Oral Presentation I Come From

Oral Presentation I come from a very large family who did not always communicate well. I have three sisters and four brothers and very loud parents who did more yelling than communicating when we were growing up. As a result, this is how I learned to communicate. In my household if you didn't jump in and interrupt someone while they were speaking to get your point across, then you didn't get heard.

Talking was always a battle in my household and for my siblings, my parents and I that was normal. My aunts, uncles and cousins are all pretty much the same way. This is how I thought people were supposed to communicate. You out talk someone or constantly talk over them until you had the floor. When I went away to college all of this changed. I slowly but surely alienated my roommates, classmates and any other person who tried to befriend me.

I would never let them have their say on an issue without interrupting them. It wasn't until one of my professors got tired of me interrupting another classmate who was speaking in class. My original intention was to major in business, but my professor kept me after class one day only to tell me that I was the worst communicator he had ever known. He suggested I take an introductory course in the Communications Department to improve my skills.

He warned me that I would never make it in the business world with the poor communication skills I possessed. I ignored him. My feelings were hurt and so was my pride. It wasn't until the semester was over and I saw my grade that I took what he said into consideration. I was expecting no less than an a- and I received a B+.

When I spoke to him about it, he said that my grade was lowered a few points because class participation was part of the grading and my communication skills were awful. He suggested again that I take an introductory course in communications and this time I listened. I signed up and as they say, the rest is history. After the first course, I discovered that I know longer wanted to major in business and changed my major to organizational communications.

I believe this is one of the smartest moves I have ever made. I learn so much in the first class I took and one of the first things I learned was that my professor would not tolerate me interrupting people while they had the floor. After about two warnings, she told me she would have me removed from the class and I knew she meant business. She did me a favor by shutting me up because it taught me how to listen.

At first, I couldn't listed to whomever was speaking because I was too busy concentrating on what I would say. but, a funny thing happened. I learned that when I listened to other's opinions, even if they were different from mine that it opened my mind to new ways of thinking and seeing things. Throughout my college years, I learned how to be an effective communicator. However, not everything is learned in the classroom. I have had some excellent managers who became mentors along the way.

They have shown me the importance of having an open door policy and regular staff meetings to hear what my team members have to say and what is going on with them. Make no mistake. I do make use of modern technology to communicate. My team has started instant messaging and we do.