Self-reflection Essay: Interpersonal Communication
This essay is a self-reflection analysis of my communication skills based upon information generated
from the five diagnostic tools presented hereafter and focusing on two communication issues drawn
from the results of the diagnostic tools. The two communication issues in need of my personal
communication development are public speaking anxiety, more precisely giving a presentation and
low tolerance for disagreement. Moreover, this essay consists of literature review focusing on key
concepts and theories related to the communication issues. Through this process of reflection, I have
gained knowledge of activities I can implement to tackle the communication issues. These activities
are reflected in an action plan after the literature review.
I have used five different diagnostic tools to analyze my communication in various communication
situations. First tool was a Self-Perceived Communication Competence Questionnaire which is an
indicator of how people analyze their own communication competence when confronted with a
plethora of communication situations with an array of receivers (McCroskey & McCroskey, 2013).
The second tool was a Personal Report of Communication Apprehension which measures an
individual’s feelings towards communication by asking the individual to analyze diverse
communication situations and how one would behave in them (McCroskey, 2007a). The third tool
was a Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety which gives, as the name entails, an estimate of
individual’s level of anxiety towards public speaking (McCroskey, 2007b). The fourth tool was the
Willingness to Listen Diagnostic with which one’s orientation towards listening can be examined
(Richmond & Hickson, 2001). Lastly, the fifth tool was a Tolerance for Disagreement providing
information on how well people can tolerate disagreement and conflicting ideas which one believes
to be true (Teven, Richmond & McCroskey, 1998).
The results from all the questionnaires where quite accurate and I recognize my communication style
and preferences from them. As the results from Self-Perceived Communication Competence show, I
am at my most comfortable when talking with friends and having interactions on a one-to-one basis,
whereas, I am somewhat uncomfortable talking in public, in large groups of people or meetings. The
results from the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension further verifies that I have a slight
apprehension when it comes to public speaking or speaking in meetings. My overall communication
apprehension score was 70 which falls in the category of a moderate level of communication
apprehension. The public speaking anxiety score of 115 demonstrates that I experience moderate
levels of anxiety when giving a presentation which is aligned with the scores from the apprehension
report. The fourth diagnostic tool, Willingness to Listen provided me with a score of 72 indicating a
moderate level of willingness to listen. Lastly, the tolerance for disagreement score puts me also in
the moderate scale with a score of 42.
Although the scores for public speaking anxiety and tolerance for disagreement fall in the category
of moderate, I perceive myself needing to improve those areas of communication and I strongly feel
that by doing so, it will be beneficial for my business communication to reduce the level of anxiety
from moderate to low. When it comes to tolerance for disagreement, I have always had the tendency
to avoid conflicts and disagreements in my interpersonal communication and try to solve any issues
as diplomatically as possible. However, I believe disagreements are inevitable in business context
and especially in decision-making and finding the right way to communicate when disagreeing
opinions arise, is crucial.
Reflecting on the public speaking anxiety, giving a presentation in a meeting, I would like to provide
the following example of what happened six months ago while I was working as a Legal Assistant in
one of the business law firms in Finland. I was given a task to present finding