Preparing for Success: Self Development and Responsibility

This document discusses the importance of self development and responsibility in achieving success. It includes a reflective statement, areas for further development, and an action plan to improve communication skills, problem solving skills, team working skills, presentation skills, and feedback skills.

Preparing for Success: Self
Development and
Responsibility

Contents
Task 1: Reflective Statement...........................................................................................................1
Task 2: Elaboration of Areas for Further Development..................................................................3
Task 3: Action Plan.........................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

Task 1: Reflective Statement
This project is developed to reflect against the experience which has been gained first
developing and presenting the group work for the module of Preparing for success. This project
is divided into three sections, the first section is a reflective statement that will include the
learning and experiences gained from the module. The second and third section of this project
are for areas which are considered to be improved along with an action plan. The reflective
statement has been developed as follows:
When I was given a task of working in a team, I was nervous as working alone is way too
different than working in a team. There were lot of questions in my mind regarding my team
mates, work distribution and more but now, as the task has been completed, I can effectively
reflect that I have learned a lot from my experience of presenting my work for Preparing for
success module. As a team member, I was given various activities including developing a
personal development plan. The most important skill which I learned by fulfilling my
responsibilities as a team member was presentation skills and team working. I was assigned to
certain activities for the group presentation and for that me and my team worked together. By
working together, I learned that it is important to give importance to every thought by every team
member. I even realised the importance of time management skills and communication skills as
these skills helped me to effectively do my part for the presentation.
My main role in the group presentation was to develop a development plan along with
identifying the goals that can make a student better. This goal setting task was not new for me as
being a student, I know what importance does goals carry in a student's life. By using my
information in this field, I made sure that I will provide and present some new information that
can add value in the presentation. Along with including skills and capabilities in goals, I even
included few realistic abilities which were compassion and helpful. I added in our presentation
that it is important for a student to set a goal for themselves to be compassionate and flexible
towards fellow students that can help them in gaining team building ability.
While working for the group presentation, there were several elements that I consider to
be important and interesting but the most interesting of all was the opportunity to conduct self
analysis. By working in the team, I realised that I can get to know my potential and shortcomings
and can analyse or list out all my strengths and weaknesses. This element of interest is of great
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importance as I used my strengths to make them even better in my personality and I use my
weakness to know the cause behind them so that I can evade or at least minimise my weaknesses.
Another interesting element of working for the group presentation was to build up my
communication skills without actually taking any professional help. Our group presentation
effectively divided all the work between all the team members but there were several instances
where we have communicated thoroughly. This communication and team meeting were quite
interesting as we were communicating without even realising that how it is contributing to
develop our communication skills.
There was numerous new information which I gained from preparing from success
module that includes modes of interaction and an effective way to learning such as deep learning.
Being a student, I might use this new information to communicate with my fellow students and
understand the concepts in my modules through deep learning. This new information has helped
me to understand that mere reading cannot result in learning and there are certain set of learning
that results in deep learning by which a student cannot only learn the concepts for a specific
period but can apply those concepts and then can gain a life long learning of those concepts.
Working in a team is way harder than working alone but it is also effective. While
working with my team, the most influential confusion which I experienced was how to share my
thoughts, ideas and relevant knowledge with my team mates. Each of us was given a specific
task to complete but I was confused that what if I had ideas for the work of my team mates, was I
allowed to share my thoughts my thoughts or not and if yes, then to which team member I should
present my ideas. The hierarchy of working under a team was something that I did not fully
understand.
In order to evade my confusion and contribute my best, I communicated with my team
leader. At the time of group formation, we even elected group leader who was responsible for all
conflict resolutions and coordination. I conveyed my thoughts to the team leader and our team
leader arranged a special meeting that was dedicated to share our ideas for the presentation. We
even listed all our ideas and the selected those specific ideas which we feel can actually result in
better performance of our group.
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Task 2: Elaboration of Areas for Further Development
By considering my rejection piece in task 1, there are various areas that i require to
develop in myself which will help me in my further development. The areas which I considered
to be improved on are elaborated below:
Communication skills – the skill to communicate effectively is the most effective skill for
a student in order to acquire success. By reflecting the module of Preparing for success, it has
been seen that I lack when it comes to appropriately communicate in front of huge number of
people. According to me, I am an excellent and effective student, whose abilities and capabilities
are suppressed due to the inability to appropriately communicate. This skill will not only help me
in achieving success as a student but will also help me in my professional development. Being
able to communicate effectively, is an essential skill which I intent to possess by using multiple
workshops and support of my peers and tutors (Tamir, 2020).
Problem solving – the skill of solving problems is an important skill for someone who
intend to be a leader. While reflecting to my work in the module of Preparing for success, I have
seen that there were instances where there were few problems in the team mates and I was not
able to resolve them and by that time I realised that I should build problem solving skills in me if
I intent to be a leader in professional world. This skill can provide me wider scope of being the
first choice of team leader as every team has a member who plays role of problem and conflict
resolver who has all the tricks and techniques to resolve the problems and come up with
interesting and creative solutions (Magolda, 2020).
Team working skills – This is another skill which I think I need to possess to be
successful as a student. There are various elements of a student, which makes the student
prepared to acquire success. I am aware that I already possess this skill and due to possession of
this skill only, I was able to effective get my work done for the module of Preparing for success,
but the mere possession of this skill was not enough, I needed to acquire an expertise in this skill
so that next time I could be the team leader of my group. This skill of effectively working in a
team will help me in future development (Loveland, 2017).
Presentation skills – the skill of effective present our ideas, thoughts and knowledge is
different than the skills which are already analysed above. This skill is similar to communication
skill but being an effective presenter means following of certain etiquette that are considered to
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be appropriate at conference halls. It is important for me to learn how to stand, speak and listen
at the time of presenting a presentation. This skill will help me to acquire success as a student
and as a professional as well (Daikou and Telfer, 2018).
Feedback skills – this skill is the most important skill that I intent to acquire as this skill
will help me to expand my scope of learning from my own mistakes. This skill includes the
ability of effective collect the feedback against my work from my peers and my tutors. This skill
will help me in developing an ability where I can listen and understand the criticism and channel
it into getting better student (Emmerson, 2019).
All the skills which are evaluated above are the areas which i intend to improve as
according to me these areas can help me in developing and preparing for success.
Task 3: Action Plan
An action plan is the set of actions which are intended to be implemented in order to
achieve the set target (McConnell, 2017). There are various areas analysed which are outlined in
task 2 and require further development (Epstein, 2018). In this action plan, a plan will be
developed that will help me in developing those evaluated areas:
Target Resources & how
target can be
measured
Global context
(with examples)
Professional
and/or personal
development
Time scale
To develop
communication
skills
This target can be
measured from
the positive
feedback received
from my tutors.
This skill will
help me in
develop a career
in sales and
marketing field
where I can
showcase my
effective
communication
skills and be able
to grab business
for my
This skill is
important for my
both professional
and personal
development as
communicating
effectively does
not only will
benefit me
professionally but
will also help me
in my personal
By using
workshops and
experiencing
communication at
large gatherings,
this skill can be
achieved by me in
3 months.
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organisation. prospects.
To effective
resolve problems
and conflicts
This target can be
measured by
effective
relationships of
me with my peers
and fellow
students.
By using this
skill, I can be an
effective human
resource manager
who is able to
resolve problems
and conflicts
between other
employees of the
organisation.
This skill is also
important for my
both personal and
professional
development.
This skill will not
only help me in
growing
professionally but
will also help in
improving my
relationships with
my fellow
students and
peers.
This skill will
require 2 months
to be developed.
To develop
feedback skills
This skill will be
measured by my
tutor as they can
tell me that my
modified work
possesses all the
feedback
elements will
were provided to
me.
In global
contexts, this skill
will help me to be
an effective
employee and
prior choice of
clients who
listens to all the
feedback that
client provides
and make
appropriate
amends.
This skill is
appropriate for
my professional
development.
4 months
To develop This skill can be This skill will Professional 6 months.
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presentation skills measured by the
feedback from my
peers and other
students
help me to
provide an
effective
presentation in
front of my
superiors in
professional
world.
To develop team
working skills
This particular
skill can be
measured by the
feedback of my
team mates who
will work with
me.
This skill will
help me in
gaining priority
over other
candidates as
every
organisation
demands a team
player who is able
to work with
other employees
of the
organisation.
This skill is
important for my
professional
development as
by learning this
skill, I can
understand the
significance of
sharing the ideas
and thoughts and
how sharing own
ideas in a team
can result in
overall
effectiveness for
the organisation.
The possession of
this skill is a
continuous
process due to
which this skill
will require
approximately 6
to 10 months to
be developed.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Daikou, S. and Telfer, S., 2018. Preparation for education and training–The professional role and
responsibilities of the Further Education teacher. Journal of Learning and Student
Experience, 1, p.8.
Emmerson, M., 2019. Communicating “Success” with Research Students: Institutional
Responsibilities in Encouraging a Culture of Research Higher Degree Completions.
In Traversing the Doctorate (pp. 57-73). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Epstein, J.L., 2018. School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and
improving schools. Routledge.
Loveland, T.R., 2017. Teaching personal skills in technology and engineering education: Is it our
job? It is every teacher's responsibility to prepare youth to be professional and ethical in
their future dealings in classrooms or the workplace. Technology and Engineering
Teacher, 76(7), p.15.
Magolda, M.B.B., 2020. Making their own way: Narratives for transforming higher education to
promote self-development. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
McConnell, C.R., 2017. Accepting leadership responsibility: preparing yourself to lead honestly,
humanely, and effectively. The Health Care Manager, 36(3), pp.247-260.
Tamir, E., 2020. Teacher Education in a New Age of Accountability: How Can Programs
Develop Responsible and Valuable Self-Assessment. The New Educator, pp.1-22.
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