Personal Communication Style Reflection
Communication Anxiety Inventory
I have been diagnosed and prescribed medication for an anxiety disorder. I have battled with social and generalized anxiety for a very long time. This affects the way I see myself, second-guess my decisions, and deludes my perceptions of how others view and see me. I was not surprised by my own personal results of this test. I scored a 71 and wound up with an elevated level of communication anxiety. I asked my partner to take the test and was surprised to see that his score for me was lower and he perceives me to be more confident in myself than I believe I am. This raised my confidence level and allows me to see myself as an effective communicator. Knowing this will allow me in the future to be more confident in my words and to keep reminding myself that I am intelligent and I do have the right and the motivation to speak up for myself and what I believe is important.
Verbal Aggressiveness Scale
I am a strong believer in the saying "words hurt." Although words may not cause direct physical pain it causes internal pain, self-doubt, self-depreciation, and in some instances self-harm. I began my journey working with young children in the hopes to teach kindness and empathy at a young age to make the world and society a more loving place. This being said I need to follow my own words and teachings as well. In this course, we have discussed the importance of not acting on or communicating with strong emotions. This is something that I am working very hard to overcome. My trigger words and various insecurities have played a huge impact on how I react to confrontational conversations. To teach and move up in my professional journey, I need to learn to let go and not attached all my built-up aggression and fear behind certain words or phrases.
Listening Style
My results on my listening style surprised me I never thought of myself as being action-oriented I mainly thought of myself as people-oriented. I received a score of 27 with all of my results. I thought I would be more empathetic and act on others' emotions instead of being an active problem solver. I believe these skills will help me thrive in making helpful and efficient business decisions however in my personal life and in my classroom environment I want to work on being more people-oriented and listening to others' feelings, hopes, and dreams without trying to plan a solution in a rushed manner.
Kirsten,
ReplyDeleteI also have been diagnosed with anxiety and when people take notice of it, it makes me feel even more anxious about their perception of me. I appreciate your honesty and love that your partner was able to build your confidence. Hang in there and know that there are people here that can help and are always wiling to listen. (me!) Thanks for sharing!