Communication Skills

Executive Summary

Communication skills play an important role in organizational performance. In this regard, it is important for every leader to create a plan to enhance his ability to communicate within the organization’s setting. Proper communication will enhance productivity, create a peaceful coexistence and make employees more knowledgeable with dealing with clients (Barrett, 2014). Moreover, there is higher employee retention in the organization if the status of communication is good. In this regard, I have done a self-analysis to determine the areas in which I am week and generated a plan to get rid of the issues in my communication.

Part 1: Assessing Your Own Leadership Communication Abilities

Capability scores for various communication skills

Score	Capability Area
4.7	Cultural Communication Competence
4.7	Organizational Communication
4.5	Social Media and Other Written Communication
4.4	Dealing with Own Feelings
4.25	Ethos/Image
4.2	Visual Communication
4.1	Internal Communication
4	Oral Communication
3.8	External Communication
3.6	Audience Analysis and Strategy
3.6	Dealing with Others
3	Group and Team Communication and Dynamics

2. What do you consider your major communication strengths?

My major communications strengths are the ability are cultural communication strengths and organizational communication. I scored 4.7 in both of these scores. In cultural communication, I am especially good at working with a diverse workforce. I understand the value of a diverse workforce and always strive to ensure that my workforce is as diverse as possible. I always understand that people from different cultural backgrounds are likely to have different cultural backgrounds and would therefore not be expected to reason differently in the same situations (Barrett, 2014).  I have, for example, noted that a majority of that people express themselves differently. Some prefer expressing themselves explicitly while others express themselves implicitly. I would, therefore, not require employees to express themselves the company way. I would in actual fact not promote a company way for employees to express themselves to each other and to the company’s consumers.

My second strength is in organizational communication. I am especially good with human relations and work with employees easily and effectively. I relate well with people who are both below me and above me. I know how to motivate my fellow employees and always strive to create an ethical culture within my organization. I am also very good at appreciating gifts that people accord to the organization. I also push for the company to compensate them better than those who are less gifted to retain talent in the organization. This practice motivates people to use their gifts to the advantage of the organization. Moreover, I am good at creating networks which I could eventually use to the advantage of the organization especially with regard to expanding the organization’s market share (Svennevig, 2008).

3. What do you consider your major communication weaknesses?

My main weakness is in group and team and communication dynamics. In this regard, there are certain issues that make me weak in this area. I am not good at healing my team confront difficulties. This aspect of communication is actually one that needs a lot of work. I am also very poor at sensing tension in the group and always need to be told directly by others that things are not all right. The only time when I discover on my own is when the tension is so extreme that things become so negatively impacted that every department in the organization is affected. This area is one that could be used to the advantage of my work place if strengthened (Svennevig, 2008). I am also unable to tell how open or closed a group upon interacting with it. Other areas that need more work in this regard are being able to help other groups to identify their problems and to develop action plans. I am not good at helping groups explore each individual’s commitment to the group.

4. What leadership communication roles do you currently play in your organization?

I am currently a supervisor in the organization and report directly to the manager. I communicate directly with both the manager and those people who are under me. I am responsible for preparing memos and arranging for events such as meetings in the organization. The fact that I deal with a diverse workforce has led to my ability to deal with a diverse workforce. I have become a culturally competent leader by simply holding this position.

Part 2 – Determining Your Leadership Communication Goals

1. What communication leadership roles would you like to play in the future (at your organization or in your career overall)?

In the future, I hope to work as a manager of a big organization. In this position, I will become the central reference point in the entire decision making process. I therefore require being able to make decisions wisely and reliably. I will also be working with a diverse workforce and will be required to be able to appreciate diversity as well as become more capable to handle this role. I will also require being more capable to work with others both within the organization and externally.

2. What are your short-term and long-term leadership communication improvement goals?

In the short term, I require to work on my understanding other employees better and more promptly without having to be told directly what employees need from me. I also need to learn how to help groups deal with their challenges especially by monitoring how they deal with other groups as well as with the company’s clients. This will enable me to empower such groups to deliver to their maximum capability (Gamble & Gamble, 2013). In the long term, I intend to work on my overall communication abilities to make me a better leader and communicator.

3. What new skill do you want to work on first, second, third, etc?

I intend to work on my major weaknesses first and improve on those areas in which I am strong later in my career. First, I will simultaneously work on my group and communication dynamics to help me better able to deal with groups and teams within the organization. This way, I know I will be more capable of handling teams much better and enabling them to deliver better results within the organization. Second, I will work on audience analysis and strategy. This will help me to be able to analyze my audiences better and in creating a targeted strategy and message that will be best able to handle meetings and presentations better. I will also work on my ability to deal with others so that I learn the best way to help them and salvage the company’s resources (Neufeld, Wan and Fang 2010). I will also learn strategies of communicating with the external stakeholders. After this, I will work on all abilities towards creating an all rounded leader.

4. What barriers do you anticipate having to overcome to reach your improvement goals?

Improving on my abilities while at the same time working will be challenging. Time management is one of the challenges I anticipate in this regard. I may also be unable to be as productive as usual in the course of developing my communication skills.

5. How long do you think it will take you to achieve your goals?

I will take a period of three years to work on my short term goals. On the other hand, I will require up to 10 years working on my long term goals.

6. How will you know you are succeeding?

I will learn that I am succeeding by attempting to use the strategies I use and determining if they work. Once I realize that I am, I will start working on other areas and using my newly acquired skills.

7. How will you obtain feedback?

Will request subordinates to rate me yearly to determine my progress.

Part 3 – Developing a Plan to Achieve Your Goals

Use this grid to help you plan and track your improvement.

Improvement Goal	Action Steps to Achieve Goal	Deadline	Method to Measure Success
Group and Team Communication and Dynamics	I will engage more in group activities to understand how groups work I will study more about group and team behavior	6 months	Will be able to develop more effective teams and groups
Audience Analysis and Strategy	I will create and deliver more presentations in my organization Will deliver training to other employees especially on areas Will generate visual presentations on different aspects of the company.	12  months	Will be able to create urgent presentations Will be able to create more presentable presentations
Dealing with Others	I will join a program that teaches body language Will ensure that I always give my subordinates a chance to speak as I listen whenever I need to introduce a new concept or idea	24 months	Pass the body language test Note an improved audience for my counseling
External Communication	Will learn more about business writing Will learn how to develop targeted messages for stakeholders	36 months	Be able to generate various forms of business writing in the right tone
All rounded communication strategy	Will strive to become a better communicator in every other aspect of leadership. Will identify weaknesses in my communication strategies and work on them Conduct an annual self-analysis	10 years	Show improvement in every area of my communication strategies

References

Barrett, D. J. (2014). Leadership Communication (4thEd.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Gamble, T., & Gamble, M. (2013). Leading with communication. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.

Neufeld, D. J., Wan, Z., & Fang, Y. (2010). Remote leadership, communication effectiveness and leader performance. Group Decision and Negotiation, 19(3), 227-246.

Svennevig, J. (2008). Exploring Leadership Conversations. Management Communication Quarterly, 21(4), 529-536. doi:10.1177/0893318907313717