The surprising thing about how people evaluated me turned out to be that they both rated me as a people oriented person. Even more surprising then that is that my own rating of myself was people oriented. This funny because I see myself more of a content-oriented person who listens for pertinent information when listening to someone.
Insights about communication I have learned this week
- Affect is significantly important.
- How someone says something is considered more important than what they actually said in some circumstances.
- Communication is not easily accomplished, cultural clashes make it difficult to communicate with others.
I had the opportunity to participate in an honest discussion with an authority figure. We constantly kept clashing, not in an argumentative way but, through our different cultural perspectives. When the person I was communicating with would say something I would perceive and interpret it differently than how she originally intended and when I communicated something she would perceive and interpret it differently than I intended. Sadly, I felt that nothing was being accomplished as if my words were a foreign language to her ears. Will keep trying.
I also found that I am a people oriented person by myself and friends/colleagues but that I also need to take more time to listen. It is funny how you perception and others' perceptions of you were very similar even though you thought you were more content oriented. Sounds like you are learning how to use your communication skills. Keep trying.
ReplyDeleteTiffany,
ReplyDeleteI was very surprised at the results from by husband and one of my friends in the verbal aggression category, because they viewed me as more aggressive than I viewed myself. I was very pleased with my results,which was very different, and felt as if the findings were on point. However, after more consideration about what my husband and my friend thought about me I realized that I needed to at least consider that there were some truth in their results and reevaluate my self-concept.
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by my people oriented perception from others and myself, I thought I was action oriented. This is fascinating to get a feel of how others perspective. Keep trying with your coworker, perhaps there has been so much miss communication it will take some time to untangle the knot. Thanks for sharing.