Communication in Relationships

While I carry with me the same morals, attitudes, and sense of humor wherever I go, I do interact with groups of people in varying ways. I am a very family-oriented person and we discuss topics pretty openly. At work I use much different language than with friends and family due to the specification of terms used and my work in early childhood. My neighbors and I really don’t talk much, it’s more of a casual wave across the street and a how-do-you-do while I am more open with friends and we can talk for hours about nothing and everything. 

In all of these group interactions I can change my actions to improve communication. One way in which I am working on communicating more effectively, especially at work, is to stop crossing my arms. This is typically because I do not have anything to do with my hands/arms. This is not because I am not engaged or listening to the conversation, which is the message sent. I have become very conscious of this over the last few months and work to change this habit. 

A second behavior I have been working on is listening. In all group interactions it is imperative to listen and not just wait for my turn to talk. In teaching others I must listen to the conversation and reflections from others so that I can facilitate their knowledge and scaffold their learning. I do sometimes get wrapped up in a hot topic with friends and forget to actually listen to their perspective.

A third communication skill I have noticed needs work on is being cautious of my sense of humor. Humor is one of my top strengths as determined when I participated in Values in Action, a strengths-based assessment, a year ago. I have been known to be humorous in some situations that others do not find humorous. Usually this occurs in a work or meeting scenario. 

Working on all of these skills I can become and even more effective communicator in my personal and professional life.