Personal Narrative: Improving Communication And Decision Making

Although I have other soft skills that I am improving, communication, conflict management, and decision making are three of my weakest points. Most of it has to do with limited interactions with people even when I was school. I was always a quiet person and still am, which there is nothing wrong with that. However, after two years at home after my sophomore year of school, I became more of a homebody limiting my interactions with others outside my immediate family. To change this, I moved out of state and took a job requires me to be in an office and schools. Working in this job I realized I still do not speak up when needed, I try hard to avoid conflict, and I overthink my decisions to the point where I sometimes cannot make one.
My communication skills are a hit or miss at times, and I would prefer it to be consistent. Tasks like speaking up or making eye contact are something that I am mentally trying to do, but habits take a while to break. To better this issue, I plan to answer loudly and clearly when someone calls me or is talking to me. Also, I will continue to remind myself to make eye contact and when to look away. Right now, …show more content…
Actually, Forbes’ Contributor Mike Myatt (2015) states that “leadership and conflict go hand in hand” while also mentioning that poor leaders eventually meet their “downfall” due to poor handling of conflict or avoiding it (Myatt 2015). I am normally a peacekeeper and will sacrifice my own opinions just to make others happy or avoid coworkers’ conflict even if it means that our environment will be tense. How best to handle it, depends on the situation, but my plan is to start voicing my opinions when it is necessary, stop ignoring problems that arise, and become a negotiator when the time calls for it to make my work environment less tense. For these three, I do plan to watch lectures and talks on the matter and take