University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 1

Ella Lambert
Communication For Project Managers: ENCE424
Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman
February 24, 2024
Introduction

I am enrolled in communication for project managers to conquer my communication

fears so that I can be a successful architect. Ever since I was in high school, I knew that I wanted
to pursue a career in Architecture because I loved the idea of making a positive impact on
people’s lives. Designing spaces is my passion, and I am skilled at creatively thinking outside of
the box. However, as much as I love the design aspect of architecture I knew that I would
eventually have to face my communication fears. Architecture is a highly collaborative field that
expects teamwork and excellent communication skills to ensure that work is getting done safely
and timely. Architects are required to communicate with other architects, project managers,
interior designers, sub-contractors, and other groups and organizations. Communication has been
something that I have personally struggled with since I was a child because I am an innately shy
person. This essay aims to showcase what I have learned about communication for project
managers in ENCE424 through the lessons and readings. The essay will also discuss my personal
networking journey and my core personality traits so that I can understand my path forward in
becoming a better communicator. Finally, this essay will dive into how I plan to apply everything
that I have learned about myself and my communication style through taking this course.

Concepts and Techniques

Three communication concepts and techniques from the readings that have left an impact
on me include managing public speaking anxiety, the fools choice concept, and the power of
empathy regarding effective communication. To begin, A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking is an
easy-to-read guide on the principles and practices of public speaking. The pocket book both
explains the technical definitions of communication aspects and gives digestible advice on how
to apply its techniques. Chapter three of the pocketbook resonated with me because it dives into
the art of managing speech anxiety. The opening sentence of the chapter states “Contrary to what
most of us think, feeling nervous about giving a speech is not only normal but desirable”
(O’Hair, 13). This opening statement hooked me because I have struggled with public speaking
anxiety for my entire life, and I often feel very alone in that anxiety. It is easy to forget that
public speaking makes everyone nervous because it’s societally expected for the speaker to talk
confidently and without worry. The book expands on this idea by explaining the types of
speaking anxiety, which include pre-preparation anxiety, preparation anxiety, pre-performance
anxiety, and performance anxiety (O’Hair, 15-16). After reading the descriptions, I identified that
I struggle primarily with performance anxiety. I am most anxious as I walk to the front of the
room and become aware of the audience in front of me, and I am uncomfortable while giving my
introduction. During a past ENCE424 in-class session, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my
peers also struggled with performance anxiety. Hearing about other people’s speaking anxiety
experiences gave me a new perspective on public speaking. I realized that I am not alone in my
anxiety and that someone who looks like a natural public speaker may be silently suffering from
performance anxiety. With this new perspective, I am more comfortable with my anxiety and
ready to workshop ways to manage it. As an architecture major I am used to giving project
speeches, so I will use those speeches as opportunities to try calming methods as listed in the
chapter. Some calming methods listed in the book include managing attitude, visualizing success,
meditation, and breathing exercises (O’Hair, 16-18). I will also put these stress-managing tactics
into practice during my time in ENCE424 since that is a low-stress environment to practice
speaking in front of an audience.

Second, a concept that stood out to me was the fool's choice. The book Crucial
Conversations, Tools for Talking when Stakes are High analyzes human communication behavior
and advises on how to improve communication skills in the workplace. The fools choice is an
interesting concept because it is something that everyone can relate to, but may not have had the
words to describe what they were feeling. Crucial Conversations defines the fool's choice to be
the crossroads between telling the truth or preserving someone's feelings by being polite. They
wrote, “The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to
choose between telling the truth or keeping a friend” (Grenny, Ch2). An example of a time that I
chose the fool's choice is when I recently failed to ask my boss for clarification on a task. My
boss gave me a task to complete in a rush and I was too embarrassed to ask him for clarification
because he told me the task should only take a few minutes. Because I was afraid to ask for
clarification, it took me 30 minutes to do the task and I was very stressed about not making a
mistake. In that scenario, my fool's choice was thinking that I did not have the option to ask for
clarification because the task was supposed to be easy. In reality, asking questions in a work
environment is crucial because it provides clarification, minimizes mistakes, and delivers quicker
results. The next time that I find myself in that situation, I will ask for more instructions
regardless of whether my boss thinks the task is easy or difficult. I also think that it is important
to recognize that the fool's choice is sometimes the correct thing to do. For example, if a
coworker asked me if I liked their ugly jacket, I would make the fool’s choice and say that it suits
them, even if I do not agree. Whether or not I choose the fool's choice depends on the situation I
am in, but going forward I plan on being mindful of the concept so that I can stand up for myself
when it is necessary.

Finally, another technique that I have learned about in the class readings is the use of
empathy in communication. The Communication Secrets to Get Five Stars from Good to Great
tells a short story about hospital ratings and their relationship to empathy. At Cleveland Clinic, a
clinic with excellent results, chief executive Toby Cosgrove was shocked to hear that the
common person thought his clinic had no empathy and drove away business. Cosgrove worked
with others to improve patient engagement, which greatly improved the relationships between
the patients and the doctors (Gallo, Ch4). What I took away from this story is empathy directly
relates to what people think of you. The clinic lacked empathy and therefore received a poor
rating. The clinic was able to identify the problem and give the doctors and nurses training on
empathy, and the clinic’s communication skills went up as a whole (Gallo, Ch4). The clinic’s
results were less important to the general public than the clinic's ability to show patients that they
were empathetic toward their unfortunate situations. With this knowledge in mind, I plan to use
empathy more often in casual conversations with others. For example, starting a conversation
with a simple “How have you been” before getting to what I originally wanted to talk about. I
believe that introducing a conversation by asking a person about themselves will both help me
understand them better and improve my future communication with that person. I plan to
implement this technique during my architecture studio time because I am surrounded by people
that I do not usually converse with, and would like to start establishing connections with
empathy.

Networking

Networking is an important skill for project managers and architects because it creates
lifelong professional connections and improves interpersonal skills. The book Networking for
College Students explains that when hiring managers are looking for candidates, the first people
that they consider are their connections. If they don’t have a direct connection, they will ask their
connections for their connections, and the cycle continues (Faulkner, 8). This cycle of
connections can make or break job opportunities, and it is precisely why learning to network is
important. Because of this, I started networking with my peers through LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a
popular social media platform for networking because it is business and employment-based. The
site allows users to connect with peers, professionals, and institutions that they want to keep up
with. Users can also make a professional profile and include their resumes for potential job
offers. The people from communication for project managers that I have connected with on
LinkedIn are Madison Sunshine, Meg Jordan, Summer Slocum, Crystal Ndungu, Jessica Kluh,
Ayden Harris, Christopher Hooper, Maya Filipovitz, Heather Horowitz, and Matthew Mariano.
With these connections, I can stay in touch with the students who I have gotten to know in class.
This is valuable to me because in the future I can maintain these relationships after college.
Additionally, through these connections, my peers can potentially message me for advice and job
opportunities, and I can do the same for them.

Outside of LinkedIn, I have networked by going to the Architecture firm career fair. The
University of Maryland MAPP career fair happens every spring. The fair invites over 100
architecture firms from in and out of state to network and hire students looking for work and
internships. The firms are primarily looking for architecture senior and grad students, but all
students are encouraged to go because it is a chance to learn about firms and to network. I went
to the career fair last year as a Sophomore student because I wanted to improve my confidence.
While at the fair, I walked down a line of booths and spoke to about 10 or more firms. I asked the
firms about their mission, past projects, sustainability practices, and quality of life. Additionally,
I made sure to speak with the construction firms to learn about how their workflow is different
from that of architects. This experience was very overwhelming for me but I gained lots of
valuable information and insight into different firms. I compiled a list of people’s names and my
first impression of both them as a person and the firm they worked for. I still refer to that list to
this day when considering future jobs. Additionally, to solidify the connections that I had made
at the career fair, I reached out to everyone that I had talked to with an email thanking them for
their time and helpful insight. I did that so that they would remember me and have my contact
information for future interactions.

DISC Personality Assessment

The first step towards becoming a better communicator is to fully understand one’s self.
This is because to identify the problems there first has to be an understanding of the strengths
and weaknesses. The DISC personality test is a free-to-take personality assessment that analyzes
behavior based on dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance percentages. The point of
the assessment is for the test taker to self-reflect on scenarios by voting on an option they most
agree with and most disagree with. This style of personality test is unique because the test taker
must choose one of those two options, which is difficult if they relate to multiple or none of the
answer choices. The test forces users to step back and think about themselves to answer
questions that they are unsure about meaningfully. My DISC test results revealed that I am 6%
dominant, 27% influential, 33% steady, and 34% complacent. My dominance is my lowest trait
and the other traits were a near even split. I am not surprised that my dominance is the lowest
trait because I would not consider myself to be a dominant person. I prefer to avoid conflict if
possible and find solutions to problems before the problems can fester. Although I do not
consider myself to be dominant, I also do not want to be taken advantage of by others. If my
boundaries are not being respected or if I strongly feel like something is wrong in any given
situation, I will speak out. I also agree with the other results, which were a near-even split. My
highest trait was compliance, which DISC describes to be my approach and organizational traits.
I agree that this is my highest trait because I enjoy being organized in my everyday life. Being
organized helps me gain foresight to future needs or problems that I can mentally and practically
plan for. Overall, I am pleased that my results lined up with my mental image of myself because
it means that I am already self-aware of my communication strengths and weaknesses.

I would personally define my strengths to be patience, organization, and personal drive. I

would then describe my weaknesses to be assertiveness and confrontation. This view of myself
lines up well with DISC’s assessment of my personality which states “You are conscientious,
diligent, and pay attention to detail - You constantly strive for accuracy and high standards”.
Some insight that this assessment gave me that I did not have before is that I am a more
influential person than I thought. I am pleased to see that result because influence is something
that I have been lacking for most of my life, and I have made a conscious effort to improve
myself in that area. The DISC assessment affirms to me that I have successfully made positive
changes to my communication style. I would also like to receive a higher influence score in the
future because it is something that I admire in others. Now that I am more self-aware of my
communication style, I can play to my strengths and weaknesses to become a better project
manager or architect. While I am happy to have an even split between 3 out of 4 categories, it
came at the cost of my dominance. Dominance is an important communication trait for architects
and project managers because conflict is unavoidable in both fields of work. Sometimes things
go wrong, sometimes people make mistakes, and sometimes people need to be made aware or
held accountable. The construction industry is notably stressful because there are so many people
and moving parts to account for that it’s literally impossible to get through a project without
some sort of conflict or confrontation. Because of this, I need to focus on improving my
dominance. I have to be prepared to tell my boss no, to hold others accountable, and to be held
accountable for my own mistakes. When conflict arises it is most comfortable for me to avoid
the situation and hope that no feelings are hurt, but I recognize that that is not an effective form
of communication, especially in such a collaborative line of work. I plan on improving my
dominance in small steps, starting by giving my opinion more often in day-to-day conversations.
I struggle to give my opinion because I am afraid that no one will care about it or silently judge
me, but now I understand that the anxiety I feel is felt by others, as discussed earlier in the essay.

Conflict Management Style

The Conflict Management Style assessment takes the personality assessment a step
further by determining the user's conflict management style. My conflict management styles
were tied to collaborating and avoiding. Collaborating helps my communication style because, as
the test results state, I see conflict as an opportunity to improve relationships by reducing
tensions. For example, when I am disagreeing with a friend I am always sure to put myself in
their shoes because seeing their perspective helps me navigate the conflict. From there, I have
had meaningful conversations with my friends where we agree to disagree and create a stronger
bond as a result. Seeing conflict as an opportunity for improved relationships helps me destress
during a confrontation. On the other hand, avoidance hinders my communication because I
sometimes avoid situations that I know will invite conflict. I am guilty of not speaking my mind
or giving my opinion because that option is easier than confronting the situation, specifically
when I feel outnumbered. For example, if I feel that my opinion at work is a minority opinion, I
feel too afraid to suggest my idea and opt to go along with the group’s idea instead.

One technique from the readings that I think will stop me from avoiding confrontation is
audience analysis. In A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking, It talks about adapting your message to
audience demographics. It recommends appealing to the audience’s age, cultural background,
social status, religion, political affiliation, gender, and group affiliations (O’Hair, 38-40). The
advice is meant for giving speeches to an audience, however, I can adapt this technique to benefit
me in my work and school environments. For example, I can reduce my urge to avoid
confrontation if I plan what I am going to say ahead of time based on the person’s demographic
analysis. If I have an analysis of someone’s ideology and background, then I can use that to my
advantage a craft a carefully thought-out confrontation that I can be confident in executing. I
plan to put this technique into practice with my architecture jurors during project critiques. If a
juror challenges my design choice in a way that I think is unkind, I can confront the situation by
analyzing their demographic. From there, I can explain my choices in a way that the juror can
relate to in an attempt to reach an agreement.

Jung Personality Test

Continuing the journey of understanding my communication style, the Jung Personality

Type Test tells you which personality type you are out of 16 options. The purpose of the test is to
identify which personality you are and then learn how that personality type performs in different
work environments. After completing the assessment, I was assigned the
Introvert-iNtuitive-Thinker-Judger, also called the INTJ personality type. This personality is
described to be introverted, imaginative, logical, and organized. I agree with the test results and
have heard other people describe me using similar vocabulary. Something I found interesting
about introversion is the test defines it as not being shy, but rather drawing energy from one’s
thoughts and alone time. Any time I tell someone that I am introverted I am sure to make the
distinction that it does not mean I am shy or can’t interact socially. I also agree with being
iNtuitive, which was defined as being imaginative and having original ideas. This part of my
personality has allowed me to think outside the box creatively and come up with more interesting
designs in my architecture courses. And finally, I also agree that I am an organized and logical
person. I very much value being punctual and organized, and I often think things through in
advance. I have a typical routine for everything that I do, and that routine keeps me on track for
projects and day-to-day life. That being said, I agree with my results and feel that they match my
personality and philosophy well.

The DISC test and the Jung test work together to form my personality type. For example,
the DISC test told me that I do not have a dominant personality. This could be perceived as a
potential negative until you look at the Jung test. The Jung test reveals my introversion is a
strength because I am the most independently individualistic personality type. Individuality is
highly valued in the architecture field because designers are always looking for inspiring ideas
that they can feasibly build. What differentiates the Jung test from the DISC test is the analysis
of my personality traits and how I can use those traits to my advantage. For instance, the Jung
test says that based on my personality type I am inventive, inspired, persistent, creative,
imaginative, and determined. These traits all lend themselves well to the architecture field, so the
test reassures me that I am working towards a field that fits my personality type. Architecture
demands creativity, leadership, individuality, and logic. Thanks to this test I am more confident
in my personality and my ability to be a good architect because my personality lines up with
what others look for in a good designer.

Conclusion

To conclude, communication for project managers ENCE424 is effectively teaching me

how to face my communication fears. The books taught me how to navigate the fool's choice,
how to manage speaking anxiety, and how to use empathy in communication. With this
information, I plan on practicing my communication skills at work by using empathy and
keeping the fool’s choice in the back of my mind. Additionally, the personality tests taught me
that I do not have a dominant personality and that I have an Introvert-iNtuitive-Thinker-Judger
personality type. The tests helped me understand myself better, and going forward I want to play
to my personality strengths to improve my confidence. For example, I want to practice being
more dominant in the workplace, while also playing to my creativity strengths. Overall, I have a
better understanding of myself and my communication style and am prepared to apply what I
have learned in class.
 Works Cited

Gallo, Carmine. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. St.
Martin’s Griffin, 2019.

Faulkner, Michael Lawrence, and Andrea R. Nierenberg. Networking for Every College
Student and Graduate: Starting Your Career off Right. Pearson Education, 2014.

O’Hair, Dan, et al. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2023.

Grenny, Joseph, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.
McGraw Hill, 2022.
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Your Jung personality
report
What makes you different?
This free report describes how you prefer to: deal with and relate to people, process
information, make decisions and organize your life. It gives you a good overview of your
personality and behavior. You can use this information to assess how well your
personality might fit a potential employer or type of job.

Your Jung personality type

The descriptions you chose about your behavior indicate that the Personality
Type that most accurately describes you is: Introvert-iNtuitive-Thinker-
Judger

Introverts tend to be reflective, reserved and private. A popular

misconception is that Introverts are shy - this is not necessarily so.
They draw their energy from their own thoughts and the time they
spend alone. Introverts do not need people around them all the time.
iNtuitives pay more attention to information that is imaginative and
original. iNtuitives focus on the future.
Thinkers make decisions using logic and impersonal analysis. They
think with their heads rather than their hearts.
Judgers prefer a lifestyle that is decisive, planned and orderly. They
like a life that is organized and controlled.

Report Jung Personality Test Page 2 of 5

An INTJ at-a-glance
You are a natural leader. You are a con dent and original thinker, and believe strongly in
yourself. You are a strong individualist who seeks new angles or novel ways of looking at
life. In general, you are an extremely capable and intelligent individual who strives to
always do their best and continue to move in a positive direction.

Obstacles are challenges for you. You focus on your goal, creatively develop a plan and
then pour all your energy into achieving your objective. Because you get so inspired and
involved in what you are doing, your energy level can be awesome to behold! Of all the
Personality Types, yours is the most independently individualistic.

Inventive - inspired - persistent - creative - imaginative and determined. These are all
descriptions that are likely to be used by people who know you well. Every Jung
Personality type has one or two speci c nicknames that concisely describe your Jung
personality type, e.g. Inventor, Strategist, Protector and others.

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