How time flies, we are now into week 5 of our school term. My brain cells are in its most active state as we constantly absorb new knowledge being taught to us. Likewise for CPD, we are almost wrapping up on the topic on personal branding during interpersonal communications. Although it seems to be such a common topic, it is definitely important to make it right. To me personal branding is all about selling and promoting yourself in a positive way as how you would do promoting a product in a business. There are things you should and shouldn’t do to build up a positive brand image of yourself.
We learnt in class about the communication climate, which is the type of atmosphere and emotional tone that we expresses to people through verbal and non-verbal messages. It is created by how both parties feel about each other in a setting, and can be supportive or defensive in nature. A supportive communication climate tends to value people's comments where interactions are done in a confident and polite manner. Ideas tend to be provisional and problem-orientated, with rooms for discussions and brainstorming. In contrast, a defensive communication climate makes it difficult for people to communicate ideas across, and exchange of information tends to be limited. For myself, I tend to adopt a supportive communication climate as I believe in working together in harmony and not finding fault with the other party. It also boils down to my personality where I tend to be more soft-spoken and empathetic.
Working in the service industry, it is especially important to show empathy and concern to others as it is all about the human touch that guest wants to look for. "Treat others like how you would be treated" is the Four Season Hotel's Golden Rule. On the other hand, we must not neglect our internal staff too as they are equally important as external guest alike.
In the recent lesson, I was quite suprised and overwhelmed as to how my personal hobbies and interests in transportation also contributed to my overall personal branding. Both Joshua and Charmaine commented that I am actually the "face" of public transportation, as evident from my hobby and Youtube site. The way I phrase my sentences as well as graphics and illustrations that I adopt in my sites actually reflects a certain style and personality that is tied to my personal branding. That inspired me greatly and I will definitely put in greater effort in creating and maintaning a strong personal branding associated to my hobbies and interest.
Dear Xianda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sincere sharing once again! I really enjoyed reading all your posts. You are indeed inspiring to many of us in the work you have done for your passion.
I really liked how you relate yourself with the communication climate that we were taught in class. One example would be your believe in working together in harmony. It is definitely important to us, current students and for our future where will need to work with people with different characters.
Alongside, i do agree with you that working in the service industry, one need to show empathy to others. Not only for our paying guest, we do need to learn how to show care and concern to internal guests like our colleagues.
My suggestion on this blog post would the the removal of some unnecessary words that would eventually make the sentence more clear and concise.
“We learnt in class about the communication climate, which is the type of atmosphere and emotional tone that we expresses to people through verbal and non-verbal messages.” could be changed to “Communication is the atmosphere and emotional tone that we express to people through verbal and non-verbal messages.”
Thank you once again for your viewpoints. It has given me a better understanding of you. Keep up the great work Xianda and have a great day ahead! :)
Cheers,
Huiting