Managerial Skill Development Practice Activity Reflection - ORGA 330

This assignment presents a student's reflection on practicing managerial skills, specifically focusing on communication. The student chose to practice these skills with a friend facing relationship and career challenges. The practice involved active listening, empathy, body language, patience, clarity of thought, and conflict resolution. The student describes how they applied these behavioral skills, emphasizing the importance of non-verbal communication, empathy, and patience in fostering a productive conversation. The student listened attentively, allowing the friend to express their feelings fully before offering advice, demonstrating the practical application of the learned skills. The assignment includes references to relevant academic sources that support the concepts discussed.

Managerial Skill Development
Managerial Skill Development
Student Name:
Institute Name:
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Managerial Skill Development
Communication Skills are defined as a set of interpersonal skills which help to facilitate
information across all mediums. It not only involves speaking clearly, but it also involves
listening to the other person. Communication skills are an essential part of everyday life as it
helps us in interacting with people, and conveying our emotions and feelings effectively
(Cohn, 2013).
I first practised this skill with a friend of mine. The setting of this practice was pretty
informal and real. The situation so happened was that my friend was going through some
tough time in regards to his relationship and career. He wanted to talk to me and get my
advice; in addition, he wanted to relieve himself of all the building emotions inside of him as
well. thus, it was required of me to not just give him good, decent advice, but to also listen
to him. We met at a coffee shop near our university for this.
During this conversation, I was wise enough to be aware of my actions and apply these five
Behavioral Skills Checklists to our conversation: body language, patience, clarity of thought,
conflict resolution and empathy (Young, 2017). These are essential for all the conversations
we have as it ensures that we are present there with the person. Body language plays an
important role. Non-verbal communication is essential since it involves a lot of gesturing.
The other person naturally gets the vibe and thus, it is this Behavioral Skill that actually
brings in comfort. Empathy again is essential. Not all people want sympathy, and this is
where the differentiation between both of these terms happen. Empathy is basically helping
the person out, being emotionally available and empowering them rather than just putting
them down with good words (Sinclair, 2017). Patience is essential, especially while listening.
A lot of time we wish to speak, interject or cut the other person (good intentions of course)
however, it is not needed till the other person asks us to do so. Clarity of thought a nd
expression is also essential. A clear and well-structured thought helps in the proper idea
being communicated to the person. Having incorporated all of them, or at least be aware to
do so in my interaction with my friend helped our conversation go a long way (LaBrot &
Radley, 2017).
I was able to not only listen to him, but also I was able to understand the approach I need to
take to help him out. It was quite obvious he was going through a tough time, and right now
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Managerial Skill Development
it was important for him to realize that he already knew the solution. As he was speaking to
me, I listened to him uninterrupted, allowing him to be completely empty. After this, I asked
him if he wanted my opinion. Only when he said yes, I proceeded to explain to him his real
problems and how was he supposed to be taking care of it. This made out conversation a lot
fruitful than it would have been otherwise.
References
Young, R. (2017). Top 7 Behavioral Skills to Develop Within your Employees. Retrieved from
https://prosky.co/talkingtalent/articles/behavioral-skills-employers-should-develop-
within-their-employees
Cohn, K. H. (2013). Developing Effective Communication Skills. Journal of Oncology.
LaBrot, Z. C., & Radley, K. C. (2017). A Component Analysis of Behavioral Skills Training for
Effective Instruction Delivery. Journal of Family Psychotherapy.
Sinclair, S. (2017). Sympathy, empathy, and compassion: A grounded theory study of
palliative care patients’ understandings, experiences, and preferences. Palliative
Medicine, 31(5).
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