Communication Evaluation

This week I had my sister and brother-in-law evaluate my communication skills and then compared them three ideas and views. I feel my personal evaluation was a bit bias due to I think I communicate amazingly, I know I have some (very few) areas for improvement,  but none the less I believed I was doing pretty darn well in the communication part of my skills. My sister had very close views of my communication skills as I did, however, she was more harsh when it came to my listening skills. She felt I jump to assumptions easily and seemingly refuse to listen to others views on topics I feel passionately about. My brother-in-law had a completely different opinion on my skills and I am guessing hes feelings are a little more honest, but at the same time I kind of took some thoughts as him joking. He saw me as a good communicator when I wanted to be, I am a huge push over and people pleaser; which makes it hard for me to actually have/state my real feelings for anything, and he felt like I can get overwhelmed in stressful or new situations which causes my communication level to decrease.

After listening to my family's thoughts and evaluations of my communication skills I started to realize and pin-point areas in which they were referring to. I completely see where they were coming from and noticed myself trying to adjust my skills level and actively listen regardless of my personal feelings. I was completely surprised of my brother-in-laws honesty when I asked them to evaluate me. He actually wanted to have a sit down meeting to discuss ideas for me to improve my skills and become a better listener and less of a people pleaser.

Now that I have a clearer idea of what others see as my communication skills I feel I can adjust and hone my abilities to better suit my personal and professional careers alike.