Personal Reflection on Skills for Academic and Business Contexts

This personal reflection explores the development and improvement of key skills needed to function in both academic and business contexts. It discusses communication skills, teamworking skills, problem-solving skills, and time management skills. The reflection also includes plans for improvement and relates to the Business Practice Explored BSS005-1 course at the college/university.

Submission Deadline Marks and Feedback
Before 10am on: 20 working days after deadline (L4, 5 and 7)
15 working days after deadline (L6)
10 working days after deadline (block delivery)
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Unit title & code Business Practice Explored BSS005-1
Assignment number and title Project 1 Personal reflection
Assessment type Individual report
Weighting of assessment 25%
Size or length of assessment 1,500
Unit learning outcomes 1. Demonstrate knowledge of and understanding in a defined range of skills needed to function
in both academic and business practice along with self-awareness of your own abilities. [CIPD
LO 5IHR 1 & 2]
2. Provide a creative and soundly based solution to a predictable business context that requires
the use of a specified range of techniques and information sources. Communicate in a manner
appropriate to the business context. [CIPD LO 5IHR 2, 3 & 4]

What am I required to do in this assignment?
You are required to audit your personal fitness for a business environment, your knowledge, abilities and skills and your plans for
improvement.
In your personal reflection, you are required to evidence how you have developed and used key skills needed to function in both the
academic and business contexts, as well as your strengths and where you need to focus your efforts.
In your personal reflection, you may want to consider the following:
 Communication skills (both verbal and written)
 Teamworking skills
 Interpersonal skills
 Numeracy skills
 Information and Communications (ICT) skills
 Problem Solving
 Time management
The list of skills mentioned above is not exhaustive and it is important to remember that such skills underpin your learning and are highly
valued by employers.
Personal reflection
To work in academic as well as the business practices, an individual needs a range of skills which will help
them to achieve their goals and thus would increase their knowledge. The range of skills are.
Communication skills
This is one of the most significant skill which is required within an individual to excel in the work and thus
achieve the objectives (Mencl, Wefald and van Ittersum, 2016). Communicating with the peers as well as the top
management becomes important within the organization as through this, the organization can easily attain competitive
advantage and thus establishes their position in market. Besides this, within the academic practices, this skill is one of
the most important one which helps the learner to effectively solve their problem and thus understand the perspective
of different individuals. I have generally weak communication skills and thus lacks behind when it comers to openly
interact with other individuals. I am unable to interact with other people as well as the personnels due to which I face
problem in building the relationship and thus work effectively. Due to my ineffective communication, I am unable to
work in a team and thus maintain the collaboration with my team members. I am unable to understand the task given
to me due to which sometimes my morale as well as the enthusiasm towards the work decreases. For example while
working in an organization, I tend to hesitate to reach the other people due to which I was unable to advertise the
products to customers effectively (Kearns and et.al.,2015).
Team working skills
Working in a team or a group is another remarkable skill which is required within an individual whether
working in organization or learning on their own basis. Each and every individual have different ways of thinking and
thus different means of working. Thus, by working in a group the team members come across various innovative ideas
as well as become aware of the different perspective along with understanding different culture. Having a team spirit
becomes necessary as it helps in increasing the knowledge of the individual along with enhancing their personal views
towards the work (Hebert and Hauf, 2015). In this context, I generally have weak spirit of working in a team and thus
is unable to work in a group. I am unable to complete my task when it is allotted with a team. Due to the clashing
views of different persons, I tend to get into conflict with them due to which my focus towards work gets distracted.
Besides this, due to low team spirit, I am unable to maintain a healthy relationship with the rest of team members due
to which I remain isolated and thus this decreases my motivational level (Matteson, Anderson and Boyden, 2016).
Apart from this, I also do not participate in the team building exercises due to which I remain unaware of the attributes
for personal as well as professional growth. I also lack behind in taking the challenging responsibility due to less
interaction with team members because of which I generally remain engaged in monotonous work. For example when

I was assigned a project with my colleagues, I was unable to plan as well as manage the schedule due to which I
missed the deadline for completing it and the whole team suffered.
Problem solving
No matter what the organization is, an individual is required to have a great skill of problem solving. The
individual should have the ability to solve the complex problem and thus apply brainstorming for bringing out the
various alternative. The individual should be competent enough to identify the problem and thus make a sound
decision from different course of action (Sousa and Rocha, 2017). I have a great problem solving skills. I am able to
identify the problem from each and every perspective and thus apply my critical thinking for exploring the various
alternative. I am able to make the sound and consistent decisions and thus attempt to implement it in wider context.
Besides this, I am able to gain the knowledge and understanding of various aspects related to the problem which
eventually helps in my constant development and learning. I address the real life issues pertaining to the problem and
hence derive the results after proper evidence and supporting logic. For example In an organization, as a leader I came
across the situation where my team members was not performing well and sale was declining. I assess this problem
from every perspective and thus find out the way for improving their performance like I introduced the team
competition which eventually built their morale and increased their performance (Yang, Oh and Yun, 2015).
Time management skills
This skill is another most important skill which is required within an individual to work smartly and thus
enhance their overall productivity. This skill helps the individual to accomplish the task in a short period and thus
focus on the much important work (Cerezo-Narváez and et.al.,2018). This skill is very significant and assist the
people, to achieve their task faster and create the well-structured schedules. I have a good time management skills and
thus I am able to achieve my tasks with greater productivity. I am able to prioritize my work according to its nature
and time frame which eventually increases my morale and thus saves my time. For example When I was assigned with
more than two projects with same deadline, I created a plan where I wrote the time frame as well as the number to task
in every project. I planned my work according to that schedule which eventually helped me to deliver all the projects
before the deadline. This also increased my morale for taking more challenging work.
What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF)
In order to pass Project 1 you will need to:
Demonstrate the ability to critically self-appraise and to set sensible personal measurable goals for improvement I
have demonstrated the own personal ability and self-appraise in order to achieve improvement measurable goals. I
thought good communication skill is very important in every person because it helps for build an effective interaction
with other. In this way, I always expressed my own ability and listen to other. On the other hand, different background
does not bring many troubles in communication but it may directly affect efficiency of entire team (Darics and
Cristina, 2019). Sometimes, I could not express my feeling due to lack of communication skills and my English is
very weak. Afterwards, I must focus on my own improvement and spend a lot of time with teammate so as I was
trying to show own expression. Even, I don’t understand proper translation, but I am appreciated my self for regarding
understanding of teammates because they easily understand my view points. I will put more efforts to improve my self
with the help of reading, listening and watching English news. In this way, as much I improve myself. As my personal
experience, I found that language is the best medium for showing their own ideas and thoughts, it always helps for me
to give own opinion on particular topic. For Example- when I was participates in the discussion of user stories and
give own idea and also listen their view points. In this way, everyone gives their reasons for what would be infeasible
and feasible.
Another important aspect is teamwork is another type of important skill which require to improve myself
because it directly related to the communication. In beginning, I did not do well in properly and faced the problem of

team working because properly interact with the staff members. Afterwards, I have decided to give some time to
improvement and spend extra time our teammates to complete task because each one have been completed their task
by individually. Afterwards, I will accept all responsibility of assignment and started to interact with teammates.
Initially, I have faced the problem but improve my self in step by step. I also began to write meeting and give remind
of other staff members (Mercer, 2019). In this way, I can prepare my self where how to handle the business activities
in proper manner. This will really help for me to improve efficiency during meeting session. I also take personal
accountability and responsibility that supports each other. I can figure out the right solution for particular problem. In
this way, I also discovered the valuable team and believe that it believes to improve for achieving future development.
After few weeks, I will improve my both communication and team working skill, handle all type of
responsibilities in proper manner. I will do work in better ways within team. I am so glad to work with other members
because everyone supports and hopefully create an effective team. In the future, I also used this type of skill in
different areas where I easily interact with the people and share own idea about the development. As per discussion, it
has been analysis personal experience regarding skill improvement.
How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade?
We will be filling this section in together in class on Click or tap to enter a date. make sure you have downloaded/printed out the
Assignment Brief and bring it to the session with you.
How does assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?
The scheduled lessons aim to provide a sound basis to the topic that is being assessed in the project. Thus, there is a direct link between the
project and the content covered in scheduled sessions.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Cerezo-Narváez, A and et.al.,2018. Traceability of intra-and interpersonal skills: From education to labor market.
Human Capital and Competences in Project Management; Otero-Mateo, M., Pastor-Fernández, A.,
Eds.pp.87-110.
Darics, E. and Cristina Gatti, M., 2019. Talking a team into being in online workplace collaborations: The discourse
of virtual work. Discourse Studies. 21(3). pp.237-257.
Hebert, A. and Hauf, P., 2015. Student learning through service learning: Effects on academic development, civic
responsibility, interpersonal skills and practical skills. Active Learning in Higher Education.16(1). pp.37-
49.
Kearns, K.P and et.al.,2015. Leadership skills as construed by nonprofit chief executives. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal.36(6). pp.712-727.
Matteson, M.L., Anderson, L. and Boyden, C., 2016. " Soft Skills": A Phrase in Search of Meaning. portal:
Libraries and the Academy.16(1). pp.71-88.
Mencl, J., Wefald, A.J. and van Ittersum, K.W., 2016. Transformational leader attributes: interpersonal skills,
engagement, and well-being. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.37(5). pp.635-657.
Mercer, S., 2019. Team-Working, Chapter. Obstetric Decision-Makng Simulation. p.45.
Sousa, M.J. and Rocha, Á., 2017, April. Game based learning contexts for soft skills development. In World
Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (pp. 931-940). Springer, Cham.
Yang, M.S., Oh, S.Y. and Yun, G.H., 2015. A study on Special guards that interpersonal skills to communicate
your organization's job satisfaction and job commitment through the effect parameter impact. Korean
Security Science Review.(45). pp.87-106.

How will my assignment be marked?
Your project will be marked according to the threshold expectations
and the criteria on the following page.
You can use them to evaluate your own work and consider your grade
before you submit.
3rd Class – 40-49%
1
Evaluation of key skills developed that are needed to function in the
academic and business contexts
Some evaluation of key skills developed with very limited evidence of
self-assessment and reflection on learning
Rea
evid
2
Evidence of understanding and application of relevant theories and
models in the reflection
Some evidence of understanding the application of theories and
models but at a superficial level
Evid
theo
3
Plans for improvement based on key strengths and weaknesses
Some effort made in identifying key strengths and weaknesses. Plans
for improvement are proposed but may be unrealistic
Rea
Plan
dev
4
Structure, presentation, referencing, spelling and grammar
Some inconsistencies in presentation of material. Style inappropriate
in places. Weakly expressed with mistakes in grammar and spelling.
A reasonable attempt with several errors both in text and in the
References section
Som
Sati
spe
num