Interpersonal Skills Required for Development of Effective Interpersonal Relationships - Coursework Example

Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Date: TABLE OF CONTENTS Journal 1: Goal setting…………………………………………………………………………..3 Journal 2: Reviewing your goals………………………………………………………………..4 Journal 3: Reinforcing leadership skills…………………………………………………………6 Journal 4: Understanding your cultural identity and appreciating cultural differences………...7 Journal 5: How effective are your non-verbal communication skills…………………………..9 References……………………………………………………………………………….…...12 Journal 1: Goal setting Setting goals is an effective tool to help you think about the feature in terms of where you want to be in the coming future and what you hope to have achieved. I have come to learn that by setting goals I become aware of what I can be able to achieve and what is unrealistic. Once I have set my goals then I can be able to motivate myself towards achieving the goals (Maurice, Lisa and Bambi 2012).I learnt that when I set goals for myself or for my group it helps in getting the short term motivation to get us going and a long term vision that can be used to guide us as we achieve the goals one by one towards a bigger goal. It also builds the confidence in seeing that we are competent and capable of achieving the goals. Goal setting as a process needs planning if it is to achieve the results you desire. I came to learn the very first step in setting highly effective goals is identifying a bigger achievement that I hope to have achieved at a near or distant future. When I did this individually and even with my group it gave a sense of purpose in the activities we engaged in and how instrumental they are in achieving the goal we set in mind. I learned that it is important to know where you are headed and what you are set to gain when you reach your destination but you can only embark on a journey once you know where you are going. It is the same with achieving big things in life, business and career. You have got to know the goals first and critically analyze them. By getting the big picture of what you want to achieve, it does not mean that you have got there already. Just like any other journey you have to devise a means and routes you will use to get there. These are the steps. They are the small goals that culminate in the achievement of the overall bigger goal. When I tried to set goals from this approach, I found it easy and motivating just like Locke and Latham (2006) had stipulated, that when people achieve these mini goals and check them then they are motivated that they are moving in the right direction. The mini goals set deadlines and put pressure on people to meet them. I found it very easy to set achievable goals when I understood the proper methods of coming up with realistic yet challenging goals and motivate people towards achieving them. People are more confident towards achieving goals when they see their leadership is more optimistic and determined towards achieving the goal. All the same I think goal setting can be made more effective by prioritizing the goals. In an organizational set up the goals may be several since there is diversity of activities in an organization. When you prioritize the goals then you can be able to concentrate and dedicate resources towards the goal. I found it difficult to set outcome goals that I thought were more fruitful, many individuals don’t like being assessed using this method, it is better to make performance goals as it rewards the efforts of people individually and eliminates the feeling of having to give so much while the rest were just looking on. Journal 2: Reviewing your goals When developing goals it is important that you develop a measurement system. The system will be used to determine whether you are making any progress or you are just moving about without achieving anything substantial. One of the most fundamental lessons I learnt is that by developing your goals together with your team members it makes them own the process and even come up with methodologies to tell whether they are making any progress at all (Larrie, 2003). As time progresses the goals you set might not still be relevant. If they are not still relevant then there is no reason why you should still be pursuing the goal. This kills the motivation you have. As a matter of fact you should always remind your team members of the importance of the goals you set at a particular time so that they remain focused towards achieving the goals. I came to note that when people are not constantly reminded through regular briefing meetings of the progress made towards the attainment of the ultimate goal they might lack the motivation to walk with the goal initiator. When you embark on a journey as a team or individually to attain a goal, you have to develop an action plan that will be a guide towards the goal. I did not think of it to be so instrumental until I discovered that an action plan steps up the momentum by setting deadlines to improve your progress. If incase you are not meeting the deadlines then you are not putting enough effort or you set unrealistic goals. This is where you can make a decision to review the goals and adjust your action plan. Remember your action plan should be adjustable since the future is not 100% predictable. Wilson and Dobson (2008) advice that you should not change the goals to often; it might give an impression that the goals are not so relevant and they might be done away with. I discovered this in our group as members lost motivation towards achieving our original goals. Adequate resources are one of the most critical factors that determine whether goals will be achieved or not. I noted that there must be enough time, money and information to facilitate the attainment of the goal. When reviewing goals it is important that you analyze the effects of limited supply of these resources. If at all the resources are minimal then you can step down your expectations of the goals and extend the deadlines. It was problematic when we wanted to achieve the goals really fast and got frustrated by the support we got from the institutions we wanted to get information from. In many instances funds are not released in time as you might want them to be released. This dampens the spirit. There are also additional resources that are required to cater for emerging needs along the way. We drafted a budget that had no allowance for these anomalies; this had a major setback that impacted on the deadlines we had set. Journal 3: Reinforcing leadership skills This course has enabled me to understand that having good leadership skills is very important for any individual as it impacts on the interpersonal relationships that the individual develops with people around them. I learnt of the new trend where many employers are very keen to see that they employ people with good leadership skills. A good leader will motivate people, and build respect among people. Reinforcing leadership skills is very important because people produce the best results when they are motivated and inspired to follow a leader than when they are forced by various situations to do what the leader says. It is still debatable whether leadership skills can be imparted into a person or they are inborn. There are two conflicting schools of thought. One states that anybody can become a leader when he receives the right training, while the other believes leadership is an inborn trait and goes further to claim that most of the greatest leaders were not formerly trained but had a mindset that made them do things and behave as leaders ( Owen, 2007). But what I noted was common in all cases is that at some point in life a person who is entrusted with a leadership responsibility, and so I need to learn some leadership skills to help me approach the problems with leading people. Decision making is a very important skill that must be reinforced as a leadership skill. Leadership is about having a vision of where you want to take the people you are leading. But then it does not end there you have to make decisions along the way that will get you on the right path towards the vision. Previously I thought that decision making is a leader’s preserve but then I realized it can be a bit tricky as it has to be a people process. Simply what this means is that you cannot make the decisions on your own; you have to involve the people (Diane, 2009). It was therefore important that I understand that even as I reinforce leadership skills I have to develop strong interpersonal skills that will help me communicate my vision and move people towards attainment of the vision. It is not simple balancing between reinforcing leadership skills and interpersonal relationships as I discovered. The people who are being led are not always willing to adopt the vision of the leader, while others feel the leader is not worthy of the position and go ahead to sabotage his efforts this makes the leader a dictator who shows the way and demands that everyone follows him, otherwise they quit and he gets other people. I learnt that strong leadership also calls for effective problem solving skill. There are many problems that arise along the way. How I solved the problems determined whether we made a step towards our vision or we drifted away. I discovered that the people who are being led do often have solutions and like being involved in solving problems. A major mistake often made by leaders is to think that they lead alone which is very wrong. A leader should lead together with the people and therefore strong interpersonal skills are required whenever a leader tries to reinforce his/ her leadership skills. The leader should work hard to see that the people move with him rather than follow him because he says so without themselves not having a clue why they are following him. Journal 4: Understanding your cultural identity and appreciating cultural differences After this course I have an entirely new understanding of culture. Culture can be described as a way of life of a people. It is manifested in attitudes and beliefs. What a person from a particular culture values and believes is the same with other members of the culture group. Having a cultural identity is the feeling of being included in a group or culture. There are many cultures in the world and especially in schools and in work places. They bring about the cultural diversity. What I learnt and agreed with is that understanding your own culture is important as it gives you an identity and a set of principles that guide your life. It also says what you value and what is not important to you. When I understand different people have different cultures influenced by their religion and environment then I will be able to appreciate the differences in culture. Culture is also defined by aspects such as race, religion, social class and sex. These are factors that make people who they are. Tolliver and Elizabeth (2002) suggest that a practical way of understanding other people’s culture and appreciating it is by asking questions and answering them instead of shying away from the sensitive issues. This way you will know what to say and do whenever you are near members of as different culture from yours. It is difficult to learn the cultural identity through this approach, as I noted, people are not always ready to share their ways of life with others as they believe if you are not a part of them then you don’t appreciate their culture and therefore it is a waste of time to try and explain to you what their culture entails. I tried to ask some few questions from people in different cultures from mine, but I found some cultures to be very complex and entangled with religion. Understanding these cultures can take you a very long period of time coupled with the fact that some are better explained using their own language so you have to learn the language first before you understand the culture. At this point I thought people who are working together or studying together should be made to share some aspects of their culture regularly to reduce conflicts and also to help improve the level of interpersonal skills within the setting. In its Diversity stewardship report (2011) the Coca-Cola Company noted that diversity in the work place is not only a matter of policies and practices but rather an integral part of the company that should be embraced since no successful company serves a particular cultural group. To me therefore, culture is part and parcel of multicultural organizations that cannot be ignored. I think more strategies should be developed to enhance cultural understanding and tolerance. Employees should be taught to respectfully seek to understand other cultures they come in contact with in an effort to improve interpersonal relationships. As I analyzed the case of the Coca-Cola Company, I noted that a culturally diverse workforce that coexists in harmony is capable of making a company be viewed as a fair employer in the job market. The leadership of the company should therefore be at the forefront in promoting interpersonal relationships through cultural appreciation by hiring culturally diverse employees and promote culture awareness. Journal 5: How effective are your non-verbal communication skills We can improve our interpersonal skills by developing strong non-verbal communication skills. Non verbal communication skills are used every day to accompany the spoken word. After this course I have become more appreciative of the impact that my body language can have to my communication. I have learnt how to read people more easily and I am at a better position to communicate effectively through the non-verbal way. We all send signals through the way we walk talk and show eye gestures. But there can be a confusing signal whenever we send a body message that is in conflict with what we say from our mouth. Body language can be communicated in several ways. By how we move our body people get to understand our moods and our attitudes in certain moments and therefore they may know how to relate with us (Liz, 2011). Body movements include gestures, postures and head movements. Most importantly I have learnt that some body movements such as emblems have a common meaning across many cultures but they may be having entirely different meaning in some particular cultures. It is therefore important for an individual to understand the cultural diversity in the context he is using the emblem as your message can be wrongfully interpreted. I previously didn’t give a lot of attention to body posture but I have learnt that posture can be used to communicate a lot of information to an observant person. There are different posture styles but the most common are the open and the closed posture and open-n posture usually depicted by open arms tells of somebody who is not reserving anything and is open to share what he is having in mind and what he knows, to the contrary a closed posture like closing of arms during a meeting or during a discussion shows a lack of interest in the conversation (Albert, 2007). When I note such kind of signals then I can do something to discover what is causing the underlying factors in an effort to improve the interpersonal relationship I have with the person. Eye contact is another important body language used to accompany the spoken word to reinforce the intended purpose. The eye contact is used to show your interest or perception towards something. By closely observing a persons eyes you can tell whether they are interested in the topic you are discussing and their perception towards you. You can also get a direct feed back from somebody’s eyes to know whether they are listening to you and also you can show them you are listening to them by maintaining eye contact. I discovered that practicing the body language is not at all any difficult since many of the body language skills are actually natural instincts. However, there are some like the dressing code that you need to get more information about since you can sub-consciously be communicating a different message from the one you intended through how you dress and carry your self around. I believe managers can explore this aspect of communication in more details as the small things that are assumed to have no effect at all like the office arrangement and organizational structures, might actually be communicating a lot about an organization either positively or negatively . References Albert , M, (2007), NonVerbal Communication, Transaction Publishers Derise ,T, Elizabeth, J, Bridging Across Disciplines: Understanding the Connection Between Cultural Identity, Spirituality, and Socio-Political Development in Teaching for Transformation, (2002) Prentice-Hall Diane, E, Leadership Skills, (2009) , Infobase publishing Larrie, R, (2003), Goals and Goal Setting: Achieving Measured Objectives, Edn 3, Cengage Learning Liz ,S, (2011) Nonverbal Communication: The Art of Body Language, The Rosen Publishing Group Locke, E ,Latham, G, A (2006), Theory of goal setting and task performance, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, : Prentice-Hall Maurice, E, Lisa, O, Bambi, D, (2012), Goal Setting as a Motivator of Unethical Behavior, Article sourced online on 14/Oct/2012 from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/57/9/705/ [Accessed on 14/Oct/2012] Owen, J, (2007) The leadership skills handbook: 50 key skills from 1000 leaders, Kogan page publishers The coca-cola Diversitry stewardship report (2011) available online from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/diversity.html [Accessed on 14/Oct/2012] Wilson, B, Dobson, M, (2008), Goal Setting: How to Create an Action Plan and Achieve Your Goals, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn Read More