Brian C.

Kennedy

BCOM234 Week 3
Self Assessment: Communication Style

Upon taking the self assessment, I found few surprises. I generally had a relatively clear
self image and perception of myself. There were a few things that I found slightly surprising.
Things that I will endeavor to mitigate or rectify in the future.
Unsurprising to me were scores that indicated that I am not an animated or dramatic
communicator. My scores were flat zeroes for these dimensions. I have conditioned myself over
the years to be very particular in my diction and affect while communicating so as to keep the
advantage over the other person(s). Limiting my emotional and visceral actions and reactions
while communicating has nearly always accomplished this for me. Additionally, my line(s) of
work have correlated to higher scores in impression leaving and dominance. Both Law
Enforcement and the teaching professions have required that I communicate from a control
perspective at almost all times.
Surprising to me were my scores in the dimensions of contentiousness and openness.
My score for the dimension of contentiousness was between one and two. Though I do
communicate from a critical perspective, I try to reserve judgment until I have facts. I can be
critical of those facts if I doubt their validity. However, I do all of these things while being
courteous and amiable in my suspicion. I feel that I am direct and frank in my responses to
communication, but my need for personal privacy correlated to a score of negative one for the
openness dimension.
As to the peer assessment results, there was a surprising outcome. I was unable to find
a single variance from one survey to another. Every dimension was answered exactly the same
by the three people I received submissions from. The one deviance within the results was the
explanations of the choices. I suppose there is something to be said for my consistency among
my peers.

Brian C. Kennedy

BCOM234 Week 3
Self Assessment: Communication Style

My peers consider me a positive, yet private person who is quick to help someone in
need when asked. One response listed me as disinterested and justified it with the following,
He does not really care to know about what is going on with other people. However, if someone
presents to him a problem that they have, he will not shun them away. He will offer up some
advice. He just doesnt actively try to find out what is going on in others worlds. I found this
interesting yet not surprising. I had never actually thought about the fact that people might
consider me as not caring about others issues, though the statement is accurate. They agree that
I do not seek out information from others about their well being or personal problems, but will help if
needed.
They perceive me as conventional and unwilling to accept most change. They all considered me
as trusted, yet they all agreed that they cannot say with certainty that I would be upfront about something
I considered to be a private matter for myself. The real element here is that most people feel that I am
unduly private.

My impression is that others are forming their opinions of me based more upon my
actions than words. This is likely due to the fact that I am less verbal than most people. I am
comfortable with the results and how they align with my own self perception. I am comfortable
with myself as a self perception. There are very few things that surprised me in this survey and
exercise. However, I will endeavor to show exude a more caring persona to those around me,
even though I always did care the message was not being coded correctly. I am happy that my
self-confidence does not get misinterpreted as arrogance or conceit.
One aspect that did not surprise me nor do I consider a negative was the fact that I was
generally regarded as disliking most people. Perhaps as a product of my career in Law
Enforcement, I do typically hold people in high regard, at least, not people as a group. Some
individuals meet my standards for being accepted into my circle for being liked and well
regarded. People as a sociological group have always done things to generally disappoint me,
therefore I do not hold them, as a group, in high regard.

Brian C. Kennedy

BCOM234 Week 3
Self Assessment: Communication Style