Self Reflection on Communication Skills and Improvement Plan

This essay is a self reflection on communication skills and includes an improvement plan. It analyzes the author's communication style using 5 diagnostic tools and identifies areas for improvement. The essay includes a literature review on communication theories and concepts.

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This essay is self reflection of my communication depending on distinct areas such as
assertiveness, perception, verbal communication, and nonverbal communication for the analysis.
I have used 5 diagnostic tools which are related to the communication to determine my skills in
each area of communication. The findings of the scores from the diagnostic tools will assist me
to determine the key communication areas issue areas that can be improved through various
practices after implementing the action plan. The two key communication issues, in exact terms,
are the low tolerance for disagreement and public speaking anxiety, especially, when presenting
a talk with a group of strangers. This essay comprises of the scores of my communication for
each diagnostic which proves that my comprehension of the outcomes of the diagnostic tools as
they pertain to my personal situation. This essay also includes the reflection on the interactions
which I have had in one year or past 12 months that are relevant to the issues to be addressed
based on professional and personal interaction. Depending upon those interactions, I can easily
identify the two key communication required to be addressed. This essay comprises of the
literature review, which focuses on the concepts and key theories which prevailed to the
communication issues (McCroskey & McCroskey, 1988).
Through this process of reflection, I will fine tune my knowledge on specific and discrete
communication. I will implement various shifts gears that will assist me to transfer my insights
in the future to input my learning in the communication style. I will gain the knowledge and
experience through activities and practices that will make speed and remarkable enjoyment
through different stages which will help me to improve my communication skills, address the
issues, and sharpen my sensors which are natural. I will implement the practices and activities
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determined by making efforts to deal with the communication issues through distinct activities
which I will be writing in the action plan after the literature review section (Ozmen, 2010).
To analyze my communication style and skills I have used 5 different diagnostic tools to
determine my response in different communication situations and interactions. I have used the
Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale as a first tool which includes a series of
questions, determining the self recognized and comprehended communication situations that
build the setting for an idea, statement, event, group, dyad, public, meeting, in terms of which, it
can be fully comprehended and evaluated by the respondents such as strangers, acquaintance,
and friend. The second tool which I have used to determine my communication was nonverbal
immediacy scale which assesses the importance of behavior or cues of the person that indicate
the positive feelings of the individual towards another person in a certain meeting, situation,
circumstance, or an event. The third tool which I have used was a personal report of intercultural
communication apprehension which was used to tackle the communication in the context of
intercultural or different cultural paradigms. The fourth tool which I have used was the
Talkaholic scale which finds compulsive communicate. The fifth and the last tool I have used is
the tolerance for disagreement which deals with high argumentativeness of the people with the
people who have low argumentativeness. In the end the measure of each tool was calculated
which assisted me to determine my communication skill and style and the areas in which I need
to improve to deal with people and consequently to communicate effectively (Ellis, Pike, &
Carmon, 2016).
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I have analyzed a set of items which are relevant to communicate and are proposed to me as a
subject for self assessment through the self perceived communication which assisted me in
measuring my communication style. Through this self reflection method, I have analyzed my
scoring of communication, and I found this tool as appropriate to direct my self perception in
distinct situations and the matters of the impact in different situations, where I have \found no
reason to fear the negative situations from my answer. I have answered all the questions
mentioned in the tool with the truth factor. I have also followed the strategy which comprises of
the communication where I need to answer effectively. This tool has also measured my behavior
in performing the task to reflect the aspects of communication competence (York, 2015).
After using the first Diagnostic tool, that is Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale, I
have found that I feel confident when I communicate with a small group of acquaintances and
with my friends but have a feeling of anxiety while addressing a large meeting of acquaintances
or presenting a talk to groups of strangers. Moreover, the overall outcome of the tool with 86 as a
scoring reveals that I possess high Self-Perceived Communication Competence (Furlich, 2016).
Although questions mentioned in the questionnaire in the Self-Perceived Communication
Competence tool are not real and can just be used as legitimate and appropriate research strategy
to find out the communication style. This tool has helped me to assess the communication,
apprehension, credibility, and attitude change and quality interpersonal interaction. This tool has
played an important role in analyzing my self-perceived communication competence basis of the
series of questions which relate to competence. This tool is important because it assisted me in
making the decision related to the communication on self confidence rather than actual
competence (Grimsley, 2017).
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The Nonverbal Immediacy Scale outcomes show that I have possessed a low nonverbal
immediacy. The scale of nonverbal immediacy suggests that the score should lie in between 82
to 112 but my score was only 53. That is, I need to improve this area. After the second tool, that
is, Nonverbal Immediacy Scale, I have used the Personal Report of Intercultural Communication
Apprehension (PRICA) tool to assess the apprehension in different cultural paradigms. The
overall score of 14 in PRICA tool shows that I have low apprehension and require the knowledge
of distinct cultures to communicate effectively with the people coming from the distinct cultural
paradigm. I have found from the scale that my thoughts get jumbled and confused when I
interact with people from different cultural paradigms and I get nervous when I engage in group
discussion with people from distinct cultures. This tool proves that I need to improve my
apprehension aspect. The forth diagnostic tool proves that I have a score of 34 which describes a
borderline talkaholic person (UNSW, 2016). The last diagnostic tool that I have used was the
tolerance for disagreement with a score of 43 shows that I have a score of 43 and I need to make
the score higher and improve this area to communicate with a group of acquaintances or
strangers with I strongly disagree with their opinion without showing the anger (Carr, 2001).
This will help in improving my areas with a relevant ability such as intercultural communication,
debate, international business, diplomacy, and leadership. The score of moderate tolerance for
disagreement makes me understand that I have maintained across different situation which is not
directed by others. I have also analyzed that improving the tolerance for disagreement would
assist me to manage the conflict process of action by speculating the negative interactions with
people with procedural and substantive disagreement (Crocker, Klopf, & Cambra, 1979).
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I would like to share the interactions which I have had in past 12 months or 1 year in which I
have had used my communication skills. The first interaction which I remember was when I was
presenting I talk to a group of strangers while giving a seminar on the latest technology. I have
found that I felt anxiety and look away or over from the people while talking to them and have
tried hard to avoid the eye contact with the people or strangers due to the low nonverbal
immediacy. This was due to the anxiety or fear I have while giving a seminar to the group of
strangers. Prior to the seminar, I was feeling less authoritative, less believable and less confident.
I feel that this has happened because of low immediately (Moon, 2001). Although, I was aware
that avoiding the eye contact with people or group of strangers will make them feel distracted or
not interested in the seminar and making an eye contact with the people while providing the
seminar will bring a sense of involvement and help me to convey my objective or goal on a
personal level. This makes the people in the seminar transform from passive attendants to active
participants and I believe that the anxiety I felt in the seminar due to my first seminar with a
group of strangers with differing cultural paradigms which accounted for a lack of eye contact. I
believe that this issue needs to be resolved so that I can bring more confidence in me to deal with
the people different cultural paradigms (University of Birmingham, 2015).
The other example of the communication interaction in which I faced the communication issue
was due to the tolerance for disagreement. This has happened because the technology on which I
was providing a seminar was very new to me and the people in the seminar have different
queries or opinions on the technology. However, I have tried to convince the people with my
opinions with bringing a sense of disagreement. Thus, I believe that I need to improve this
communication style to bring value in areas such as leadership and implement the professional
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strategy. I believe that the behavior of disagreeing agreement is a sense of pressure or strain that
results from internal inconsistencies and I would like to gain more knowledge about the
cognitive dissonance which will help me to disregard the evidences intentionally that leads to
contrary to the beliefs or opinions of the group of strangers (Rahmani & Croucher, 2017).
The proponents of social identity theory suggest that the individual who get a sense of identity
and have a sense of self esteem depend upon their relationship in different acquaintances and the
individuals are highly motivated to contribute to the group because of a sense of belongingness
and self worth membership in the group. It has evinced by the proponents that the resilience
includes behavior, thoughts, and actions, that can be gained through the knowledge by the person
and can be implemented by anyone and resilience is not considered as a trait that all the people
must have. Thus, the resilience is contemplated as an important method which results to well
being of the people. It has been studied by the proponents that if the resilience is properly
implemented in development, training, and learning, it will help the individual to improve their
self development. The Mccroskey and Wheelers have also suggested that the conflicts and
disagreements are not the same thing by explaining the concept of tolerance for disagreement.
They have suggested that the disagreement is contemplated as differences in the opinions but
does not always leads to conflict but, however it triggers the conflict. They have also suggested
that when the conflict occurs, there is a low degree of relationship between the individuals which
can lead to any issue (Birney, 2012).
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The Mccroskey has also argued that the individuals avoid entering into the conflict and is there is
a difference in the particular degree to which the conflict can be managed by the people and the
tolerance to disagreement. The mccroskey also argues that the difference in the individuals with
low and high tolerance of disagreement by arguing that the people with no tolerance of
disagreement are more susceptible to the conflict while the individuals with more tolerance for
disagreement are impenetrable to conflicts (Alter, Chion, Cox, & Holert, 2010).
It has been studied by the Henley that the nonverbal immediately or non verbal communication
is described as what the postures of the people and the body movements of the people clarifies
the things to the other people by using the voice fluctuations, facial expressions, touching,
gestures, eye contact, etc. The non verbal communication provides the individual with the
capability to elucidate the non verbal competence. The non verbal communication includes the
eye contact and emotions, facial expressions, voice fluctuations, and moving around the people
while in a meeting or in a presentation, etc. The nonverbal immediacy describes precisely the
physical and psychological association of people with others (UNBC, 2011).
It has been evinced by various proponents that the individuals who possess the acting skills are
more effective to the behaviors and other roles that contemplate to the process of positive
learning. The nonverbal immediacy provides an important behavior of the person that has a
strong effect on various aspects of learning and motivation. It is comprised of the psychological
and physical associations between the people of different cultural paradigm and different groups
through behavior. It is recognized by psychological and physical distance reduction in the
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interaction of people while communication. The different non verbal immediacy elements are
eye contact, body posture, and physical proximity, smiling, etc., which are highly associated to
the effective learning in nonverbal immediacy. The eye contact plays a prominent role in
reducing the distance between the people and brings more closeness and better affection or
attachment among the people through the positive feelings (Sager, 2017).
Anderson amalgamates the functional nonverbal immediacy with different behaviors of
nonverbal communication and led to the development of three distinct instruments known as
generalized immediacy scale, perception of immediacy scale, and behavioral in distance of
immediacy scale. All the three skills will assist in addressing the issues, which are associated
with building both the subjective and objective measures as well as building construct validity. It
has been studied by the Gregersen that the relation between the nonverbal immediacy and people
with anxiety are due to the distinct cultures which brings the immediacy in the behavior of
people (Maughan & Webb, 2001). It has been found that the nonverbal immediacy is higher and
gives more importance while giving seminars or preparing for the presentation as it exist
independently of verbal messages when compared with verbal immediacy. The nonverbal
behavior of the individual comprises of the emotional tone, accent, and the paralinguistic
variables. The components of Mehrabian suggested that there is a different non verbal
immediacy in a communication context comprising public speaking, and teaching, supervision,
and sales presentation in the public speaking like, while giving the seminars. The nonverbal
immediacy includes the intermediate behavior of the individual and the respondent’s views of
credibility persuasiveness and social ability (Cook, 2015).
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The usual picture of the human behavior is due to the disagreement or argument between the
people. That is, the agreements inevitably move away from something when people interact and
form relationship of the behavior of arguments. Various proponents have conducted a plethora of
research. However, these researchers often resulted in the failure to determine the difference
between the argument between negative interpersonal results and purposeful disagreements
which often outcomes to better decisions and positive results (Trent University, 2014). The
researchers have also suggested that the disagreement is distracting and common, but can be
made constructive. Also, they have suggested that whether the results are communicative or
destructive, it depends on the skills which the individual process and the harmony and sympathy
between the people to measure and identify the degree to which an individual can tolerate the
disagreements. They believe that what the person suggests to be true can be measured through
the diagnostic scale of tolerance for disagreement which defines the conceptualization places
which is associated to argumentativeness (Baby, 2016). It is also believed by the researcher that
the people with strong argumentativeness are able to be in charge of the disagreement with other
people who have weak argumentativeness.
After determining the key communication concerns using the diagnostic tools, I have decided to
write an action plan along with the Gantt chart in the documented format. I will follow the Gantt
chart initially for 4 months to tackle the communication style and communication skill concerns.
However, the written Action Plan can be changed as per my improvement after determining the
scores regularly on the diagnostic tools. I believe that this action plan will help me in keeping the
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track on the performance while determining where I have improved throughout the process and
what I have completed and where I can use my already learnt skills (Stephens, 2017). Firstly, I
will use the personal journal which will assist me in analyzing the areas where I need to improve
and what other factors I need to pay attention on tackling the concerns. That is, after the period
of 4 months, the personal journal will function as a tool or a Framework so that I can work on
my future planning process. I will involve myself in the online learning website like British
Council to improve my communication style and communication skills which will help me to
overcome the concerns of fear, shyness, and anxiety. I will also hire a professional mentor for
improving my communication skills. The planning of enrolling in the online website was made
after reading the online reviews of the students who have improved their key areas like words
and rules, coherence and Cohesion, communication, etc. and have gained extensive knowledge
on communication. Thus, I also believe that the role play activity provided by the online e-
Learning website will help me in closing the information gap and help me in improving my
speaking skills along with four key areas which will help me to give the presentation for
seminars with confidence and public speaking confidence with proper eye contact. This will also
assist me in improving my level of confidence to proactively participate in the meetings or group
of strangers or people. The website may also provide me with the guidance on how to diminish
the communication nervousness and speak in public with confidence (Berg, 2018).
I will also implement mental activities and techniques to my action plan to tackle both the
concerns. That is, tolerance for disagreement and nonverbal immediacy. These practices will
assist me in creating a building of visualization in my mind while contrasting the present and
past circumstances. I will try to retain and remember how I reacted in past circumstances and
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how to react in present or future circumstances to diminish the stress level and anxiety (Pattie &
Johnston, 2007).
I will also take help of the YouTube videos on the literature related to communication
apprehension and interpersonal conflict in order to get the knowledge and understanding to
remove the nervousness. I will proactively follow the methods of improvement mentioned in the
video. I will also read the journal article written by CJ Pattie and others, titled with “It’s good to
talk: Talk, disagreement and tolerance” and the article written by Knutson and others, titled with
“Tolerance for Disagreement: Interpersonal Conflict Reconceptualized” (Spacey, 2016).
To improve the ability to change the communication and react in different kind of situations, I
will read the books like ‘Communicating Your Competence’ “Umm . . .: A Complete Guide to
Public Speaking” and “Communication Apprehension, Avoidance, and Effectiveness” by
Richmond, Wrench and McCroskey to improve career prospects. This will also help me in taking
the subtle actions in my body language, to communicate my competence and valuable ideas
(Morgan, 2018).
To reduce the public speaking anxiety and gain more knowledge I will also participate in the
public speaking. I will provide demo presentations to my friends in order to get the feedback
from them as I believe feedback plays an important role either its positive or negative. The
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feedback provided by my friends will assist me to take the prestige decision to improve my
action plan (Williamson, 2015).
It has been scrutinized from this essay that that there are two key communication issues on which
I need to pay special attention to work on both the issues, namely, nonverbal immediately and
the tolerance for disagreement. I have used 5 diagnostic tools of communication to determine the
aspects which arises the communication issues, through the scoring. In the end, I have created an
action Plan will help me in solving distinct communication apprehension so that I can
communicate effectively with the changes and speak in the public which will assist me in
tackling the issues for the tolerance for disagreement and nonverbal immediacy. The literature
review of interpersonal communication has a wide area which will focus on enhancing my ability
of communication competence and communication style based on the results of self reflection
and diagnostic tools.
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