Personal Development: Critical Thinking and Communication - Essay Example

Personal development - critical thinking and communication Contents Contents 2 Natural preferences for influencing tactics 3 Comparison to prior knowledge, experience, or expectations 4 Actions planned on the basis of learning 5 References 7 Natural preferences for influencing tactics The role play on negotiation has helped me to develop my natural preferences for applying the influencing tactics required in this activity. I participated in the role play with my manager and one of my colleagues. The interesting part in this activity was that I had to negotiate with my manager as well as my colleague and hence had to play a balancing role with slight difference in the approach of negotiation towards my manager and my colleague. From the role play, I learnt several qualities that are required to be imbibed for the purpose of negotiation. It has been comparatively easier to convince my colleague being at the same hierarchical level in the organization. However, negotiating with my manager and applying the influencing tactics is a totally different ball game. The natural preferences developed by me after this role play activity is development of excellent communication skills backed by critical thinking ability in order to negotiate with the peers and the manager in an effective manner (McRae, 1998, p.28). My natural preference would focus on the development of my personality with improvement in interpersonal communication skills and reasoning ability. I would look to develop a strong logical ability in order to be able to persuade my colleague as well as my manager in the process of negotiation. Apart from the active involvement in applying the influencing tactics, I would also try to develop my listening and understanding skills. This would help me to identify the areas of bias during communication and cognition in the process of negotiation. I would prefer to avoid such bias during the activity of negotiation and would try to focus on the resolution of conflicts. My non-verbal communication also requires slight adjustment in order to pass the desired message to my manager as well as my colleague. My natural preferences would also include stressing on ethical communication and managing different parties effectively in order to negotiate in winning terms (Galal, 2005, p.82). The development of my personality backed by critical thinking ability and communication skills would help me to negotiate in a proper manner with my colleague and my manager. Comparison to prior knowledge, experience, or expectations The role play activity has helped me to learn about the skills required for negotiation in a certain matter which includes discussion with my manager and my peers. The knowledge and experience gained through the role play activity of negotiation has helped to compare with my previous knowledge and expectations in carrying out negotiation on certain matters. Earlier, my knowledge over the process of negotiation led me to think that every member in the course of discussion would pay due to consideration to the ideas put forward by other members. In practice, however, my experience varied to a great extent over my knowledge on the process of negotiation and the role played by individual members. I had the idea that only strong communication skills would help me to influence the ideas of others. I thought that good communication skills would help me to get an edge over the others which help me in the process of persuasion of thoughts (Hindle, 1998, p.48). However, my perception changed after doing this role play. Considering the fact that all the members engaged in the activity of negotiation have the same power of communication, the power of persuasion would depend on the reasoning ability of the individual which is backed by critical thinking. In case, I get a chance to perform this role for another time, I would play my part in a different manner as mentioned below. I would focus on building a strong logical ability and critical thinking would enable me to apply the influential tactics in effective fashion. I would try to listen to the views of my colleague and the manager and try to understand if there is any conflict between the views. In order to persuade others with proper negotiating skills, I would try to influence the person with weaker personality and build up a majority of opinion (Cairns, 1996, p.58). This would help me to persuade the remaining member in terms of my negotiation. By implementing these modifications in my approach to the role play activity would help me to meet the expectations in the process of negotiation. Actions planned on the basis of learning On the basis of learning outcomes from the role play activity, I decided to explore the following areas in the process of development of personality. This would help me to apply the influencing tactics learnt during the role play activity in order to negotiate with the people in a planned manner. Before starting the negotiation process, I would undertake a background study on the topic of negotiation followed by framing an approach of the process of penetration of ideas and thoughts. The various anticipated proposals from the other members and the probable thoughts and ideas of other members are also considered. Based on this study, the core logic for persuasion of the other members is framed. The presentation skills backed by the critical thinking and reasoning ability on the subject of discussion would be responsible for acceptance of proposed ideas by other members. I would take into consideration the ideas put forward by the other members in the process of negotiation and would try to avoid any form of bias in the form of understanding or communication. The actions planned by me also include resolution of conflicts due to difference of opinion among the members (Fowler, 1996, p.16). For this, I would need to improve my listening skills and non-verbal communication. Listening to others’ ideas and exhibiting proper gestures would pass the message of my leadership to other members. Going forward, I would also stress on ethical communication so that enough faith could be put on my views by the other members. These actions would be taken by which I believe would put me in a position where from where I can persuade my manager and my colleague based on strong logical explanation. Therefore, I would be able to play an effective role in the process of negotiation. References McRae, B. 1998. Negotiating and Influencing Skills: The Art of Creating and Claiming Value. UK: SAGE. Galal, A. F. 2005. Negotiation Skills. Cairo: Pathways to Higher Education. Hindle, T. 1998. Negotiating skills. UK: DK Pub. Cairns, L. 1996. Negotiation skills in the workplace: a practical handbook. UK: Pluto Press. Fowler, A. 1996. Negotiation: Skills And Strategies. India: Universities Press. Read More