Feedback is King

Communication...this is my main squeeze! Is that appropriate to say?  forgive me Brother Williams/TA I promise I don't usually say things like that. I am just excited about this topic. This year I have had many lessons on communication and I have learned there is way more to communication rather than talking and listening. It actually gets quite complicated. There are terms for common experiences everybody has that I had no idea had an actual definition. If that made sense. Anywho, Today I want to touch on the importance of being a good Communicator. The best way to be a good communicator is this Give feedback instead of responses. By this I mean when we have a friend, or an acquaintance speaking to us we should give feedback instead of just making a non-verbal response. For example, I will set up a little scenario:  You just walk through your apartment door after a long day on campus, no one is in the front room which is unusual so you make your way to the back to see if anyone is in their room. One roommate is home, so you talk to them about their day and she starts to tell you that she had a tough day, she failed her test she prepared so much for, it's Monday and she received no emails from missionary friends, her teacher assigned another research paper, and her little sister if annoying her. She asked if all those reasons to be upset are valid. Instead of just simply responding by saying something like "that stinks, sorry you had a bad day" you should give her feedback and tell her something like "it's stinks that all that happened today, its not the end of the world, you can bring up your grade by writing a bomb research paper and reaffirm that little sister's will always be annoying until they reach the age of 20." giving her feedback on not only things she wants to hear by just agreeing with her but by helping her realize some good that comes out of her day. Feedback has more meaning than responding with a simple statement or expression. Feedback expands on the initial response.