Developing Skills and Competencies: A Portfolio Approach

This report focuses on evaluating skills and competencies through the creation of a portfolio and preparing an action plan for improvement. It explores the importance of feedback taking and giving skills, team working skills, and public speaking skills in the context of business psychology. The report also highlights the benefits of developing these skills for future career growth.

Business Psychology
Year 1, sem1
Business Management
1

CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
REFLECTIVE JOURNALS............................................................................................................4
Pro- forma of feedback taking and giving skill...........................................................................4
Pro- forma of team working skill.................................................................................................5
Pro- forma of Public speaking skill.............................................................................................7
ACTION PLAN...............................................................................................................................8
Summary of action plan...............................................................................................................8
Reflection...................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
2

INTRODUCTION
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behaviour as well as mind of individual. It
is consider as multifaceted discipline which includes several area of study such as human
development, health, clinic, social behaviour and cognitive process (Sell, 2018). This is consider
as one of the most crucial factor that help in developing the understanding of human and their
perception which in turn further support an organisation to manage their employees in effective
manner. This is so because better understanding of the mind set of employees, it become easier
for the organisation to formulate policies as per their requirement which in turn further help in
keeping them satisfied and further support in enhancing their productivity within the organisation
(Allevato, 2020). In todays competitive world performing job responsibility is becoming more
and more difficult as the changes are continuously get anticipated within the working practice of
an organisation. As a result of which it makes the work more complex for the employees as they
are required to cope up with these by implementing their skills and capabilities in right. Due to
this, it become necessity for the employees to have a basic understanding about self in term of
their strength and weakness so that they can take quick actions toward improving as well as
developing themselves by taking corrective actions (Wagner, 2016). In order to survive at
workplace, it is crucial for employees to regularly evaluate themselves in term of their skills and
capabilities so that they have an idea regarding the areas in which they can perform well and area
whether they require improvement in order to meet with eth expectation of organisation. Here
comes the concept of personal development where an individual regularly performs personal
analysis and prepare a plan to develop themselves based on personal and professional level. For
this the employees can prepare their portfolio of skills to determine the strength and weaknesses
they have and prepare an appropriate action plan.
This support an individual in forming up effective action plan for improving the
performance at workplace by formulating effective goals and objectives regarding what an
individual wants to achieve. With the help of this an individual become able to control overall
activities that get performed by them in more appropriate manner. Tis also support individual to
improve their competencies regarding the actions performed at workplace which leads to overall
improvement of the performance (Casey and Pearce, 2018). The current report is based on
evaluation of skills and competencies with the help of creating a portfolio. Additionally, it
3

focuses toward determining strength and weaknesses based on skills identified through portfolio
and then preparing action plan accordingly. This would support in providing direction to an
individual regarding the skills nads capability that they must required to improve and action that
can be taken into consideration for improving those area in which they are lacking.
REFLECTIVE JOURNALS
Pro- forma of feedback taking and giving skill
What is the core skill to develop?
Jug, R., Jiang, X.S. and Bean, S.M., 2019, state that giving and taking feedback is crucial for
improving the performance of an individual. This is a ability of an individual give true
statement which support the performer to determine their short comes to improve .
Why is this core skill important? (use relevant theories and concepts to support your
answer)
Giving and taking feedback is very much effective skill for an employee as it aid them in
developing an understanding about the weak areas to be work on for improvement (Catalano,
2020). I choose to reflect on this skill as by improving this I become able to present my actual
thoughts in effective manner to employees working under me without being conflicting in this
role. As feedback that represented over the employees performance are very much valuable to
company as it help in improving its performance and efficiency. But if it is not presented in
effective manner then I may result into conflict among employees and may demotivate them
that affect their performance.
How competent are you currently? (use your tool-kit findings, feedback from peers and
your tutor, plus your own reflections on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours to answer
this question)
In order to determine my current competency I perform my personal analysis with the help of
Johari window which allow a better understanding of relationship with themselves and others.
From this analysis I found that I am not much good at presenting the true feedback to others as I
personally prefer to give only positive fact about an individual as specified by my senior. This
in turn kept other employees to be unaware about their mistakes. Other than this I found that I
4

don’t be able to present feedback in right manner which in turn results into conflict among
employees due to their dissatisfaction in feedback (Donia, O'Neill and Brutus, 2018). This
further become more stronger and make it difficult for me to resolve those conflict among
employees which not only affect their relations by bring competitiveness but also their
performance due to dissatisfaction. This deficiency of mine was explained by my senior to me
and suggest me to improve this for perform well.
Can you identify contradiction, or allowable weaknesses from your analysis?
From above evaluation, I have analysed that I present the positive feedback which in turn help
me in motivating the employees and at the same time help me in keeping positive relationship
with them. But on the other side I found that by giving positive feedback I not become able to
make people realise about their weak areas which in turn doesn’t present them with the scope to
improve themselves. And I realised providing positive feedback to some result into affecting
their relationship with other and also results into conflicting with other.
How this skill will help me in the future?
By providing true feedback in right manner I would be able to present my intension behind the
suggestion for improvement and motivating the people which in turn help in maintain positive
relationship and at the same time help in resolving the conflict among employees that usually
arises due to inappropriate feedback. This further help me in making my employees motivated
to improve themselves and enhance the level of performance.
Pro- forma of team working skill
What is the core skill to develop?
As per the perception of Ellis, P., 2018, teamwork refers to the common efforts put by group of
people over accomplishment of particular gaol and objectives. The effective team working skill
support an individual to operate work in group to accomplish the goal of a project. It is believed
that team working skills help in brining efficiency in work that is operated and also support in
reducing the conflict among team members which in turn improve productivity and profitability
of organisation (Kumendong, Pangemanan and Pandowo, 2018).
Why is this core skill important? (use relevant theories and concepts to support your
5

answer)
Teamwork skill is crucial for a person as it support an employee to work with full of
collaboration with team mates. This skills is important for me as it support me in performing
work in less time frame and more efficiency by integrating the experience and knowledge of
people in group to achieve objective I selected this skill to reflect on as I feel personally team
working skill is crucial at workplace which not help in completing task effectively but also
reduces the stress level and motivate to perform work in stipulated time frame.
How competent are you currently? (use your tool-kit findings, feedback from peers and
your tutor, plus your own reflections on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours to answer
this question)
As per my own evaluation I am good in team working skill as I have great command on my
communication skill that support in influencing me remain positive with me. Additionally, mu
soft communication skill also supports me in interacting with my team mates effectively that
further help me in reducing chances of dispute and support me to collaborate with them (AV
and Aithal, 2018). But despite of this while implementing the Belbin team role I found that I am
not good at strengthening the bond among team members. As per this model I found that a team
moves from five stage where at starting stage the control and management is high where I lack
and hence I required to improve it.
Can you identify contradiction, or allowable weaknesses from your analysis?
From the above information I analysed that my team working skills help me in developing
positive relation with my teammates and this further support me in achieving my targets along
with the organisational goals. But instead of that as per my evaluation I personally feel that at
some point of time I not able to collaborate with teammates. From this I have realised that only
having soft communication skill is not enough to perform well in team work rather it require
patience to perform work with team members effectively.
How this skill will help me in the future?
With the good team working skill I would be able to achieve my future goal and objective
effectively and get opportunity to become a team manager. As this team working skill support
me in performing my work with team members effectively. This will further support me in
managing my future team in company effectively to achieve targeted goals and objectives of
6

company.
Pro- forma of Public speaking skill
What is the core skill to develop?
As per views of Raja, F., 2017, public speaking is defined as the ability of a person to talk in
from of larger number of people. This is considered to be an attractive way to persuade a group
to listen to them and make them understand the message that one wants to convey. I am
focusing on developing this skill of mine which support me in presenting my thoughts and
viewpoint in front of others.
Why is this core skill important? (use relevant theories and concepts to support your
answer)
Public speaking skill is very crucial for an individual that as in current competitive world
organisation mainly prefer the people to be hired who are outspoken and can convey the
message or orders effectively to ensure quality work without nay kind of error. Hence it can be
said that public speaking skill is very crucial which support me in increasing my retention in
organisation for long. With this skill I can perform my job effectively by conveying right
message with team and present a clear vision to conduct work.
My main aim behind choosing this skill is that I believe with improving this skill I would be
able to get my personality development and it also support me in getting command over my
teammates.
How competent are you currently? (use your tool-kit findings, feedback from peers and
your tutor, plus your own reflections on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours to answer
this question)
From my analysis I found that my listening skills are good which support me in understanding
message that a speaker wants to convey. This skills of mine also support me in getting the key
points about a information that can be used while speaking publicly to strengthen the message. I
also believe that the good listening skill also support me in conveying the speech much
effectively to fellow teammates when it is about explaining them certain projects on behalf of
senior authority (McNatt, 2019). This I found through a public speaking situation of mine where
I realised that my listening skill is good but despite of this I required to work over my public
7

speaking skill as it not much good. This I found when I implement Johari window model on my
experience where I found that for being good public speaker I required have two factors
acceptable like trust on myself to represent effectively and on other learning from the feedback
of others to improve myself.
Can you identify contradiction, or allowable weaknesses from your analysis?
According to the above-mentioned analysis over public speaking I have identified that it is not
that much easy for each individual to become good at public speaking and make this area
stronger. I realised that I am able to present my actual message more clearly in front of
teammates while it is about public speaking as I become nervous while facing larger number of
audiences. This also results into presenting a negative impression in front of audience as they do
not get actual message which I want to convey. I realised this weakness of mine while having
my own speaking session. So, I decided to take more and more public session so that I become
able to recover from my fear of public speaking and be able to motivate myself during such
situation effectively in front of audience.
How this skill will help me in the future?
From this I identified that by enhancing my public speaking skill I can get many growth
opportunities in future, as by presenting myself while public speaking I will get an opportunity
to be promoted for a higher position within the company. As usually organisation give more
preference to those employees who have good representable skills which provide them with
growth opportunities.
ACTION PLAN
Summary of action plan
The analysis of personal strength and weakness are consider to be very much crucial as it
help in getting an idea about the area where they have to improve themselves in order to perform
well. By perform analysis of strength and weakness an individual would be able to define about
their improvement area which in turn further provide direction to prepare an action pl;an that
consist of several actions to be taken for improvement.
Strength: As per the evaluation of my personal skills and capability I have realised that
my soft speaking are good which support me in maintaining good relation with my team mates
and understood the things which they want to convey to me. By implementing Belbin model of
8

team I realise that at personal level I am good at maintaining good relation with team mates.
Addition to this my workplace colleagues also said that I am good listener as I quick gain
understanding about the things, they shared with me and cross question them when things get
wrong. This I found with the help of Johari window where I realise that I was implementing
some of things in my speech while listening to people.
Weakness: From my personal evaluation I have identified that I am not much good in
feedback giving and taking as it result into conflicts among employees and I am not much good
at resolving conflict which affect my whole practice of feedback giving and taking. This is so
because as per Johari Window model for becoming a good conflict resolver one individual is
required to take feedback from other and then resolve the issue but I sometime lack within it.
Other than this I found that I also required to improve my team working skill as from
implementation of Belbin theory, as at every stage of team one has to put more efforts in
strengthening the dynamics but I lack there, it affected the quality of work and sometime also
affected the outcome of a particular work when I failed to cooperate with team mates. which in
turn . I realised that Despite of this I also found that my public speaking skills also required to
improve as I hesitate in speaking within public. From implementation of Johari window I found
that I lack in public speaking as I required to develop a self confidence and trust on my self in
order to represent effectively in front of others.
These skills can be enhanced by developing the personal development plan which
support in identifying the several methods or actions that can be taken into consideration
for improving the skills along with the time as well as ways to measure the improvement
(Garrison and Akyol, 2015). The personal development for working over improving my
weakness is mentioned below:
Development
Area
Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely
Team
working
I want to
enhance my
team
working
skills by
developing
my
capability to
collaborate
My positive
relationship
with the
teammates
will
represent the
measurement
of this.
In order to
improve my
team
working
skills I
decide to
attain
seminar in
order to get
This action
will surely
help me as
the seminar
are mainly
attained by
the people
who are
expertise in
2 months
9

with
teammates in
every
situation and
learn trick to
maintain
positive team
relations.
idea
regarding
several tricks
and tactics
that can be
used to
strengthen
the team
dynamics.
that area and
with their
experience
guide others.
Conflict
resolution
I want to
improve my
conflict
resolution
skills in such
a way that I
would be
able to
convert the
conflicts into
constructive
conflicts that
brings
benefit to all
the parties.
The
improvement
in conflict
resolution
skills will be
measured
from the
employee’s
performance
enhancement
and
reduction
within the
frequency of
conflicts that
get arises at
workplace.
For
improving
this skill of
mine I
decided to
consult with
my seniors
and ask them
for several
guidance and
things to
remember.
By using
that
guidance, I
firstly mark
up the
important
factor in a
conflict and
then after
thoroughly
analyses take
a decision.
This action
will surely
help me in
achieving the
goals as
senior
management
will have an
eye over the
actions that I
perform to
resolve
conflict and
guide me
when I get
wrong.
3 months
Public
Speaking
I want my
public
speaking
skills to be
improve to a
extend where
I can
confidently
speak among
larger
number of
The
measurement
if this skill
will be my
presentation
in front of
my
colleagues
and senior
management.
To improve
public
speaking
skills, I
decided to
take
seminars to
learn tactics
and attained
other events
in
This action
will be
helpful as I
get
understanding
about the
basics to be
consider
while
speaking to
deliver
5 months
10

people and
easily
communicate
about my
ideas.
organisation
and observe
the speaker
regarding
how they
perform.
message most
effectively.
Reflection
This assignment was very much helpful to me in developing my skills due to the support of
my module reader. As when I prepare my portfolio of skills and action plan for further
development of skills I submitted it and get the feedback from my marker. From that feedback I
came to know area where I am making a mistake and things that I required to improve. In that
feedback my marker advised me to read the core text book which was on the reading list. The
reading of these book help me a lot in gaining understanding about the skills that I am presenting
in my skill what is further scope for improvement as well as manner in which it would be helpful
to me in my future course of actions. I was advised to read these books to improve my content
which I have mentioned in my report and making it better to get good grades.
Other than this it was also advised me within my feedback section that the I forgot to add
toolkit within my portfolio which is a crucial part pf this assignment. This is because it support in
aligning the framework with the skills for effective evaluation of skills so that strength and
weakness can be identified effectively. But in my resit I add toolkit in all the three Performa of
my skills as per the requirement of this assignment. The main reason behind implementing the
toolkit within the assignment is that it help me in analysing my level of competency in term of
my skills which in turn help in getting right direction for improvement. Despite of all this I was
also advised by tutor to change the conflict resolution skill from proforma as it is not consider as
a skill rather it is a area of development for a person which must be performed in order to
improve the performance at workplace or other kind of team work. So in order to improve my
[project work I switch conflict resolution skills to another skill of mine i.e. feedback taking and
giving which is also one of the most crucial skills from the perceptive of an employee as it
support in performing the future tasks in effective manner. For adding this to proforma I firstly
defined it from the book which tutors advice me to read and then explain about its importance,
current competency of mine, contradiction involve in skills and future benefit of this skill to me.
At last I was also advised to apply authenticated sources only within the report which is consider
11

as very much essential for the assignment. This is so because it proves the authenticity of the
content which is mentioned within the report and also help in mentioning the name of author
who presented particular theory in order to being free from any kind of academic misconduct due
to wrong representation information. So for ensuring right reference to be intext at right place I
cross check all the sources from where I gathered the information and marked the references
accordingly in right manner.
CONCLUSION
From above presented report it can be said that everyone must try to enhance their
knowledge about themselves by performing personal analysis so that they get an idea about the
actual strength and weaknesses they hold. This help them in remaining focused toward removing
their weaknesses that further support them in improving themselves at personal level and
professional level which in turn support them in performing well at workplace while dealing with
all the challenges.
12

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Allevato, E., 2020. Organizational Culture Change: Growth Mindset, Positive Psychology, and
Empowerment. In Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility (pp.
439-454). Springer, Cham.
AV, N. and Aithal, P.S., 2018. Employability Skill traits Management Quotient [ESMQ]-A
Conceptual Model Proposal. International Journal of Applied Engineering and
Management Letters (IJAEML), 2(1), pp.1-30.
Casey, D. and Pearce, D. eds., 2018. More Than Management Development: Action Learning at
General Electric Company. Routledge.
Catalano, E.M., 2020. Giving and Receiving Feedback. In Management and Leadership Skills
for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives (pp. 23-30). Springer, Cham.
Donia, M.B., O'Neill, T.A. and Brutus, S., 2018. The longitudinal effects of peer feedback in the
development and transfer of student teamwork skills. Learning and Individual
Differences, 61, pp.87-98.
Ellis, P., 2018. Leadership, management and team working in nursing. Learning Matters.
Jug, R., Jiang, X.S. and Bean, S.M., 2019. Giving and receiving effective feedback: A review
article and how-to guide. Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine, 143(2), pp.244-
250.
Kumendong, A., Pangemanan, S.S. and Pandowo, M., 2018. THE ANALYSIS OF SOFT SKILL
FOR EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN BANKING INDUSTRY. Jurnal EMBA:
Jurnal Riset Ekonomi, Manajemen, Bisnis dan Akuntansi, 6(4).
McNatt, D.B., 2019. Enhancing public speaking confidence, skills, and performance: An
experiment of service-learning. The International Journal of Management
Education, 17(2), pp.276-285.
Raja, F., 2017. Anxiety Level in Students of Public Speaking: Causes and Remedies. Journal of
education and educational development, 4(1), pp.94-110.
Sell, J., 2018. Definitions and the development of theory in social psychology. Social Psychology
Quarterly, 81(1), pp.8-22.
Wagner, W. E., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
13