Module eight interpersonal awareness. As you develop a greater degree of self awareness you will also become more aware of the dynamics at play and your interactions with others. However, this awareness doesn't always go two ways. When you have a greater awareness of thinking, learning and personality styles, you also have a responsibility to be more adaptable in your interactions with others. Addressing different thinking styles, people who share the same thinking styles often have no problems working together. If both people are global thinkers, then they will appreciate each other's willingness to see the bigger picture.

However, when one person thinks differently from another, this different thinking style can not only seem foreign but irrelevant. However, these differences and thinking styles can with the right approach complement each other. While you may be aware of your thinking style, the people you interact with might not be as aware of there's a subtle way of intervening is to try to accommodate different styles. Thinking when you interact with others. If you are a global thinker and find yourself at odds with someone who doesn't understand why you can't just give them a specific step by step plan, this is your opportunity to step beyond your limitations and try a more linear thinking style. Addressing different learning styles.

One side effect of deepening your own self awareness is that you might often find yourself in a position of leadership where you have to teach others or give presentations, which is a kind of teaching when you consider if you are an auditory learner take steps to design presentations and seminars that accommodate other types of learning. use PowerPoint and other visual aids to help visual learners and find activities that allow tactile learners an opportunity to learn by doing even as you accommodate your own auditory learning style through spoken instructions and explanations. One way to make sure you are accommodating the different learning styles is to video record your presentations before when you practice and during the presentation itself. This way you can study for areas Where you are strong and four areas where you can improve. Active listening in body language. Another important factor in being aware of your interactions with others is being able to listen and to truly hear others.

Employing the techniques of active listening can help but these are not simply tricks. In order to be effective with others, you must be truly interested in their point of view. Here are some important suggestions for how to listen more actively use minimal encouragers encouragers are short words or phrases that indicate to a speaker that you are paying attention to what they are saying and encouraging them to continue. These are words phrases and sounds such as Yes, Uh huh. Go on. Hmm.

So what happened next, etc. Repeat key phrases. This is another way to encourage the speaker to continue and to make them feel heard. Here's an example. The speaker says yesterday I went to the store to buy a loaf of bread. The listener can combine a repetition of a key phrase with an encourager loaf of bread.

Okay, go on. Paraphrasing summarize the speaker's key points. So what I'm hearing you say is offer empathy when appropriate. That must have been really tough or I can see why you would be angry. Stay in the moment and listen fully. It might be tempting to interrupt because you've anticipated what else the other person is going to say.

But regardless of your level of certitude, it's often just as important for the other person to articulate their thought. This is one reason why interruptions can be so frustrating, because through speaking we often find our own way of understanding a situation. Listening fully, also involves taking note of volume and tone of voice and pace of speech. These indicate the emotional state of the speaker. higher volume, tone and pace indicate an arousal emotion and boozy gasm perhaps but also anger, frustration or anxiety. context matters.

Probe with open ended questions. open ended questions are the opposite of closed ended questions which can be answered In a single word or a few words, for example, were you able to log in? Closed ended question with a yes or no answer. versus when you entered your username and password and hit enter, what did the screen show? open ended question with a more involved answer. In addition to being aware of a person's speech, you also needs to be aware of both their body language and your own.

Typically, when there is a discrepancy between the words that are said in a person's tone and body language, the latter will more accurately reflect the circumstances. Here are some things to consider regarding a person's body language. eye contact, people who make greater eye contact will tend to appear more trustworthy. However too much eye contact can come across as aggressive. Strive to make eye contact in your conversations around 60% of the time. posture.

When a person is being attentive, they will sit up straight while leaning slightly forward. less engaged, people will tend to slouch and lean away from a speaker. facial expressions. It is said that a smile can be contagious. In fact, most facial expressions can evoke a similar response in another person. If you frown, another person might also feel tempted to frown.

This is called mirroring. You can use mirroring to help establish a rapport with another person. By mirroring the other person's own positive expressions, you hasten the connection process with that person. inversely, you can also create a positive frame to an interaction by smiling yourself and avoiding expressions of negativity. One powerful aspect of active listening is the use of nonverbal encouragers. nodding your head or using a facial expression to communicate empathy are two examples.

For example, if someone was telling you a story about a big mistake they had made a facepalm on your part can not only communicate that you are paying attention, but that you are emotionally engaged as well as actual analysis. transactional analysis is a way of interacting with others where you can recognize Certain behavioral patterns in another person, and by adjusting your behavior you can induce a change in the other person's as well. transactional analysis identifies three separate modes of behavior when interacting with someone else. Child mode. Child mode is the type of behavior that places an emphasis on fun and tries to avoid responsibility. statements such as stopping such a press or you're really bringing me down, and variations on them are examples of child mode behavior.

Another example would occur if you told your teenager to get off of his or her cell phone and your teenager rolled his or her eyes at you. Parent mode. This motor behavior occurs when someone is acting in the same manner as authority figures active in their lives during childhood development. It can take on many forms of expression, but typically communicates in I'm more mature than you attitude. statements such as Why do you never listen? Or can you just be a grown up for once in your life are examples of people behaving in parent mode?

If you have ever experienced someone speaking to you, kindness unendingly as if he were their child, probably experienced someone acting in parent mode. Adult mode. The preferred mode of behavior for social interactions is neither child nor parent modes, but adult mode instead. Rather than focusing on the way things should be as the parent mode does, or the way you want things to be as the child mode does, the adult mode focuses on the way things are and how to adapt oneself to them. These modes of behavior tend to slip into a recurring cycle of complimentary modes. Parent mode behavior in one person will continue so long as the other person is responding in the complimentary child mode and vice versa.

In order to break the cycle of behavior, one person has to consciously refuse to remain in the complimentary mode. For example, if a boss says to you, where's my report, what is this playtime. This is an example of parent mood behavior. And if you respond with a complimentary child mood behavior, then a vicious cycle of parent child responses and Sue which can rapidly escalate into a conflict. However, if you remain in adult mode, You create what's called a cross transaction. The cross transaction interrupts the vicious cycle and makes it difficult for the other person to remain in their respective adult or child mode.

It de escalates the situation and prevents conflict by giving the other person an opportunity to complement your adult mode behavior with adult mode behavior themselves.