Disruptions that Undermine Effective Communication

In my opinion, one of the key contributory factors to marital conflict comes directly from personality conflicts.

I posit that effective communication may often be undermined and disrupted because of a lack of personal knowledge about one’s personality type. Based upon my personal readings, I posit that behavioral blend is the outward manifestation of unique personality and temperamental characteristics resulting from any combination of William Marston’s foundational 4 DISC personality behavior types. Such manifestations may positively or negatively influence marital communication. In this regard, I feel led to share how taking time out to learn more about my personality has impacted both my marital and professional communication.

I decided a few years ago to conduct a self-analysis based on foundational 4 DISC personality behavior types in an effort become a more effective communicator, decision maker and conflict resolution practitioner at both personal and professional levels.

I made a couple key discoveries regarding helping couples to improve their listening skills using multiple nuances of listening. In this regard, Burley-Allen (1995) “active, empathetic listening mode can be a big step in making listening work for you” (p. 125). These skills sets have helped me tremendously over the years to improve my communication skills.

References

Burley-Allen, M. (1995). Listening: The forgotten skill. (2 nd ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.