Developing Skills for Personal Effectiveness Unit no FG4D

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bullet1 Communication skills

Successful communication depends not only on the appropriateness of the choice of channel and feedback but also on any barriers put between the sender and the receiver and feedback but also on any barriers put between the sender and receiver - these may be physical or psychological.  You may have noted some barriers.


Describe what you see in this picture.
(The figure was adapted by psychologists, R. W. Leeper and E. G. Boring)



Did your description included words similar to old or witch-like or hag?
Or did your description included words similar to young or beautiful or elegant or well dressed?.



Look again at the picture.  You should be able to see both a young and an old lady.
(If you cannot see both the young and the old lady, ask your tutor to point both out to you.)   
Was it an old lady or a young lady that you were intended to see?
Do you see what was intended to be communicated to you or did you see something else . . .  

Good communication is always said to be an essential skill in being personally effective.  

It is also an essential skill for everyone who works for supervisors and managers or who is part of a team at work, home or socially.  

How often have you felt that someone doesn’t understand, that they take you for granted, that you’re not taken seriously, that people twist what you’re saying, that your rights have been ignored, angry that you can’t express yourself at the time.  

Most of us will have felt at least some of these at some time or another.  

We may react by getting angry or aggressive, or by avoiding situations that cause conflict and pain, or by agreeing to things because we feel powerless and want a quiet life.

You may be involved with meetings, team briefings, interviews, checking, counselling, advocating, reviewing, delegating, planning, scheduling, resolving conflicts, gaining co-operation of others, problem solving, decision making, maintaining standards or setting targets.  

All of these activities are based around establishing and maintaining good methods of communication.  

However, our ability to communicate effectively will be governed by many things, but mainly on our development of skills which will help us to balance the conflicting aims, interests, rights and reactions of others with our own.

One of the main skills we must develop is to build on the self-awareness of our strengths and weaknesses to encourage the use of behaviour appropriate to the circumstances.

Quite often, the use of the extremes of behaviour ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ are not the most appropriate and the use of personal assertion would lead to a better outcome for all parties.


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