University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 1

Megan Tomasic

Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424

Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman

September 25, 2021

Introduction
Over the past few years as an engineering student at the University of Maryland, I have
had the privilege of learning about technical topics related to physics, calculus, and other
engineering subjects. However, while these are all extremely important and crucial to my
success as a future engineer, I have recognized an important skill that is more personal and quite
honestly, maybe even the most important skill to have in this field. That skill is communication.
Communication is not just essential for project managers and engineers, but all other fields and
majors as well. Students in Communication for Project Managers are required to complete
readings, participate in in-class activities, and use these skills they learn in class and apply them
to the real world. This essay will highlight some of the new topics and subjects that I have
learned about by discussing readings, class discussions, personality assessments, and other
relevant information regarding communication as a future engineer.

Concepts from Readings and Class Discussions

The first interesting concept or technique that I have learned from the readings is the idea
of having free flow and meaningful dialogue. The Crucial Conversations book highlights this
concept in chapter 2. I have learned that meaningful and lasting conversations stem from
personal context. Sometimes I struggle with bridging the gap between someone I have just met
and myself. I find it difficult to get the conversation going if they aren’t very willing to open up
to me. This chapter helped me to understand that promoting this type of dialogue is actually
easier than I thought. To really engage the other person, it is important to draw on their
opinions, feelings, stories, and other personal experiences in order to get to know them better and
have a truly stimulating conversation. I am trying to take what I learned in this chapter and
apply it in my everyday life with other people. I am working towards improving my dialogue by
asking others questions about themselves and provoking them to share their information so I can
gain more insight into why they think that way and what makes them who they are. In this
chapter, it states that those skilled in dialogue do their best to make everyone feel heard and
encouraged to speak up. It is important for a leader to ensure that their team members are being
heard and valued. I am working towards being a more effective communicator and project
manager by utilizing these new dialogue skills and applying them to my everyday conversations!
Another interesting concept and technique that I have learned from the readings is how to
manage speech anxiety. In A Pocket Guide To Public Speaking, chapter 3 identifies speech
anxiety and how to deal with it. In my past, I have always gotten a bit nervous to give
presentations and speeches to large groups. I tend to be alright until right before the speech and I
get a little shaky and nervous to talk. However, once I get going, I feel more relaxed. In this
chapter, I learned that it is important to understand what causes your own speech anxiety so that
you can pinpoint it and try to tackle it head on. I also learned some techniques that might help
me manage my speech anxiety for the future. Some of these techniques include taking short
breaths to regain my confidence, practicing my speech several times, having a positive attitude,
and visualizing success. I know I will most likely always be a bit nervous to give presentations
because I want to be my absolute best in front of peers and colleagues. However, now I have a
great deal of resources and techniques that I can utilize in the future to help manage and
minimize my speech anxiety. I am going to practice my future speeches and practice taking
breaths to calm myself down in the moment. I will also aim to have a positive attitude and a
relaxed appearance when giving a presentation. If I envision success and tell myself over and
over that I am doing a good job, I will hopefully be able to manifest it into reality. These tips
and tricks are very useful, and I am excited to start utilizing them more when I prepare for
presentations and must confront my speech anxiety!
Finally, the last concept and technique that I have learned from our class discussions is
the importance of audience analysis. Audience analysis is researching interests, preferences,
demographics, locations, and other aspects of a group. When giving a presentation or even just
having a simple conversation, it is crucial that you understand who you are talking to. By
analyzing your audience and the key characteristics of your audience, you can better shape your
presentation or conversation and make it more meaningful to them. We also learned about the
cultural iceberg when it comes to audience analysis. Things that are easy to see may consist of
gender, age, economic status, and ethnicity while the things that are more difficult to see are
what truly makes the members of the audience themselves. The qualities that you cannot
identify right off the bat are generally the things that matter the most! When I write my speeches
for various classes, I tend to focus on myself and just delivering the information. However, a
crucial step in ensuring that my message is getting across to the audience is being able to bridge
that gap between presentation and audience needs. We learned about WIIFM (what’s in it for
me) and how if you don’t care to cater your conversation or presentation to your respective
audience, they simply won’t get any meaning out of it. Therefore, audience analysis and crucial
in the success of your presentation. In the future, I plan to incorporate audience analysis into my
planning and making of my presentation. I plan to add a section of my speech or presentation
outline that is dedicated to audience analysis so that I can identify who I am talking to and what
is in it for them. By using this new technique, I am hopeful that I will be more successful in
communicating with my audience and connecting to them on a deeper and more meaningful
level.

Networking
Before I was enrolled in Communication for Project Managers, I used to perceive
networking as a task that only some people were good at and one either had those qualities or did
not have those qualities. However, since starting this class, my perception of networking has
since changed. I am beginning to really realize and understand that networking is not as hard as
I used to think it was. There are various key tips and tricks that I have learned about in this class
that I know are going to better me as a communicator and help further develop my networking
skills.
The most important topic that I have learned about with networking is the importance of
your nonverbal communication. According to our in-class discussions and lectures, it takes 7
seconds for someone to form an impression of you. When I first heard this statistic, I was
shocked and very taken aback. I had no idea that someone had already formed an opinion about
me within the first 10 seconds of me meeting them! From this statistic, I then began to think and
discuss with my classmates, what might affect someone’s first impression of you in that short
time. I discovered that the way you stand and carry yourself can tell a lot about your confidence
and your attitude about the event or conversation you are having. In addition, your clothes and
how you portray yourself at an event (job interview, networking event, casual dinner, etc.) are
very telling. These visual aspects of networking are easily controllable and can really tell a lot
about you, whether you realize it or not. I have learned to adopt these qualities and understand
how greatly they can affect someone’s overall first impression of you, even from across the
room.
 More specifically, I have learned about some other nonverbal communication tactics that
can really make or break a first impression. For example, eye contact and body language are
both very powerful communication tools. According to the in-class discussions, effective eye
contact engages you in a nonverbal “conversation” with your audience. Observing facial
expressions and body language of others can help you adjust your communication and
conversation accordingly. I sometimes find it difficult to stare directly in someone’s eyes for a
long period of time when networking. However, I have realized how important this is because it
ensures them that I am interested, listening, and focused on what they have to say. I have also
noticed that now more than ever, eye contact is a very important skill to enforce when talking
with others. It can be difficult to read their facial expressions when wearing a mask and it is also
very obvious if one’s eyes are darting away when conversing with someone wearing masks.
Your eyes are extremely powerful, and it is very important to remember to control your eye
contact in order to look engaged and participate in the conversation. This goes hand in hand with
body language as well. If one is slouching or turned away from someone talking to them, they
might be sending the wrong impression to the other person. By simply standing up tall and
directly facing the other person, it is clear that they have your undivided attention and are
thoroughly engaged and listening to what they have to say.
Although these aspects of nonverbal communication may seem small and minuscule in
the big scheme of communication, they really do hold a lot of power. I have learned about
posture, attire, eye contact, and body language and how important they are when networking and
selling yourself. In the future, I plan to pay more attention to these small details and applying
them to my real-life experiences in networking and I hope to see positive results with my
networking abilities, as well as future first-impression building!

DISC Personality Assessment

Communication influences and affects many aspects of life, both professionally and
personally. The DISC Personality Assessment is a test that allows you to determine your DISC
type and personality profile. The four DISC factors are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and
Compliance. The test is designed to analyze your personality by calculation your personal DISC
profile based on your everyday life and behavior.
After taking the DISC Personality Assessment, I discovered that I am socially oriented.
The order of my DISC factors from highest to lowest was influence, dominance, steadiness, and
compliance. The results said that I have a strong self-motivation to get to know people in all
walks of life and that I have natural enthusiasm for my self and others. I do agree with the
results from this assessment, and I have been previously told that I have some of these qualities.
Nearly every personality test I take, I tend to score and generate a result that says that I am a
positive and optimistic person. As I have taken more and more personality tests, I have gained
insight to this and have learned that it is a big part of who I am. I also am going to work on
being more self-aware of my personality type as an influencer. I plan to use this knowledge of
my personality type and apply it in the real world. According to the test, I am naturally
enthusiastic and willing to learn about others and their projects and ideas. I am also a positive
and optimistic person and willing to hear everyone out. I hope that in the future, I can use these
personality characteristics to my advantage and apply them in the real world. As a project
manager, it is important to be an approachable person that other team members are willing to talk
to, be honest with, and share their thoughts and ideas with. I hope that I can use my traits as an
influencer personality type and that they will benefit me and shape me into a more effective
communicator and project manager.

Conflict Management Styles Assessment

In addition to the DISC Personality Assessment, we also were tasked to take the Conflict
Management Styles Assessment. This test would generate results and determine which of the
five conflict management styles we fall under (collaborating, competing, avoiding,
accommodating, and compromising). After taking the test, I learned that my preferred conflict
management style was tied with accommodating and compromising being the frontrunners. The
conflict management style I would like to work on is competing. I have found this test to be very
accurate. When it comes to confrontation or problems, I tend to deal with them using a
negotiator approach. I like to compromise and make everyone happy. I think this quality comes
from the fact that I am a middle child in my family at home. I had to appease both an older sister
and younger brother on the daily. Thus, I had to sit in the middle seat in the car, or I was the one
that mediated and kept the peace between the three of us. My conflict management style of
accommodating and compromising has helped me not just in my personal life, but also
professionally. When a problem arises, I am the one that gathers all the information and tries to
determine the solution that will least impact everyone and cause the least amount of turmoil. On
the contrary, I am not a great competitor when it comes time to conflict management. I like to
negotiate, but I will rarely express my opinions boldly and forcefully. This can be hindering to
my effectiveness as a communicator because my thoughts or ideas might be correct, however, I
am not bold enough to speak up. For example, this summer I worked for a general contractor,
and I noticed something off about one of the drawings. I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t
confident enough in myself, however, I was correct. This is an example of how my conflict
management style has hindered me and my effectiveness as a communicator.
In the future, I plan to enhance my ability to address and resolve conflict by utilizing
specific techniques such as speaking up and raising questions. This summer, I learned the
importance of asking questions and asking others to explain what they were doing. I was able to
learn so much by simply asking a question. In my professional career, I plan to speak up more
and voice my opinions when possible. I am not always one to speak up often, however, I am
going to work hard at simply just saying what I think or asking questions about other people’s
ideas. By doing this, I will not only be working towards being a more effective communicator,
but I will also be learning a lot in the process.

Yung Personality Assessment

Finally, after taking the DISC Personality Assessment and the Conflict Management
Styles Assessment, I also completed the Yung Personality Assessment. This test determines the
personality you have, the Jung types you associate with, and how your psychological type will fit
certain kinds of jobs. It “measures your preferences for dealing with and relating to people,
processing information, making decisions, and organizing your life” (“Jung Personality Test”).
After completing the assessment, my results were ISTJ: Introvert-Sensor-Thinker-Judger. I do
agree with these results, and I think they are very accurate to my personality type. However,
typically I tend to score as an extrovert ambivert on the personality tests that I take. This result
caused me to reflect on the last few years and how I might deal with challenges and social
interactions differently. During the pandemic, things were isolated and remote for quite some
time. I am beginning to wonder if that time has affected my personality and shaped me more
into an introvert instead of an extrovert. In addition, my Jung personality is very similar to my
DISC results. Some of the nicknames used to describe my Jung personality are strategist and
protector. I think these go hand-in-hand with my DISC results. I like to plan and strategize how
to tackle problems and work out solutions that benefit everyone. I am also very protective of
others and want them to feel encouraged to speak up and be heard. These tests taught me a lot
about myself, and I am going to now take this new knowledge with me into the real world in
hopes of improving my communication skills both in the work force, and life in general!

Conclusion
In conclusion, I have learned a great deal about the importance and necessity of good
communication among coworkers, friends, peers, and just everyday life in general.
Communication for Project Managers has demonstrated the value of good communication and
how effective communication ultimately leads to success in any engineering endeavor. In this
class, I have learned numerous techniques and skills through class discussion, weekly readings,
and other group activities. In just a few short weeks, I feel as though my communication skills
have improved and I am broadening my horizons and betting myself in the world of engineering.
I am hopeful for the upcoming weeks and excited to learn more about effective and successful
communication to apply these newly acquired skills to my everyday life!
Megan Tomasic 9/23/21
 Accommodating and
Compromising

Competing

I can practice this conflict management style by working

on being confident in what my thoughts and opinions
are. I tend to shy away from speaking up and arguing
my side of the story unless I am asked to do so. I am
going to try to work on being more outspoken and
confident in my conversations.
 Works Cited

“Jung Personality Test.” 123test, https://www.123test.com/jung-personality-test/.

O’Hair, Dan, and Hannah Rubenstein and Rob Stewart. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking.

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019. Print.

Patterson, Kerry, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. 2nd ed.,

McGraw-Hill, 2011.