University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 2

Jakob Lowery

Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424

Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman

March 19th, 2022

Introduction

I am taking Communication for Project Managers. In this class we discuss how we can
improve our communication skills to improve our careers. Part of this class's grade includes
Pearl Diving Assignments that are used to reflect on our communication skills. I gained valuable
insights on my own communication skill and personality during the First Pearl Diving
Assignment. I will use the Second Pearl Diving Assignment to explore various concepts
associated with professional communication. In this assignment, I will write an email with bad
news, I will discuss my favorite concept from weeks 5-8 in the course, I will handle a difficult
situation with my boss, I will tell a personal story about adversity, and I will discuss the Big Five
Personality Assessment. After I complete these tasks, I will reflect on how I can better improve
my professional communication skills to become the best communicator possible.

Email to Team

SUBJECT: Performance Review

Dear Team,

I am reaching out to address the disappointing performance of this group during Q4 of 2021. We
have posted record low profits, revenues, and customer experience. Here is a summary of our
quarter to quarter numbers last year:

● Q4 revenue decreased 25.62% from Q3

● Q4 profits decreased 35.74% from Q3
● Negative reviews increased by 77% during 2021

As you all may know, I have worked for this company for 35 years. This has been the single
worst quarter to quarter performance from 2021. We have had similar results during the
2008-2009 financial crisis, and we succeeded at bouncing back. I am very proud of this team and
hope that we are able to rise to the occasion, support one another, and support our families.It is
important for the future success of the company that we improve our overall performance and
regain confidence in ourselves. For this reason, I am going to outline the positive reinforcement
rewards that will be given for 2022. The first award will be for the top three Associates with the
highest quarterly sales. Each of these Associates will be awarded a 5% increase in their
commissions for the quarter. The next award will be a team award. If the department reaches the
goals set forth by management, we will have a quarterly expenses paid happy hour trip! Finally,
the single most improved employee this year will receive a promotion.

I hope that this email finds you all well. I hope that we can continue to improve our company's
metrics. I hope that we can grow into healthy and wealthy individuals!

With Respect,

Jakob Lowery
jwlowery2000@gmail.com
Concept from Group Activity

During weeks 5-8 we completed multiple group activities to learn about how to
communicate in a professional setting. The activity that I found most helpful was when we were
tasked with drafting an email that is addressed to a specific personality type. Each group was
given a specific situation and their boss's personality. Based on these parameters they were
tasked with writing an email that would communicate the situation to their boss in the most
respectful manner. My group was given the scenario that we were going to miss a strong
deadline for a project. The project was due in a couple days, and we had to let our boss know that
it was not going to be done. In addition to the scenario, we were told that our boss has a
dominant personality. This personality is best described as someone who is very assertive and
controlling of situations. Also, a dominant person likes to know the facts of the situation and
does not like emotional appeals.

My group decided to draft an email that stated the issue upfront and provided little
excuses. We also decided that we would apologize, tell our boss why the situation happened, and
how we would not allow the situation to happen again. Once we completed this email, we
received valuable feedback from our professor and decided to tweak our email. For instance, we
learned that a dominant person is most afraid of being taken advantage of, because of this we
place a lot of emphasis on how we were going to fix the situation. This ensured that our boss
would feel as if we did everything in our power to complete the task on time.

From this assignment, I learned the importance of understanding people’s personalities. It

is important that you take the time to reflect on what a person is worried about before you make
any decisions about your communication. For instance, if someone is easily influenced by
emotional appeals, you should probably use an emotional story to connect with them. On the
other hand, if someone is dominant, you should show them the importance of your relationship
with them. I will apply the lessons I learned from this activity to help build better professional
relationships. I will do this by observing how my colleagues interact with my boss. I will observe
what works and what doesn’t work. This will allow me to develop an understanding of my
bosses personality types. Once I have this understanding, I will use the skills that I learned in this
activity to gain my bosses influence. This will give me an advantage over my coworkers because
I will have a better relationship with my boss. Also, I will have more influence over the people
around me. This can only benefit my professional and social life.

A good example of applying this strategy is what I have been able to accomplish during
my tutoring job. During this job, I deal with all types of students. I deal with students who try
really hard to learn and I deal with students who try really hard to cheat. I have applied the
method that I learned in this group activity to one student in particular. This student is studying
fluids engineering, and it is evident that he has cheated his way through online school. This is
clear in his understanding of basic engineering principles. The student will come into the tutoring
space and cause a large distraction for everyone that is studying. He talks about things that are
completely off-topic. Additionally, his main goal of tutoring is not to learn, but to get the answers
to his homework. After analyzing his personality, I have realized that most of his motivation to
be annoying comes from his need for attention. Once I realized this, I started to ignore all of his
off-topic communication. I will only talk to him if he has a question related to the homework or
exams. This has led to great benefits to our communication. He is starting to do better in his
class. Also, he comes into tutor, greets me, and sits down. This reduces his distraction to other
students. I am greatly thankful that I was able to learn these skills and apply them to my
professional life to make it easier.

“Idiot” Scenario

I am going to discuss how I would handle it if my boss called me an “idiot” in front of

my colleagues. In order to make the proper decisions on how to handle the situation, I will use
tactics discussed in Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High. The first
tactic I will use to discuss the situation is to establish mutual purpose. For example, I will say
“Hey Boss, I want to acknowledge that we are working as a team and we are not enemies”.
Once those mutual purposes are established, I will be able to engage in open dialogue to ensure
that my boss knows exactly how I am feeling. This is because “mutual purpose is the entry
condition of dialogue” (Patterson 69). By doing this, I will ensure that my boss feels safe in the
conversation. I will not jeopardize our relationship for hopes of “winning the argument”. In order
to maintain open dialogue, I will make sure that we can both openly express our opinions
without judgment. This will lead to a successful conversation because “at the core of every
successful conversation lies the free flow of relevant information” (Patterson 38). I will tell my
boss that I did not like what he said, and I will allow for a rebuttal.

Once this dialogue is established I will employ the STATE strategy. This strategy is an
acronym for “State your facts, Tell your story, Ask for others paths, Talk tentatively, Encourage
testing” (Patterson 124). First I will state the facts about the situation, “Hey Boss, You called me
an idiot in front of the team.” Second, I will tell my story, “I am not an idiot because I have been
able to do this…” Third, I will ask for other paths. I will ask my boss his side of the story. Once
he has shared his side, I will talk tentatively. I will talk about both of our stories in order to make
each other aware of the reality. It is important that during this conversation I encourage testing. I
will allow my boss to dispute my reality and speak openly. Once I complete the STATE strategy,
I will come to a resolution with my Boss.

Personal Story

Every summer, I travel to Wyoming with my Dad, a 65 year-old, to go Fly Fishing. This
year was a little different, the water level in the river was low and my dad's buddy Tony decided
to come along. The first night of the trip always includes a good dinner at the Wolf Hotel and
discussion of the first day of fishing. Tony and my Dad decided that it would be best to go to a
spot on the North Platte River called Eagles Nest. The next morning, we woke up early and
drove about an hour on two-track dirt roads to get to the spot. The river looked really good. We
put our waders on and started fishing.Within one hour Tony started to get annoyed. “F*** this
spot, the fishing sucks, we need to leave”. Obviously, this is annoying because we had traveled
12 hours the day before, and one hour today to get to this spot. After explaining this to Tony with
explicit words, we convinced him to stay until 12:00 pm. We continued to fish with little success.
It was clear that the water level had impacted the water temperature which resulted in bad fishing
conditions. Once 12:00 pm came around and we decided to cut our losses and drive back to
town.

After hanging out in town for a while, my Dad and I had decided that we were going to
go back out. We had discussed this top secret spot on a river called Big Creek. This river was
about halfway to Colorado and surrounded by the A-Bar-A ranch. This area in Wyoming,
between I-80 and Colorado is one of the most desolate places in the lower 48. In fact it is so
desolate, it attracts people like Donald Trump or the Kardashians. Because of the caliber of
celebrities that visit here, the security on the ranch is impenetrable. Despite this security, there is
a public section of the Big Creek River that you can access via a 10 ft wide dirt road that is 20
miles long. Once you get to the parking lot, you have to wade across the North Platte River
(which is covered in class 5 rapids) and hike a ways to the public section.

My Dad and I arrived at the spot, and it was like fly-fisherman heaven. You could
practically catch fish with your hands. In fact, the fishing was so good that we fished right up
until we had to leave. In Wyoming, there are so many animals that you don't want to drive at
night. This means that we decided to leave a couple hours before sunset. After we packed up our
stuff, I realized that I left my pants at the motel and that I had to drive back in my underwear. My
Dad and I started driving up the sketchy dirt road, and we made it about 10 miles with no
mishaps.

Once we thought we were in the clear, we came upon a large rock in the road. Because
we were driving uphill, we couldn’t go over the rock, so my dad decided to drive around the
rock. As soon as our right tire got towards the edge of the road, the road collapsed. This sent the
truck into a 10 ft deep ditch. The truck ended up hung up on a fence post, with the back two tires
off the ground. My dad hit the gas and it sent the truck deeper into the ditch. I remember seeing a
look on my dad's face that was unlike anything I had seen. It was the look of “oh f***, I
promised your mother we wouldn’t die on this trip”. Being the 14 year old that I was, I began to
get angry at my Dad. “C’mon man! How did you do this? We are so F*****. I just want to go
home!” My Dad did not appreciate this and he decided to stay quiet. This was probably the best
decision of the whole day.

We climbed out of the car to assess the damage. It was clear the truck was totaled. In
summary, we were 30 miles from the nearest town, we had no cell phone service, we had no
food, we were out of water, we were 10 miles from the A-Bar-A, we had a couple hours until
dark, and our only friend Tony was probably taking a nap. At this point we were up against the
wall. We decided that our best choice was to leave the car on the side of the road and start
walking to the A-Bar-A. We walked for what seemed like 10 hours, but probably was like 3
hours. We crossed the North Platte River, and arrived at the A-Bar-A Howdy House. At this
point we were trespassing a high security ranch, and I was in my underwear. Surprisingly, the
people at the A-Bar-A were gracious enough to give us a ride back to Encampment, Wy. Once
we arrived in Encampment, where we were able to call Tony. Tony then picked us up and drove
us back to the motel.

That night, we went to the town's only restaurant, and the bartender told us about
someone who could help us. The next day we met with Bider and he agreed to help. We drove
back to the spot and pulled the rental car out of the ditch. Luckily, the car was able to drive, and
we got it back to town. From this event, I learned that if you come across hard times, the most
important indicator of success is your network. If it weren’t for the A-Bar-A, Tony, the bartender,
or Bider. My Dad and I could have been dead. In times of adversity it is important that you rely
on the people around you.

Big Five Personality Assessment

In order to gain valuable insights on my personality type, I completed the Big Five
Personality Assessment. This test scores your personality on five different personality traits:
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. I received scores of
65% openness, 58% conscientiousness, 65% extraversion, 48% agreeableness and 19%
neuroticism. I received the highest scores on openness and extraversion, while I received the
lowest score on neuroticism. The test defines openness as someone who is “creative,
adventurous, and intellectual”. I agree with this description of me because I have always
identified as someone who is highly creative but thinks with great intellect. I also enjoy going on
adventures and experiencing the world. In addition to the openness trait, I also scored highly on
the extraversion trait. The test describes this trait as someone who is willing to put effort into
their social group for “social rewards”. I am surprised by this result because I describe myself as
an introverted extrovert. As a result of these perceptions about my personality, I would assume
that my extraversion score is closer to 50%. Despite disagreeing with my extraversion score, I
agree with my lowest score, neuroticism. I received a neuroticism score of 19%. This trait is
defined as “a person's tendency to experience negative emotions, including fear, sadness, anxiety,
guilt and shame”. I agree with this score because I usually do not experience these emotions. I
have learned the skill of reassurance in order to maintain a positive outlook. This has helped me
in my professional career with setting and accomplishing goals.

In addition to the Big Five personality assessment, I have also completed the JUNG
personality assessment and the DISC personality assessment. I summarized the results of these
tests during the first pearl diving assignment. These tests yielded similar results to the Big Five
personality assessment. For instance, the JUNG and Big Five personality tests both gave me a
high extravert score. Also, the DISC and Big Five personality tests scored me as a very intuitive
thinker. In addition to the similarities of the results, there were also differences between the
personality tests. For example, the results of my JUNG personality test revealed that I “like an
environment that is unstructured, and like to keep my options open”. This opposes my Big Five
results. From these results, my conscientiousness score was revealed to be 58%. This means that
I am able to “exercise self-discipline and control”. These tests are different because the JUNG
test says that I enjoy little structure, while the Big Five test says I am good at self-discipline and
control. These results are different, but they may be complementary to each other. For example, I
have good control over my work, and therefore I don’t need someone to tell me how to structure
my work. This is contrary to most people who don’t prefer structure based on their unwillingness
to do a task. I believe that this is evident in my happiness during work. I completed an internship
at Whiting-Turner. This internship was very structured, and I was told what I had to do to
complete tasks constantly. This made me unhappy because I prefer that I create my own structure
by solving problems. I find that I am happier if I am given a task with a goal, but they do not tell
me how to complete the task.

Despite the differences in results of the personality tests, they are valuable to success in
your social and professional lives. The most valuable benefit of taking personality tests is that
they make you aware of your personality. Typically, your friends and coworkers notice trends in
your personality. These trends could be things that are annoying or things that are beneficial to
your relationships. For example, someone that tends to search for conflict will annoy someone
that avoids it at all costs. If the person takes a personality test, then they will become more aware
of their conflict management style and they can try to alter it for each type of conflict. I tend to
run into a similar issue in my personal relationships. I am someone who avoids personal conflict
at all costs. If someone approaches me with an issue in our relationship, I start to get very
defensive. This tends to make small issues last a lot longer than they should. I became aware of
this trait through taking the 16 personalities test. Now that I am aware of this trait, whenever
someone approaches me with a personal conflict, I try my best to handle the conflict. This has
led to success in my personal relationships. I have noticed that my personal conflicts have begun
to be much shorter and less intense. Another benefit of taking these personality tests, has been
the awareness of my teamwork styles. When I work in a group, I hate it when people complain or
say things like, “we're going to fail”. This leads to resentment towards other group members if
they do this frequently. In fact, I will begin to create space in our relationship by not talking to
my group. I learned about this trait through the Big Five Personality Assessment. In this
assessment I received a score of 19% neuroticism. This means that I tend to not have negative or
anxious thoughts. The Big Five Personality Assessment will be greatly beneficial to my future
groups, because I am aware of my adverson to negative thoughts. Even if I don't relate to my
team members, I shouldn’t dislike them for their anxieties.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Second Pearl Diving Assignment was greatly beneficial to reflect on
my communication skills. I was able to learn how to write a crucial email, reflect on my
relationships with the students I tutor, how to have a difficult conversation with my boss, how to
tell a personal story and reflect on my personality. This has been greatly beneficial to learning
about how to become a better communicator. I will apply these concepts in the future to my
professional and personal relationships. Overall, pearl diving and exploring offers great value to
one professional career.
 Works Cited

Faulkner, Michael, and Andrea Nierenberg. Networking for College Students and Graduates.

Pearson Learning Solutions, 2017. Print.

Gallo, Carmine. Five Stars the Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. St. Martin’s

Press, 2018. Print.

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

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019. Print.

Patterson, Kerry. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. New York:

McGraw-Hill, 2012.