Personal and Professional Development

This document discusses the importance of personal and professional development in enhancing skills and knowledge. It explores the value added element, experiential element, and provides evidence from workshop activities. The document also highlights the challenges faced and areas for improvement in communication skills.

Personal and
Professional
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Value Added Element..................................................................................................................5
Experiential Element....................................................................................................................7
Workshop Activities Evidence....................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Personal development of an individual consists of all the activities through which the
individual's awareness and identity is improved, talents, skills and potential is developed and
their employability is facilitated, quality of life is enhanced, with the activities contributing to
their realisation of their end goals, objectives and dreams. On the other hand, professional
development is the process through which an individual learns to maintain or earn professional
credentials through dedicated set of professional activities such as academic degrees or formal
coursework or conferences or practising informal opportunities (Kroll and Dussias, 2017). For
the growth of an individual, both personal and professional development of their skills, talent,
knowledge base and potential is of immense importance as it helps them further grow and
develop into a better personal and professional in their lives. The following personal reflection
chooses personal quality of communication skills as these are my key strength and explores this
personal quality in depth.
MAIN BODY
I feel that the most significant personal quality that has emerged from me undertaking the
various modules and workshops relates to my communication skills which in my own opinion
are one of my personal and professional strengths. In my opinion, my communication skills are
one of my most significant strengths as they have allowed me to effectively be able to complete
the various modules and workshops which required competent and adequate communication
skills for their completion. Communication is the act of transferring and receiving relevant
information from various singular or multiple sources. Communication can be facilitated through
verbal, written, non verbal or visual means (Christie and et.al., 2018). In my view,
communication skills are amongst the most important and widely used and applicable personal
skills that are of immense importance towards my personal and professional growth and
development. Communication skills consist of all skills which are used by an individual in order
to communicate effectively with others.
Communication skills are amongst one of my personal strengths as these allow for me to
effectively express and share my views, ideas, opinions, beliefs, knowledge and relevant
information with others in an effective and efficient manner in order to get the other person or
group to be able to easily and conveniently understand the inherent meaning of my messages.
My competent communications skills are most at display during happen stance events with

others which cannot be planned in any sort of manner and require good wit and communication
skills in order for the numerous happen stance events that occur daily for me to be positive. .
I feel that communication can be effectively explained by making use of the Lasswell's
model of communication which was designed and developed strategically in order to create
effective communications between senders and receivers. The model describes communication
through defining who said or sent the information, what was said or sent, through which
medium, to whom was the information said or sent to and with what effect the information was
said or sent. The model includes 5 components: Control Analysis: Helps sender in possessing communication power. Content Analysis: Represents the ulterior motives and information of the content being
communicated Medium Analysis: Represents the medium that is used to exercise maximum power
against receivers. Audience Analysis: Shows the target population that is being communicated to.
 Effect Analysis: Conducted prior to the start of communication operations. Used to
predict the effect that communication can have on receivers.
During the workshop exercises, the thing that I found to be most challenging related to
working effectively and cooperatively with my other team members in order to accomplish our
shared objectives and tasks. Though teamwork and cooperation require competent and adequate
communication skills, I found working cohesively with the other members of my team to be
quite a challenge (Ramia and et.al., 2016). The Lasswell's model of communication can help
explain this as, even though my communication skills were adequate, I was not conducting any
form of effect analysis and didn't have any inkling or idea as to the effect of my communicated
information or message can have on my team members. This made the teamwork operations of
the workshop exercises to be a challenge for me.
I also found that though my communication skills are adequate and competent, there are
also some situations and contexts present, in which I am not able to make use of my effective
communication skills to optimum effect. As discussed before these relate to situations and
contexts that require extensive team work from me and group of other people. I also found that
my communication skills are of not much help when I have to communicate with other
individuals for whom there is present a language barrier towards the language that I am speaking.

This is because the other person is not able to effectively and easily understand the meaning
behind my communicated message to them.
Overall I feel that my communication skills are of immense help to me towards achieving
personal and professional growth and development. Such communication skills can benefit me in
the future, allowing for me to effectively communicate and transfer information to others using
various communication mediums, which I am currently inexperienced in (Davies Curtin and
Robson, 2017). I need to further develop the effectiveness of my own non verbal and visual
communication skills as doing this will allow for me to effectively communicate with people
who possess linguistic barriers towards English. Doing this shall develop me into a more
competent speaker and will enhance upon my current communication skills.
Value Added Element
As part of the workshops exercises I was required to engage in a value added taught
element which was related to me learning the foreign French language. Though I had the option
to choose from amongst a variety of subjects, I chose to learn French, as French is amongst the
most spoken languages in the entire world, and learning French would effectively grow and
enhance my current communication skills, allowing for me to become an even more competent
communicator who is able to make use of various communication skills, mediums and languages
as the situation demands in order to effectively be able to communicate with other peoples.
Though the prospect of learning a new foreign language in the form of French proved to be
immensely challenging for me, particularly at first. I found the entire workshop exercise to be
excruciatingly fascinating, informative, interactive, engaging and effectively resulted in my
personal and professional development (Knight, Iswanti and Murphey, 2018). With the help of
my teachers and guidance form my superiors I was able to complete the workshop exercise and
became surprisingly competent at speaking, listening and understanding the French language,
something which seemed impossible to me at the start of the subject, owing to just how different
my first language English is to the French language that I had to learn and become competent at.
When I initially became aware that I was required to undertake a value added element
subject as part of my workshop exercises, I became significantly nervous and hesitant as I had no
inkling of what subject to choose or which subject would contribute and add towards my future
personal and professional development. In order to make an informed decision, I consulted both
my superiors and teachers in order to evaluate which subject I should choose from. At the end, I

choose to learn the French language as this subject seemed most interesting to me and would
contribute to the further development of my communication skills. I was immensely motivated
and eager to learn French as I had an innate interest in France. Though I was motivated at first,
having to memorise the French grammar, words and vocabulary proved to be quite challenging
for me and filled me with doubt over my personal capability towards being able to effectively
learn the French language. But after the course had finished, with perseverance I was able to
effectively learn French and this made me feel immensely confident in my learning and
communication skills.
In my opinion, undertaking the value added element as part of my workshop exercise
proved to be an immensely positive learning experience for me. During the entire workshop
exercise of learning French, I found the help and guidance that was provided to me by my
teachers and superiors to be of immense importance and significance as without their help, I
would have not been able to complete the subject and become competent at French. On the other
hand, there were quite a few tasks which I found to be quite challenging while undertaking the
workshop exercise (Rowe, 2017). I found having to memorise the grammar, words and
vocabulary of the French language, which was completely alien to me to be quite challenging. I
also found the pronunciations and speaking of the language to be quite difficult as the French
language although sharing some similarities with English, ultimately the French language is
quite different and unique. I also found tasks within the workshop exercise which required
teamwork to be challenging as it required me to effectively communicate with others in French,
even with people who were incompetent in English to begin with.
The workshop exercise that required me to learn French highlighted to me many personal
and professional skills which are competent and adequate enough for me to learn French, but
also showcased to me the skills and attributes that I need to work upon in order to personally and
professionally develop myself in the future. I found that my personal skills such as motivation,
perseverance and determination were of immense importance and quite adequate as I was
effectively able to hang on with the course during challenging periods of having to learn French.
On the other hand, I realised that I was having challenges in memorising the grammar and
vocabulary of the French language because I was not practising using my learned grammar and
vocabulary enough to become competent and adequate at using these (Hopkinson, 2016). I also
realised that I need to improve upon my non verbal and visual forms of communication as I

faced immense challenges while having to communicate in French with members of my team,
some of whom were incompetent at being able to speak in English in the first place.
Addressing the prior inadequacies of my personal skills will inevitably result in my
personal and professional development as I would be able to make effective use of the French
language which I have learned in addition to my competency with the English language in order
to communicate effectively with a diverse group of people, many of whom might at least be
knowledgeable of either French or English language. Practising my French language is of
immense importance as this would make me competent at hearing, understanding, speaking and
conversing in the French language with others. I also need to work on my visual and non verbal
modes of communication as in the future I will surely encounter people who are not competent in
either French or English language (Schmidt, 2017). Working on my visual and non verbal
communication skills will also allow for me to converse with an even greater variety of people,
something which would definitely result in my personal development.
I can practise speaking French with my friends and peers who were part of the workshop
exercise themselves in order to increase my competency with using French. I can also take up
additional external communication classes which focus on improving my non verbal and visual
forms of communications. Doing so will inevitably result in my personal and professional
development.
Experiential Element
During the course of the workshop exercise, I was also required to undergo a professional
experience in order to provide professional evidence of what I had been able to learn from the
workshop exercise. For these purposes, I choose to engage with a professional mentor in order to
increase and develop my current competency and familiarity with listening, understanding and
speaking in the French language and to enhance my communication skills. This professional
experience was of immense significance and benefit towards my improvement with the French
language as although I was getting the hang of the French language in the workshop exercise,
engaging with a professional mentor who speaks and understands on a professional basis,
allowed me to evaluate and gauge just how much I still had left to improve in order to become as
competent in making use of the French language as I currently am with English language
(Farghaly and Abdelaziz, 2017). The professional mentor was instrumental to my development
as it was only through his guidance and adeptness at teaching French to others that I was able to

get a good understanding of the grammatical semantics of the French language which were
thoroughly lost on me during the workshop exercise. Gaining a deeper understanding of the
grammatical semantics of the French language better helped me towards understanding what
exactly was being said to me in French and also helped me better articulate my inner thoughts
and feelings to others through the French language. Hence, in my opinion, undergoing the
professional experience by engaging with a professional mentor was an immensely positive
learning experience for me which resulted in me enhancing my communication skills using the
French language and also contributed to my personal and professional development.
Workshop Activities Evidence
Undergoing the prior workshop exercise which was designed in order for me to be able to
effectively learn the French language was overall an immensely positive learning experience for
me and resulted in the my development both personally and professionally. I ended up learning
quite a bit about my skills, talent, aptitude and knowledge base while undergoing through the
French workshop exercise. From having to undergo the actual exercise of learning French, I
learned that I am a positive, optimistic, determined and motivated individual who does not run
away from challenging situations but instead chooses to persevere in order to gain the rewards of
the hardships later as is evidenced by me sticking through the memorising phase of having to
learn the French language (Swain, 2016). On the other hand, I also learned that though I may be
talented and skilled in various attributes, I still have a lot to learn and room to grow, as is
evidenced by my inadequacies with making use of non verbal and visual forms of
communication, even though my verbal and written communication skills may be excellent. I
also realised that even though now I have gotten some first hand experience at making use of
French language in order to effectively communicate with others, I still need to practise the
language on a regular basis, in order to become competent at using French like a professional.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of the report, it can be concluded that personal and professional
development of an individual is of immense importance and significance to their overall growth,
motivation and satisfaction. This report provides a personal reflection that is focused on
communication skills as they are the most important and significance personal quality of mine.
The report also includes valid and relevant supporting evidence in the form of value added
element, experiential element and workshop activities evidence.

REFERENCES
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