Communication Evaluations

           

This week’s assignment was eye opening and a little surprising. I learned that I am not as strong a listener as I thought I was. Through these evaluations I learned that I listen differently depending in the area of my life that I am in. When I am at work I am very time oriented and consider my time to be very precious. I do not have time for dilly dallying and playing games. I come across as wanting people to state their needs and move on while with my friends I am a little less controlling I am still unnecessarily harsh and can be insensitive to others needs. All this time I thought that I was a good, people oriented listener who took the time to consider others and their feelings but my friend and colleague did not feel the same way. In all other aspects of communication my scores were very similar to theirs and if they varied it was only by a point or two. I am fair and not aggressive when listening to others and I do not force my opinions and views on others while still being able to share them freely. These scores did show that I can be a little anxious when speaking to large groups which is something that I am aware of and work at fixing every day. Other than my listening skills all other assessment results were just as I expected they would be.

Through this week’s assignment I have learned that listening is just as important as speaking while communicating with others. If I do not hear and consider the point that someone else is making then I cannot communicate my opinion of their idea effectively. This is important because while working with children and families I have to be able to listen to how the parents want their children to be raised and how they want them to learn. If I do not pay attention to this then I will have unhappy parents and could cause for a highly stressful classroom with a lot of animosity and unhappiness.