Sunday 17 January 2016

Strengths and Challenges in Communicating Blogpost 1


Communication is the act of transferring information from one place to another and the purpose is to get message across to the others clearly and unambiguously. Communicating clearly and effectively is a few skills which are required of us in a professional and business world setting. It is extremely important to have our message being delivered clearly to prevent any devastating effect.

I was able to identify some of my strengths and weaknesses with my own communication. One of my strengths in communications is being an active listener and in non-verbal communication. I am able to focus on the person`s communicating, not only with my ears but also with my eyes and other senses. With that I am able to put myself into their shoes and understand the speaker from their point of view and provide better feedback. For example, a person might tell me that they are happy when they are frowning or staring at the ground and I know that their non-verbal behavior does not match what they are saying. With that observation, I can then act or react accordingly.

One of challenges I face in communication has got to be self confidence. Most of the time, I am not the person who initiates the start of the conversation as I am afraid of saying something wrong which might make the conversation weird. Another problem would be speaking in front of the class as I would become nervous. When I am nervous, speaking is proving to be a challenge as I tend to forget the things which I want to say. 

This would be a good opportunity for me to review and improve on my weaknesses. One of the things which I can do is to enlarge the open area in my Johari window. The open area is the most important quadrant because when people know more about each other, the more productive, cooperative and effective they are when working together. Hopefully, I can be much better at communicating by the end of the course.

            Edited 31/01/2016      

Commented on: Mei Ying, Rati, Angela , Yar Zar                                                                             
Posted by at

15 comments:

  1. Unknown18 January 2016 at 20:54

    Hi Steven

    There is lack of explanation about your strength. Could you please explain more in detail and example about your strength.

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    1. Unknown4 February 2016 at 08:50

      Hello Ya Wen,
      Thank you for your comment. I read through my post again and realized that I have indeed missed out on a few parts, including those that you have mentioned.
      I have made changes to them and you can feel free to provide me with comments/feedbacks so that I can improve on them.

      Delete
  2. Unknown20 January 2016 at 02:46

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Unknown20 January 2016 at 02:47

    Hi Steven,
    Listening is a great strength to possess and is something that I lack of. However, are you talking about active listening?
    For your challenges, I believe that having confidence can be nurtured and with practice I think that speaking in front of the whole class would not be a problem anymore. When I am speaking/presenting to a group of people or in front of the class, sometimes I would think that the audiences are my family or friends. This make me more comfortable to speak and engage them. Another thing is to fully prepare for the topic that you will be speaking to them about. Maybe you could think from the audience perspective and think about what topic would they not understand, what question would they ask and how you should answer them.
    This is just my opinion. Hope you find this useful.

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    Replies
    1. Unknown21 February 2016 at 01:46

      Hello Zong Hong,
      Thank you for your comment. I like your idea of treating your audience like your family/friends instead. I think that would certainly reduce the amount of nervousness during presentation. And I would also need to think in terms of the audience perspective to fully prepare myself for any presentation. All of this I would take in to practice. Thank you.

      Delete
  4. Goh Meiying21 January 2016 at 05:03

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Goh Meiying21 January 2016 at 05:03

    Hi Steven,
    I do believe listening is a good strength that you have.
    Regarding your challenges, maybe you should ask a friend to help you in improving in your nervousness in presentation. I works for me. Whenever if I have up-coming presentation in front of a crowd, I will practice my lines with my friends and change my speech along the way.

    Hope this will help you! :)

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    1. Unknown21 February 2016 at 01:24

      Hello Mei Ying,
      Thank you for reading my post and providing me with feedbacks on how I could improve on my presentation skills. I would certainly take on your advice and practice for my presentation before hand so that I can be more comfortable talking to a group of people.

      Delete
  6. glamerous21 January 2016 at 18:50

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Brad Blackstone25 January 2016 at 01:05

    Thanks, Steven, for this initial post. You have the main parts of the assignment essay, from the intro mentioning the value of effective communicating to the brief discussion on your strengths and weaknesses. This essay clocks in at around 210 words, so it is a tad short, which might account for the fact that I feel that you don't give enough attention to the points that you discuss. What, for example, leads you to believe that you are an able communicator when it comes to listening? Do you have "proof" of that? How can you show that you are able to empathize with others?

    And the same is true for your weaknesses? Where does your nervousness manifest itself? You explain your lack of confidence a bit---but where might that come from?

    Here are some other comments:

    1) Communicating clearly and effectively are.... >>> (subject-verb agreement error) Communicating clearly and effectively IS....

    2) One of my strength >>> (one of a group) One of my strengths

    3) some of my strengths and weakness >>> some of my strengths and weaknesses

    4) ...I am able to understand the problem from the person`s point of view and provide better feedback. >>> (confusion between definite and indefinite article -- an /_a or the)
    I am able to understand A problem from another person`s point of view and provide better feedback.

    5) who initials the start of the conversation ... >>> who initiates a conversation

    The beauty of the blog is that you can revisit your post and edit. I look forward to your next draft.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brad Blackstone3 February 2016 at 21:00

    Thanks, Steven, for updating your post.

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    Replies
    1. Unknown3 February 2016 at 21:06

      Hello Brad,
      Thank you for your valued feedback on my post, it has provided me with a better idea on how i could improve on my language structure. I have edited and made changes accordingly. Feel free to provide me with any further feedbacks on how i can improve on my latest post. Really appreciate it

      Delete
    2. Brad Blackstone9 February 2016 at 22:55

      Thanks, man. By the way, could you list the peer posts you commented on?

      Delete
    3. Unknown21 February 2016 at 01:48

      Hello Brad,
      Sorry for the delay, I have edited and added the peer post which I have commented on. Thank you.

      Delete
  9. Unknown21 February 2016 at 01:29

    Hello Yar Zar,
    Thank you for taking time to read my post and providing me with feedbacks. I think your advice is good and it is true that I have not thought about the johari window when communicating and maybe that adds on to my weakness. But now that you have mentioned it. I would look into that and improve along the way. Thank you

    ReplyDelete

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