Walterspearldivingessay 3

University of Maryland, College Park
Pearl Diving Assignment 3
Matt Walters
Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424
Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman
November 19, 2020

Introduction
Content in Communication for Project Managers has recently been leaning towards how
we can all apply what we have learned to real life scenarios. This is an especially important skill
to know, since we will all be entering the work force relatively soon and will need to have
effective communication skills to ensure that we are an asset to any projects we are assigned to.
These skills are easily applicable to everyday life as well, as it is easy to find yourself entering a
crucial conversation and needing to use some of the techniques we have gone over in class, such
as finding a mutual purpose, to ensure that the conversations you have are productive no matter
their intensity. This essay will show how I am more effectively utilizing our skills we have been
learning in class through an email to my team appealing to ethos, logos and pathos, an important
concept from the classroom activity this week, my response to a scenario using techniques from
Crucial Conversations, and discussing my results to the Big Five Personality Assessment.
Email
Team,
This is an email I have been dreading sending out but unfortunately it has come to my attention
that we have not been performing up to our usual standards. I know it has been a rough time for
all of us during the pandemic, and I hope that all of your loved ones are safe during this time. It
is of the utmost importance that we start performing better to ensure that we can ship out our
product on time. If there are any extenuating circumstances that are causing you to perform
worse than normal, please do not hesitate to reach out to me so that we can solve these issues. I
want you all to feel like I am here for you during this time. I will try to be as accommodating as
possible to ensure that these issues are solved so we can continue to execute on our projects by
our deadlines.
Thanks so much,
-Matt
Important Concept from Class Activity
This week our class activity focused on revising emails that were sent out prematurely.
The most important concept I have learned from this class activity is to always be mindful of
your tone and intonation when sending an email, as they tend to be the first impression that your
employer will receive from you. Your first impression is generally the most lasting impression a
person will have to judge your character, so it is of the utmost importance that you display
yourself in a professional manner in your emails so that you do not portray yourself in a way that
does not suit who you really are. I have been able to use this concept recently, as I have had to
send emails back and forth to one of my teaching assistants for a course that I will be taking both
this semester and next semester, so it is important to me that I keep a lasting impression on this
person so that they know that I am someone who cares about their work and is passionate about
it.
Crucial Conversations Scenario
There is no easy way to approach your boss after he calls you an idiot in front of your
entire team. Not only is that an extremely unprofessional thing to say to any person, but it can
also hurt even more when it is from the leader of your company. Crucial Conversations has
taught many methods that one would be able to use to handle the situation. I believe the most
important method that will be used here is that of finding a mutual purpose with your boss.
It can be difficult to find a compromise with those that you felt have disrespected you. In
a work environment, I believe the best approach is to find a mutual purpose between you and
your boss. The first step to understanding this approach is to know that “we must really care
about the interests of others- not just our own…” (Patterson, p. 24). This is vital to the success
of a professional workplace, as you are all working as a team to complete a set goal. This goal
will not be met if there is a lot of tension between teammates, especially between myself and the
boss. I would go into his office during lunch and ask for him to meet with me sometime
throughout the week so we can discuss how I felt when he called me an idiot in front of our
team. I would explain to him how I felt disrespected and that this is not something I will tolerate
in a team based environment, and that it helps absolutely no one to berate others when trying to
work towards a goal as a team. I will not let either party leave the conversation until a
compromise has been made, and the boss has agreed to be more helpful and less disrespectful
when approaching problems that come up in the workplace. I have chosen this course of action
because I believe that it will be the most effective at portraying my feelings without angering the
boss, and hopefully he will be able to use empathy and see where I am coming from. This will
hopefully solve the issue, and he will apologize for his actions because he saw that he had
overstepped a boundary that we should have set in our workplace environment.
Big Five Personality Assessment

Upon completing the big five personality assessment, I found that my results made a lot
of sense and lined up well with the other personality tests that we have taken throughout the
course. My top scoring portions were in Openness with 85% and Agreeableness with 79%, and I
came in at 52% for Neuroticism, 52% for Conscientiousness, and 54% for Extraversion . I would
say these traits and their percentages describe me very well. I tend to be very open with others,
and never fail to agree with others to avoid conflicts and continue to get work done efficiently.
My big five personality traits results seem to line up fairly well with the results that I
have gotten from the Jung personality test and the Disc assessment. My Jung personality results
told me that I was an INFP, meaning that I was slightly introverted, intuitive, was a feeler, and a
perceiver. I would say that these were all mostly accurate depictions of my personality type,
although I do feel that I am slightly more extroverted than introverted. I believe that the
pandemic may have had an adverse effect on the results for that section, and during a normal
semester my results may have been slightly different. My Disc personality assessment deemed
that I was predominantly split at 40% each with influence and steadiness as my defining traits. I
think that the biggest trend between all three of these personality tests are that I am a very
agreeable person, and am not afraid to say yes to something even when I may not fully enjoy it
just to move things along and not start any potential conflicts with others. I think that this is a
valuable trait that I have, and the personality tests have helped me realize that it is something that
I can very easily take advantage of in group settings where I know the personalities of my other
members are more dominating. This can be the difference between having a great group project
or a poor group project, as some people do not like when their ideas are challenged by others.
The benefits of taking different types of personality assessments are to see how diverse
your personality really is, and to find out how you react to certain situations based on your
personality type. I feel as though I have a more complicated personality than most, in the sense
that I can tend to change how I act based on if I am in a certain mood or not, and depending on
what group of people I am surrounding myself with at the given moment. Taking these three
different personality tests has helped me understand that while my personality is not always the
exact same in every results, it is close enough for me to find out that these are accurate
depictions of how I act in everyday life. These tests have been very helpful in understanding how
I can better implement myself into groups based on my groupmate’s personalities, and I hope to
continue mastering that skill as we progress further throughout the course.
Conclusion
Communication for Project Managers has been continuously showing me how powerful
the knowledge of others’ personality types and emotions are in conveying a strong message. I
have really improved in my ability to assess a situation and come up with a proper method of
communication depending on how I believe the other party will react. The concepts we have
learned in class have been extremely applicable to everyday life, and I hope to continue to use
them even after the conclusion of the course. Through an email to my team, an important concept
from the class activity this week, my response to a scenario using techniques from Crucial
Conversations, and discussing my results to the Big Five Personality Assessment, I have further
advanced my knowledge of effective communication skills, and will continue to apply them to
my everyday life.
Works Cited
Patterson, Kerry, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.
McGraw-Hill, 2012.

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University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 3

Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424

Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman

November 19, 2020

Important Concept from Class Activity

Big Five Personality Assessment

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