Who Am I as a Communicator?

When examining and evaluating my own communication and listening styles, dispositions and skills using the Communication Anxiety Inventory and Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009) and Listening Styles Profile (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009) revealed, that

My level of communication anxiety is mild.

My level of verbal aggressiveness is moderate, and

On listening styles I am a people oriented person

Our behavior generates feedback from others. Therefore, getting my colleague and my husband to assess me using the same measure helped me to judge my performance. Both my husband and my colleague rated me as:

Moderate on the Communication Anxiety Inventory (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009) with a score of 48 and 47 respectively,

Moderate on the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009) with a score of 64 and 61 respectively which was similar to the way I perceived myself, and

On the Listening Styles Profile (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009), they again agreed with my judgment about myself being more of a people-oriented type by putting me in the group 1 category.

It was surprising how our self-presentation and self disclosure speaks volume about us. Both my husband and my colleague agreed that I get concerned over some communication context which was similar to my perception. I feel more confident in one-to-one situations and somewhat uneasy in a larger group. I am able to converse comfortably with a person I do not know very well as well as with a person I just met whereas when speaking in public, I am more tense and apprehensive. They too have observed that complex and technical information are a challenge to me and that I would rather prefer information in an orderly and efficient way. They have also noticed that my communication skills in noticing others emotions and being considerate to their feelings. When situations arise where I have to argue, I make it a point to attack the facts and not the person.

Learning about myself, assessing my strengths and weakness as a communicator through self-evaluation and based on the feedback from others has helped me to evaluate my expectations, execution and outcomes in my communication. It has helped me to be more aware and conscious of the need to develop my knowledge and skills in communication. I have realized that in order to improve my communication skills I need to:

 1. Self-monitor the situation more effectively, by monitoring my self-presentation and the people involved.

 2. To be more sensitive to feedbacks regarding my abilities, knowledge and talents so that I can incorporate such information better.

Effective communication depends on our perception, of our understating of the diversity around us and realizing that each one is unique with their unique variables.