keep my opinions to myself and simply listen to what

they have to say, instead of putting my views into the conversation. Be that as it may, it also

depends on the situation. If I am talking with someone that I am incredibly close with, then I feel

comfortable enough to honestly express my views, even if it means disagreeing with them. It is

also a strength, however, because I am able to read situations, and act accordingly. I am good at

tailoring my behavior to fit the people with whom I’m interacting, and the context of the

interaction. For example, I would not behave the same at work as I would while goofing off with

friends.

Having a conversation with me is, frankly, probably quite easy. I mold my language and

behavior to best fit both the context of the conversation, and the person with whom that

conversation is taking place. I sometimes actively avoid confrontation, even if it interferes with

the authenticity of the conversation. I realize that this isn’t an ideal way to conduct myself when

communicating with others, and am taking active steps to correct it.