Interpersonal communication is an important element in one's professional and personal life. When interpersonal communication is successful, it results in people being "connected through the mutual activity of creating meaning" (Trenholm & Jensen, 2004, p. 26). Interpersonal communication has quality when I am able to express myself and, at the same time, understand what the other person has to say. When this occurs, things get accomplished and life has meaning. In order to be effective in working with others, people need to gain knowledge about the techniques of interpersonal communication. In addition, people need to develop their interpersonal communication skills through self-observation, practice and listening to feedback.
In my own self-observation, I find that the quality of my relationships is connected to my use of interpersonal communication knowledge and skills. When I am able to communicate well, I experience numerous positive impacts in my professional and personal life. By contrast, misunderstandings occur whenever I make a mistake in my interpersonal communication. When this happens, I feel bad and I fail to reach my goals. Therefore, I recognize the great importance of being effective at communicating with others. One of the areas where I need personal improvement is the development of my listening skills. I want to be sure that I do not seek to simply express myself, but to also understand clearly what other people feel and think. I also need to develop a better understanding of how people communicate in nonverbal ways.
In order to meet professional goals, one needs to be able to communicate well with coworkers, team members, leaders and customers. To improve interpersonal communication in my professional setting, I need to learn more about the methods of negotiation and persuasion. In particular, I think it is important for negotiations to result in a "win-win" situation, in which both people get...