Reflective Personal Development Journal
Core competencies are the collective form of skills which are possessed by individuals to coordinate with diverse production skills (Holahan, Sullivan and Markham, 2014; Shieh and Wang, 2010). Further, it helps to integrate multiple sectors of technology for the achievement of better outcomes. In this context, four reflective journals have been prepared to analyze the core skills of the individual such as time management, conflict resolution, written communication, focused and attention etc. At the end, a 2 years plan has also been prepared for the self-development of personality.
Core skill to develop
Core skills- Core skills related to employability and functional skills which are possessed by an individual to manipulate the information and interact in an effectual manner (Brewer, 2013). In this context, an individual must develop time-management as a core skill for the self-development and handle other people. Time management helps to enhance the optimization of results, minimizes the deviations etc. (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
Importance of core skills and its reflection
Core skills are the milestone of a person which maximizes confidence as well as capabilities of an individual (Rosenberg, Heimler and Morote, 2012). In this regard, time management is a crucial element because it helps to improve decision-making ability, reduces stress level and increase self-discipline etc. (Buttazzo, 2011). I selected time management skill because in my academic career I have seen that my marketing professor was keen towards the time and each aspect explained in limited time with effectiveness and clarity of concepts. In this context, several studies revealed that time management is supportive to make the life more meaningful and reduces the indecisiveness because the people take instant decisions to reduce the wastage of time (Sallis, 2014). Hence, time management would be a crucial element and have an in-depth support to achieve goals faster.
Reflecting on current competence regarding this skill and its assessment
My current competence regarding time management skills is above average and I assessed it during my academic session. I had keen interest towards my time management procedure and all the projects were completed by me on time. Owing to this time management, my professors appraised me and suggested to continue with the time management skills to achieve the peak level of success in life. Moreover, I personally also felt that my time management skill helpful for me to become different from others. Furthermore, everybody noticed me in my college and create a lesson for others that time management is necessary for success.
Contradictions from your analysis above?
Yes, I found a contradiction between my perception and others regarding my time management skill because I felt from inner feelings that still my time management was poor in comparison to other qualified students. They were more static towards the completion of projects before time to rectify the corrections on time. Here, I was lacking because my time management was also proper since I had to manage all the stuff in hurry. However, others were motivated by my management of time reason that on neat and clean submission on time.
Core Skill to Develop
How might this skill help me in the future?
Time is valuable and everybody can utilize the aspects of time management by effectively managing the time (Sallis, 2014). In this context, it would be helpful for me in the future because time is precious and can have a contribution to the development of my personality. It will also improve the productivity of my work by minimum and no wastage of time. Owing to this, it may enhance the opportunities for my career growth and will gain a reputation among competitors. However, without a proper list to do and including too many things a specific criterion can be harmful to the people (Hill, 2017).
Developing core skills
An individual must possess a core skill as focused and attention for the work so that quality work can be delivered on time (Welsh et al, 2010). Focus and attention are helpful for people to keep attention on various stimuli such as personal factors and environmental factors. It includes the emotions, level of activation, complexity etc. which enhance the level of focus as well as attention towards the work.
Importance of core skills
Focus and attention are beneficial for most of the young people to improve the standard of work and bring calmness in the personality (Duncan and Magnuson, 2011). In this regard, I selected focused approach and attention core skill because it helps me a lot in my focused intention toward my career after the completion of education. I had a static aim that I want to establish my own business after education. Hence, this attitude of mine lead to me in a way of success and now I have ability to think of enormous opportunities available to start the business. By considering this, a focused attitude has a participation in the development of self-understanding and more positivity in nature by underpinning the specific goals (Hasenkamp, Wilson-Mendenhall, Duncan and Barsalou, 2012).
Current competence regarding this skill and assessment of your competence
My current capability of focused and attention was effective and appropriate because I intend to start my own business through the continuous efforts towards the growth and development. For this purpose, I had put my all efforts and never thought about options or to operate another business. Moreover, by having this attitude, I got extreme success in establishing my business. Further, I assessed my competence regarding keen attention at the time of extra classes in my academic forum and all the time I remained engaged with business activities. Thus, my professors and family members also supported me for this.
Identifying any contradictions from your analysis above
Yes, I derived a contradiction in the respective focused and attention skill of mine because there were more other students which were more attentive towards their goal. I personally assessed that my focus is low in comparison to other interested students because they all time do innovative things for the more attractive ideas for career growth. However, competitive students have a competitive attitude towards me that I am more competitive in spite of them but in reality, I was personally feeling that I am less competent and do not have complete focus and attention for my goal as own business.
Importance of Core Skills and its Reflection
Help of these skills in in the future
The skill of focused and attention will be supportive for me to attain the specific goal and do not deviate to other aspects of life. In this context, by playing the role of resource investigator, I can build a team and can make them focused on the achievement of more growth in my business. With the help of the team engagement and focused view, it can be efficient to generate new chances in existing business by motivating the team members (Belbin, 2012). Hence, the focus is more important in life to grab the new requirements and get success
Core skill to develop
Conflict resolution skill is related to resolving the issues of team members on a disagreement and to provide optimum solutions for the effectiveness of workplace (Ramsbotham, Miall and Woodhouse, 2011). Every person in an organization can possess an ability of conflict resolution to maintain the team members in one thread to improve the quality of work. It can have a positive attitude towards the engagement of groups for particular activities.
Importance of core skill and rationale behind its reflection
Conflict resolution is an important technique to deal with the problems and to develop strong relationships with teams. According to Belbin team roles, by playing the role of coordinator and monitor evaluator, a leader can easily coordinate with people to maximize the engagement (Belbin, 2010). By considering the significance of conflict resolution, I selected a skill of conflict resolution because I may deal with many issues in engaging my team members in the establishment of my own business. Moreover, everyone is extremely important in capability and suggesting own opinions for resolving the queries related to improvement in the business. In this context, the relationship with team members can be enhanced by close review and it also develops a mutual understanding among individuals inside the group (Brown and Harvey, 2011).
Current competence regarding this skill and its assessment
My current competencies regarding the conflict resolution are strong in concepts because I continuously review the teams of my business and analyze the scenario if they are having any issues and try to resolve on the spot or provide training to deal with the complexities. Besides this, I assessed my conflict resolution skill at the time when I was associated as a team manager in a medium-sized company before thinking to commence my own business. At this juncture, I personally met employees on time basis and try to resolve the conflicts among members if they disagreed at any point. Hence, I improved my skill by managing the team and offering solutions.
Contradictions from your analysis above
No. I did not find any contradiction between the people’s view and my perception regarding the ability of conflict resolution. There is a perfect match between both of perception because I personally analyzed my conflict resolution skill in the management of my team. I assessed that I am able to resolve the problems of team members and can create a bond among all of the people by being impartial to anyone. Further, I used several techniques to handle the complex teams such as gathering together, promoting teamwork, never postpone the resolution of conflicts of group members. Nonetheless, I am also a human being and there may be a possibility to lack in my skills because a person cannot be perfect in each aspect.
Reflecting on Current Competence Regarding this Skill and its Assessment
Help of this in the future The skills of conflict resolution can be supportive for me in future because I want to set up my business at an international level and for that, I need to build competitive teams by involving a large number of people. In a large group, there is always more chances to generate conflicts among people because each people provide own ideas and a conflict may develop on a point in the organization (Ramsbotham, Miall and Woodhouse, 2011). Here, I can use the resolution tools as per my capability and resolve the issues to get success in the business.
Core skill to develop
Written communication is one of the core skills which is required to enhance the clarification of concepts and provide the detail information regarding relevant task (Kahlon, 2013). By considering the significance of written communication, a person or a manager must develop a skill to provide each information is in a written form so that employees can remember every aspect of requirements.
Importance of core skills and reflection on it
Global workforce is needed to improve written communication skill and it can be done through an effective communicator which moves the business at peak point (Conrad and Newberry, 2012). In this context, I selected the written communication skill because I felt the issues in my business at the time of communicating with everyone. I used to call a conference and verbally communicate all new targets and policies to employees. Here, it maximizes the chances of mistakes in following the rules because no other person was there to guide them on the spot. Hence, it affected the productivity of my teams. With the help of understanding and maximizing communication among members of a group, the task can be efficiently completed in a convenient manner (Hillson and Murray-Webster, 2017).
Reflecting on current competence regarding this skill and its assessment
My current competence with respect to written communication is not appropriate because I use the verbal instead of written communication to convey all type of information among members. It takes less time to inform but does not take long-lasting existence of data till the finishing line. Here, I assessed my communication skill competence at the time of complex projects in my curriculum and I felt that my team is not completely understanding the requirements due to the lack of written communication. Thus, it affects the level of morale of team members towards the specific task.
Identifying any contradictions from your analysis above
Yes, here I can identify a mismatch between views of others and mine because others were thinking that I am a perfect communicator in front of the teams.. However, I personally realized that I am not able to interact in a perfect way with my team due to use to oral media rather than written considerations. It maximizes the chances of mistakes which directly affects the quality of work. Therefore, it shows that there is a contradiction with my way of communication which saves the time, however, reduces the level of standard.
Contradictions from Your Analysis Above?
Help of the skill in the future?
The written communication skill might have a large contribution to my future considerations because employees need to provide everything in a written form so that any mis-happening cannot take place. In this context, written communication creates the speaker more influencer and always focused on to maintain better records because everything remains in the written format (Peters, 2012). Therefore, my team will become more competitive and stronger by keeping everything written and no chance will occur to miss the important information of the task.
On the above-mentioned journal reflective, my strengths have been identified such as effective time management, focused and attentive, able to resolve the conflicts of members. On the other hand, I am lacking in communication style because in many cases a written communication is required whereas I am using verbal communication to convey and interact with teams. Further, it has also been identified that to some extent I am unable to manage a large group of people because it requires a huge amount of efforts and intelligence. Here, three areas of personal development have been identified such as improve the communication style, a little work on time management and enhance the conflict resolution skills.
- Improve the communication skills- At my workplace, I used verbal communication but now I want to improve my communication skill by using strategies such as engage the people in all discussions and provide the key points in handouts. It will be helpful to deal with the issues of missing and inadequate information to deliver quality work in improved efficiency along with the availability of complete data.
- Enhance the conflict resolution skills- On the basis of the analysis, I found that I am not perfect in resolving the problems of a large group of people. In this regard, I will work on my conflict resolution skill to maximizes the level of confidence of members as well as to motivate the teams. For this purpose, I would focus on the encouragement of active listening and group collaboration activities to minimize the effects of resolutions. Active listening is a suitable tool to manage the large group of people and successfully overcome the issues of people by engaging them in a particular discussion (Huerta-Wong and Schoech, 2010).
- Improve time management capability- Owing to the aforementioned reflective, it has been derived that my time management is quite better but still I want to work on my time management skills to develop the personality. To improve the respective skill, I will use the strategies such as to assign the task with a particular deadline and avoid the concept of multi-tasking to remove the stress level as well as delivery of quality work on time.
Conclusions
On the basis of the analysis, it has been concluded that every person needs to possess core skills for the self as well as other’s development which is helpful to enhance the personality of individuals. Further, it has been identified that time management is most required skill to manage the individual’s as well as groups’ work. Moreover, it has been summarized that written communication skill is also necessary to handle large teams to provide each information in a written form that helps to improve the quality of work. At the end, it has been recognized that communication and conflicts resolution skills can be improved with active listening, engagement of people in discussions which would be helpful for personality development.
References
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