Who Am I as a Communicator?

I used three assessments to self-evaluate my communication styles, and then had my husband and my supervisor at work complete the same assessments as they related to my communication skills.  I was surprised how differently my husband rated my listening skills compared to how my supervisor and myself rated my listening skills.  Do I listen differently to him and possibly other family members than I listen to colleagues?  His score indicated I was more content-oriented while my own score and that of my supervisor indicated I was more people-oriented.  Could it also be the perception of how others view my listening skills?

I was happy to see my results of communication anxiety.  This has been something that I have been working on for several years.  I have been placing myself in positions where I can speak out in public and teach in front of large groups of both people I know and those I do not know.  If I had taken this assessment many years ago, I can easily see how I would fall in the high category.  Today, my husband rates me as having moderate anxiety, although the score barely borders the line between moderate and mild.  My supervisor and myself rated me as having mild anxiety.  My supervisor's score was close to being moderate, but my own score rated on the low end of mild, bordering low anxiety.  This is interesting to me because although I may feel less anxiety, others interpret or perceive that I have a higher level anxiety.  Does this mean I am not being true to my feelings and trying to convince myself that I feel less nervous and anxious than I really do?

In my professional life, I am glad I have made changes in my levels of communication anxiety, but realize that I still have more work to do to be more comfortable in more situations.  I believe my professional life will put me in more situations where I may be uncomfortable than my personal life, so I know I need to keep working on this.

In my personal life, I feel I need to be more responsive to the feelings of those I am close to.  It is difficult to think that I may listen differently to those in the work place compared to those in my personal life.  While I understand the need to conduct myself professionally in the work place, I don't feel I should be treating those closest to me differently, especially if having empathy is something that is important to them.