University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment

Angela Pina

ENCE424: Communication for Project Managers

Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman

29 October 2022
Introduction

At this point in the class, we have learned that communication is an overarching term
including a lot more than just everyday conversations. This includes a lot of different forms of
communication, including in person, over email, text, and so on. In addition to the different
platforms, there are different ways of communicating- this can include giving a lecture, telling a
story, or confronting an angry boss. All of these serve different purposes, and the way we
approach them is based on many different factors, such as your own and others’ personality
traits, your authoritative position, and the specific scenario. Through class activities, guest
speakers, and lectures, I have started to gain a more in-depth understanding of the importance of
proper communication.

Email

In class, we learned about and practiced writing emails depending on many different
factors. The readings for the class also give insight into the best way to communicate in tense
situations, avoiding hostility, and appealing to ethos, logos, and pathos. The email written below,
is from the point of view of a team leader addressing the team’s lackluster performance and the
need for improvement:

“Good morning, team,

Happy Friday, I hope you all are having a good week. I appreciate all of the work that
has been put in thus far, but I expected there to be much more done by this point. A few issues
have been brought to my attention, which, understandably, may have pushed us back a bit.
Regardless, that is no reason for us to be this behind, especially if we intend to meet our hard
deadline. With that being said, I expect you all to reevaluate how the work is being delegated and
make any necessary changes to get back on schedule. As the team leader, I hope that you feel
comfortable asking for help and I am more than willing to assist with this process, if necessary. I
hope that this will be an easy fix as I am confident that this is an important project to us all and
there are people counting on us! Please send me an email with your plan by Monday morning,
and let me know if there are any questions or issues I am not aware of. Enjoy your weekend and
let's make next week a good one.

Best,

Angela Pina”

By starting the email off with a kind greeting, and by thanking the team, I hope that this
will create a positive tone rather than starting off on a serious note. After this, I get straight to the
point. In this scenario, the team has not been as productive as the team leader expected. I, as the
team leader, know that there have been minor setbacks, so I acknowledge that it is normal for
things to happen as we are all human. The intention here is to assure the team that I understand,
but that as a team leader, I have to set certain standards because, logically, there is a deadline and
we have to meet it. Furthermore, I do not want to micromanage so I invite them to sort the
situation out themselves, but I make it clear that since I am a leader, I am available and
experienced enough to help if they need it. I went on to say that I know this is important to
everyone, hoping that this will remind them that they are passionate about this work and we all
have the same goal, creating some kind of emotional response.

The appeal to ethos in this email is the reminder that I am the team leader, but that though
I am in a position of authority, I am only there because I have experience. This should make the
team feel like they are able to approach me for help if they feel like they need to. The appeal to
logos is the fact that regardless of everything that has possibly set them back, we can't afford to
fall behind in the project’s timeline. Furthermore, logically, since they are behind, something
needs to happen in order to get back on track. Pathos is what makes the team feel like I
understand them and am coming from a positive place in this scenario. My goal is to remind
them that this should be something they are passionate about, and they, like I do, want to satisfy
the people that are counting on the team.

Important Concept from ENCE424: Storytelling

The past few weeks, we have done several group activities, including practicing writing
an email to a boss with a certain personality style, storytelling, and the effect of influence
principles during covid. The one important concept, or technique, from our group activity that
stuck with me the most was storytelling. In Week 9, Professor Trotman had us write a story, with
the Story Spine structure. It helped to hear Alex Camacho, a University of Maryland alumni,
who also took ENCE424, tell us his story. The story he told us had a clear beginning, where he
was struggling with addiction, dealing with absent parents, and being told he could never achieve
his goals. One day, he overdosed, and this was a life-changing moment for him. Rather than
giving up, he tried harder than ever. He got into UMD, he networked, he got job offers, and so
much more. Throughout all of this, it was his storytelling that allowed him to connect with
people and to get to where he is. Now, he works from home and continues to test the skills he has
learned, just for fun. Another notable thing Alex did was start by telling us who he is and how
successful he is in the present. By doing this, and then going back at the beginning of his story,
he had the audience hooked. The whole time he was telling his story, it became more and more
surprising that he somehow overcame those hurdles. As he told us more, we kept wondering how
he was able to overcome all of them. By mastering storytelling, I believe that I can be as
successful as Alex is.

During class, we also got to share stories with a few of our peers. I found it interesting
that the different kinds of stories demonstrated different personality traits. For example, some
people told stories that gave an inspiring background on how they came to be who they are
today, while others told stories that demonstrated their problem solving skills. This shows how
useful storytelling can be in many different situations. If someone is trying to sell a product, they
may tell a story that makes the consumer feel like they can relate to them, or an emotional story
that will make the consumer feel inclined to purchase or help them out. On the other hand, a
story showing problem solving skills may be more useful in a professional setting. Furthermore,
storytelling is a skill that can be used in everyday interactions and conversations. By being a
good storyteller, people listen, and it can even enable good storytellers to have influence. I will
personally be using this skill the most in interviews, so that I can show how I have applied the
skills they are looking for, rather than giving a sort of bulleted list of skills that I think they want
to hear.

Crucial Conversations Application

In this scenario, if my boss called me an “idiot” in front of the entire team, I would not
say anything at that moment. I would likely be angry so I would wait until I was calmer to have a
conversation with my boss. In Crucial Conversations, I learned that one way to regulate
emotions when someone makes us upset is not to take what has been said in the worst possible
way. Perhaps there is something else bothering my boss and I just happened to add to it, resulting
in him exploding on me. If I speak out of anger, I would probably want to make my boss angry
as well, hurt them, or get defensive- none of these would result in the outcome I really want. By
calming down, and understanding where my boss may be coming from, I can focus on what I
really want- to understand what I did wrong and how I can do better. Depending on the situation,
I might also want to call my boss out and ask that they not humiliate me in front of the entire
team.

Once I feel like I am able to talk to my boss from a place of empathy, I will approach
him. I tend to avoid conversations if I feel like I can tolerate it, but Crucial Conversations
explains that there has to be a continuous dialogue in order to truly come to a resolution. In order
to have a productive conversation, I would prepare what I have to say, but make sure to remain
flexible. If my boss starts to be defensive, I will have to respond to this by taking the
conversation back to a safe space. I tend to get quiet when I don’t feel safe, so I would have to
continuously check myself as well, and make sure that I am not closing down either. A technique
to help guide conversations is the AMPP acronym: ask, mirror, paraphrase, and prime. I would
start by asking if I did something wrong or if there was something we needed to talk about,
because after they exploded on me earlier, I sensed that they were upset. At this point, they
would explain what may have led them to react in this way, and I can paraphrase and repeat this
back to them. If it is something I genuinely did wrong, then I would apologize- the goal is to
reach common ground, not to be right or make sure they know they are in the wrong. The most
important thing here would be to leave emotional responses out of it and remember to come back
to a neutral place.

In addition to these strategies for having an effective conversation, I would try to identify
important personality traits, and their conflict management style if possible. Since they are my
boss, it is likely that they are a high D, or dominant. This would mean that they are probably
pretty direct and strong-willed, so an effective conversation with them would be more
straightforward. This would depend on the individual person, but would be helpful to consider
when approaching them as well.

Storytelling

In Five Stars, Gallo explains the structure of an effective story: it starts with a set-up,
there is some sort of conflict, and there is a resolution. The set-up should provide all of the
background information, creating a connection with the main character- in this case, me. The
conflict of the story should include several challenges that I faced along the way, and essentially,
the challenges that made me who I am. Finally, the resolution should feel like a breath of fresh
air. After taking the audience through somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster, the story should
have a happy ending, demonstrating the kind of person that I have become after all of these
tribulations. Below is a story about the evolution of my stage fright and confidence:

Growing up, I always hated being the center of attention. Up until highschool, I
never really wondered why. My freshman year of highschool, I needed to pick an elective
and I thought it would be interesting to take a business class since my parents are
entrepreneurs and I was always curious to learn more. After the first couple of weeks, this
had become my favorite class. I really started looking forward to coming in and learning
about topics like accounting, networking, investing, and so much more with my favorite
teacher. Until, one day, we came in and he had a lesson prepared on elevator pitches. Our
assignment for the day was to write a 30 second speech about ourselves and present it to
the class- it sounded simple enough and I was actually excited to practice my presentation
skills because it had always been on my bucket list to give a Ted Talk. The end of class
came around, and it was time to present. As I watched my peers start going up one by
one, I started to get nervous. This made me angry, because logically, I knew there was
nothing to be scared of and I felt confident in my pitch. Eventually, it was my turn to go
up. The entire 30 seconds, my voice was shaky, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was
beating so fast that I immediately had to sit down when I finished. After this experience, I
realized just how bad my stage fright was, and I avoided presentations as much as
possible.

Fast forward to my senior year of highschool, 3 years later, when I signed up for
another business class with this teacher. This was an entrepreneurship class where we
were to create a business plan and run a business out of the school for a semester. Me and
two of my peers were the “CEO’s,” so we essentially managed the ins and outs of the
business- which ended up being a very successful coffee and donut shop. At the end of
the semester, my teacher asked us if we wanted to take our business to a regional
competition against several other schools- he explained that our school had one several
years in a row, so we wanted to keep the winning streak going and we agreed to go.Then,
I realized that the leaders would have to present to a board of real business professionals
and professors at a university. At this point, I had to make the decision to either face my
 fear of presenting or let someone else present for me. I had put in a lot of effort into our
business for months and I felt like the only acceptable decision was to present myself.
The competition rolled around and I had been practicing what I would say for weeks at
this point. The three of us walked into a huge lecture hall, and found our 5, very
professionally dressed, judges. I seemed to be the only nervous one, so I took a deep
breath and tried to channel my peers’ calm energy. By the end of our presentation, I felt
comfortable standing there. It went exactly as planned, and we found out less than an
hour later that we had won first place. Though we would have probably won regardless, it
gave me confidence to know that I was able to share these ideas myself. This was a huge
step for me, and I am more confident than ever that I will be able to give a Ted Talk one
day.

Big Five Personality Test Results

The Big Five Personality Test measures your personality based on openness,
agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion. These had the highest to lowest
scores for me in this order, with openness having a score of 90%. I agree that I can be very open
to new experiences, I am a creative person, and I can be adventurous. Though I agree, I think it is
interesting that I received a score of 65%- which is relatively high as well- for conscientiousness,
and this was also my top category for the DISC Personality Test. Conscientiousness typically
describes somebody who is disciplined, organized, and thrives with structure. I do identify with
both of these traits, but find it interesting that I am simultaneously able to identify with
characteristics that seem like opposites. This could mean that I am open in some aspects of my
life and more conscientious in others. I scored 71% on agreeableness, describing my tendency to
put other people first, and I agree that I get pleasure from “serving and taking care of others.”
This is a quality that other personality tests did not include so it was helpful to see how this
ranked compared to the others. Neuroticism scored 65% as well, meaning that I experience quite
a bit of negative emotions such as anxiety and sadness. I have been going through a hard time
recently so I hope that I can retake this in the future and score lower. The last trait, with a score
of 35%, was extraversion. I am not surprised at all since I already know I am more introverted,
and the Jung Personality Test determined this as well.

Overall, these personality tests help me understand myself better, and the questions they
ask, make me think about situations that I would usually only react to. By thinking about my
answers to those questions, I can start to change my reactions or behavior when I am actually in
those situations, rather than reacting instinctively. For example, the Big Five test used
statements like, “I am skilled at handling social situations,” that I had to answer on a scale from
inaccurate to accurate. After reading this statement, I realized that I wish I could answer as
completely accurately, but the truth is it is something I have to work on. And, because this
statement is not completely accurate for me, it is probably contributing to the overarching quality
of extraversion which I scored the lowest on. Furthermore, I find that all of these personality
tests make me ponder in which situations I respond in one way and in which situations I respond
in another. For example, in a professional setting, I tend to take charge and naturally lead. I find
that I am much more assertive and strict about the way things are done. I double check that
things are being done properly and fully, because I know there are other people counting on the
work and this is a reflection of the company. In a more casual situation, like planning a vacation
with friends, for example, I tend to be more laid back. I do not typically assume responsibility
over many things and instead ask what needs to be done. If something goes wrong, I stay calm
and figure out a solution, rather than double checking that everything is done right ahead of time.
I am also very open minded and rather somebody else makes decisions about things like what to
eat and their preferred activities, rather than suggesting something myself. This is very
interesting to me and makes me wonder if personality changes depending on the setting, or if this
is all part of a more complex web of personality traits.

Conclusion

Throughout all of these activities, I have started to understand myself and others better.
The Big Five gave me insight into the traits that the past personality tests did not, and I am even
more aware of the things I need to continue to work on now. Though I have started to gain a
better understanding, I know I will have to practice in order to really master these
communication skills. As I enter the professional world and work towards being a Project
Manager, I will have to use verbal and written communication skills. The emails we have been
practicing will be useful, as I have already experienced having to write similar emails in the
field- whether it be to an uncooperative vendor, a high D boss, and even a team when I start
moving up the ladder. This is also why the skills in Crucial Conversations, as well as the lectures
Professor Trotman has given us, will be very helpful in the real world. Additionally, the past few
weeks have taught and showed me the benefits of effective storytelling, and it is a skill I will be
working on moving forward. This is an especially important skill now, since I am interviewing
and entering a new phase in my life.
 Bibliography

Gallo, Carmine. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. St. Martin's
Press, 2018.
Patterson, Kerry, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.
McGraw-Hill, 2012.