Competent Communication

My paternal Grandmother demonstrated competent communication within the framework of our extended family. In the midst of everything that went on amongst my four siblings, cousins, granddaddy, uncle, my parents and me; Grandmother communicated through a variety of ways of outside of verbal. Behaviors she exhibited that made her effective were her calm soft spoken voice, and loving direct demeanor that left no doubt of the message being conveyed. Her communication was representative of something and the majority of the time I was able to receive and interpret what was meant whether verbal or non-verbal communication was taking place. For example, by reading the message from her eyes when she gave certain looks or a hand gesture, I knew precisely what it meant and in return she knew what I meant through my responses. My grandmother seemed to be in sync with me when she communicated and I would like to model that behavior through my personal and professional communication. In my opinion, she matched the definition of the “competent communication model” which takes in account those sending and receiving the messages, the nature of communication and role of communicators and context in which they operate (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012).