Communication
Definition: the ability to convey your thoughts to those who are listening & have those thoughts understood completely.
Criteria: A listener, asks questions, aware, positive, and patient
Example 1:
Communication is something that is completely vital in order for a team to function at its best. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I was lucky enough to become a part of staff 2012 for the freshman leadership organization, PREP. Going into another year in PREP as an executive is VERY different than starting as a freshman. You already have a whole year of experience to help, but you take on much more responsibility. This responsibility is, of course, wonderful and exactly what you want to be doing, but still very intimidating. You don’t assume all of the responsibility on your own, though. You are paired up with a social partner and a committee partner. These partnerships are to act as not only a team, but be a real friendship as well. The guy I was paired with for my social partner already happened to be one of my best friends, so I was really excited about that partnership. My committee partner, however, was a guy I did not know as well. Despite not knowing him, I was still extremely excited for the work we would be doing and the opportunity to get to know him better.
Starting out, my committee partner and I had a good working relationship, but something was still missing. We had a great time with our committee freshmen and got the work done, but we were just never quite on the same page. Some of the things we would say to each other would sometimes come across as unintentionally disrespectful. I soon realized that the reason behind this was because we didn’t really get each other’s sense of humors. He has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor, while I have a very goofy and awkward sense of humor. These two types were not clicking. It started to make the whole committee experience less than it was supposed to be. It seemed as if we were both very aware of our situation, but didn’t quite know how to fix it. A few months into the semester, we finally talked everything out. We both admitted to each other that we did actually like each other a lot and wanted to be better friends, but didn’t really get the other person 100%. We agreed to just relax and be accepting towards the other person. Once this happened, things were incredible between us. I can’t even express how much he makes me laugh now.
So at this point, it was around November. Committee meetings and hangouts were so much fun and our committee dynamic totally changed for the better. Around early December, my partner and I noticed that our freshmen were not performing the way they were supposed to. They would show up late to our meetings, they wouldn’t actively participate, and they did not go the extra mile with the work they did outside of the meetings. This lack of initiative showed when the annual Christmas party was a semi-disaster. The parties, banquets, and weekly events are our committee’s jobs, so when it comes time to planning and throwing a party for the entire organization, it needs to go off without a hitch. At this point in the semester, the freshmen, not my partner or I, were to be doing about 90% of the work. The Christmas party was their first chance to show their hard work. The location had lighting damage, the food was not prepared, half of the committee showed up late, and none of them helped set up the room upon arriving. The lack of effort showed, too. Needless to say, my partner and I were NOT happy.
At our meeting the following week, my partner and I had no choice but to show some tough love. We expressed our concerns to the freshmen for a solid half hour. We of course told them that were very proud of the hard work they had previously shown and were only saying anything because we knew they could do so much better. The freshmen responded very well to our tough love session, which my partner and I were so grateful for. We had never had to lecture people who were basically our peers before. That same meeting, our task was to prepare the annual PREP newsletter that we send to all of their parents. This newsletter is just a way to update the parents on what their kids spend most of their time doing and what PREP is all about. Well long story short, the newsletter turned out perfectly. They did an incredible job and we could not have been more proud.
This experience taught me so much about myself and others. It showed me that by actively working on having good communication skills, working with people and achieving goals will be so much easier. This experience was unique because I not only had to learn how to communicate with people I was in charge of, but with someone I was in an equal partnership with. After this experience, I feel so much more well-rounded in the area of communication.
Example 2:
Another example of this competency can be shown through my roommate situation. Now go ahead and prepare yourself for some drama. This isn’t a typical situation. The best place to start is with two of my roommates, Kyler and Kenzie. I lived with Kyler in the dorms freshmen year and absolutely adore her. I met Kenzie through Kyler and absolutely adore her too. Cool. Done. So that’s the two of them. Now the issue lies with my other roommate. She was randomly placed with us through the housing office at the place we live. When we all moved into my house, I had a very open mind about the random roommate and was determined to be her friend actually. I pictured this wonderful home with the four of us baking and watching movies together all the time in our living room. Well that’s a joke. The three of us girls struggled to get to know the random roommate. She was very quiet and kept to herself. When she did speak to us she was very short and rude. This attitude created some tension. When the random roommate started to slack on her dishes and other household chores, the three of us became very bothered. Like any girl would do, we started to take every dish she didn’t wash personally. The situation got worse when she got a puppy without asking us and allowed her boyfriend to stay all the time with HIS two dogs. The house was smelly mess all the time, but none of us wanted to create drama and say anything to her.
This tension grew for months before we all realized that we needed to be vocal about our concerns with her. Once we manned up and started being honest with her the house became a little more peaceful. The relationship between the three of us and the random roommate isn’t perfect, but it’s cordial. Communication was the only way we were all going to live together successfully. After dealing with this roommate, I have grown to be more bold and honest when I disagree with things. This has been a very challenging, but helpful situation in developing my communication skills.
Definition: the ability to convey your thoughts to those who are listening & have those thoughts understood completely.
Criteria: A listener, asks questions, aware, positive, and patient
Example 1:
Communication is something that is completely vital in order for a team to function at its best. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I was lucky enough to become a part of staff 2012 for the freshman leadership organization, PREP. Going into another year in PREP as an executive is VERY different than starting as a freshman. You already have a whole year of experience to help, but you take on much more responsibility. This responsibility is, of course, wonderful and exactly what you want to be doing, but still very intimidating. You don’t assume all of the responsibility on your own, though. You are paired up with a social partner and a committee partner. These partnerships are to act as not only a team, but be a real friendship as well. The guy I was paired with for my social partner already happened to be one of my best friends, so I was really excited about that partnership. My committee partner, however, was a guy I did not know as well. Despite not knowing him, I was still extremely excited for the work we would be doing and the opportunity to get to know him better.
Starting out, my committee partner and I had a good working relationship, but something was still missing. We had a great time with our committee freshmen and got the work done, but we were just never quite on the same page. Some of the things we would say to each other would sometimes come across as unintentionally disrespectful. I soon realized that the reason behind this was because we didn’t really get each other’s sense of humors. He has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor, while I have a very goofy and awkward sense of humor. These two types were not clicking. It started to make the whole committee experience less than it was supposed to be. It seemed as if we were both very aware of our situation, but didn’t quite know how to fix it. A few months into the semester, we finally talked everything out. We both admitted to each other that we did actually like each other a lot and wanted to be better friends, but didn’t really get the other person 100%. We agreed to just relax and be accepting towards the other person. Once this happened, things were incredible between us. I can’t even express how much he makes me laugh now.
So at this point, it was around November. Committee meetings and hangouts were so much fun and our committee dynamic totally changed for the better. Around early December, my partner and I noticed that our freshmen were not performing the way they were supposed to. They would show up late to our meetings, they wouldn’t actively participate, and they did not go the extra mile with the work they did outside of the meetings. This lack of initiative showed when the annual Christmas party was a semi-disaster. The parties, banquets, and weekly events are our committee’s jobs, so when it comes time to planning and throwing a party for the entire organization, it needs to go off without a hitch. At this point in the semester, the freshmen, not my partner or I, were to be doing about 90% of the work. The Christmas party was their first chance to show their hard work. The location had lighting damage, the food was not prepared, half of the committee showed up late, and none of them helped set up the room upon arriving. The lack of effort showed, too. Needless to say, my partner and I were NOT happy.
At our meeting the following week, my partner and I had no choice but to show some tough love. We expressed our concerns to the freshmen for a solid half hour. We of course told them that were very proud of the hard work they had previously shown and were only saying anything because we knew they could do so much better. The freshmen responded very well to our tough love session, which my partner and I were so grateful for. We had never had to lecture people who were basically our peers before. That same meeting, our task was to prepare the annual PREP newsletter that we send to all of their parents. This newsletter is just a way to update the parents on what their kids spend most of their time doing and what PREP is all about. Well long story short, the newsletter turned out perfectly. They did an incredible job and we could not have been more proud.
This experience taught me so much about myself and others. It showed me that by actively working on having good communication skills, working with people and achieving goals will be so much easier. This experience was unique because I not only had to learn how to communicate with people I was in charge of, but with someone I was in an equal partnership with. After this experience, I feel so much more well-rounded in the area of communication.
Example 2:
Another example of this competency can be shown through my roommate situation. Now go ahead and prepare yourself for some drama. This isn’t a typical situation. The best place to start is with two of my roommates, Kyler and Kenzie. I lived with Kyler in the dorms freshmen year and absolutely adore her. I met Kenzie through Kyler and absolutely adore her too. Cool. Done. So that’s the two of them. Now the issue lies with my other roommate. She was randomly placed with us through the housing office at the place we live. When we all moved into my house, I had a very open mind about the random roommate and was determined to be her friend actually. I pictured this wonderful home with the four of us baking and watching movies together all the time in our living room. Well that’s a joke. The three of us girls struggled to get to know the random roommate. She was very quiet and kept to herself. When she did speak to us she was very short and rude. This attitude created some tension. When the random roommate started to slack on her dishes and other household chores, the three of us became very bothered. Like any girl would do, we started to take every dish she didn’t wash personally. The situation got worse when she got a puppy without asking us and allowed her boyfriend to stay all the time with HIS two dogs. The house was smelly mess all the time, but none of us wanted to create drama and say anything to her.
This tension grew for months before we all realized that we needed to be vocal about our concerns with her. Once we manned up and started being honest with her the house became a little more peaceful. The relationship between the three of us and the random roommate isn’t perfect, but it’s cordial. Communication was the only way we were all going to live together successfully. After dealing with this roommate, I have grown to be more bold and honest when I disagree with things. This has been a very challenging, but helpful situation in developing my communication skills.