Self-Reflection on Non-Verbal Communication in the Workplace

Self Reflection
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Reflection
Understanding the importance of communication in the workplace is essential for any leader. It allows him to understand better how to utilize these in the workplace and use it to improve organizational culture. In line with this, I believe that while these skills are essential, a significant majority of them can only be learned through hard work and experience.
Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication was one of the most important aspects that I have learned through my experience. Non-verbal communication could manifest through different modes such as kinesics, proxemics, and paralanguage, to name a few (Instaway, n.d.). These types of non-verbal communication are present in our day-to-day work in my workplace. In our professional or personal interactions, non-verbal communication directly impacts our work dynamics. In one instance, there was a time when I experienced the importance of recognizing non-verbal cues in our day-to-day interactions. Notably, there was a time when I did not know that my partner felt irritated at me at the time when I interrupted him during our speech. There were generally no signs of any irritation in the way he talked, which was why I did not feel like it was an important matter. However, compared to our usual conversation, my partner did not smile and did not even face me when we were talking most of the time. Although I did not know that he had a problem, after this realization, I kindly asked and persuaded him that he had told me about what had happened. This was one of the important realizations that showed the importance of our capacity to detect underlying messages through non-verbal communication in the workplace.
Another important trait that could only be learned through experience was impression and identity management. Identity management refers to “an individual’s attempt to influence how people see you and think about you” (Instaway, n.d.). Before, I always believed that it was essential, to be honest with other people. Personally, this belief shaped my ways of dealing with every situation in life, such as when communicating, interacting, or even dealing with other people. Before, this belief shaped my professional outlook that I wouldn’t need anything except to be true to myself. However, similar ...