Personal Communications: Evaluation and Analysis

Personal Communications Evaluation and Analysis
Ryan Schmidt
Comm 400
June 24, 2013
Kristina Barnes

Personal Communications Evaluation and Analysis
Personal communication is a very important part of everyday life. Everything that we do as individuals has to do with the way that we communicate with one another. Effective communication is very vital and also tells a lot about a person. Communication within an organization is extremely important because it defines how a company or an organization operates and how successful they can really be. The following evaluation and analysis will define my own personal strengths and weaknesses as well as how I communicate within an organization. The evaluation will describe the components of communication and I will also asses my skills in those areas. I will also discuss three components, skills or areas that I would like to improve and lastly I will outline an improvement plan.
Components of Communication
The basic components of communication describe the basic communications of a two-way conversation. According to the University of Phoenix (n.d.), these components of communication are made of up six different steps which include: 1. Environment-where the communication takes place. 2. Sender-the creator of the message. 3. Technology-how the sender chooses to send the message. 4. Channel-that is appropriate to that technology. 5. Receiver-one who interprets the message. 6. Feedback-response to the original message. The process continues over and over again.
Although these are the basic components of communication, at any point in time the line of communication can be disrupted by noise which can reduce the way the message would be interpreted the way the sender intended. Environment is definitely very important and something that I would say I have to work on. When I am at work I tend to speak a little bit faster because I am working in a fast pace environment so therefore some people may have a little bit of a hard time understanding me. As far as being the sender, I am generally pretty good. Again I just need to work on speaking more slowly so that I am easily understood. I am typically the type of person that would prefer to write, email or text before having a face to face conversation or even a phone conversation. I feel that I think more clearly when I am writing my thoughts down versus having a conversation with someone face to face. As a receiver I am usually pretty good at interpreting what the sender is telling me unless there was some reason for the conversation to be unclear or unless the sender was unclear. Lastly I am very responsive when it comes to returning feedback, and I am very good about responding right away.
Improvements
Three components, skills or areas that I would like to improve on would be my speech and attentiveness. I need to learn to be more clear and concise to ensure that I am being understood by others. I also need to have more patience when it comes to listening to others so that I can fully understand what they are communicating to me. I would also say that I have to listen more carefully to others that are communicating with me.
Improvement plan * Deliver clear consistent messages * Speak slowly * Speak clearly * Patience * Listen carefully * Allow receiver to speak without interruption * Make the time to communicate with others. * Listening * Patience * Avoid interrupting * Focus on the speaker
Conclusion
Communication is important for many different reasons. Effective communication helps us understand people better, solves conflicts and builds trusts among one another. Effective communication helps make organizations very successful and can help avoid many different understandings. This paper analyzed and evaluated my communication skills based on the basic components of communication. I also discussed three areas that I need to improve on. Lastly I outlined an improvement plan for my communication skills.

References
University of Phoenix Material (n.d.), Basic Communications Model

References: University of Phoenix Material (n.d.), Basic Communications Model