Critical Reflection

When I first stepped into this class, I thought to myself why I must go through another communication module when I have already gone through so many during my polytechnic days and even had to speak regularly in front of a crowd during my National Service. However, during the first lesson, I realized I still had issues when speaking in front of the crowd and communicating effectively with my team members despite already having so much experience in doing so. After realizing my shortcomings, I set out to become a better speaker and a more vocal teammate.

Throughout the duration of the trimester, I learnt various presentations techniques that allowed me to engage the crowd and allow them to focus their attention on me. These techniques include maintaining eye contact with the audience, moving around the stage and appropriate word stress when highlighting a point. Answering questions and reading aloud in class made me more comfortable in my speaking abilities which in turn gave me the confidence to present in front of the class during the final presentation. Through the constant practice and usage of the things I learnt in class, I managed to score decently for the presentation. But there were still more things I needed to work on the next time I present again. Presenting still did not feel natural to me and I was still so nervous to the point where my hand was shaking while I was speaking. To build on this, I need to step up more and speak more when in group discussions and slowly progress to larger groups. To allow me to become more confident when presenting and feel more natural when addressing a room.

Working on the research project, I had an opportunity to work together with my peers in a small group to come up with an innovation or an improvement for a current implementation. As the project required the team to be coordinated due to the time span and nature of the project, it is imperative that the team communicate effectively and ensure that everyone is constantly updated on what needs to be done. This was the perfect platform for me to learn what it takes to communicate effectively in a team. It was rather bumpy in the beginning as we all had different personalities and it was the first time we had to work together on a project. Communication was slow till we started to get more comfortable with each other, I took a softer approach and encouraged everyone in the group to speak up and share their ideas, creating a space for everyone to voice their opinions. From there everyone in the group slowly became more synchronized and started updating regularly on the progress of our project. This allowed to me learn more about working with people of different personalities and become more understanding of people’s perspectives, which allowed me to communicate effectively with them as I will not come off as offensive or disrespectful.

All in all, this module has allowed me to better improve myself as a public speaker, as well as a teammate. Providing a platform for me to learn to express my ideas and give feedback in a tactful manner as well as present in front of the class. As I aspire to one day be a manager, where I have to lead a team or department and communicate with people both under and above me in the hierarchy. It is essential that I can communicate with them effectively and be tactful to avoid offending anyone, ensuring a cohesive working environment.