In the report to come, I will be giving a self evaluated exercise on nonverbal listening behaviors. For this exercise, I have chosen Jorge, a good friend and colleague, whom I’m comfortable with and a long time friend of mine, Kasey who I’m very close with. The conversation that took place with Jorge was at work and lasted about ten minutes. However, the conversation that I had with Kasey took place at Starbucks and lasted about 30 minutes. My conversation with Jorge was relative to the issues we have been having with upper management at work. Kasey and I talked about thoughts and ideas for starting a new business.
My conversation with Jorge took place while we were trying to do some work on the floors of the buildings at work. The background noise made it difficult to hear him, so I found myself asking him to repeat what he said quite often. My posture was more of a sitting position, and I was able to make good eye contact with him for the greater part of the conversation. We both had tools in our hands so it was difficult to make too many gestures. I nodded my head a lot as an indication that I agreed with him. Facial expressions consisted mostly of raised eyebrows as I was surprised to hear the things that he was telling me. I could tell that he was angry because he was talking really fast. My responses to him were very suggestive, but also giving advice at the same time. Under these circumstances I believe my behavior was appropriate for this conversation because it was mainly Jorge venting about the situation and that there was not much that I was going to be able to do for him except listen.
My conversation with Kasey was a little bit different. As we were sitting in Starbucks Café, we discussed things that have occurred in our daily lives over the course of the past 10 months. I felt very comfortable while visiting and made eye contact when she was explaining things to me. I sat back in the chair with one leg up on the chair next to me. I caught myself looking at my cell phone a few times to check the time and see if I had any messages or new emails. I noticed that I nodded my head a lot as an acknowledgement that I was listening. The facial expressions that were shown were because I was interested and surprised to hear some of the changes that she had made over that last few months. A lot of smiles were exchanged between the two of us. We both were happy for each other. In this situation I feel like I could have paid less attention to my cell phone while she was talking to me. I should have given her my full attention, the same way that she gave me hers when I was talking to her. I think that I listened well although maybe not entirely appropriately the entire time, but I was able to have a good conversation with her without asking her to repeat herself.
In this exercise I have discovered the listening skills that I do well with and ones that I need to improve on. I feel that my eye contact, facial expressions and posture are all nonverbal listening behaviors that I would either maintain or like to improve on. In my conversation with Jorge, I feel that there isn’t anything that I would really change other then the