Communication Competency

Leadership and communication are essential in leading any group or organization. They can be defined as the ability to guide others toward a common interest as a form of influence. If successful, their subordinates are most satisfied when they see their leaders not only delegating tasks, but also building authentic relationships. However, a leader must be able to identify their own communication style before they can effectively do so. There are multiple ways to do this. You can discover through experience, different research, but more popularly by taking a self-assessment test. I just recently took the communication competence instrument and after reflecting on the tool I have a better understanding of my own communication style. According to the communication competency I had an overall score of 81 out of a possible 90. According to the tool this would indicate me as a more “competent” communicator. My strongest areas of communication are in Motivation and Knowledge, which can be defined as my desire to create conversational opportunities and my understanding of how to develop and obtain conversational goals. I would completely agree with this, as my biggest strength is the ability to manipulate conversation and persuade my audience to see my point of view. My nickname in high school was commonly Woo (meaning- winning others over) because people knew how often I enjoyed convincing others in conversation. However, persuasion is a very powerful personality trait to have and could be used for the wrong purposes. Since I have been blessed with this gift I decided it is important to use my influence as a tool to build authentic relationships and as a push for others to achieve personal growth. I often do this through casual daily conversation. Instead of typical “how was your day?” surface talk I like to engage others in deep conversation that ultimately challenges the way they look at life and push them to desire a better future for themselves. Conversation is