Developing Interpersonal Communication Skills: A Reflective Journal

This reflective journal details a student's exploration of interpersonal communication skills over eleven weeks, covering various aspects like communication barriers, rapport development, listening skills, assertive techniques, and non-verbal communication. The student reflects on their learning journey, providing practical examples from their work experience at Telstra to illustrate the application of these skills in real-world scenarios. The journal discusses strategies for overcoming communication barriers, building rapport, improving listening abilities, and enhancing assertiveness. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of verbal and non-verbal communication, and the impact of cultural differences. The student analyzes the effectiveness of each skill, outlining how these skills have contributed to their professional growth and success, including improved performance and positive relationships with colleagues and superiors. The journal concludes with a summary of the skills learned and their practical applications.

Interpersonal
Communication

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Interpersonal communication refers to a process to exchange of thoughts, ideas,
informations or emotions between two or more people through verbal or non verbal methods. It
often includes face to face conversation, facial expressions, body gestures, etc. There are,
majorly, four types of interpersonal skills- verbal, non-verbal, written and listening. In this
report, there is a discussion about my identification and learning of skills during each week
(Socha, 2019). During week 2, I learnt about communication barriers and ways to overcome
them in order to achieve communication competence. Week 3 made me understand rapport
development along with the approaches to relationship development so that I can develop
strategies related to rapport and relationship development. During week 4 and 5, I learnt about
listening skills and strategies to develop the same. I also learnt that listening and hearing are two
different things and can not be used interchangeably which helped me to frame strategies to
improve my listening skills. While 6 and 7 week of the journal helped me enhance my assertive
skills. Week 8 of the journal helped me increase my knowledge about verbal communication
while week 9 about non-verbal communication. Week 10 made me realize the the impact of
cultural differences and week 11 the powers and silence in relationships. This report will include
a detailed analysis on how I applied the skills and the effectiveness of these skills in my life at
present. At last this report also summarizes and outlines the skills I learnt from the journals along
with their application.
TASK
Week 2: In this week, I learnt about communication barriers and ways to overcome them.
Communication is an important skill used everywhere especially in workplace during meetings
and presentations. An effective and confident communication leaves a lasting impact on
everyone's mind and helps in impressing clients (Berger and Roloff, 2019). Telstra is one of the
reputed company of Australia and I am glad that I got an opportunity to work there. As
mentioned above, communication is an important and quite a useful skill, I used it over there
quite wisely. Firstly, I kept in mind whatever I was taught and was confident enough during the
interview. This impressed the HR, as people do seem usually nervous. This was a plus point and
I passed the interview and got the job. Further, after few months, my senior called me in his
office and asked to prepare for an urgent meeting which was going to be held within 5 hours. He
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chose me as he knew about my communication skills and he like my work too. I didn't want to
disappoint him so with utter confidence I presented my presentation in front of the clients and the
conference hall was all applauded to the echo.
Week 3: In the third week, I learnt about rapport development so that I can develop
effective relationships. Interpersonal relationships are quite important in the life of an individual.
Rapport development means development of mutual trust, affinity with someone and
friendship(Hargie, 2021). It is beneficial in every sense for the individual for his career, studies,
friendship, maintaining relationship, life – everything. I feel lucky enough to learn the rapport
development skill through the journal and apply the same to my life. This helped me build good
relations with people both in as well as outside the organization. When I was appointed in
Telstra, it was essential for me to make good relations with my colleagues. My knowledge about
rapport development helped me a lot during that phase of my life. The week 3 of the journal
made me understand the relationships of humans in a much deeper sense and the human
behaviour too. Good knowledge of human nature helped me make friends with the people
working there quite easily and threw a lasting impression on everybody's mind. Everyone was
eager to know the secret behind the rapport I developed in such a short span.
Week 4: The 4th week of the journal was quite interesting where I learnt about the
listening skills and the basic thing that hearing and listening are not one and the same thing but
are the two different things. Listening is an important skill as it provides an individual with more
knowledge (Braithwaite and Schrodt, 2021). Effective listening may help an individual resolve
many of his doubts during studies. During the journal, I was taught, how to be patient enough to
listen properly in order to get the most benefit from it. Every skill has its own importance and
values. Hence, listening too, has its own values. I never knew that listening skills could be this
important until I started working in Telstra. Listening to your senior and obeying to them is very
important. During the training, I used to make notes which I consider necessary. This helped me
enough later during my work period and this habit of mine of making notes is a part of listening
skills. The notes helped me improve my work which impressed the higher authorities as they did
not expected such a quality work from a fresher. I was filled with joy when my boss told me if
my performance continues, he will definitely think about my increment after 6 months.
Week 5: In week 5, I have summarised whatever I have studied during the fourth week
of the journal. Further, I have improved my listening skills by recognizing the barriers to this
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skill and finding out the ways to overcome the same. All this helped me building my career in a
strong manner. Listening skills were helpful during the meetings also. Whatever the higher
authorities used to say, I used to listen to them patiently and observe them as how they present
themselves and their presentations during the meetings. This observation and listening is very
essential to give presentations in future and as I mentioned above I was chosen for the
presentation of an urgent meeting, all this helped me over there. Thus, the work of all the skills
are quite inter connected and inter related. It is from listening that we can grab more and more
knowledge from people (Rubin and Graham, 2020). Our seniors are, definitely, have more
knowledge that's why they are our senior. I personally think that we should never miss an
opportunity to learn from our seniors as they are our teachers after universities. Telstra gave me
some really sweet and nice higher authorities whom I respect much and who appreciate me and
my work and are always there with me to guide me cause I am the one who always listens to
them patiently and obeys the same.
Week 6: The week 6 of the journal was all about the development of assertive skills.
Learning how to become assertive could be a beneficial part of an individual's career. This skill
can help you to earn respect in your workplace from your peers. Assertiveness refers to the
ability to stand up for your belief or for what you believe with a calm and positive attitude (West
and Turner, 2018). Some people are assertive by birth while others are not. This is also like other
skill which can be developed. Thus, being assertive shows your positive attitude, calm nature as
well as your ability to stand strong. The development of assertive skills was one of the most
beneficial things ever happened to me. While working in Telstra, there were various days when I
had to use this skill. Let me tell you one of my experience. During the meeting, my senior
misunderstood and thought that I was using my cell rather than being attentive. Instead my pen
fell down and as mentioned above, I had a habit of making notes, I was looking for the pen. He
made me stood in front of everyone shouted and scolded me, asked me not to use my cell, switch
it off and be attentive as that meeting was very important for the organization. After the meeting,
I went to him in private and politely told him the truth and requested him to not do so any such
thing in future without listening to me.
Week 7: In week 7 of the journal, I enhanced my assertive skills as I think these are very
important for the growth of my career and bright future. Improvement of these skills enabled me
improve my work and gain respect from my peers at the workplace (McNatt, 2020). I enjoyed
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very much in week 6 and was sure enough that week 7 would be the same when I came to know
it will also be about assertive skills. I was quite excited for the journal, I still remember. While
working in Telstra, how I expressed my assertiveness to my senior authority is mentioned
above. This helped me earn respect and build trust of my senior. He was impressed with my
polite nature and how I handled the nature calmly instead of panicking even after I was not
wrong. He was a down to earth man who apologised for his mistake too and that was, obviously,
quite awkward. But my assertiveness helped me once again build healthy relations with my
colleagues and higher authorities.
Week 8: The 8th week of the journal taught about verbal communication, its use and the
importance of the same in the life (Oktary, Marjohan and Syahniar, 2019). Verbal
communication can be defined as the language both written and spoken. Teaching, singing,
telephone calls, television commercials, etc. All these are clearly examples of verbal
communication. Verbal communication is very useful and is an essential part of an individual's
life. To lead life effectively and efficiently, one has to communicate verbally. I never thought
about the use of verbal communication this deeply, before the journal. The journal made me
realize the importance of verbal communication in our lives and the organizations. Telstra is one
of the reputed companies of Australia where data is of great importance. Telstra takes care of its
data like a baby and does not like if some one does not take care of the data properly. Being an
employee of Telstra, I have observed that the higher authorities are quite strict with the
information provided. My senior provided me with some information and asked to make a
presentation. He asked me to be careful enough to not let the data leak out as it was very
important for the organization and its leakage could cause millions of loss to the company.
Week 9: The 9th week of the journal deals with the impacts as well as implications of
non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication refers to the body gestures or facial
expressions or ways of communicating other than verbal communication (Kelly, 2018). Raising
of eyebrows, smiling, shaking hands, etc., are some of the examples of non-verbal
communication. The journal helped me understand the concept of non-verbal communication
well, its impacts and implications in a nice and efficient manner. When I went to give the
interview in Telstra, I maintained the eye contact during the whole interview. This impressed the
HR other than my confidence as this made me unique and different from others. This was again a
plus point for me and attending the journal again proved beneficial to me. This helped me pass
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the interview as confidence and your body language says a lot about yourself and also the first
impression is the last impression. Also my head nods and smiling face during meetings ensure
authorities that I am attentive and listening to whatever is being said and understanding the same
which makes him feel good.
Week 10: In week 10, I learnt how cultural differences as well as diversity can have
considerable impacts on communication. As it is not possible that an organization have all the
employees of same culture, there will be people from different cultures (Hatfield, 2018).
Different culture can be a reason for the conflict in the organization while working in a team,
especially, as different people have different interpretation of the same word (Grebelsky-
Lichtman, 2021). There were times when I had to work in group with other employees of the
company. I observed that the cultural differences made them interpret the same word in a
different way and the conflict arose. A team member was saying something funny about black
cast he owned and the other member thought he was making fun of the black community. He got
angry and shouted in front of everyone. However, the other man was wise enough and made him
understand what he actually meant. All this made me realize that a misinterpretation can be so
dangerous. Then onwards I have decided to think twice before speaking, especially in front of
people who belongs to other community.
Week 11: Week 11 was quite different from the rest of the weeks. It was all about the
usage of silence and power in relationships. Positive silence is the key element for the lasting of
strong relationships. Healthy silence shows comfort in a relationship. At times, individuals may
need break from their relationship and from each other as well as from their verbal
communication (Scharp, 2022). They just want to be in their own personal space and silence
helps them do so. During my working period in Telstra, after almost a year, there were Christmas
holidays announced by the company. On that account I asked my boss for a loan for my house.
At that time he said he will think and will give me answer two days later. He also ordered me to
ask him about his decision after two days. After two days, when there was last working day, I
went to my boss and asked for his decision. He looked at me, smiled and went away. This
positive silence ensured me that me loan had been approved.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that there are various interpersonal skills necessary
for an individual to lead their life in order to meet their career needs. Communication skills,
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assertive skills, rapport development, listening skills, etc., are some of the interpersonal skills
developed and used by people for their bright future. There were 10 weeks in total from week 2
to week 11 where I learnt and developed many skills which helped me in achieving the goals I
aspire, especially, my a job in my dream company Telstra. I have always wanted to work there
and the journal made it all possible by making the journey easier for me. I am glad for joining the
journal as I have developed various skills and knowledge. While working in the organization, I
have gained experience and learnt various new things and how to deal with situations and several
problems. Tackling problems is an art which can be performed nicely by balancing the
interpersonal skills in a better way. In the above report, various importance and use of
communication skills, assertive skills, listening skills, rapport development, verbal
communication and non-verbal communication has been discussed. Further, the cultural
differences can dangerously affect the communication between two or more people can be
concluded from the above report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Berger, C. R. and Roloff, M. E., 2019. Interpersonal communication. In An integrated approach
to communication theory and research (pp. 277-292). Routledge.
Braithwaite, D. O. and Schrodt, P. eds., 2021. Engaging theories in interpersonal
communication: Multiple perspectives. Routledge.
Grebelsky-Lichtman, T., 2021. Discrepant Verbal–Nonverbal Profile Theory: Making Sense of
Contradicting Messages in Interpersonal Communication. In Engaging Theories in
Interpersonal Communication (pp. 143-157). Routledge.
Hargie, O., 2021. Skilled interpersonal communication: Research, theory and practice.
Routledge.
Hatfield, E. F., 2018. Narrative learning using podcasts in interpersonal
communication. Communication Teacher, 32(4), pp.236-242.
Kelly, A., 2018. Social skills: Developing effective interpersonal communication. Routledge.
McNatt, D. B., 2020. Service-learning: An experiment to increase interpersonal communication
confidence and competence. Education+ Training.
Oktary, D., Marjohan, M. and Syahniar, S., 2019. The effects of self-confidence and social
support of parents on interpersonal communication of students. Journal of Educational
and Learning Studies, 2(1), pp.5-11.
Rubin, R.B. and Graham, E. E., 2020. Measures of interpersonal communication.
In Communication research measures (pp. 21-36). Routledge.
Scharp, K. M., 2022. Interpersonal Communication. In Communication in the 2020s (pp. 75-84).
Routledge.
Socha, T. J., 2019. The Future of Positive Interpersonal Communication Research. In The
Routledge Handbook of Positive Communication (pp. 31-40). Routledge.
West, R. and Turner, L. H., 2018. Interpersonal communication. Sage Publications.
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