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Are you who you're telling the world you are?

Communication is how we share information; however, it extends far beyond what we say. How we appear, the decisions we make, the language we use, the lack of communication, the intonation of our voice, the media we use, are all sending various messages about ourselves, our thoughts, our opinions, and our intents. For this reason, in a professional space, we need to be cautious and mindful about how we are conducting ourselves. A comment in an unofficial capacity, poor appearance, or unconscientious body language could negatively mold a supervisor’s impression, cause a member of a team to feel isolated or excluded, or generate contempt toward a policy. My future communications are going to be much more cautious. I often carry myself very lightheartedly, I enjoy laughing, joking, and having fun. However, I now recognize while that may contribute to helping create a positive workspace, it could also isolate an individual or individuals within the space. It could also have a negative imp...
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Another meeting that has nothing to do with me.

  Through-out my professional career in the military and in the civilian world I have participated in very few meetings that were of relevance. Every time I would sit down the first thing that was on my mind was all the other things I could be accomplishing with that time. That’s not to say all gatherings were a waste of time for myself, however, majority of the time they were. I have made it my mission as a leader and a manager to ensure any presentation I wanted to give was relevant to the participants of the meeting. I also wanted to make sure the audience was relevant to the topic. Most importantly, if there wasn’t an action to be taken following the meeting, I would have to question the information that was being presented. It wasn’t until this class that the DIKA model was presented to me. I really like the concept because it helps make sure any presentation is relevant to the audience. Data and information are useless if they cannot be turned into knowledge, knowledge is u...
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Diversity and Inclusion, because we're all an asset

 I've noticed a lot of organizations tout diversity and inclusion, as a matter of fact UPS CEO Carol Tome' took to her LinkedIn page celebrating how 'diverse' UPSs new board members were because it was filled with people of color and women. Before I may have seen that post and thought to myself, 'wow, UPS is diverse,' today after listening to Donald Thompson's video, I'm thinking to myself 'are they really diverse?' Yeah, they're diverse when it comes to observable physical attributes, but what about attributes that are beyond physicality? In addition to that, the board is made up of a lot of women, is that really diverse? to have an organization whose primary leader is a woman being led by a group of women? It may represent a different construct in comparison to previous boards and/or boards of other larger organizations, but does that really make it diverse? What type of message does that send to people not of color? or people that are not ...
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Are You Listening?

Listening is a very active process. It is much different then hearing. When we listen we are trying to capture and internalize the meanings of the communications we're being presented with. In some cases we may be listening for a specific purpose, whether it's to learn something, develop an understanding of a situation, or better empathize with an individual's position, thought process, or perspective. As a manager listening is key to how we are perceived by our employees, leadership, and peers. It is also key in receiving the information necessary to making effective decisions. How can we work to fix a problem, improve a process, or negotiate a deal if we fail to develop an accurate understanding of the reality? As the manager of a large flight training campus, listening was essential to our success. To effectively manage the campus I had to first be listening to learn. On any single given day I could have hundreds of years of flight training experience in FAA examiners wa...
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Virtual or Verbal, Which is Truer?

Virtual communication is much different from verbal communication because it creates a tangible record of messages. As I look at my LinkedIn and Facebook pages having listened to Jeff Hancock’s TED video, I feel like I have an honest representation of myself thru my virtual communications. Reflecting on the messages I am sharing with professional and personal communities, and The Future of Lying video, I relate strongly with the communications produced on online dating sites “if you do not match your profile the date is over” (Hancock, 2012). I really want to make sure my profiles are accurate representation of who I am, what I’ve accomplished, and what type of opportunity I bring to an organization. This is by design; I don’t want to create an inaccurate representation of myself because that would result in me not being employed in accordance with my abilities. Talking with some of my friends and people I know and comparing the information they have on their virtual profiles; I have n...
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Take Another to Lunch

 I've taken another to lunch, I've actually done it a couple of times with mixed results. In one instance my lunch companion and I walked away with a better understanding of one another's perspective, it resulted in a more enlightened conversation and team work. No longer was there a sense of division. In another instance, it didn't go so well. While in my opinion I felt we had developed a shared understanding and respect of one another's perspective, the reality is, the meeting fueled further division. My name, and my perspective were tarnished, belittled, and discredited. It was and is an extremely painful experience, I was trying to be nice, get to know people, and do a good job. Come to find out, this individual and my boss shared opinions and perspectives about me. They communicate with each other that shared discontent (about my views) regularly. It makes it very hard to go to work, there's now a negative aura the encircles our communications. It's tou...
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Language, the collective understanding and meaning of words

 As one traverses the world you will find an entire host of different languages. These languages have been developed and/or adopted by a group of resident citizens as the agreed upon way in-which that city, country, and region are going to communicate. Within that language you can find or be exposed to a series of sub-languages built upon a regional or national language. For example, in the United States, the meanings and pronunciation of English words is different depending on what part of the country you are in. In some rare cases the pronunciation is so drastically different from region to region, it can make it difficult to understand, however, for individuals living within a respective region, those pronunciations have meaning.  Within these different regions and countries and through-out the world there are different professions. These professions lead to the development of organizations whom leverage professional skills to provide a service or produce a product for inco...
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