Reflection

During the second week of this module, I set myself two objectives on how to improve my communication skills. The first objective was to improve my knowledge of vocabulary and subsequently, continue to improve on how I phrased my sentence when communicating with others be it in a presentation or just a light banter with my peers. I felt that I have made improvements on my vocabulary knowledge by reading up blogs from my peers who have relatively strong foundation in English and also reading up article when we were tasked to complete class exercises during the module. The second objective comes with practice, even though I did not have much time to focus on it, however, I still managed to improve it by constantly reminding myself to think carefully before I speak. I have tried to speak less ‘singlish’ but sometimes it’s just inevitable. There are many approached in communicating and having to speak a particular method due to job nature would subconsciously become a reflex and can be challenging to change. By speaking to various people of different background, we must adjust our language and tone as so to communicate effectively with others.

A take away from module which would affect my future endeavor will be emotional intelligence. After doing some studies on the Goleman’s framework, I begin to have a deeper understanding and how the two major characteristic plays an important role in our lives. Form the framework I understand that different people are equipped with different qualities and tend to deviate either more to the self or the social characteristics. This helps me to understand what kind of attribute others are lacking and react in accordance to their needs and wants. Emotional intelligence can be linked to many skills such as managing conflict, or to communicate by observing emotions. All in all, I feel that this module have taught me valuable life skills which cannot be easily obtain. 

Interpersonal Conflict (Revised)

Disagreement between friends or colleagues is inevitable. Strategies are definitely required to curtail frictions, thus feeling of resentment and discontent.

Recently I had a conflict with my close friend, Ben, with whom I am working on a project, together with other team members. Tasks had been delegated and shared amongst us equally. Ben had agreed to help me in completing the task that was given to me. I was unable to bear the responsibilities due to other commitments at that instance. With due respect, I made an informed notification to the team lead, Adam. I was dismay, when Adam verbalized that Ben is needed and has agreed to cover for another team member despite conceding my earlier approached. I was disgruntled with Adam’s decision. I felt that Adam was unfair and had circumvented me, to get his own arrangement to his benefits.

I confronted Ben on this issue. However, he refused neither in commenting nor to fuss about this. He claimed that it is just appropriate in abiding the team lead’s instructions. Since he had agreed with Adam’s call, I am left with no choice but to find other alternatives. I had to abort on my previous plan, which was crucial to my career journey.

On the other hand, Adam is already known for always taking the easy way out. Everyone has been accommodating. However it takes just a bad soul to reprimand him of his apathetic attitude.  I felt that I just had to make that call.  We had a stern dispute and been arguing even over trivial matters. I sensed that he has dominated me. Being work in this project still, I am left with no choice but have to endure this as the consequence of the squabble we had. 

Nevertheless my perseverance has reached its peak. I just felt like withdrawing myself from this hideous situations I am facing almost everyday. Now that the situation is so tense, how should I endure this?  We still have few more months before the completion and I am already despondent.  

Interpersonal Conflict

Disagreement between friends or colleagues is inevitable. Strategies are definitely required to curtail frictions thus reduce the feeling of resentment and discontent.

Recently I had an encounter with a close friend, Ben, whom we are working on a project, together with other team members. Tasks had been delegated and shared amongst us equally. Ben had agreed on specifications, which was tasked to me, as I was unable to fulfill due to my capacity of time. With due respect, I made an inform notification to the team leader, Adam. I was dismay, when Adam verbalized that Ben is needed and has agreed to cover for another team member instead. Even though I disagreed with Adam’s decision, I ignored him due to his tyrannical attitude. I have confided Ben much earlier. I felt that Adam was unfair as he made arrangement to his own benefits.

I confronted Ben on this issue. However, he refused neither in commenting nor to fuss about this. He claimed that it is just appropriate in abiding Adam’s instructions. Since he had agreed with his call, I am left with no choice but to find alternatives to get the task done.

On the other hand I felt that Adam has circumvent me to get his things done. Adam is already known for always taking the easy way out. Everyone has been accommodating. It takes a bad soul to reprimand him of his apathetic attitude and I felt that I just had to make that call. We had a stern dispute and been arguing even over smallest matters. As usual, he has once dominated me. Being working in this project still, I am left with no choice but have to endure this as the consequence of the squabble we had. 

Nevertheless my perseverance has reached its peak. I just felt like withdrawing myself from this hideous situations I am facing almost everyday. Now that the situation is so tense, how should I endure this?  We still have few more months before the completion and I am already despondent.

Evaluating Skills

This story happened in a marketing department where two colleagues X and Y, were having dispute with each other due to conflict of ideas. Person X was improvising on person Y idea and giving suggestion on how to improve Y’s plan so that X’s ideas could be incorporated in the plan. Person X was confident that his plan is enough to submit the proposal therefore he refused to listen to any of his peers. Y’s treated every comment made by his peers as though it’s a criticism and therefore having non-stop argument with his peers. After the argument subside, their team leader Z, walked passed both X and Y with an annoyed looked and called them both to enter his office.  Apparently, Z was hiding at a corner peeping and listening to whole conversation between both X and Y and was furious about their action. Surprisingly, the team leader did not reprimand them, instead he gave opinion and advised how to merge their idea. He then continued to give them lecture on how to be a good team player and some moral values based on his past experiences.

In this scenario, team leader Z exercised active listening as he was hiding in a corner hearing the conversation of his subordinate. Instead of having to stop the whole argument, he listened patiently and understand the whole situation. Even though he was peeping at a distance, he could judge that it was a problem that cannot be solved if he were to step out at that moment. He then called upon both X and Y to his office and gave them opinion. This time round both his subordinate was actively listening to his opinion. As he was someone of superiority, both his subordinate will have to continuously maintain eye contact and show a positive posture and concentrate on listening to their leader’s comment. Active listening is an important skill that should be trained whenever possible. This can help to prevent conflict if the other party had heard the full story before giving and conclusion. 

Strength and Challenges in Communicating

Key factors to communicate effectively and efficiently are time and practice. Communication is a skill which requires a lot of time to polish. I believe that only through constant practice and training will then help improve in communication skills. As for me, I have no problem communicating with others or even in formal events. My past experience in the army as well as my work experience have shape me to communicate relatively well with others. I do not face much problems having to speak in front of a crowd, I could convey my massage effectively to others in order to get the job done. There are many challenges faced when communicating with others. The greatest challenged I face when communicating was to generate the proper words to simplified the massage. I know that I do not have a strong foundation in my vocabulary therefore I sometimes it is very difficult to speak the idea. 

Two objectives set to improve my communication skills will be firstly to improve my knowledge of vocabulary subsequently work on my sentence structure when speaking. To be able to speak in a short and concise manner, it requires a vast knowledge of vocabulary. Sometimes, it is extremely difficult to think of the word in that split second which can be quite frustrating.  I believe there many methods to improve in their communication skills. However, one of the many ways to improve communication which I personally feel that it’s effective is to read and listen to the radio. I think reading news article or magazine such as Forbes or business times exposes me to a wide variety of new words and also helped me to improve my sentence structure in writing. Listening to English Channel on the radio allows me to listen to how they speak and how they communicate with their own counterpart. Another radio channel which is helpful to improve is listening to BBC news. 

Objective

I felt that, it is extremely important to developed proper communication skills because it is one of the most essential and critical skill in life. It allows us to connect with others by helping to convey ideas and opinion. To communicate effectively and efficiently is an art which is not something that can be master within a day or two. It requires time and practice to communicate well.  Not only must you be able to speak well, eye contact body gestures and the tone does play a huge role in communication. As an engineer to be, there are many situations where communication is vital, such as during a presentation, or working in a team project. Even the slightest miscommunication can cause a catastrophe. There are many ways to enhance and develop communication. As for me, I think that building up a strong foundation of the language will help to improve communication. However, the non-verbal part of communication comes with practice. Therefore, only through practices should than be able to improve how to communicate.