Throughout
my life there has been many times I have had to rely on my interpersonal skills
to obtain the result I required. The skills I have used have ranged from:
verbal communication, listening skills, negotiation, problem solving and group
work. I have also used a range of different methods to portray my skills these
include: presentations, being part of a play, speaking and listening during my
English lessons.
Speaking
and Listening
During
my time at secondary school part of my English GCSE was to perform a speaking
and listening to the teacher and my peers, this was difficult as I am not the
most confident person, however the task was to read out our own interpretations
of “Macbeth”, I attempted my best. As the speech went on I grew in confidence
and was able to deliver a speech that was enough to pass my GCSE. Throughout
this task I used a few different interpersonal skills, I used verbal
communication to deliver speech, and I also used listening skills to listen to
my peers.
Also
whilst in secondary school I was subject to another speaking and listening
test, this time it was in French. I wrote four documents in French all
containing different subjects about parts of my life. I was required to learn
and memorise all of the documents ready to be tested on. The test required me
to sit down with my teacher and recite two of the documents whilst being
recorded on a recording implement. Along with tests and the speaking and
listening gained me a “B” grade in my overall GCSE.
Being
part of a play
When I
attended my primary school, the end of the last year we performed a play there
were four main characters I was one of the main characters who linked all of
the other scenes together. This task included a lot of interpersonal skills,
again I used verbal communications this was even more important when addressing
an extremely large audience. Another skill I used was group work for the play
to come together and work as a whole we all had our own part to play, to ensure
it ran smoothly and worked as it should. There was also a lot of organisation
and planning involved with this as we all had to work as a team, know how we
were supposed to link in with each other this involved a lot of teamwork to
help each other out and give support, whether it was help learning lines or
actually on the day.
Design
and Technology
During
my time in secondary school, I took a GCSE in design and technology, in this
subject we took on product design. This entailed me to design ideas for a mood
light, I then had to compose a presentation of all of my ideas and present them
to my peers. During the presentation there were a few interpersonal skills
which have been used. The first is again verbal skills have to be used,
although this time presentation skills were also a vital interpersonal skill.
After the presentation had been presented there was a chance for my peers to
ask me questions in regards to my presentation and designs, I had to explain my
answers, ensuring my answers were constructed using positive language.
Problem Solving and Negotiation
Skills
Whilst
having my second car there were a few problems that occurred whilst I owned it,
rather than take it to a garage I took it upon myself to try and figure out
what the problem was, I used a variety of techniques to achieve this, the first
was to research online and try to see if anyone else had experienced similar
problems and see if I could diagnose my problem that way. Taking into
consideration other people’s opinions I managed to navigate my way to the
problem this resulted in me being able to fix my car. Also whilst having the
car the exhaust had a number of issues I had to find out which part was broken
and see whether it was worth replacing the whole exhaust rather than just a
piece. I decided to replace the whole exhaust this took a good deal of
judgement and involved decision skills to ensure it was going to be justified.
After I had made the changes to the car I decided to sell the car, when selling
the car I was extremely keen to make sure the buyer knew what work I had done
and why I thought it was worth the money I asked for. I asked for £325 pounds
as a higher amount as a was willing to settle for £250 pounds, I negotiated
thoroughly until we ended at a figure of £310, overall I feel my negotiation
skills paid off and the overpricing of the car allowed me to get a better deal.
