Your Communication Skill

Transcription

1 Your Communication Skill 1. I provide abundant details about matters I think are important, regardless of whether my listener agrees with me. 2. I say things that sound surprising, confusing, or strange simply to grad attention. 3. When I speak with another person, I tend to use his or her name often. 4. I tend to speak in run-on sentences, quickly stating connections and parallels between facts and ideas. 5. I tell stories and illustrate my points with metaphors, anecdotes, and analogies. 6. When I speak with others, I often use words like must, have to, and should. 7. When a friend or colleague feels down, I try to be cheerful to bring the other person out of the doldrums. 8. If someone at work has an objection to what I say or propose, the first thing I do is restate my position. 9. In listening situations, I frequently restate what I ve heard with phrases such as, I understand it, you mean If another person in an exchange stops speaking, I immediately break the silence. Circle your response. a. Frequently b. On occasion d. Never a. Whenever necessary b. Rarely, if at all d. Never a. Always d. Not al all a. Never c. On Occasion d. Frequently a. Never b. Rarely c. On Occasion d. Frequently a. Usually a. Usually b. Some of the time c. Depends on how I feel d. Hardly ever b. Sounds like a good idea c. Sometimes b. On Occasion c. Rarely d. Hardly ever b. Frequently c. On occasion Go to the following page for scoring instructions 1

2 SCORING 1. For questions 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10, give yourself Four (4) points for D Three (3) points for C Two (2) points for B One (1) point for A 2. For questions 2, 3, and 9, give yourself Four (4) points for A Three (3) points for B Two (2) points for C One (1) point for D ANSWERS: 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8.,, 9., 10. Now, add up you total score. MY TOTAL SCORE IS:

3 What Your Score Means: 34 or more points: 33 to 28 points: 27 to 22 points: 21 and below: You are a master at winning others over. You possess fine influencing skills and feel comfortable using them. Though you are not a star in persuasion, you do have good skills. Choose a skill to practice and make it a permanent part of your communication, influencing and convincing inventory skills. You are on your way. Practice communicating and using persuasion behaviors one point at a time during your daily routine. You have some work to do...listening attentively to others and grasping how they feel will help you motivate them more effectively. Improving your own persuasion powers will enable you to overcome self-consciousness. Remember that we are not born with communicating ability, but it is a totally learnable skill.

4 Listening Self-Survey Go through this 15-item questionnaire. Mark the yes or not box next to each question. Mark as truthfully as you can in light of your behavior in recent meetings or gatherings you have attended. YES NO + or I frequently attempt to listen to several conversations at the same time. 2. I like people to give me only the facts and then let me make my own interpretations. 3. I sometimes pretend to pay attention to people. 4. I consider myself a good judge of nonverbal communications. 5. I usually know what another person is going to say before he or she says it. 6. I usually end conversations that don t interest me by diverting my attention from the speaker. 7. I frequently nod, frown, or whatever to let the speaker know how I feel about what he of she is saying. 8. I usually respond immediately when someone has finished talking. 9. I evaluate what is being said while it is being said. 10. I usually formulate a response while the other person is still talking. 11. The speaker s delivery style frequently keeps me from listening to content. 12. I usually ask people to clarify what they have said rather than guess at the meaning. 13. I make a concerted effort to understand other people s point of view. 14. I frequently hear what I expect to hear rather than what is said. 15. Most people feel that I have understood their point of view when we disagree. Now go back through the questions a second time and mark a plus (+) next to your answer if you are satisfied with the answer, or a minus (-) next to the answer if you wish you could have answered that statement differently. Direct your corrective action needs toward the minuses. Source: E.C. Glenn and E.A. Pood, Listening Self-Inventory, Supervisory Management (January 1989), pp

5 Communications Workshop The Three Most Important Points I Will Take Away Today Are: OTHER NOTES