The Development of Self-Monitoring
From a book I recently read, it says the self-monitoring is a character that people born with, but the environmental-socialization may influence our self-monitoring orientations. So, normally, the way we behaved is based on outsides effects.
What happened?
I attended the VITA this semester, a free tax return preparation organization. As a volunteer, I have to face various clients during my work shifts. They all have different background and tax claiming requirements. So the process of communicating with distinct client is a way could help to improve my self-monitoring. The tax system will automatically calculate clients’ refund/return based on the identified forms they provided to. Overall, most cases are simple to deal with. However, there are always some situations which conflicts come up. One of my clients got the a little intense during my shift. His interest income and donation records cannot be filed because he did not bring a official tax forms for these credits. Following by the IRS rules, there should be an identified file form to finish the tax preparation. Under this circumstance, I could feel his anger at that moment, so I tried to calm him down and explained the rules and reasons to him patiently. After my explanation, however, the client still seems not satisfied with the result.
Do you think it worked?
Obviously, it does not work as well as my expected. I tried to be professional all the time, but my tone and behavior may appear differently in client’s view. So I asked my supervisor for help. When my supervisor talked with client, I was there. From their conversation, I found out my supervisor gave the client lots of affirmative words to calm him down. He also analyzed client’s request and compared with the IRS rules which we have to follow. My supervisor showed a high self-monitoring behavior in the conversation. Although client left in the end, my supervisor’s way of dealing with the conflict is something I have to learn about.
What are you going to do next?
From this experience, I figured out self-monitoring not only focus on control the physical and psychological behavior from the inside but also determined by outside environment. I have to consider both sides -transposition thinking- and then giving a proper response. In addition, the way I express my feeling should be more appropriate and acceptable. Therefore, my self-monitoring will have an improvement in the future.
