Mykell Arviso-Yazza

Communications 1010

Jamie Johnston

Myself as a Communicator: Reflection

A positive label that I have been given is hardworking. Whenever someone says this to

me, it makes me feel acknowledged and it makes me feel appreciated. This has affected my

self-concept in a very positive way, it gives me confidence and makes me want to work even

harder because it is not going unnoticed. This label has helped my communication skills,

especially at work. I would not be able to do my jobs without proper communication to and from

my coworkers. Being a team lead dental assistant, I am in charge of making sure the back office

runs smoothly, making sure my coworkers are on task, and making sure everyone is on schedule.

If I did not have very good communication skills, the back office would be in shambles.

A negative label that I have been given is passive aggressive. I have been told by

multiple people that I come off as passive aggressive when I am frustrated or annoyed, this is

because I can be very bad at communicating what I am feeling and try to avoid dealing with

situations that I am not very fond of. I do believe that communicating when I am upset is one of

my bigger weaknesses when it comes to communication, it stops that problem from being fixed

and could also make the other person feel like I do not care that much.

It is very important to think about a label that you may be giving a person because you

may not know how they will perceive it.

The course concept that I found helped strengthen my verbal messengers was being a

good listener and my tone when speaking to someone. I believe if I fully listen to someone when

they are speaking and wait for them to finish, I will be able to properly communicate with them.
I am very careful with the tones that I am using because it could set the mood for the interaction.

If I use the wrong tone, then people may become confused about how I feel about the topic.

I think of myself as an okay listener, sometimes I do find my mind wandering during

certain conversations. I do make sure that I listen closely when it is a serious conversation or

when people are trying to get their point across. I think that listening is a critical thing to make

any type of relationship work, I think that it shows another person that cares for them enough to

listen to what they have to say. A positive effect that listening has done for me in my relationship

is that it helps clear up disagreements. I find that if I am in a disagreement and I don’t take the

time to hear what the other person is feeling, it just leads to bigger issues and prolongs the

argument. I always try to make sure I am listening

Empathy is something that does matter in any relationship as well, mainly in

disagreements as well. I have had situations when I was in an argument with someone and felt

like they did not care because they lacked empathy. Showing empathy is a way that I can tell that

I am being heard or show that I am hearing them. I think that I am very good at showing

empathy, sometimes I do feel like I do show too much and that people may not be fans.

As stated in my Nonverbal Messages, “I believe that I succeed in facial expressions,

posture, eye contact, and gestures while speaking to others when it comes to nonverbal

communication.” I do still believe this, it is a big part of my everyday life and that is why I am so

confident with it.

One of my weaknesses in nonverbal communication was tone. I have been working super

hard on this and I think that I am doing a lot better. I realize that tone is super important for

getting your point across and for handling many conversational situations, it can set the mood for

the whole interactment.