Saying Goodbye in a Group

Leaving well-established groups can be difficult and sometimes emotional. When everyone in the group collaborates as a team and shares the same vision, magic happens and thinga run smoothly and efficiently.

There was a group I was part of that was hard to keave during my time teaching in France. We were a team of labguage counselors/teachers from all parts of The United States with a director native to France. We all had a single goal and that was to give our very best to the children we encountered in our classrooms during their time with us. Every single member if the group felt valued and felt their strengths were properly utilized in different arenas whether it be planning activities or creating daily lesson plans. Eventually, friendships formed as well and we would celebrate by taking weekend vacations to nearby cities in southern France to decompress from the crazy week.

When it was time to leave and go back to our respective states, tears were shed but not before we broke open a bottle of wine and danced the night away to celebrate a great spring season of teaching. Being part of quality groups builds professional and personal interpersonal skills that allow you the ability to communicate and interact in a clear and effective way. Sometimes its hard to adjourn from these groups because relationships, trust, and loyalty eventually are built in response to the bonds created.

Its been two years since my team and I worked together but we stay in contact via social media and make plans to try and see each other when we are in each others cities.

Being a better communicator

With me recently starting a new position as t a new company, my interactions with my new colleagues and peers have been great thus far. Everyone ia transparent, professional, and very personable in communicating with one another.

As I have continued this course, I have often reflected on my communication skills in my personal life and how I wish I knew then what I know now. In earlier posts of my blog, my child's father and ex-fiancee is iften referenced. He and I were engaged to be wed and unfortunately, we separated. Its been a rough few months of my breakup but I have been getting through. One thing I iwish he and I would have done was communicate more effectively and maybe it could have saved our relationship.

The 3 R's- Responsive, Reciprocal, and Respectful- were something we did not utilize in communicating and it wedged more distance between us. I would often give him tbe cold shoulder, yell and scream, or use vulgarities and he would either shut me out completely or lie. Neither one of us were really commited to communicating effectively because we subconsciously did not want to hear what the other was going to say from fear.

This course has taught me better forms of interacting with people while also teaching me how to use verbal and nonverbal cues to convey my message in a healthy way. My next relationship will definitely benefit from my enhanced communication efforts but I do sometimes dwell and reflect on how things would have been if we knew these skills then as opposed to now.

Communication and Me

During this week, we were challenged to analyze ourselves as communicators. After taking the quizzes that analyzed my anxiety, verbal aggressiveness, and listening skills. The quizzes confirmed what I already knew and perceived about myself based off self-reflection and feedback over the years from close friends abd family.

I am great at public speaking and a true extrovert that has low anxiety in moments of expressing my opinions or beliefs to another individual or group. However, I sometimes can come off a little brash in my communication based on tone, body language, and language utilized that makes me somewhat verbally assertive/aggressive. This impacts my listening skills as well because until recently, I listened to respond and not to understand or expand my personal beliefs of opinions.

My two best friends of 10 years took the quizzes as well as rated me almost exactly as I did whennit cammto anxiety and verbal aggressiveness. However, I was rated much lowet in listening skills from them because they saw me as not truly showing empathy or understanding to people that conflict with my personal belief systems. This definitely has been an eye-opening experience as to how I communicate with others and how I can be percieved in both personal and professional settings.

I aim to use reflective listening tactics and reinforce the platnium rule when speaking to others that may not always agree with me in both personal and professional settings. I am not perfect and it will take time but I aim to make strides to being a better person that listens to obtain a message and not to respond.