STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Learning from the course: Strengths and Weaknesses

Learning from the course: Strengths and Weaknesses

Introduction

An old Chinese proverb says that the reason why we have two ears and one mouth is because listening is twice as difficult as speaking. Communication is not an action, it is an art. Communication is the art of properly integrating the message and smoothly transmitting it from the sender to the receiver. In most theories, there are three main elements in a communication: the sender, the receiver and the message. Two additional factors that are of equal important to proper communication are the medium used and the amount of noise/external disturbance that the communication is faced with (Berko, 2010, pp 9-12).

For any person, it is highly important to develop good communication skills. A person with good communication can easily interact with others, share ideas, display confidence and the ability to get work done. In this course, the focus is on personal development and enhancing communication skills to improve the professionalism of an individual (Berlo, 1960, pp 21-23).

What is professional development?

Professional attitude and workplace life is much different from the life a person leads at home or within his friend circle. Spoken and written language differs at a workplace. There is a level of formality that has to be maintained. Professional development, according to me, is the enhancement of a person's skills to perform better at the workplace. These skills may vary from knowledge to communication and attitude and many other such factors (Jasper, 2006, pp 54-59).

Communication Strengths

In this paper, I shall reflect on my communication skills and how this course has helped me develop those skills. As discussed, communication skills are vital for a person who hopes to improve his professionalism and perform better at work. Additionally, strong communication skills also help a person improve his personal life and overall personality. Even in our own lives, we witness that those members of our families who are confident and possess strong communication skills are usually more popular and given more importance.

Identification of my communication strengths

Good communication at the workplace is strength that every professional should possess (Barnlund, 2008, pp 4-5). It enhances the personality of that person and contributes towards the professional growth of the person. For this course, I have identified two communication skills that I feel are my strengths and can be cultivated to contribute towards my professional growth and enhancement.

Strength 1: Listening

As identified in the feedback forms, listening is my strongest skill in communication. It has been identified and I have also observed on many formal and personal occasions that my listening skills are good and well developed. Because of this, I noticed during the class exercises that people find it easier to communicate with me and talk to me. They find it easier to share their information with me and I find it easy to retain the information that I am being provided with (Appendix 1a & 1b). It is possible that my ability to filter noise from the actual message is the ...