Importance of Interpersonal Skills - Essay Example

? of Interpersonal Skills Introduction The schools most effective human resource is effective teachers, they are the ones that need to be supported and treasured. This is because according to the research, the effectiveness of the teachers directly affects the achievement of the students. If the poor students are assigned effective teachers, the possibility that the results of the students will raise is evident (Haar, Retaining Experienced, Qualified Teachers: the Principal’s Role). Since the teachers have such a high level of impact on the lives of the students, thus it is important for the school to retain them. (Haar, Retaining Experienced, Qualified Teachers: the Principal’s Role). These effective teachers can help the students to adopt their skills and learn many things from them; things that are not taught by them verbally. Among these skills, teachers can teach the students to develop their interpersonal skills, so that the students can interact or deal with others in a better way. Teachers should educate the students to build their interpersonal skills so that these skills can help them to build their confidence and improve their relationship with each other. To embed positive interpersonal skills in the students, teachers can use number of role plays that can help the students to polish their skills to this extent that it becomes part of their life. My strengths as a communicator Anything that is done by a person affects another person emotionally, mentally, physically or spiritually is called communication. Communicating with one another is the main skill on which the entire living thing relies, to fill their special and daily needs. Since communication is a two way process therefore I understand that if one is a good speaker as well as a good listener only then the person can prove himself as a good communicator. As a communicator few of my strengths include; my willingness to listen to other people. As a person I prefer to listen to others so that I can understand them better and make them comfortable. I am also careful about other’s emotions; my sensitivity has also helped me become a good communicator. Other than this, my friendly personality also helps me to become more approachable for others and they feel free to talk to me in any regard. These were my strengths that I possess as a listener. As a speaker few of my strengths include; effective speaking, I am very comfortable in talking to others. At one time I can listen to others, while at the same time I can also make them understand my stance very easily. Moreover, I am also a confident individual who is able to communicate with others and can adjust with them in no time. Other than this, I am also a quick thinker who can comprehend the situation comfortably, thus can act accordingly. However, though I possess all these strengths but unfortunately, I am only able to perform these tasks effortlessly when I am communicating in my first language, Arabic. When it comes to express myself or communicate with others in any other language, or in English for that matter, the problem arises as I do not have enough command on it. What do I yet need to develop in myself? The area that I find I need to develop as a communicator is my body language. Since the body language helps one improve their communication skills, the way one holds oneself also has an impact on how others perceive them and treat them. This shows that the body language helps others make decision on how to treat people in public and in person. As a communicator a major problem that I faced was poor eye contact with others. I understand the importance of having an eye contact while talking to anyone in order to prove your words and let others have interest in your conversation. Even though, I can contentedly make eye contact with the other person when I am talking in my native language, however, in second language the same task seemed difficult to me. In addition to this, I had weak listening skills for a foreign language too. Moreover, another problem that I faced in my body language was hand shaking with others. This lacking in my personality had become a hindrance in my effective communication with others. Due to this, no matter how easy going and friendly I became, these few shortcomings in my personality held me back to become a good communicator in a foreign language. These short comings had made me very nervous in front of others and I was gradually losing my self confidence. In such scenario, the role-plays in the class became an effective tool to help me, and to an adequate extent, I was able to overcome these problems. Nonetheless, some efforts are still required to overcome it completely. How to “make” it happen?  The way through which I overcame these problems is by using role-playing. In order to let students understand the body language of each other, our teacher found it important to practice more activities with us. The purpose was to ensure that students understand the body language of each other in a better way. The teacher used a restaurant scenario with us. In this case, the class was divided in two groups. One group acted as the customers and the other acted as the waiters. Since, in role-play there is no crowd, therefore these groups were further divided into the group of three. Here, two of the members were asked to play the role of the customer and one became a waiter. Our teacher worked as a manager. Being at the authoritative position in the act, the teacher was roaming around in the class and was listening to us while we were talking to each other. This act helped me understand the body language of others and develop my listening skills with the class. During the act, the waiters were suppose to make their customers understand themselves, and likewise the customers were also responsible to communicate with the waiters properly. Therefore, this activity significantly contributed to developing both my listening skills and body language. At the first step, three of the groups were used. Once, the rest of the class had settled and the groups that were performing had settled in their roles as well, the customers started placing their orders. Among the three groups, in one of the groups the waiter acted as if he was very busy in entertaining other customers and was not able to take the order of the desired customers. The other group’s customers were indecisive and were not able to place the order. In addition to that, despite concentrating on the menu they were giving more attention to the waitress. In the third group, the waiter had a poor memory and quick order-jotting skills, and as a result, he kept asking the customers to repeat their order over and over. The teacher was the manager of the restaurant, her role was to supervise all these activities and solve problems. She would roam around and listen to the ongoing conversation that was taking place between each of the groups. Like this, she aided the students if they faced any problems in understanding each other. She would either give the waiters and the waitress hint by directly getting involved in the situation, so that we could be comfortable with the scenario, and if we had a problem in any part with each other, she would help us solve that. In this role, I acted as the waiter, who had poor memory and as a result the customers had to repeat the order over and over. But this act helped me improve my listening skills in the class, as it made me concentrate on each and every word said by the customer; likewise I was able to develop my listening skills. Moreover, since it was a spontaneous act, so I had also developed the strength of taking right decisions at the right time. I had improved my body language with others. While acting as a waiter, I had to look into the customers’ eyes more often when I had problem in understanding their order. This practice helped me overcome my problem of not looking directly in the other person’s eyes and also helped overcome my nervousness in front of others. Once this act was over, other students joined the stage, and according to their lacking in the interpersonal skills, the roles were assigned to them by the supervisor. List short and long- term goals dates for completion In education, long- term goals are goals that can be completed as a part of whole. Writing career goals is quite simple and formal, but they increase ones concentration and focus. This goes true only if one is making efforts to achieve them (Pandey, Buzzle.com). There are a number of long term goals that I want to decide upon. In my long- term goals list, I have included to overcome the problems that I am still facing in communicating in second language. My lists of goals include developing my listening skills to this extent that I become as comfortable with it as I am with my native language. To achieve this single long-term goal, I need to make several short term goals. These can include having activities on weekly bases. The activities can be watching films in English that has English subtitles beneath the screen; I could spare time to do this on a daily bases, as this can help me develop the understanding of the accent, and likewise I would be able to have better listening skills. Also, I can use audio books to enhance my listening skills. As listening while reading is a good concept, therefore, I believe that this will certainly help me in improving my listening abilities. In my short term goals I can plan to read around five such books every week. Other than this, I can plan activities with my Native friends in which we can act and work on our weaknesses. Having a foreigner friend in such activities will not only boost my listening skills but also help me develop eye contact while talking in their language. Through this my friends can also guide me on the aspects where they find a room for betterment in me. I have added this in my short term goals to plan such activities at least once in two weeks. How I will measure my success?  I can measure my success in these goals by watching English movies without English subtitles on the screen, and see if I am able to understand the dialogues. Once I feel myself comfortable in understanding, this would mean that I have achieved my goal. However, in the reverse scenario, I need to put more efforts in my listening skills. I can watch more movies and can listen to radio channels as much as I can. Other than this, to check the ratio of achievement in my body language, I can plan a play with my friends. In this play, few of my friends can participate and few can become the audience. Through this, I would be able to assess how much I have improved in my body language. My friends in the audience and in the play can also guide me on the short falls that I have shown in the play. Reference Pandey, K., Career Goals for Teachers, Buzzle.com. January, 2011 Web 12 April 2011 Haar, M. J. Retaining Experienced, Qualified Teachers: The Principal’s Role. 2007. Web. 12 April 2011. Read More