I have a friend who started out as a co-worker. Her and I taught in an autism camp held for four summers where my children went to school. Although I do not have the opportunity to work with her anymore, we still get together often. She definitely knows her field and has excellent communication and organization skills which come in handy, especially when working with autistic students.
I notice that any time I am having a conversation with her, she displays the following communication skills each and every time whether we are talking about work, family or social situations:
*direct eye contact with her speaker
*listens intently to other people
*responds only after other people are finished speaking
*responds in a thoughtful manner to people's concerns and/or questions
*responds calmly when addressing concerns and/or questions
*maintains strong body posture throughout the conversation
Why do I believe these are important attributes for effective communication? Presence and body language alone can say a lot about a person, their confidence level and communication skills. I also find myself intently listening to what she has to say because she exhibits strong confidence in herself as a communicator and educator.
I continue to strive to communicate as well as my friend Sara not only because she exhibits excellent listening, communicating and problem solving skills but because she believes these are important skills for children to learn.
I find myself fine tuning my communication skills because of the interactions and relationship I have established with Sara. I only hope that I can one day become as confident as she is with communicating with anyone.
I found a short video depicting effective communication. It is kind of funny but makes some good points! Enjoy!
Resources
O'Hair, D. & Weimann, M. (2012). Real communication: an introduction. New York: Bedford/St.
Martin's.
YouTube. (2011). A guide to effective communication. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwjAAgGi-90
Now that was very creative..cool
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteNicolette
Hi Nicolette,
ReplyDeleteThe communication skills are clearly stated and I know each of them are very essential in becoming more confident in communicating with each other. I enjoyed your video, it demonstrates if we communicate our expectations, then the meaning is clearly more defined to the receiver.
Thanks Charlotte:)!
DeleteNicolette
Nicolette,
ReplyDeleteI know people like your friend. It's easy to get mesmerized when they are talking. She obviously displays wonderful qualities that are good for all of us to emulate. I hope you have shared with her how you feel about her communication skills. I think she would like to know the positive effect she has on you. Thanks for the post this week.
Laurie
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments and I do tell her all of the time:)
Nicolette
Having confidence in your field helps give you confidence while communication. If you doubt yourself on what you're saying, it may be hard to look someone in the eye and communicate effectively. If you aren't sure about the area of conversation, you will have a hard time talking about it. Your friend has excellent communication skills and this was a very great post!!!
ReplyDelete