Who Am I as a Communicator?

There wasn’t much that surprised me about the results of the evaluation reported by my friend of 25 years and my co-worker of 5 years. The categories that my evaluators placed me in were the same as those that I placed myself.  However, although the categories were the same the number report in one of the categories surprised me. My friend of 25 years scored me with a 68 in the area of verbal aggressiveness. This was 1 point away from being viewed as a person with little provocation I might cross the line, become verbally aggressive and personally attack the listener and cause hurt. Not only was I surprised, I was concerned that after 25 years my friend only saw a small amount of growth. I guess I never saw myself that way, but I respect her judgment and I will work on this area. I also learned this week that my listening style was reported as people-oriented. Although I strive to be people oriented, I thought I would be reported as action –oriented. The other thing I learned is that I was viewed as confident in communication situations by my friends. This was surprising because I always have anxiety when communicating in most situations. Great to know that my friends and colleagues don’t see this anxiety.