Personal and Professional Skills for Management Reflective Essay

This reflective essay focuses on personal and professional skills for management, including effective communication, negotiation, and influencing skills. It also discusses the impact of poor communication on employees and ways to improve negotiation and influencing skills.

Personal and Professional
skills for management -
Reflective Essay
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Table of content Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body ......................................................................................................................................3
Understanding of effective communication.................................................................................3
Knowledge and understanding of effective negotiation and influencing skills...........................4
Demonstration of understanding the effect of poor communication upon employees................5
Ways to improve negotiation and influencing skills....................................................................6
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Personal and professional management is basically referred to the ability of a person
to control the feelings, thoughts and actions of an individual. These skills help in setting
up of independent goals for which further actions are taken with the purpose to
accomplish them. In the long run, Personal management skills help in directing the
career of the individual. The report focuses upon a reflection that revolves around the
understanding of effective communication (Brundiers and Wiek, 2017).
Main Body
Understanding of effective communication
I have developed an understanding in aspect of the effective communication that
communication is an important aspect in terms of corporate success. Hence it is very
important to have good communication skills that will facilitate a healthy communication
among individuals. As far as I have learned, communication skills have been the need
of the hour and hence the recruiters have been looking for the candidates that have
efficient communication skills to pass on the information, negotiate and deal with the
customers with utmost confidence. The various attributes that are looked upon by the
organisations are efficient listening skills, speaking skills as well as putting others at
ease (Dolce and et.al., 2020).
The various requirements for an effective communication that I have learned so far are
that the message that is being passed on must be clear, complete, concise, courteous,
concrete and correct. There are various communication skills that are important to be
developed. In my knowledge, various communication skills are emotional intelligence,
cohesion, clarity, friendliness, confidence, empathy, respect, open mindedness, tone of
voice, etc. These skills together comprise of an effective communication. Effective
communication has its various pros and thus is a necessity in every stream,
organisation and industry (Tan and Laswad, 2018).
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Knowledge and understanding of effective negotiation and influencing skills
In my views, Negotiation and influencing skills are a result of an effective
communication and hold a great significance in the present scenario. In regards to my
learning experiences Effective negotiation is referred to a process wherein two or more
parties who have different needs and goals and they tend to discuss an issue in order to
find a mutually acceptable solution. I have used my negotiation skills while settling the
argument with my colleague. The negotiation skills are of huge importance in the
informal as well as formal transactions like negotiation of sales, lease, service delivery
as well as other legal contracts (Nair and Fahimirad, 2019). Influential skills are referred
as an ability of bringing people around the way a person thinks. I have used influentioal
skills for motivating my friends for participating in an event.
In my views, a good negotiation is the one that helps in building better relationships,
that helps in delivering a lasting as well as quality solution rather than the
unsatisfactory and short-term solutions that do not meet with the requirements of any
of the organisations. A good and ideal negotiation also helps in avoiding problems
and conflicts that have tendency to occur in future. I believe Negotiation is based
upon the concept of give and take wherein on individual is required to have a
courteous as well as a constructive interaction that result in a win-win situation for
both the parties. I will focus upon an approach of negotiation and influencing that will
foster the goodwill of my organisation despite the differences in the interests of the
party.
In my perspective, negotiation and influencing skills are equally important and hence
the organisations look towards employees that have efficient negotiation skills in order
to tackle with the various situations. Negotiation and influencing are equally important
as an organisation is required to negotiate with its employees regarding the salary and
further the negotiation takes place with the suppliers too. Further, influencing skills also
have a major role to play in an organisation as the employer has a major role to play in
influencing and convincing an employee to work towards a specific goal or task with
utmost efficiency and efforts. The influencing and negotiation skills are quite easy to be
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attained and individuals can look upon development of negotiation and influencing skills.
Hence, from the above discussion I conclude that negotiation skills and influencing skills
are very significant to accomplish a pre-determined goal and objective of an
organisation (Plato, 2018).
Demonstration of understanding the effect of poor communication upon employees
In my views, it is very important for an organisation to have an effective
communication. Poor communication is referred to the discrepancy between the
message that is encoded and decoding of the message. It has been observed that poor
communication can lead to dissatisfaction among the employees of the organisation as
well as leave them feel stressed and disengaged. The various examples that prove that
effective communication is quite important have been discussed below.
Incomplete answers- I have noticed that a problem that is being identified because of
poor communication is incomplete answers. Due to incomplete answers, the individuals
might face a situation where in their answers are not addressed properly and this may
lead to a lot of confusion and hence this might lead to time wastage and follow ups. In
order to get rid of this, it is important that an individual takes ample time to answer the
various questions so that the message that is delivered is complete. Further, the
message can be reviewed before sending that all the points are answered in order to
avoid confusion and stress (Suarta And et.al., 2018).
 Failing to edit- I believe that there is also a probability that a person can
misinterpret my tone or a typo that can also lead to a message to be constructed
in a wrong manner. Hence, it is very important for an individual to decide in
advance regarding the topics that need to be communicated and a proper review
of mail should be done before they are being sent to avoid misunderstanding.
These misunderstandings can often lead to stress among the employees as well.
 Choosing the right format- I believe that just because an organisation uses a
same method of communication every time, does not mean it can be assumed as
the most effective method in every scenario. An organisation can look upon
various alternatives in order to transmit the information through emails. In my
perspective, an organisation can focus upon understanding the emails or group
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chats are fine for interactions but there are various instincts where the
communication can be accomplished through the medium of phone calls. Hence
the organisation must focus upon the right format for communication in the
organisation in order to avoid confusion and stress (Podolchak, Prokopyshyn-
Rashkevych and Karkovska, 2019).
Ways to improve negotiation and influencing skills
I can recall various ways that lead to enhancement of negotiation and influencing
skills which are important in order to encourage the team members and consumers and
further facilitate engagement in order to take a positive action. I have explained various
benefits of improving negotiation and influencing skills below .
 Skills help in negotiating for long term success- I feel that negotiation skills
prove to be important when it comes to the discussion of the starting salary and
the benefits. The negotiation skills will prove to be really successful for me when I
try to gain the tools in order to grow and thrive in the future. The various tools
that I refer in the prior statement are basically a strong support staff that will be
provided by the organisation along with the required amount of training as well as
a job title that is necessary in order to establish and accomplish a career goal as
an individual (Ramisetty and Desai, 2017).
 Negotiation of role- The negotiation skills are equally important when the
individual is appointed few roles or responsibilities to be performed in the
organisation. The negotiation skills are actually a part of formal exchanges of
contracts that we, as an employee engage in with various clients of the
organisation and on their behalf. An example of negotiating at a work place can
be considered when an employee asks his superior to provide him with additional
resources in order to succeed in a particular project or may be to negotiate
through a disagreement that has occurred with a co-worker. Most of the times,
we overlook the benefits of a successful negotiation as we are not aware of the
various consequences or situations that are possible. I believe that in some
circumstances, there can be a situation where our superior is not interested or
appears to have incentives in order to negotiate and may further leave it up to us
or the employees to initiate conversations regarding the negotiation. Hence, it is
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very important for us to educate our self about the various parameters of the
negotiation process while gathering the information from various sources. The
various sources include the various networks of contacts that may be formed
inside as well as outside the organisation (Rimmer, 2019).
 Makes value of an individual visible- In my views, it is very important for an
individual to motivate other parties to negotiate with us that will help in
establishing our own value. For example, the superior of the organisation (For
instance, a manager) can be reminded about the huge contract that was brought
in by our team. Hence this will lead to a conversation regarding the rise in pay.
This is how it is very important to have influencing and negotiation skills to have
the various benefits from the organisation. In order to negotiate with the
employer regarding the compensation requires effective communication as well
as negotiation skills.
 Negotiation of success of the deal- The negotiation skill has an another benefit
when we have to convince stakeholders towards our organisation to get into an
agreement, sign off/on or implement a deal that can be beneficial for the
organisation. These stakeholders are mostly of the finance division, general
council, or the product development office. Hence, the negotiation skills are
important, and the successful implementation requires few steps wherein the
interest areas of stakeholders are identified then the negotiation is done on
behalf of the organisation and further those negotiations are preserved (Rubens
and et.al., 2018).
Conclusion
A conclusion can be made that personal and professional development is of huge
significance for an individual. The report is basically a reflection that focuses upon the
understanding of effective communication. I have analyses various components and
requirement of effective communication along with its importance in the life of an
individual. I have also highlighted the concept of influencing skills and negotiation skills.
The reflection report comprises of various examples that explain the effectiveness of the
negotiation skills. Also, I have highlighted various issues that might arise in an
organisation due to the inefficient communication at a work place.
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Follow the guideline below and correct your paper to follow the guideline
Definitions and examples – communication
What is the importance of:
 effective communication – define it and give examples telling the advantages
and disadvantages of one over the other.
 poor communication affects day to day service delivery and employees
performance
 How does it cause employees to feel unsatisfied, stressed, and disengaged.
1. Why is it important to improve your negotiation and influencing skills to
encourage team members and consumers to engage and positively take action.
 List negotiation skills
 Importance of engaging team members.
 Link this to you own experience and do not just explain and define
Referencing and citation.
 Cite work that you use from other writers and authors when you use them in your
work.
 Every work that you cite should appear in your reference section. The
referencing style used should be the standard Harvard style.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brundiers, K. and Wiek, A., 2017. Beyond interpersonal competence: Teaching and
learning professional skills in sustainability. Education Sciences, 7(1), p.39.
Dolce, V. and et.al., 2020. The soft skills of accounting graduates: perceptions versus
expectations. Accounting Education, 29(1), pp.57-76.
Nair, P.K. And Fahimirad, M., 2019. A Qualitative Research Study on the Importance
of Life Skills on Undergraduate Students' Personal and Social
Competencies. International Journal of Higher Education, 8(5), pp.71-83.
Plato, K., 2018. Personal and professional skills: something they do teach you at
university. In The Interdisciplinary Future of Engineering Education (pp. 113-132).
Routledge.
Podolchak, N.Y., Prokopyshyn-Rashkevych, L.M. And Karkovska, V.Y., 2019. THE
INFLUENCE OF COACHING ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGER’S
LEADERSHIP SKILLS. Scientific Bulletin of National Mining University, (4).
Ramisetty, J. and Desai, K., 2017. Measurement of Employability Skills and Job
Readiness Perception of Post–graduate Management students: Results from A
Pilot Study. International Journal in Management & Social Science, 5(8), pp.82-94.
Rimmer, A., 2019. How do I improve my time management skills?. BMJ, 366.
Rubens, A. and et.al., 2018. Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual
strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course. The
International Journal of Management Education, 16(1), pp.1-13.
Suarta, I.M. And et.al., 2018. Employability skills for entry level workers: a content
analysis of job advertisements in Indonesia. Journal of Technical Education and
Training, 10(2).
Tan, L.M. And Laswad, F., 2018. Professional skills required of accountants: what do
job advertisements tell us?. Accounting Education, 27(4), pp.403-432.
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