My
communication style changes throughout the day in response to my interactions.
A good amount of my time is spent communicating with my children. My tone is
certainly more assertive and at times shorter than I would dare be with those
outside my home. Friends are communicated in a relaxed tone, minus the
assertiveness with which I manage the children. This relaxed tone is contrasted
with my professional style of communication. There are various styles of
communication that I use in my work. I am careful to communicate to families in a comfortable and relaxed tone while maintaining a level of professionalism. I even choose more casual dress clothes to match this tone. This sets people at ease and
ensures the best chance of our having an authentic exchange. My communication
style changes yet again when working with teachers in a coaching role. The
dance is always a mix of listening, empathy and thoughtful response. My style
when in my role as Quality Assessment Specialist is not as warm as I choose not
to emotionally engage with classroom staff. My role is to observe and gather
the necessary information. This role is unique to all others in that my presence
is quite intimidating and I can’t go too far out of my way to ease those
feelings of discomfort. This role requires me to deny my compassion and urge to
rescue in the pursuit of an objective assessment.
Every dance
is unique in its pace and style; causing me to stay on my toes.
Tammra, That was really interesting. I never thought of communication as having characteristics of being short, relaxed or assertive; even though, I have found that I do it too. Your job seems to limit your opportunities to communicate with those around you; even, your non verbal communication will probably give off negative vibes. I know what you are doing is oh so needed for the well being of the children but I’m sure it gets hard at times.
ReplyDeleteHi Tammra,
ReplyDeleteIt is true that we have to be careful when we are communicating with families that we are working with. We cannot be as relaxed as we are talking to our friends or family members. Like you, I spend most of my time communicating with children, so I tend to use more shorter sentences and simpler sentence structures than other professionals. We constantly change our tones, words, body languages, and sentence structures all the time according to who we communicate with. I like your quote, every dance is unique! Thanks for sharing.
Tammra
ReplyDeleteI am like you, as I change my communication and tones to suit the situation. It's funny because we just do it not even realizing that we are doing such things.
Thanks