Teachers Managing Stress & Preventing Burnout

Yvonne Gold, Robert A. Roth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135721572
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First published in 1993. The purpose of this book is to help those who help others. Research has consistently demonstrated that those in the professions, particularly helping professions, have significantly higher levels of stress and burnout. Studies have shown that the profession with the greatest vulnerability to these illnesses is teaching.

Part III

Anatomy of Support: Taking Responsibility

Chapter 8

Communication to Enhance Personal and Professional Effectiveness

Striving to achieve Professional Health is not something you do entirely on your own. It is also not solely an introspective process. It has a highly interactive dimension which is an extremely important element of the process for change and growth as you move toward Professional Health (PH).

The most important set of skills in this interactive aspect of achieving PH is communication. The skills are essential in virtually every step of the PH solution. They will help you in the identification of your needs that we described in Part II and they are an integral part of the strategies that we will be describing in this part. Communication is not a separate strategy, but rather is an essential component of the three major strategies.

What we intend to do in this chapter is identify the key skills of communication, particularly as related to attaining Professional Health. We also intend to give insights into the function of these skills, as well as what makes them effective. Finally, describing skills is one thing, but understanding them and being able to use them is quite a different matter. Thus, we will also describe how to use these skills.

Of primary importance is how to apply these skills in three different areas. We will show you how to gain insight through communication, as knowing yourself and discovering more about how you feel and what your needs are, is an important step towards Professional Health. We will also help your understanding of how to apply communication skills to your interpersonal interactions, for whereas gaining insight is a personal matter, communicating with others is an interpersonal matter. The first area is focused on understanding, accepting and ‘getting along’ with yourself. The second focuses on understanding, accepting and getting along with others. Lastly, we will describe how to use your communication skills to be a more effective helper of others, illustrating how to fulfill this role as an essential part of the Interpersonal Support Strategy.

Communication is of such importance that in our Professional Health Program we focus on these skills in several ways. We first provide training on the skills themselves, involving actual practice and interaction using the skills and getting feedback on how well you are able to use them. There is no substitute for this actual practical application through a carefully designed and well-implemented training program. In addition, we focus on the use of communication skills throughout the rest of the training. These skills are practiced and applied in virtually every aspect of our workshops.

Essential Communication Skills

In this section we will describe seven categories of essential communication skills. These skills apply to all three of the areas which we will be discussing in this and the next chapter: using communication for individual insight, using communication for interpersonal effectiveness and becoming an effective support person through communication skills. In addition, you will be introduced to other communication skills in each of the three areas. These skills will be more applicable to the area in which they are introduced. The skills we will look at in this section can be applied, and frequently are used, in each of the three areas. Further details on these and additional skills are found in Power Communication: Interacting With Style (Roth, 1993).

The Power of Listening

Our society puts a great deal of emphasis on the person who functions in the active role. The orator, the leader, the salesperson, members of the clergy, etc. all use speech as an effective means of persuasion. Because of these role models, we often lose sight of the potential power of listening.

Listening is invaluable for success in the classroom and in the various roles of teachers in developing more effective personal relationships, and in achieving Professional Health. Your communication cannot be effective unless you are a good listener.

One of the most important things to know about listening is that it is an active process as well as a passive one. You must engage in listening just as you engage in speaking. It is also of interest to note that listening occupies as much as 45 percent of our waking hours.

Listening is an active process in that you must participate in it, which led Roth to develop the term ‘interactive listening’. Essentially this means that the listener interacts with the other person during the listening process, rather than just receiving. It means even going beyond ‘active listening’, which involves participation with body and head movements, as well as nonverbal communication. Interactive means you not only receive, but you also respond, reflect understanding, and encourage the speaker.

It is also of great importance to realize that effective listening is based on a positive attitude. Attitude is a prerequisite to the utilization of these skills. You must really possess a willingness to become involved in what the other person has to say. Once this attitude is in place, you can activate the specific skills of effective listening.

Nonverbal Listening. Just as your nonverbal messages are an important part of communication in general, specific nonverbal skills are particularly important in the listening process. We define a nonverbal message as any type of message which is not conveyed by actual words. One element of this is body positioning. Your body position provides an indication of whether or not you are actually being attentive and involved in the conversation. It is commonly suggested that you lean forward as an expression of interest. This does indeed provide the impression that you want to listen to what the other person is saying. It does not mean, however, that you must always be in a leaning forward position. If, however, you are most often laid back, or to some degree turned away from the individual, then you will give the impression of not really being interested.

Related to body position is eye contact. Even the average individual who knows little about the research on listening and effective listening skills would tell you that they would more likely feel you are listening if you make eye contact than if you were not. This is why being partly turned away from the individual detracts from the listening appearance, since it is not as likely that you will be making as much eye contact. There are, of course, some cultural variations on eye contact which affect this meaning, but generally it holds true.

Other body or posture clues which indicate listening include maintaining a position which reflects openness. Very simply, this means not having tightly crossed arms or legs since this frequently indicates a defensive position. Your physical distance from the speaker is also of importance. Obviously, if you are too far apart it makes communication more difficult. A study of psychiatrists by Lassen found that clients’ anxiety increased as the distance between doctors and clients increased (Lassen, 1973).

On the other hand, if you get too close to the other person, you may make them feel uncomfortable, which would impede the communication and listening process. The distance between two people in communication is called ‘proximity’, and we will take a closer look at this issue under the nonverbal communication section. Body motion or activity is also a factor. If you remain very still, or even rigid, you may be seen as aloof and uninvolved. If you get too active, it can be distracting. If you are reasonably active, however, it is more likely you will be received as friendly, warm and being yourself rather than role playing. There is some research showing that in therapy people actually prefer speaking to listeners whose bodies are still or rigid (Truax and Carkhuff, 1967).

Nonverbal communication can also be used to provide acknowledgment in the listening process. Appearance of attentiveness through eye contact, body positioning, etc. is important, but greater assurance of listening is often required. This can be accomplished through acknowledgment skills.

One acknowledgment skill is to nod your head occasionally to indicate that you are following the speaker and understand what they say. Similarly, an occasional sound response such as ‘uh-huh’, and other sounds of this type provide evidence of the listener being actively involved.

The most obvious part of listening, that of silence, is still an important part. If we get too active in responding and encouraging, the person may feel like we are too busy to really listen. It may seem obvious, and it is, but the timing and duration of silence is something to be considered in the listening process.

Related to silence is the skill of pausing before responding. Many times we talk to someone and we know they cannot wait for us to stop so they can quickly interject their thoughts, ideas or concerns. If you pause for a moment before responding, it conveys the message that you are thinking and digesting what the person said, and indeed you should be. The pause might be accompanied by a nodding of the head or a nonverbal confirmation such as ‘hmmm’. Pausing before responding is very simple, yet one of the most effective ways of conveying that you have heard what the person said.

Verbal Aspects of Listening. Verbal statements in the process of listening make it more of an interactive exchange. It would seem to be a paradox that you could become a better listener by talking, but there are specific verbal strategies that certainly enhance the quality of the listening.

One of the major purposes of verbal statements is to clarify what the speaker is saying. You can clarify your understanding of what they are saying by asking questions, requesting that they clarify, or restating what they have said in your own words (paraphrasing). One way to clarify is to ask the person to repeat what they said in a different way, using different words. Still another might be to ask them to define a term or statement. Another might be to interpret what they said to see if that is indeed what they meant.

Clarification is addressed to both the content and feeling of the message. Normally we focus on the content of the message to be sure we understand what is being conveyed. We also need to pay attention to the feeling or emotion that accompanies the content. Sometimes the emotion is the real message, and, as listeners, we need to be sure we are aware of it and are listening to what each message is. Focusing on clarifying both content and feelings is an important part of the listening process.

Providing follow-up is another verbal strategy. In follow-up you take what the person said and expand or ask for expansion, through questions or some statement which incorporates what the speaker has said. Open-ended questions, that is, questions which allow a person to explore and think about what they have said, are useful in this regard. Closed questions require a specific or predetermined response, such as ‘yes’, ‘no’, etc. Both types of questions are necessary in interactions, but listeners must be aware of their different functions.

Encouraging the speaker is another function of verbal interactive listening. Encouragement is achieved through a variety of types of verbal statements, such as, ‘Yes, I see’, or ‘OK, go on’. Actually any verbal response which shows interest, such as questions or paraphrasing, is also encouraging. These specific statements that invite the speaker to continue are particularly encouraging.

Verbal statements can also be used to summarize what the person has said. Summarizing brings together several statements the person has made and/or links the various ideas expressed. It is a type of paraphrase and shows that you really have heard what they said, promoting the positive listening image.

Verbal aspects of listening thus include the following: clarifying, focusing on both content and emotion, providing follow-up, encouraging the speaker, and summarizing the content.

Other Listening Principles. The following are additional guidelines to enhance the effectiveness of your listening:

1 Understand why you are involved in the interaction. What is your reason for listening?

2 Stay focused! You really need to concentrate on the speaker and his or her message. This means staying involved and not letting your mind wander or other activities distract you.

3 Avoid being evaluative. You are not there to judge or assess the worth of the individual or his or her ideas. You are there to listen, gain information and/or be a support person.

4 Avoid letting emotional triggers distract your listening. We frequently have particular words or ideas to which we react, and in so doing we tend to not listen to the rest of what the person has to say.

5 Do not prejudge. We often tend to prejudge the value of what a person says. The content may be counter to your beliefs or values, and you may want to discount it immediately and thus not really listen. Also, we often tend to prejudge the speaker; because we know the person or are influenced by their appearance, we prejudge what they are going to say. Give him or her a chance.

6 Do not be distracted by the speaker. The individual’s delivery may make you feel uncomfortable or it may be contrary to your own style. We then tend to tune out because we are distracted by the person and/or his or her delivery.

Nonverbal Communication Skills

You may not be aware of the fact that you are communicating virtually all the time, either verbally or nonverbally. We are well aware of our verbal communication, although we may need training to be more effective at this everyday skill. On the other hand, we are not always aware of the ways we communicate nonverbally, or of the messages we give with our nonverbal signals. Most communication experts believe that the true or real message is communicated nonverbally. That is, if there is a difference between what we communicate verbally and nonverbally, the nonverbal message is usually the more accurate one. Studies have shown that anywhere from 65 percent to 93 percent of the impact of our communication is nonverbal (Meharbian, 1968). We thus need to understand the nature of nonverbal signals and cues being given to us by others, and the nonverbal communication we convey ourselves. There are a number of nonverbal cues we need to look for, including facial expressions, movements, postures, mannerisms, vocal tones, gestures, energy changes, etc. These nonverbal expressions are generated in several ways. We sometimes deliberately use them to achieve a particular effect, to create an impression or to convey an attitude. A stern look, a frown, a wink or a supportive nod of the head with a smile are all deliberate messages.

Sometimes our nonverbal cues are spontaneous, expressed due to a reaction we have to a particular situation, individual or event. Much of the time we are giving off nonverbal signals of which we are not even aware. Regardless of these sources, nonverbal expressions influence the perception the other person has of us, and the messages we are giving.

Perhaps the most meaningful source of nonverbal communication comes from the face, including the ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Foreword: Keith Geiger
• I Introduction
• 1 A Profession in Disillusionment
• 2 Stress A Mirror of Your Perceptions
• 3 Burnout The Insidious Disease
• 4 Psychological Support The PH Solution
• II Professional Health: The Three Domains of Need
• 5 Emotional-Physical Needs
• 6 Psycho-Social Needs
• 7 Personal-Intellectual Needs
• III Anatomy of Support: Taking Responsibility
• 8 Communication to Enhance Personal and Professional Effectiveness
• 9 Communication for Interpersonal Support
• 10 Individual Insight Strategy
• 11 Interpersonal Support Strategy
• 12 Guided Group Interaction Strategy
• IV Impementation: Individual and Group Approaches
• 13 Developing a Personal Life Plan
• 14 Developing a School or Organization Program
• 15 Conclusion and Beginning
• References
• Index