Interpersonal Communication, Essay Example

I believe I have strong communication skills due to the fact that I easily convey my ideas and feelings to others. For example, I believe I am a good leader and communicator under pressure. Effective communication requires being able to express your ideas and views clearly, confidently and concisely in speech, tailoring content and style to the audience and promoting free-flowing communication.  I have had jobs where I was required to deal with a wide range of people at different levels. In situations like this, I learned it’s best to modify my style of communication for each individual. Communication skills are an essential component of a productive workplace. I find my communication skills allow me to work cohesively and professionally with my coworkers. I believe I have been successful, through effective communication, creating an environment where everyone feels safe to express ideas, opinions, and feelings, or even to plan and problem solve in creative ways. Effective communication helps me better understand a person or situation and enables me to resolve differences, build trust, respect, and nurture a creative environment where ideas produce results.

In a society where patriarchal structures place white males at the top of the power structure, communication between members of opposite genders can be shaped by power imbalances, sexual tension, or even gender bias. Not every effort to communicate between males and females will involve power imbalance, but there is no question that women often face challenges in the work place when communicating effectively with men. Likewise, men are socially agentic, while women tend to be communal. This means men traditionally are aggressors and competitive while women are known to have better mediation skills to generate communication in groups. This is not always the case and does not mean women don’t make good competitors or that men don’t make good mediators, but being aware of this aspect of interpersonal communication between men and women can result in better team management.

I communicate with my eyes by making eye contact which implies sincerity, integrity and confidence when interacting with others. Often people judge whether an effective conversation has occurred by the level of eye contact between the individuals involved. This is one of the core reasons why attentive eye contact is the most significant factors involved in quality interpersonal communication. Any successful event management company knows that eye contact shared with both clients and team members adds substantial value to the quality of their company. I believe by having good eye contact in the criminal justice field, criminal justice professionals can greatly benefit by improving their nonverbal communication recognition skills. In this field, it is essential to be able to accurately assess nonverbal communication in dealing with coworkers, and especially clients. The ability to assess eye contact can also help with interrogations, especially in regard to judging whether or not someone is lying.

I have witnessed many cases of stereotyping and ethnocentrism. There is no question that race plays a significant role in contemporary society, and I have seen members of different races make assumptions about the behavior of other races more times than I can count.  As an African American female, I have experienced encounters with members of other races who seem to have expectations about me, who are surprised when they find out how hard I work and how I am striving to improve myself through education. The one thing I notice about racism that most intrigues me is how most people assume everyone thinks the same way they do and they are naïve to their own personal bias. I find this is true of everyone. I find that everyone has some form of prejudice perspective about some social group. Whether it’s a negative assumption or positive, many people share preconceived notions and distinguish groups of people from other groups without necessarily knowing individual members of said groups.