Exploring the little things that makes an Effective Communicator, 1 take-off at a time (Part 2)

Some may be wondering why I decided to divide the post into 2 parts. Apart from the length, I felt that the learning points in Part 2 are something that I should, and can improve on.  These 2 skills are assertiveness and oral presentation skills (with special focus on overcoming nervousness). This post would also have a more personal touch as compared to the first post.

1.       Assertiveness

It is difficult to balance politeness and assertiveness. Many might go into aggressive mode while trying to pull the team along. Others become submissive if they try too hard to avoid conflicts. However, being aggressive easily warrants hostility, while submissive behaviour gives others the green light to trample over you. Hence, being assertive, where one is both polite and gets his or her view taken into consideration, can be done.

Personally, I am usually submissive due to my discomfort in voicing my own opinions to strangers. I can also be assertive when it comes to topics that I have a keen interest in. However, I still make the mistake of not voicing my feedback to group mates whom I feel need to put in more effort into the project. I usually prefer to ‘pick up the slack’ or redistribute the workload amongst the remaining diligent members of the team. From recent experiences and from this module, I learnt that this behaviour should not be encouraged. Instead, I should try to communicate with said member and find out why he or she is unable to do the work assigned. Is it because of laziness or apathy? Or could it be due to differences in working styles or schedules? Can a compromise be sought? I should try to voice out my opinions on the member’s lack of contribution in a polite manner. This can be eased by getting to know the teammate better. Thus, responsible and regular communication also plays a key role in bringing a consensus of how the team would work.

In addition, in the event when my opinions are disregarded, I should not feel ashamed of getting everyone’s attention back by politely asking for it. I never really knew about how to this until I took this module. Just by raising my voice enthusiastically, saying “good morning everyone” or by keeping silent is enough to revert attention back to me.

 

2.       Oral Presentation

I have learnt many things about oral presentation in this module, such as:

·        Crafting the same presentation to varying audiences would mean presenting different elements of the content

·        Preparation is key

·        To be taken seriously, one needs to look confident, enthusiastic and interested

However, I felt the most important takeaway is how to minimize nervousness. During earlier parts of the final oral presentation, I lacked pausing, made occasional involuntary nervous shakes and made unfocused glances to the audience. While my verbal communication was relatively unaffected, my non-verbal cues showed otherwise.  Later, I managed to get a firmer control of my speech, body language and spatial awareness. I was able to calmly, but persuasively, gain the attention of the audience without stressing about the next line. Looking back, nervousness is something that I could have taken away if I was more confident in showing a presentation that “is definitely worth the audience’s time/ interesting to the audience” rather than being overly mindful of what I say.  As long as I prepared for the presentation, I should not be too worried about missing a point or two.

It is probably difficult for me to apply  now, but I feel that by penning this down, I would at least, have a reference to tell me that ‘its ok’ and ‘go out and show them something exciting/ interesting’ instead of ‘go out and show them everything that you have prepared’. It makes a whole difference in boosting confidence levels when you go in with the mindset of a storyteller rather than a student presenting to a panel of scary superior beings.

Overall, ES2007S has provided me many valuable life lessons, some of which I still need to brush up on. I have however, learnt many ways of being a more effective communicator, and hope that in time to come, I can take-off and express my opinions assertively and present my research confidently to the crowds.