Developing Communication Competency for Professional Success

This reflective essay focuses on developing communication competency for professional success. The importance of body language in communication is discussed along with other contextual elements like choosing the right medium of communication and face negotiation theory. The essay concludes with the author's plan to improve their communication skills for future career aspirations.

Running Head: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION COMPETENCY
Topic- Reflective practice assignment- Developing your communication competency
Student name
University name
Author notes

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“Regardless of the change in technology, the market for well-crafted messages will always have
an audience”-Steve Burnett (The Burnett Group)
The essence of effective communication is the ultimate language of leadership.
Communication is a skill that could be sharpened through continuous learning. An individual
learns to communicate with others right from its birth (Argyle, 2013). Though the essence of
organizational communication is quite different from general communication but still the
importance is no lesser in both forms. Communication skills differentiate a leader from the rest
of individuals (Bunglowala & Bunglowala, 2015). The way of presentation, use of tone,
selection of words and many such criteria play important role in enhancing the effectiveness of
the message to be communicated. The technological advancement has made communication
easier but the core importance of communication has not been changed anyhow. Developing
communication competency is of utmost necessity for shaping professional career front
(Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). Candidates with good communication skills always have an
added advantage over the other ones.
The reflective essay, as a part of practice assignment submission paper, is a scope of
developing my communication competency and will show how well I am able to use the
communication concepts in practical world of professionalism (Castaneda & Bateh, 2013).
Future career development and improved line of work are the two main aspects covered by this
reflective summarization. My learning on communication concepts in the ten-week module is
elaborated here focusing on one core concept. I have considered body language as superpower
communication concept. Lots of research have been made on the importance of body language in
communication and here I will share my feelings about the same with support from my academic
understandings and other relevant sources. Though it is an essay but a fixed structural format is

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maintained to increase the effectiveness of the purpose of it. First the communication concept is
chosen, which I already chose. Then its importance is explained in relation to my career
developments. Elaborate literary review on the concept of body language is made and then two
other relevant concepts are considered for my future career aspirations. I would like to choose
interpersonal communication and group and team support for the same. Discussion of all relevant
points will lead to final conclusion that will just provide the jest of the whole writing.
So, body language it is, from week 2’s communication concepts. Body language is
simply the non-verbal form of communication. Physical behavior is used for conveying message
and information (Dinică, 2014). If body language and expression do not match with the intended
message then the effectiveness of the message gets decreased considerably. There need to be
good sync between the message and the body language expression. Body language includes in
itself facial expressions, body posture, gesture, eye contact, touch and use of space (Ellis &
Beattie, 2017). It is the unspoken element of communication that we mostly use to reveal our
true feelings and emotions. Good communicator has the ability to decode these signs and read
them easily. It helps us getting the true message, good or bad it may be, and increase our
awareness on the subject (Fletcher et al, 2014). Chances of mis understanding is lessened if the
message with correct body language is interpreted on the right time. Body language may be
under our control at sometime but it may be involuntary in many cases. Negative body language
is very fatal both for the individual perceiving the message and also for the overall organizational
success (Gupta, 2013). Positive Kinesics increase the ease of communication and provide better
end results. On a wider not it could be said that body language and their interpretation varies
from culture to culture and from country to country. There is no universally acclaimed body

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language set (Kaushal, 2014). It is simply a sub-set of non-verbal communication that
complements the verbal communication by increased level of engagement and interaction.
The physical expression set includes facial expressions, body postures, handshakes,
breathing, gestures and physical movements. Facial expressions integrate eyes, eyebrows, nose,
lips, and cheek movement. The expression of face and body need good synchronization as both
are directly connected to the brain. A fake smile has no crinkles around the eyes whereas a
genuine smile develops crinkles around the eyes. The pupil size of the eyes gets automatically
widened up when some interesting news is on the table and it shrinks when the information is
less interesting. Blinking of eyes also suggest whether the person has interest in the topic or not.
Less blink suggests more attention and vice-versa (Lemonnier, 2016). Maintain eye contact is a
sign of confidence and interest on the topic or on the person being communicated. Emotions
could be well defined by body posture. Standing and sitting postures could provide meaningful
emotional message. A person sitting straight, forward leaning, and head nodding with discussion
implies they are more open to discussion and are listening actively (White & Gardner, 2013).
Many instances of such postures are important in communication and need to be well-acquainted
with for future interactions. Gestures are basically movement of body parts like hands, fingers,
head, arms and legs (Wooffitt, 2017). Folded arms are not a welcoming gesture and crossed arms
suggest insecurity and lack of confidence. Relaxed hands mean confidence while clenched hands
indicate sign of stress and anger. A number of handshake styles are used in communication like
finger squeeze, bone crusher and the limp fish. Rapid breathing indicates nervousness and deep
breathing suggests relaxed impression. Proxemics is another important part of non-verbal
communication and influence body language to a great extent (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). It is
categorized into intimate distance, personal distance, social distance and public distance. Social

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distance needs to be maintained in case of professional fronts. Also tone of voice and attitude do
matter in kinesics. Speaking in public needs active audience engagement as well. Here two-way
communication is the most effective one. Feedback provided help in improving the process of
communication. No one is born perfect but constant practice leads to perfection. The two
models of body language include cultural equivalence model and the cultural advantage model.
Cultural equivalence model predicts that individuals are equally compatible in understanding
both ingroup and outgroup emotions (Mehrabian, 2017). On the other hand, cultural advantage
model depicts that same race individuals are more open to communication through body
language in comparison to other races. What I learnt from this discussion is that body language is
undoubtedly one of the most important aspect of communication and correct interpretation of
body language will help in achieving professional goals in the most convenient manner (.
Consideration of other two contexts that are equally important as the previous one is
choosing the right medium of communication and face negotiation theory. Communication is
incomplete without the use of a correct medium. A medium is a channel that transmits the
message from one person to the other (Ting‐Toomey, 2017). More the number of mediums the
more the message is likely to be distorted from the original message. That is why choosing the
right medium is very important. Medium may physical and mechanical and could be e-mails,
newsletters, personal letters, word of mouth, meetings, grapevine, billboards, magazines,
intranet, SMS and social media to name a few. Channels could also be either push or pull based
on the sender and the receiver (Sharifian, 2013). Considering the organizational context, for
example, the finance manager needs to send the current years’ budget update report to the
finance team. It is obvious that he will use e-mail for delivering the message to the team, instead
of going to each one and personally give them the message (word of mouth). Both time and

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effectiveness need to be considered while using the channel. Face negotiation theory is one of the
most interesting area of communication theories. The tradition of face theory is socio-
psychological and socio-cultural with the core purpose of conflict management (Korobkin,
2014). Face is the image of the inner self that projects two sides of positivity and negativity.
Positive face is liked and admired by others whereas negative face is free from others. Face need
is the desire to be associated or disassociated with others. Face has cultural dimension of
individualism and collectivism, where people like to be unique and separated from community to
focus on personal needs and desires, and the other where people love mixing in groups with give
and take process adaptation (Olekalns & Adair, 2013). The act of facework is a framework
where actions need to be connected to face needs and wants of the self and of others. High and
low contexts of communication play important role in cultural interaction. In low context culture
meanings are more obvious and direct and in high context culture meanings are embedded in the
context (Pruitt, 2013). Combing all perspectives, it could be said that face negotiation theory
supports better conflict resolution and help in avoiding the same to a great extent. What I can
deduce from here is that each and every element of communication plays their role in adding to
the effectiveness of communication, and future aspirants like me need to consider them
holistically so that their practical applicability in professional upfronts lead to success only.
Thus, to conclude what I can say that learning about communication and their contextual
elements has provided me ample scope of improving my knowledge of the same. The division of
the module into ten sections has provided me ample scope of learning every detail of
communication. Now I am confident enough that I will be able to develop my communication
skills further and make myself ready for the tough challenge awaiting ahead. I have learnt about
the present culture and communication trend in organizations and big corporates, and will

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prepare myself according to the market demands for professionals. I will improve my weak areas
and will convert them to my core strengths so that number of opportunities increase manifold.

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References
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Bunglowala, A., & Bunglowala, A. (2015). Non verbal communication: An integral part of
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Castaneda, M. E., & Bateh, J. (2013). Strategies for multicultural management: Communication
and a common set of values. Journal of International Education Research, 9(1), 41.
Dinică, R. C. (2014). Non-verbal communication-Indispensable complement of oral and written
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Ellis, A. W., & Beattie, G. (2017). The psychology of language and communication. Routledge.
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White, J., & Gardner, J. (2013). The Classroom X-Factor: The Power of Body Language and
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