Anyhoo. Let's get to it.
1. Would you consider your communication to be unassertive, assertive, or aggressive? How can you improve in your listening skills?
According to my personal evaluation, I'd say I am a pretty assertive communicator. Internally, I may fluctuate between having unassertive and aggressive thoughts, but overall I definitely try to be balanced in my responses.
I used to be a very compliant communicator. I thought that by consenting to everybody's requests, I was being a good servant. In reality, I was being a bad steward of my property and myself. Now I know I am not responsible for anyone, and I should primarily be compelled by love, not obligation, to serve others. And, as the book Exploring Leadership states, I am fully able to say no without feeling guilty.
Mentally, I used to get pretty aggressive against others. The only reason why I didn't let it come out was because I was the "perfect" little pastor's kid I thought everybody had certain expectations for (even though nobody, especially my wonderful parents, ever manipulated me like that). God has since begun the process of renewing my mind like Christ's, and I have much practice submitting negative thoughts to Him. Now my responses reflect my heart. For the most part...
Taking the "listening self-evaluation," I confirmed my previous believe that I am an above-average listener, which I consider a gift. I still have room for improvement, however. For instance, instead of multi-tasking - doing homework and listening to my roommate tell me her thoughts - I can either tell her I can't talk that moment or drop what I am doing to listen to her. I'd like to become more people-oriented than task-oriented as well.
2. Think of an ethical dilemma that you have faced, were involved with, or observed closely. Work through that dilemma using one of the three ethical decision-making models described in the text - ends-based, rule-based, or care-based. Explain what the dilemma was and what decision-maiking process you or others used to reach a solution.
What I am about to share is a very touchy subject for me, so hang tight. There was one childhood pet (a.k.a. family member) I didn't mention in my last blog. One sunny summer day, my little brother and I found a male praying mantis. Naturally, we took him home and named him Seymour. I don't know how many people actually believe me when I say Seymour may have been an insect, but I promise you this bug had visible emotions. No joke, you could see him light up and smile when we took him out of his fishbowl to play with him. A few weeks later, we found a female praying mantis. I don't even remember what we named her. We took her home and (again, I am not kidding) Seymour spent the day moping in the bottom corner of the fishbowl, hanging his head like he was depressed or something. We were confused, but thought nothing of it as we left the house for an event that night. Long story short, we forgot that female praying mantises eat their mates. Yeah. It was a dark day in the Matty home.
So here was my momentous ethical dilemma: Squish her like the bug she is or let her live?
I let her live. Little did I know it was the right decision. She laid an egg sack a few weeks later. (Then we got rid of her, but hey, at least we let her give birth first.) We set out the stick with the egg sack on it outside, and come Spring, about a zillion praying mantis babies skittered away to make little mantis lives of their own.
According to the book Exploring Leadership, I'd say my decision was ultimately ends-based because as much as I wanted to brutally maim the female, I restrained myself for the sake of the greater good - namely, the babies. I did (or rather, didn't do) what I knew would produce the greatest good for the greatest number. I'm still bitter about the female eating my buddy Seymour, but I'm glad that I let her live so her babies could maybe make some other kid happy like Seymour made me and my little brother happy.
Now that I think about it, the same thing happened with my fish. Pebbles was smaller than Bam Bam, so Bam Bam ate all the food and literally starved Pebbles to death.
Needless to say...I killed Bam Bam. Yes, it's true.
Just kidding. I have no idea what happened. I can't remember.
 |
| Nope, Bam Bam died of hyperalimentation. R.I.P. Bam Bam. |
No comments:
Post a Comment