Communication Profile

I am supposed to discuss how I view myself as a communicator differs from how others see me as a communicator. Honestly, there really wasn't much of a difference between the two. The only area in which the scores were different were in the anxiety inventory. I scored myself as moderately anxious, while others scored my anxiety about speaking as low. So, I guess the only surprise is that I appear much more self-confident and relaxed when speaking to others than I actually feel.

I have a short temper at times and I have worked very hard at maintaining control when communicating with others. It has been a difficult journey, but--judging from the scores I received, I can say that I am--at least to some extent--successful at doing so. I do need to vent, and there are a few trusted people that I can talk to about how I am feeling about certain people or situations, which helps me to remain calm and focused when I need to. Does this mean I am being dishonest? Yes--to some degree I guess I am. But I think that in order to effectively communicate sometimes you need to hide the fact that you think someone is a raving idiot and find a constructive way to approach the situation.

Just this week, a parent asked me a question about a former student now in another classroom. I gave her the best answer I could based on my experience with this child--which was not the answer she wanted. Her child has behavioral issues, and she was looking to blame the fact that he was not allowed to attend a field trip on another child rather than her own, which was NOT the case. I found out later that day that she posted a very long, very offensive rant about me and my "lukewarm" response. My initial reaction was to call her out and let her have it. However, I realized that getting into a public battle with her via social media was not only counterproductive, it was highly unprofessional. So, I chose to ignore the post completely, other than to bring it to the attention of my boss, so she would be aware of the situation should she hear about it from someone else. When she realized that I was not going to take the bait (and several other people came to my defense by way of comments to her post), she removed the post completely. Was I honest with this person? Yes, to her initial question, but no, in that I didn't get into a confrontation about her post. I did not tell her what I think of her. Did I take the high road and ignore it? Yes. Was I effective in communicating with her? I believe I was. My lack of response communicated to her that I was not going to sink to a public forum battle, and she backed down. I have learned (sometimes the hard way) that just because a thought appears in my head does not mean I have to share it.