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[Rose Proctor] As we continue our conversation around effective communication, we're now going to dive into communication types and modes. So first off, nonverbal communication, paying attention to our body language, images that were sending to others, our verbal communication, whether that be through oral or written. So in oral, we're talking bout presentations, phone conversations that we have. Whereas written, we're talking about documentation, right? Email, text messages, any kind of papers that we're presenting. So when we think about these different types of communications, we want to figure out which communication type or mode is appropriate and the most effective for the situation that we're in. So as we think about going back to that definition of what effective communication is, how does knowing which communication type or mode to use impact our overall communication effectiveness? Yeah, this happens a lot, especially it's a little bit different for me because I come from a culturally diverse background. So especially growing up there's I would speak Spanish at home and then in the everywhere else it was English. So I would have to balance the the communication in that perspective because it's two very different worlds and so.

When it comes to school, you don't want to mess up because it costs your grade and then with friendships you don't want to kind of balance that because it may cost you friend or, and as you can look at it from different perspectives but it happens a lot more than you think. But for me it's about being open and honest, and if you mess up, claim it, you know. It's they're not going to they're not going to look at you any different, obviously, especially if you look at if you take credit for it or you take blame. Though most more times than not they'll forgive you for it, and they'll look past it and you can use that to grow not only as an individual, but together. So just being open and honest and working together whenever it is, it's just a problem arises. So recently something that happened is, so I'm a Company First Sergeant and I had to put out something that you know my my company or my group needs to be here at a certain time, but due to COVID we had to move outside. So normally we would have these meeting or this formation inside and in a certain shape that sort of made it so you can see everyone is sort of getting names and face and all that stuff. Well I wanted that shape outside and the way I like sort of communicated it was not clear at all. It was very like I was typing it very rushed. I was sort of in a hurry and I was like okay I want you to form up like you would inside but at this place, but it got misunderstood, so only half the people showed up outside and the rest were inside. So I was like where is everybody and I had to go send somebody to go find them. They're like inside. They didn't understand what you meant and so I had to figure that one out, that one was a big miscommunication.

So verbal communication, obviously it's been a little bit different with this COVID setting. There's a lot more online and even though sometimes zoom calls and face to face can kind of be virtual at the end of the day, it's not the same as sitting across from somebody that you know, relaying whatever thoughts you have or questions you have, and so it's a lot more email chains. It's a lot more text messages, and even in the zoom calls, they're just structured a little bit differently, and so the position that I'm in right now is I'm I'm coordinating training for all of our junior year cadets and I'm getting them ready for their national assessment and what I assessed through last year. And there's one one person that I really answered to that at the beginning of the year, because of this communication block, I'll say, or this lack of face to face, I was on a completely different page of where he wanted to take one of the key events. And so we conducted the key event to what I thought was the standard. And then afterwards he pulled me aside and he's like Derek. He like what happened here and it was news to me. So I was a little shocked and a little bit embarrassed honestly and it just it was not the end of the world. I think it. It helped us understand where we need to talk to each other more, especially in the situation and the environment that we're in now. So more so than a failure, I would call it a learning point and it's really. It was nothing to be embarrassed of, it was just, you know, two different perceptions of the same goal. So a lot of times when I'm talking to people that I'm working with and I haven't had a good night sleep, I haven't eaten yet, I'm really tired, it could come across as I'm upset with that person, or you know they did something wrong or what I'm talking about. I'm not actually enthusiastic about something I've really had to notice is like, even though I'm tired, hungry, you know whatever I still have to make sure, I'm aware of how what I'm saying is presenting to the other person.

Nonverbal, when I think of nonverbal, it it brings me to more so like body language. And I think that's one of the biggest cues of nonverbal communication, and I being the middle man, I'll relate this again to my position that I'm I'm working this year being the middle man between the planning of some training and the facilitation, I have people on both ends that I answer too, and there's people on both ends that I'm supposed to give direction to. And so if I'm, if I most recently, I guess the best example would be I gave the intent of my commander to the next level down. And it was just some similar training that we needed done and I was going by spot checking like I'm supposed to. There's four different groups, and so I just kind of rotate and and trying to ease any bit of friction points there. And I walked up and I'll stand in there and I just nonchalantly. I had my arms crossed and so I didn't even think nothing of it.

I was talking with, you know, my my partner basically and we were just talking about how we could ease things up in the future for this same type of training and the person in charge of it came over here like hey sir, like, is there a problem, like what what's going on? And I obviously had no problem. I didn't mean to pull him away from his training, but he mentioned how when I was standing there, it looked like I was angry with him or angry with the coordination or with the facilitation or disappointed with some aspect. And I'm glad I had the verbal communication to clear it up immediately, but in the future since then I've never walked up anywhere in nonchalantly crossed my arms. It's been more of, you know, keeping my hands class down here, just off to the side, and it's awkward, you know, not knowing what to do with your hands, but that mental cue was then added up, OK, maybe not crossing my arms. Now that we've thought a little bit about, you know those communication modes and going back to having the ability to effectively communicate and what that really means. We've already focused on displaying the appropriate listening, nonverbal, verbal, interpersonal, and written skills.

We talked a little bit about sending a consistent, clear, and concise, and courteous message and making sure that what we have sent is understood by the party receiving. Now we want to focus a little bit on asking questions. Clarifying and summarizing and providing feedback to ensure the message has been understood. So to ask the right questions and to provide feedback or your opinion around decisions being made, you must be able to critically think. So as we kind of challenge ourselves on how does critical thinking and having the ability to make decisions impact our careers and our ability to be successful. Yeah, decision making in any career, especially business or in your job, is essential.

A lot of times, especially in my career, going into management, that sort of thing people look for you to answer, look to you for answers. So you being able to go out and quickly be think quickly on your feet is very vital because sometimes you don't have time to go home and think about it. Sometimes you have to go in and give him an answer right away or within a few minutes, so being able to, kind of take a step back and for and kind of go in depth into the question or into whatever it is they'r