My next stop on my road to mastery is in a course called Communication and Collaboration in the Early Childhood Education Field. The skill of communication is important in any professional field that requires you to have communication with others-requiring competency. Wiemann & Backland, (1980) states we do not mean merely adequate, average, or ”OK”: communication scholars use the term competent to describe communication that is effective and appropriate for the given situation, in which the communicators evaluate and reassess their own communication process
This picture shows all of the emotions a person feels when they are a victim of incompetent communicator. We should never want to intentionally make another person feel this way.
My first blog post for the Communication and Collaboration in the Early Childhood Field requires me to identify a person that I feels exhibits an effective communication style. At first, I thought of all of the people that did not meet this category and then the person that I speak to most about any subject came to my mind. This person is Pastor Jacqueline Bobien, my pastor.
My pastor is a person that I believe is a competent communicator because she actively listens to you as you speak, restates what you have just said to ensure she understands, and responds to you in a way that never degrades you in any way. If there is a time when she does not have an immediate answer, she will truthfully tell you so and ask you if you are okay with her getting back to you with a response so that her response will be accurate. I can depend on her being honest and not being intimidating or distorting the facts to coerce anyone into doing anything. However, she has the ability to influence you to make the decision of doing the thing that is deemed right and ethical in a situation. “One of the most important functions of communication is the ability to influence people.” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2009, p. 7)
I would love to pattern my communication behaviors to mimic hers because she communicates in an ethical way and her behaviors do not change in situations when someone is angry or acting irrational. As educators, we might have moments when parents are upset and display behaviors that they normally do not display when they are in a good mood. We cannot respond in the same manner but we have to control our emotions in order to effectively communicate with that person. I honestly am working on control of emotions and my pastor is one that I have seen control emotions in situations where people are upset in settings that were in and out of the church environment.
My goal for this course is to learn how to be an effective communicator and learn the art of communicating in professional settings. This is the last course before I entering into my specialty program with is the Administration, Management and Leadership track. I believe this course will teach me how to be a professional communicator, so continue on with me as I travel along my road to mastery.
Resources
O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction (2nd Ed.). New York:
Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.
Hi Janine,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think the picture is a great example of how someone may feel when incompetent communicator skills is weak. It sound like you have a great Pastor who knows how effective words can be to others. Insensitive listening occurs when we fail to pay attention to the emotional content of someone's message, instead taking it at face value (O'Hair & Wiemann). I hope this course and your Pastor help you reach the art of communication. Tamarah
Janine,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post!!! As the Holy Bible states, "To whom much is given; much is required" (Luke12:48). When people are in administrative positions they must be attentive to other needs and act professional at all times.I know that it is complicated to help others when you are under distress. I have to constantly stay focus and pray. Thank you for sharing your story. It encouraged me to continue regardless of how circumstances may appear.
Chere'e
I feel like I need to change my blog post's focus for this week to you. From just reading this post, I feel like I know you better than some of your friends. You have a real voice that comes through in your blogging, and I really look forward to reading more from you this semester. I think you have already reached a great level of professional communication, I think this blog post is a testament to that. You very clearly introduced yourself, the topic of your post, made your reader feel comfortable and interested, and your story was very appropriate and told concisely. Anyways, thanks for a great post and I really look forward to learning with you this semester!
ReplyDeleteJen
Hi Janine, I really enjoyed reading your post. Your pastor certainly sounds like a wonderful example to strive to follow. I too have a tendency to get emotional when speaking. That is one of my goals for this class, to learn to control and channel it into a more positive and effective aspect of my ability to communicate. I look forward to reading more of your posts in the next few weeks. Cindy Ferguson
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