Rebekah Wilkins

A. Brousseau

COMM 1010

08 February 2020

How am I at articulating my needs, opinions, views, or concerns?

           Articulating the things that I need or the things I feel is very difficult for me to do. I can

articulate well with my immediate family members but struggle to speak with friends, bosses,

peers, and others, about the things that I feel. The reason that I hold back is that knowing that the

listener could be at discomfort, disagreement, or make them go out of their way to alter their

thoughts or actions after hearing what I have to say. This is one of my biggest flaws as a

communicator and can sometimes affect the way I interact with others.

           An example of my poor articulation skill is an event that I am planning with several other

people. The event I’m planning is a cultural event which means there are many discussions as to

what is culturally acceptable for us to promote and display and what is not. My coworker and

one of the team members have a conflicting view as to whether we should encourage attendees to

wear cultural attire from a country that is not their own. My opinion/view could change the dress

code for the event as I am the head of the committee, however, I feel uncomfortable addressing

this problem with my coworker and explaining this to the group.

My coworker feels that everyone should be allowed to wear what they feel like wearing

even if it is not from their culture. My team member feels that it would not be appropriate and

could be deemed disrespectful by some people who traditionally dress in their attire and the

clothing have a high cultural significance. I agree with my team member that some people would
feel like their culture/country is not being represented correctly by someone who might not

understand the tradition. Knowing that this is how I am, has also been able to boost my

adaptability and empathetic skills positively.

How am I as a listener?

My listening skills are probably the second-worst communication skill I have. I received

a score of 37 which is not the best but is not the worst either. Many of the things on the

assessment list are things I know I do but do not realize I do until time has passed. I am very

good at paying attention and do not have to fake it, however, I get easily distracted by my

thoughts or noises. I also tend to look at the delivery of the message and let that alter the way I

perceive the message.

What aspects of my nonverbal behavior are effective? What can be improved?

One of the most effective aspects of my nonverbal behavior is my ability to create a sense

of openness about me where people feel comfortable to ask me for help. I attempt to walk around

with a smile at least half of the time or smile when I know people are approaching me to help

them know that they are welcome to talk to me even though I am shy. My eyes are also telling of

my emotions. As I mentioned before, since I hold back a lot of my feelings and needs, they tend

to show through my eyes which can be effective for the people around me to understand what I

am feeling and how to approach the situation.

A few issues with my nonverbal communication are the times where I forget to smile. I

tend to have an unhappy-looking face naturally and it tends to drive many people away from me.

I walk fast anywhere outside of my home with a neutral face and people may conclude that I do

not have time for them. I typically remind myself that I need to try to keep somewhat of a grin on

my face so that I do not urn anybody who wants to talk to me away.

 What are my communication strengths?

According to the assessments, my best communication skills are that I am self-aware,

adaptable, empathetic, and cognitive. I am self-aware which seemed accurate based on the

questions asked in the assessment. I am usually good at steering clear from judgments of other

people although it occasionally crosses my mind, however, my cognitive skills come into play in

those situations and I begin to envision several reasons why the person I “judged” might be the

way they are. I usually try to keep it as positive as possible.

 I believe that I am very empathetic. I am always worried about other people’s feelings

physically and emotionally and am constantly going out of the way to ensure that the people who

surround me, including strangers, are comfortable. I also worry about my pets, friend’s pets,

family’s pets, and other animals I see when I’m out. I am constantly catering to my cat. Although

I am not completely sure how my interactions with my cat truly benefit my communication

skills, I am always worried about the way he might feel if I don’t let him take up the whole bed

or if I leave for more than an hour for work or class. This also correlates with adaptability which

is also another skill that I ranked well in. I adapt quickly to my situations to please people. I can

adapt to the benefit of others and myself.

What are my communication weaknesses?

           My communication weaknesses according to the assessment are my ethicality and

listening skills. I have a hard time with ethicality because I work towards the benefit of people. I

have a big problem with lying to feed people what they want to hear and it sometimes works to

the benefit of them and myself, but there are several times where it happens and although it

resulted in a positive situation, many people felt that the positive outcome resulted in a cheated
situation and sometimes I agree. The question where it asks if it was ethical to lie to a child about

fictional characters being true was probably the question to rank the lowest. I can see the

negatives to lying to children about these fantasy beliefs, but I feel that the positives outrank the

negatives. That is the major drive to my questions with ethicality, which is when the positives

outrank the negative.

What is it like to have a conversation with me?

           Conversations with me usually consist of asking questions to the person I am

communicating to about the situation to determine their needs, wants, ideas, or thoughts about

their surroundings. After gauging these things, I will begin to sculpt the conversation in a way

that will benefit the person. After conversating back and forth for a while, I will begin to shape

the conversation to be a mutually balanced conversation where both I, and the other person will

have compromises, shared ideas, and views instead of it being one-sided. My demeanor is

somewhat awkward so I will occasionally add a little humor or bring a few different scenarios

into the conversation to create a sense of relatability, but it varies from conversations and who I

am talking with. However, my main key to communication is adapting to what the other person

has to say or is going through and having a high level of empathy to create a better understanding

of the other person and to create appropriate responses.