Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

An interpersonal conflict that I could recall which is close to my heart was a quarrel between my sister and me.

My sister is married and would come home once a week to attend church together. Often, she would ask me if she could use my laptop and internet. As in my household, I’m the only one who needs to use computer, so there is no desktop; my laptop is the only one available.

One day, she wanted to use the laptop and promised would only use for an hour. I have a report due the following week, but not the following day. So I agreed to let her use. One hour was up and I rushed her to let me use the laptop, but she requested for another hour, and the things she was doing were not important; re-sizing photos.

I guess I snapped at her and said "I thought you were doing your office work! You are wasting my time! Hurry up!"

She was upset and told me off "Seems like every time your exams are near, you become impatient and you don’t seem to like me coming home. Next time I will not come back!" Then she stormed to the living room.

My heart broke, maybe because I felt accused, my sister was not doing important things with the laptop, and the truth is I like her to come home. Ever since she moved out few years back, I would miss the times when we shared the bedroom together and look forward to seeing her every week. At that point in time my heart ached maybe also because I was scared that she meant what she said in not coming back home.

I reflected upon what had happened and tried to stand in her shoes. I agreed that whenever my exams are near, I would be impatient, rushing her. Maybe this was due to the stress and deadlines to meet. I didn’t inform her that I had important work to do using the laptop too. I believed if I had communicated with her, she would not use the laptop.

Furthermore, the disagreement over the usage of laptop happen a few times before too, and maybe we didn’t sort it out, holding it and at that day we eventually got annoyed with each other's actions. My poor attitude over the period of time might have made her upset as well.

I went out and apologize for my rude actions and told her that I love her to come home and explained to her why I was annoyed. She understood and things were back to normal again.

There would be disagreements in a family, it can be small matters like the one I had mentioned above or a more serious case, how will you resolve it? Communication is important in all relationships, especially with our loved ones. How well do you manage your stress and how well do you communicate with your family?

Effective Communication Skills

Chamber mentioned that communication is an art. I definitely agree with it, because I feel that one needs to know how to use it well, be flexible, experience it and not just by memorizing a set of guidelines. Communication is not just a daily routine; it is a way where people can interact with each other and also enjoy the process.

Developing effective communication will help one to convey accurately his views, intentions and achieve the desired outcome such as being able to convince his audience. The other party will be able to understand what exactly you are trying to say or even feel it is a pleasure to speak to you. It can take place in a formal or informal setting such as in meetings, presentations, communicating with family members and friends.

Communication is more than just speaking what you want to say, it also involves your tone, gesture, active listening, right use of language in a comfortable manner and it also depends on who you are speaking to.

It is important for me to grasp the skills of effective communication. Besides the points mentioned above, as a student I would go through written communication such as writing reports, oral communication for example asking questions or presenting ideas and to also prepare myself in a working world after graduation.

Through past jobs and internship experience, I understand the importance to present myself well. Besides creating a good impression and avoid misunderstandings, effectively communicating not only benefits yourself it can also benefit the people around you. For instance, working as a customer service officer, I get to speak to many different customers who called in with different enquiries. Callers may sound helpless or angry due to some mishaps. It is important to be patient, show empathy and help them to solve their problems as much as possible and also to let the callers feel at ease via the usage of proper communication.

No doubt effective communication can improve productivity level. If one lacks effective communication or ignores it, one may not be able to convey accurately what he wants to say or unable to build up good relationship with people or may even lose patience in communicating when his intentions are not understood. Therefore, it is important to learn and use effective communication.