Self Reflection Essay Sample

Question

Task: The purpose of this assessment is to provide students with the opportunity to engage in reflective practice, using a range of diagnostic tools and feedback, to identify two key areas of personal capability that can be addressed (improved) to increase their communication effectiveness. This assessment is aimed to assess your ability to demonstrate advanced knowledge in written communication and your skill to autonomously reflect about good practices in workplace communication. Through the process of self-reflection, you will be able to improve your communication competencies through your knowledge of and ability to perform contextually appropriate communicative behaviours.

This assignment has three specific components.

1. Diagnosis and Reflection

Using 5 diagnostic tools related to communication, you are to analyse your own communication style across various areas such as verbal communication, active listening, non- verbal, and assertiveness perception. You will be given the individual diagnostics during the tutorials. Your tutor/lecturer will check and sign-off that you have completed each individual diagnostic during the tutorials. This means that if you fail to attend some or any of tutorial you will not be able to receive and complete the diagnostics.
You are to present the findings of the tools. The scores for each diagnostic must be included in your essay. In doing so you will show your understanding of the results as they apply to your personal situation.
Based upon your analysis of the findings you are to identify two key communication issues that you have identified as requiring development.
Reflect on two recent professional interactions that you have had within the past 12 months. Analyse these interactions from the perspective of the two key communication issues that are identified as requiring development. To what extent are these evident and support the need for personal communication development?

2. Literature review
You are to identify and explain the two issues from your diagnosis and reflection. You are to define the concepts, outline key models and or behaviours that need to be developed to demonstrate effective practice. This literature review needs to outline both the conceptual (theoretical) and behavioural (interpersonal) skills that you need to acquire to demonstrate competence in your chosen area of communication.

3. Action Plan
As a conclusion, you are to develop an action plan of key events and activities that you can undertake over the next 6 months to acquire the knowledge, skills, and behaviours identified as requiring development in component one. This can include the following:

Undertaking specific short courses, to develop skills based on actual courses that are available.
Undertaking advanced post-graduate communication courses at CQU or other institutions.
A reading plan to acquire conceptual knowledge, which may include specific communication texts and self-help books which must be specified.
Maintaining of personal journals reflecting on communication interactions.
This section must include actionable items with timelines (such as a Gantt chart) and an indication of how you will measure their successful completion.

Answer

Introduction: This essay is an analysis of self-reflection of the skills that I have regarding communication. The essay is structured on the information that is generated from the diagnostic tools which are elaborated in the assignment in a descriptive manner. There has been determination of two key issues in my communication skills which are to be focused for development (Banai & Tulimieri, 2013). The areas of communication skills that are required to be focused include anxiety while talking to a group of strangers. There has been reflection on the lack in my communication skills when I talk to people in a big meeting of strangers. The essay also comprises of literature review that focuses in the main theories and concepts associated with issues related to communication. Due to the process of self-reflection, I have gained in-depth knowledge of different activities that I can use for tackling the issues related to communication. Such activities related communication skills are reflected in the assignment’s action plan which is mentioned after the literature review.

Diagnosis and reflection: For having a proper reflection of my communication skills, I have used 5 numbers of different tools of diagnostic for assessing my skills of communication in different situations of life. The first tool that has been used by me is 5 diagnostic tools. The first tool that I have used for analysis my communication skills is self-perceived communication competence scale (SPCC). This tool has assisted in determining my communication skills in various situations of life. There have a been demonstration of twelve situations that is I come across in my regular life. The abilities regarding communication in certain situation can be compared to another. The tool of self-perceived communication competence scale has assisted in gaining insights regarding the indication of my competencies extent in the context of communicating in different situation. From the percentage scale of grading from “0” which denotes to being “completely incompetent” to “100” that denotes to “ competent” degrees, I have assessed myself and graded myself according to the scenarios given such as communication skills while “ present a talk to a group of strangers” and “ talk with an acquaintance” (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015).

After giving grades to myself on the basis of the scenario which I was presented with, I noticed that is scored the lowest in the scenarios of “present a talk to a group of strangers” and “talk in a large meeting of strangers” with the scores of “70” and “72” respectively. Further, the sub-scores, the percentages for the respective items were indicated and the sum obtained was divided by the numbers indicated which were “3” and “$”. It was done for all the categories of public, group, meeting, dyad, stranger, friend, acquaintance.

The grades scored for all the categories were added and was divided by 3. The resultant that it received as the final score was 79.83. The categories for which I had received the lowest scores were related to “meeting” which accounted for “75.66” and “stranger” that accounted for “76.75”. The SPCCC scores that are obtained denoted to the medium level of self –perceived communication competence with fundamental communication contexts.

The second diagnostic tool that I have used for assessing my skills of communication is non-verbal immediacy scale self-report (NIS-S). The nonverbal immediacy denotes to the cues or behaviors which signal the positive feelings towards a different perform. I have used this tool as it has been one of the latest and most updated measures for determining the non-verbal immediacy for obtaining self-report for evaluating my communication skills.

While undergoing self-conduction, it was crucial for recognize the variance will be significant in between females and males in regards to society and gender. The assessments was conducted on the basis of the possible repossess that such as “1 for never”, 2 for rarely, 3 for occasionally, 4 for often and 5 for very often. After conducting tests on myself by answering the questions of my own, I obtained the final result as 107. The scores that I received was 107 which is a very good score in accordance to the grading scale for males.

The third tool that I used for assessing my skills of communication is personal report of intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA) which assisted in addressing the apprehension of the communication in intercultural context. This tool further assisted in the general apprehension of communication. When the score is above 90, the alphas reliability is expected to be high. There were 14 statements which were comments that are made by people while communicating with people belonging to different cultures.

The answers to such questions were to be given in the form of numbers from 1 to 5. Different numbers had different meaning such as 1 denoted to “strongly disagree” , 2 denoted to “disagree”, 3 denote to “ disagree” , 4 denote to “agree” and 5 denotes to “ strongly agree “. I had to respond to all the questions in the form of numbers from 1 to 5. After answering 14 questions, I had to calculate the total score which came around 62. The range between which the score could be obtained was 14 to 70. According the scores that I obtained which refer to the good core the scores that I obtained through this study indicate the fact that I am very comfortable while interacting with many people who belong to different cultures. I also found that is done feel nervous or tensed during having an interaction with various people belonging to various cultures. I found that I do not feel very nervous while engaging in group discussion with various people belonging to by various cultures.

I realized that I feel very calm and relaxed while interacting with people how belong to varying cultural background in groups (Drucker, 2017). While taking part in any kind of conversations with an individual belonging to different culture, I have found that I do not get quite nervous. Further, I found that while I have interaction with various group of individuals belonging to various couture I feel very comfortable. Further through the test I evaluated myself by finding out that I do not have any kind of fear while speaking up in any kind of conversations with any individual belonging to varying culture. I also realized that in normal circumstances, I have a neutral response to feel very nervous and tensed in any conversation with individual belonging to different culture. I found that I had scored 62 which stated me that I have a high intercultural communication comprehension.

The questions that I had to face while undergoing self-evaluation were more oriented to determine my reaction when I am subjected to a certain situation. The responses had to be given as number from one to 5. Each number represented the extent of agreement to the question. Replying with number 1 would denote to the “strong disagree” , number 2 meant “disagree” , number 3 meant “ neutral” , number 4 denoted “ agree” and number 5 meant “ strongly agree”.

The questions in the form of scenario that I had to face included the frequency at which I keep quiet when I need to talk. While answering the questions, I realized many aspects of my communication skills. I did not realize that I often keep quiet when I need to talk. I also found that I do not talk more frequently when I should talk sometimes. I have a neutral reaction for the statement I often talk when n it is required for me to keep quiet. Further, I realized that I, sometimes, do not keep quiet when I know that it would be to my advantage to have a conversation. I agreed to the fact that I am a talkative person. I had a neutral reaction to the scenario that I feel compelled sometimes to keep quiet. I agree to the statement that generally, I talk more than I should talk. The score that I finally obtained for attaining the Talkaholic Scale is 31. In accordance to the results of the diagnostic tool, I found that I am at the status of being borderline talkaholics. It also stated that I am able to regulate and have a control over my talkative nature in most of the scenarios. However, it has been also determined that I find myself in certain situations where it becomes very difficult for being quiet even in the scenario when it would be to the advantage of not talking (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2015).

The last tool that I used for evaluating my skills of communication is Tolerance for Disagreement. This tool assisted me in assessing the extent to which I can tolerate other individuals having a disagreement to believe. The conceptualization that I used in the tool was much similar to argumentativeness. In this tool, I had to confront the statements related to the orientations and feelings of people. The relying way for this assessment used similar approaches of number between 1 to 5 which denoted to the similar responses regarding agreement as it was done in the previous tools I confronted the statements in which the degree to which I found my involvement in the discussion where there are lot of disagreements to be very funny. This was the statement to which I do not agree.

The scores which obtained through this tool were 45. This denoted to the fact that I have a moderate tolerance for disagreement which I found it to be very true to my nature. After going through the diagnostics tools for evaluation of my communication skills , I found that the two skills such as talkative nature has to be reduced and controlled in more appropriate manner and the communication skills in different situation have to be improved. These skills could also be relevant from the interactions that I had in my past with my professor in college and with a mentor while I was in my internship. During my college classes , I had noticed that I projected my talkative nature while having conversations with my professor regarding a subject (Holmes & Parker, 2017). My professors had given me a slight hint about controlling the amount of words that I use in a healthy and amicable manner. The second communication skills that I have to develop could be determined by the scenario where I had to make frequent conversations with my mentor while I was on my internship in a retail company. These skills need considerable degree of development in regards improving my personal communication.

Literature review: The conceptual frameworks that revolve around the issues that I have identified in my interaction with my professor I in my college and with my mentor while being at the internship program in the retail organization would be of great help. The concepts and theories, regarding communication can assist me in having improvements in the communication while talking to different people in different situation and controlling the talkative nature. According to the interpersonal communication concept provided by Miller, communication need to occur between two persons when both the parties are in close proximity and are able to facilitate immediate response to each other (Jagongo & Kinyua, 2013).

This also encompasses the use of various senses. There has been various degrees which have to considered while taking own personal communication into account. I could understand that I need to incorporate the degree of perceived quality or personalities of any given interaction. This can be highly relevant in the scenarios like my communication with my professor during my college days. This would include the achievement of personal goals which in my case can be related to clarity of any academics concepts of issues. The concept of interpersonal communication is very applicable for determining the development in the control of talkative nature. This can be done by having an integration of the appropriate amalgamation of the initiating, definition, maintaining and continuing my professional relationship with me and my lecturer.

The concept of interpersonal communication is found to be highly relevant to resolving my issues in communication skills in regards to controlling my talkative nature as the concept has increased focus on the quality and content of the messages that are to be relied (Kaul, 2014). This will also assist me in extending the possibility of developing further professional relationship with me. There can be inclusion or application of the theory of politeness in the issue of being able to have proper communication with my mentor. This theory will assist me in having a proper maintenance of the sense or face of having good image in the public or professional settings where in effective and proper business communication can be conducted with my mentor. The theory of social exchange would be highly relevant in this regard, which is more predominately perceived by me in the second issue of communicating with my mentor in terms business communication.

This will need me to work on the verbal as well as nonverbal communication skills along with the listening skills. There has to be application of the emotional intelligence as a part of the concept of interpersonal skills which refer to the ability of having comprehension and management of the my own feelings as well as the feelings of others while making a communication in both kinds of settings (Pearson, 2017). Both of the situation require to be addressed with persuasion, influencing and negotiation skills while having communication in the similar settings. These three skills have to be addressed while making communication with different people in different situation and cultural backgrounds. This theory can assist me in developing communication skills when addressing or interacting with people belonging to different and a wide variety of settings and backgrounds by working increasing my engagement in order to obtain a mutual agreement as an outcome. However, I have to keep in mind that this nature shall be repeated in consecutive manner in order to obtain perfection. Considering the communication as that which I had with my professor in college, it is found that the inclusion of active listening and cooperation with individuals can be used as aspects that to be kept in mind while facing similar scenarios.

These aspects of interpersonal communication shall assist in having a proper regulation and mindfulness regarding keeping a control over nature. These concepts would assist me in developing the cooperative nature in the context of establishing a proper communication tone. These aspects will assist me in understanding the fact that by integrating cooperative nature with the other individuals, there can be development of the manner in which I communicate with other people belonging to different background and different settings. Without having proper cooperation in the communication, there can be no good exchange of thoughts and feelings (Popescu, 2013). This is especially relevant to my interaction with my professors and my need to have a regulated use of words while having a semi-professional and professional conversation. These concepts shall assist in developing the communication with people belonging to both personal and professional settings as there can be increased focus on maintaining relationship as well as having proper exchange of knowledge.

Action Plan: In order to develop my skills of communication that I have evaluated to require improvement, I shall undertake a full time course of “ The communication for Development “ which is a full time programme that is to be pursued as a post graduate diploma course. Through this course, is hall being able to develop my skills of communication right from the grassroots level. I shall be able to enhance my skills of communication in regards to establish and develop proper and effective communication with people belonging to different backgrounds and settings by having continuous exposure and interaction with the team mates and fellow students who a shall attend the course with me.

Being in an environment where there shall be students and individual belonging to different backgrounds of culture, education , career , gender , finances and social status, I shall be able to exposed to varying scenarios in which is hall have to establish and develop communication in order to carry out the necessities in studying the courses (Jagongo & Kinyua, 2013). The course shall assist me in undergoing various session and training program that would encompass of several hours of interaction with different people .I shall be made to provide presentations on a regular basis which will further assist e mind developing or having better communication skills and eradicate any kind of inhibition that I have in regards to addressing individuals belonging to different background and settings. There will be 12 modules along with workshops and seminars which will be provided in the course. There shall be a test every week in order to have a proper comprehension of the progress that I make in a week. Secondly, there are certain books that I shall refer to for the development of my control over the words that I speak. I shall use the books like “Business English Communication Skills “which shall provide me with in-depth knowledge about the ways in which I can control my talkative nature. This course book shall assist me in developing the format in which I should have my communication with any individual belonging to professional or busies settings. I shall be able to distinguish between making a statement and using the appropriate words for making my communication short and effective. I shall go through the videos that come with this course in order to have a proper demonstration of the way I should state my concerns or queries and the ways in which I would understand when to stop making monologues.

These courses have interactive session which would assist in having proper understanding of the negotiation skills and strategies. I shall be able to have my own schedule in accordance to my convenience which will facilitate me in having better learning. By undergoing the course of “Business English Communication Skills Specialization”, I shall be able to get trained in having better communication in the professional contexts. I shall be able to develop both my verbal and non-verbal skills. This course shall assist me in improving the skills and aspect of communication which needed improvement while I have both professional and social interactions. I shall have comprehension of the terminologies that are more frequently used for having effective communication in business which would help me in my future career endeavors. I shall also undertake an advanced post graduate communication courses at CQU which would further assist me in having a professional course of business communication. I shall also maintain a personal journal of the developments that I shall undergo while undertaking such courses. These courses shall be covered within a time duration of 4 weeks which is sufficient to undergo developments in this regard (Popescu, 2013).

self reflection communication essay

Conclusion
There was identification of two issues in my communication skills in the essay. Further , there have been elaboration of the strategies which would be used for mitigating such issues from my communication skill which are also represented through a Gantt chart.

References
Austin, E. W., & Pinkleton, B. E. (2015). Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns (Vol. 10). Routledge.

Banai, M., & Tulimieri, P. (2013). Knowledge, skills and personality of the effective business consultant. Journal of Management Development, 32(8), 886-900.

Drucker, P. F. (2017). What Makes an Effective Executive (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Review Press.

Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2015). Business and competitive analysis: effective application of new and classic methods. FT Press.

Holmes, W. T., & Parker, M. A. (2017). Communication: Empirically testing behavioral integrity and credibility as antecedents for the effective implementation of motivating language. International Journal of Business Communication, 54(1), 70-82.

Jagongo, A. O., & Kinyua, C. (2013). The social media and entrepreneurship growth (A new business communication paradigm among SMEs in Nairobi).

Kaul, A. (2014). Effective business communication. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..

Lee, S. K. (2018). A Customer Touch Point Management System for Effective Service Communication. Business Communication Research and Practice, 1(1), 46-49.

Pearson, R. (2017). Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.

Popescu, G. H. (2013). Macroeconomics, effective leadership, and the global business environment. Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, 5(2), 170.

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