Below I posted the original hw assignment. Please respond back to 2 classmates 100 words per response. Let me know if you have any questions,

Guided Response: Consider ways in which you might like to interact with your peers. For example, did you find any commonalities in terms of your strengths/areas for improvement and theirs? Do you have any practical suggestions to share regarding how to solve a particular conflict? Please be courteous and adhere to the rules of respectful engagement throughout your replies.

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Original Post

Personal Communication Strengths and Growth

Healthy relationships are crucial in families and workplaces though conflicts are common. (DeVito, 2017). In conflicts, there must be a loser and a winner. Whichever the case, finding resolutions to conflicts is important. I have been having conflicts with my step-brother on important family decisions. I realized that I have strengths and weaknesses in my communication.

My strengths in personal communication include empathy and open-mindedness. I can understand and share the feelings of others. I do what I would like others to do onto me. When disagreements arise between any family members, relatives, or sometimes with a co-worker, I feel the urge to find a solution for the issue. Negative attitudes, stress, problems, and thinking capacity makes people react or respond to issues differently (DeVito, 2017). Therefore, I am emphatic, and this helps me to think that I am equal to others. I am also open-minded. This is one of my strengths in personal communication. When conflicts arise, I avoid speculations, listen to the opponent, and when the opponent cannot change his/her mind, I humble myself and accept to be a loser for the sake of healthy relationships.

My weaknesses include poor concentration ability and sing hesitations plus wimpy words. Most of the time when conflicts arise, I always urge that whatever the other side decides, that is what I will take up. I also use wimpy words and hesitations, especially when my patience is overstretched. I do not feel comfortable to spend my time sitting, arguing, and blaming one another. Instead, I consider promising that “I will try, I think that we will, obviously, and hopefully.” I do this to break the arguments and mind my own business. These are discouraging words that break the conversation and they are negative to some degree. Improving on active listening would help in avoiding hesitations and wimpy words for better conflict management skills (Cushman & Cahn, 2019).

Whenever conflicts will ever arise again, I will follow the conflict management steps through identifying the issue, setting a common ground for both parties, put strategies to reach for the goals, identify the barriers that may hinder conflict resolution, agree on the most appropriate way to resolve the conflicts, agree on the solutions reached at, and determining the responsibility the two parties have played in managing the conflict. Through this procedure, there will be a better way of resolving conflicts (DeVito, 2017).

Classmate #1

Tiffany Moore

I believe that conflict is necessary for families to learn and grow from each other. I also think that conflict is often inevitable if you spend any amount of time with family or anyone, you are going to disagree on something. The problem for me is that we have adapted to the attitude of winning or losing, and concluded there must be a winner. I know that it is this very attitude and way of thinking that causes us to shut down and refuse to hear what the other person is saying, because we are afraid that what they are saying is right and we don’t want to lose in the argument, we will refuse to compromise or admit we agree with what they are saying. I wish we could adapt another concept in regards to conflicts, disputes, and disagreements. In my family, we often avoid this mentality by stating we agree to disagree so that no one person walked away declaring themselves as winner or loser of an argument. This attitude allowed us to move forward without ill feelings expressed and our basic communication needs were not hindered. Thanks for the post!

Classmate #2

Dorrselyn Moses

Personal Communication

Open communication for me is a must in any relationship I have from being a mom, a supervisor, a Doula, a best friend and so forth. My strengths leak from my personality as a free spirit as I am always open minded and conscious of what I am speaking and listening to. I always allow a safe space for anyone to communicate their thoughts and emotions regardless of what I may think without judgement. I also have been through a lot myself so I always try to step out of my own shoes and understand where someone is coming from rather than listening just to answer or reply. I assess situation well and allow myself to understand and sometimes just be an active listener without response because some people need just that. I believe my trust strength in communication is my unbiased advice. I nurture through empathy when necessary but I always give the honesty in every scenario that someone can handle, then move for a solution from there.

Growth: I believe weaknesses are more so strengths that are not utilized as much or what is unknown to practice. As human are we molded and our communication skills follow, so if we are not strong in an area of communicating we need to practice until efficiency is reach. I can grow in the areas of when a not forcing communications when problems arise. I love to tackle the issue right then and there and some people need time to process. It also cause me to rush my thoughts as well. In past relationship I have been known to dig deep when a significant other do not function that way so time is must. I can apply pressure a lot in conversation.

I can utilize the steps in the text by finding the common ground and looking for the barriers from both individuals. Barriers need to resolved sometimes before the solutions to other problems can be handled.