Digital Portfolio

The speaker discusses three main topics: becoming a better listener, the importance of nonverbal communication, and understanding different cultures. They realize the importance of being a good listener and how it helps in gaining different perspectives. They also learn about the impact of nonverbal gestures in making a good first impression. Lastly, they emphasize the significance of understanding and connecting with people from diverse cultures, which has benefited them personally and will also help in their future career. They encourage the listeners to reflect on these topics and improve their communication skills. What is up everyone, it is your host Logan Jackson and today I'm extremely excited to talk to you guys about kind of what I've learned in this class this year so far and how I've applied it to my life here at Hanover in building relationships. And I just want to ask you guys before I get started to kind of reflect on these topics I'm going to be talking about and how you can apply them to your relationships as well. And so the three topics that I'm going to be talking about are becoming a better listener, why nonverbal communication is extremely important, especially when meeting new people, and then the understanding of culture and why understanding culture is important. And so the first topic I'm going to be talking about, being a good listener. Now becoming a good listener is something I didn't really understand I was bad at. And so when we read the chapter for the first time, it talked about some bad listening behaviors and one of them was called aggressive listening, which is just the act of attacking what somebody – just listening to attack what they have to say. And for example that I struggle with is when I'm having a friendly argument with one of my friends or something, I tend to just listen to what they're saying just so that I can go ahead and attack what they're going to say and not fully gain the perspective of what they're having and just argue about what my perspective is. And so one of the assignments that we've done that has helped me in this aspect is our weekly check-ins. And this has helped me because I get to listen to your guys' perspective and not just have to take what I think and just share what I think all the time. And it really has helped me understand the process of what people are thinking from their perspective and not just let me stay in my own little thinking bubble. And I think it's helped me a lot this year. And then next week, we're going to talk about nonverbal communication. Now, nonverbal communication is something that I didn't really fully understand. I thought I did, but I really didn't. When I first – when we had our interviews with our – for our presentations this year, my guy, Jibby Guyrault, he talked to me about why first impressions really matter and such nonverbal gestures like handshakes or eye contact and facial expressions, that's all going to really impact how people perceive you when you first get into a job. And I'm really glad he talked to me about that because I can sometimes come off as like very shy or not very approachable. And so whenever I see some people that I'm not used to being around, I need to work on my nonverbal gestures and just be a more positive outlook on people. And so that's why I think nonverbal communication is extremely important. And I'm really glad we had those interviews this year because it has helped me a lot from that. And then finally, maybe the most important topic that we have, especially here at Hanover, is the understanding of culture. And I only say that because culture is extremely diverse here at Hanover. And before I came here, I'll be honest, I didn't really get out of my little bubble of friends that I'm used to being around. And when I'm here at Hanover, it doesn't really force me, but it allows me for better opportunities to go meet some people that, you know, are from different countries, different states, whatever, different religion. It doesn't matter. But understanding different culture and becoming close with those people has really benefited me because when I have to work with different people in the future from different cultures that I'm not used to being around, it's just going to help me in the long run because I'm going to have a lot of connections with people that and it's going to help me in my future of my future job. And that's why I think culture is extremely important. And I'm glad I really learned it this year in class. And for example, on the football team, we have a lot of different cultures on our team and that's helped me a lot as well. And I'm forever grateful to be a part of it. And just to tie everything in together, that's kind of what I've learned this year in this class and how I have applied it to my life here at Hanover. And I just want to ask you guys to reflect on these things and how you have applied it to yourself this year and how you become a better communicator as well. Thank you guys so much for listening to my podcast today. It's been an honor being with you guys and I hope to see you all soon. And thank you for your time. Bye.