1st post: Why developing effective communication skills is important for me?
In my opinion, with good communication skills, there will be lesser room for misunderstandings and will be able to understand one another clearly. This set of soft skills will be applicable in many areas throughout my interactions with different people. For instance, an interview with persons of higher authority tends to set me in a nervous state, henceforth, i am often distracted by the cold environment and the "intimidating" interviewer.
Browsing through the book, there are a couple of skills that I can adopt. For instance, writing skills --- the 7Cs in the book can be a good reference when typing a formal letter to the superior. Other skills like writing a formal and comprehensible report and delivering oral presentations to others are amongst many things which I would like to do well in. This is probably due to my lack of confidence infront of many people (mostly strangers at times) and I find it utmost crucial to learn how to overcome this fear. To be a good report-writer, I feel that one must have contents and style. I may have the contents but often my style seems to be unacceptable, hence I was marked down.
The book also mentioned about discovering self. This is another important part for me. I think before doing anything, it is important to know myself first. I have been in a confusing world, thus I think I am a lost sheep. Even after going through several times of DISC personality test in the past, I am still a stranger to myself (which is bad). I think my confidence level is really low. Thus, I need a confidence booster. I am still in search for it though.
Hopefully, this course will enable me to discover and learn about myself all over again so that I will not be a low-moraled lost sheep. :)
Hi Jialing,
ReplyDeleteI guess going through an interview process is nerve wrecking for anybody or everybody, as the interviewee is being judged by others on a personal basis in an unfamiliar environment to top it up. Confidence is always hard to muster in such situations =]
I do agree that knowing yourself or oneself for that matter is one of the most important things to do, however difficult that process may be. I sometimes find myself having conflicts with my personality or not knowing what kind of person i really am too as my character changes with different company, but i suppose its just a phase we all go through.
Cheers,
Woei Perng
Hello Jialing,
ReplyDeleteI will have to agree with both you and Woei Perng that understanding our selves is an important step to take. Without understanding our own motivations, our own peculiar modes of thinking, how can we expect to translate our thoughts into a form coherent for others to understand? That being said, don't worry about being lost when trying to understand yourself. Human personality is not something that is fixed. While not as inconstant as the weather, our selves do change according to the experiences that life deals us, when changes occur to our physical body, even with the company we keep (after all if we have to tailor our communication to our audience, why not tailor our behaviour too? hmmm...). So don't feel confused or lost if one day you find that something you know about yourself no longer holds true. It just means that things have changed.
Wanliang
Hi Jialing, thanks for commenting on my post. You mentioned that “I think before doing anything……first”, how very true! I feel that in order to help others’ especially our loved ones understand oneself, one have to understand his/herself first. Like you, I am sometimes confused as to who I am exactly as a person/friend, what I am comfortable with and how I want my life to be. I believe through experience and peer relationships we will slowly learn more about ourselves and our own personality and achieve a better sense of identity. I hope that after this course you will find yourself less confused about your role in this complex world.:)
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly scary to have to speak to a large group of people even much more so if they are strangers during presentations. Like Woei Perng mentioned, it could be due to the fact that as Asians we are instilled over and over again by our parents and society at large to be more mild – mannered that we do not get much practiced at public speaking. I guess practice make perfect and the more we practice the more at ease we will be speaking in front of large groups.
Hi Jialing.
ReplyDeleteI guess everyone feels the same during an interview. It's just that everyone may have different ways of expressing themselves. I myself often would get too nervous when facing people during a presentation or an interview and my expression on my face would say it all out. I agree with you that we should try to overcome this psychological barrier.
I cannot agree with you more that it is important for us to discover our own self. It is true that we should know ourselves first before doing anything, though it is not always easy to do so. I think maybe we should spend some times everyday to listen to our voices deeply inside. Campus life is often too busy for us to have time for ourselves, to know how we really feel.
Hopefully, all of us could discover our true self to have a better understanding of ourselves and have a better future ahead!
Self knowledge is valuable and also a boost to your confidence as you acknowledge your strengths as well as weaknesses which you can proceed to work on. In this way, self knowledge puts you in control which is also empowering.
ReplyDeleteKnowing what you want from work and life means you won't waste time pursuing unsuitable jobs and that you will be credible when you try to convince interviewers that you are the ideal candidate for the job.
A little thought now will save much heartache later.
Mrs Richardson