Loudspeaker

Instrument that express, speak, write, analyse, summarise, transmit, relay, interact, debate and explain information that are verbal, non-verbal, sugar coated, non-sugar coated, with forward introduction, words that are intended for the enlightenment, understanding, enrichment, enhancement and education of the human brain through sensory route of eyes and ears.

I will not be Chatur, but I will be Rancho for today!

As you might have already speculated, I am going to talk about my communication style. I started writing this speech 2 days back and I wasn’t really able to communicate what I wanted to speak. Then, I thought why shouldn’t I talk about my everyday life and how I communicate in those situations.

Let me start with strangers. How do I communicate?! When I started diving deep and contemplating about my style, I realized that I was extremely direct and a little blunt with them. For instance, during my college days, I hung out with this one close friend. One of her schoolmates was also studying in the same engineering college as mine. We kept seeing her in the college. One day, my friend saw her and both of them went and greeted each other very enthusiastically. They hugged it out and all. I saw that for a minute and with an extremely puzzled look on my face, I asked them, “You guys met each other just yesterday, Right?!”. That friend of hers gave me an embarrassed look and went away. Then, I realized that I was just being unnecessarily intrusive.

Talking about strangers and even friends for that matter, all the communication needs to happen beyond my personal sphere. Personal sphere refers to the imaginary circle with a diameter of 4 feet drawn with my feet as the center. This definition is key to be my “Close” friend. (Of course, not literally).

Now, I will talk about how I communicate with my friends. Around friends, I am this goofy and funny person who tries to bring in humor in most situations. For some reason, I enter something called ZOP when I’m around friends. As marketing students, we like abbreviating things. ZOP refers to Zone of PJs. It feels like I am possessed by the Ghost of PJs. Hold on! If you observe, it smells really good in here… Do you know why? It’s because I just “cook”ed up something for “Toast”masters. “Killer” joke right?? I knew I had a “shot” at this speech!!

Talking about the more serious stuff, like any other fellow Toastmaster, I took up the communication test to understand my style. Through this, I realized I possess an initiating style of communication. This style is sociable, enthusiastic, energetic, fun-loving and spontaneous. As it very rightly pointed out in the TM portal, due to my gregarious nature, I am sometimes perceived as a person who speaks more than I listen. Another downside to this is people see me as impulsive and dominant in most cases. I started wondering what could be the reason or the desire for this. Ever since I was a child, people have always told me to stand out. At first, it was about holding a position in school: a class leader, then a house leader, captain, etc. But now, as I grew up, for a 5 feet tall person, how can I stand out in a crowd!! The only weapon I had was my communication. Probably, subconsciously, I sometimes spoke loud to be heard and sometimes to be seen. In hindsight, this innate nature of mine has shaped my communication style. Today, I am most often identified my communication style and here at Toastmasters, I would want to hone those skills to be a better communicator than I ever was.