Goals

Revised

In my opinion, communication is a key factor to be successful due to the importance of conveying, understanding and learning. My strength in communication are being a good listener and exercising intra-communication. While my weakness in communication is building bonds and cohesiveness with others.

Firstly, I believe in listening as one should always seek to understand, then to be understood. Everyone has their own opinions and perspective and longs to be listened and agreed upon. This is partially the reason there are arguments and how a debate could go on and on without an agreeable conclusion. Therefore, I have always believed that only by being a good listener, can one truly connect and relate with another to work under mutual understandings.

Secondly, I constantly reflect situations with my core principle – “To change a situation, first change ourselves. To change ourselves, first change perception.” In life, especially in the working environment, inevitable situations may arise and sometimes, there is nothing much that could be done. For example, a System Engineering Electromechanical System (SEEMS) student may find that the workload and expectations are too demanding. In spite of this, nothing could be done except for being more hardworking which first requires him/her to have a change of perception by having the foresight that he/she would be valued higher upon graduation by prospective employers. In addition, being emotional human beings, emotions may sometimes influence us to act against our values. Therefore, I also make it a habit of reflecting on my actions and try to understand the other party by putting myself in the other person’ shoe. For instance, when I get annoyed by someone constantly critisicing me, I would often critisice back. After critisicing and walking off, I would realise the negative emotions and acknowledge that I could have responded better. Moments after, I would usually follow up with an apology to maintain the relationship.

Lastly, challenges I face are building bonds and being cohesive with others. I have difficulty having interesting casual conversations with others as I am rather soft spoken and afraid of offending others. I tend to review my speech in my mind which creates a communication barrier. For example, in an attempt to know someone I have newly met, I may be afraid to constantly ask questions as I fear that they might find me annoying. Hence, I put myself in a contradictory position knowing that asking questions is the way to find common interests, yet, it may also potray myself as being too nosy.

My objectives by the end of this module are to improve on building rapports and gain confidence during casual conversation to resolve the communication barrier, hopefully improving work efficiency and relations.