Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills [A Reflective Writing]

This reflective writing is aimed at delivering self-reflection on a residential trip which helped to identify the weaknesses and the future needs to improve personal and professional skills such as communication, cooperation, teamwork, and leadership behavior.

Running head: A REFLECTIVE WRITING
Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills
[A Reflective Writing]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1A REFLECTIVE WRITING
Looking back on a trip and constructing a reflective writing on the experiences gained are
the good ways to enhance the learning capability and the knowledge base. Such works help to
pile up a lot of information which is very difficult to figure out while during the project (Shum et
al. 2016). It is of no doubt and I being a part of the residential trip have also understood that
reflective writing must be made a part of life. It should not be kept limited with tours only but
must also cover each and everything the one is associated with. Notably, it is difficult to predict
about a part of life which could potentially become a path guider to the career (Gustafsson, Swart
and Kinnie 2018). This study is aimed at delivering my self-reflection on a residential trip which
I had a few days back. I am concerned with this writing because I feel that I will be able to gather
a lot more information by reflecting back on the recent trip.
During the trip, we had done a lot of things and had a lot of fun as well. The tour had
lasted for three days and we were busy doing a lot of activities & games also. The games and
activities were not just entertaining but when I look on that in now, I find it educating as well.
During such activities and games, I had a lot of things to learn from. The trip was truly an
educative one for me and I had never realised that I will be able to learn that much thing at this
stage of my life. Today, reflecting back on the event I am able to make this point that the trip was
a much-needed thing for me. I had no such realisation when I was on the tour. However, the
reflective writing has helped me to figure out such things and extract out a few important
findings as well.
I will use “The Gibbs Reflective Cycle” to proceed with this study. The model is truly
very effective and I have also found this helpful in crafting a reflective piece of writing. The
model enables to make a stage wise coverage of an event or a tour that has happened in past.
Moreover, through its different stages the model takes to the action plan where one can plan for

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their personal and professional skills’ development (Allan and Driscoll 2014). The first stage in
the Gibbs cycle is about describing the experiences and collecting a fair bit of information from
it (Pianpeng and Koraneekij 2016). The information collected thereof will help to realise whether
the experiences have just the good things about it or there is something to learn from it as well.
Although, I did a lot of activities and participated in a lot of games as well still the boat ride
experience for me is the one activity which according to me is full of informative things. We
were a group of 11 members as a whole. We decided to get divided into two groups with each
comprised of 5-6 members in it. We were being asked to reach the destination within the given
time. The biggest challenge at that time was working as a unit or a team. On reflecting back to
that particular event, I find that we struggled to perform as a team.
The Gibbs cycle has helped me to figure out a few points which probably have caused us
to suffer during the boat ride. Therefore, the boat ride was full of issues such as communication,
behaviour, cooperation and the time management. I personally struggled to appropriately
communicate with my team. At that point in time, I had no idea of how to manage a team clash.
It took a long time for us to decide about how we will manage the rides. Few had other plans and
strategies whereas I had the mines. There were quite a few dissimilarities between thoughts
which were one of the reasons that delayed our ride and we reached late to the destination.
Differences in thoughts are actually the good things as it produces a pile of diverse strategies and
opens up also the several ways for just one task. However, I like others were not aware of how to
utilise the diverse thoughts and produce the positive outcomes. The Gibbs reflective cycle had
indeed helped me to figure out the mistake which I did during the ride. I have collected a few
issues which have caused the ride to suffer. Those few issues were the ineffective

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communication, mismanagement of time, lack of cooperation and the unaccepted behaviour
(Chang 2015).
The second stage of Gibbs cycle has helped me to figure out the weaknesses which were
revealed during my residential trip. Moreover, I did realise the urgency to put me into the
personal and professional skills’ development. At this moment while crafting a reflective writing,
I am finding myself helpless as I have a lot of weaknesses in me and have no such clues about
how to improve those areas. Although I have identified a few issues that really affected my
participation in the group, I still need to identify the exact areas for improvement. At this point in
time, the Gibbs reflective cycle is helpful again. Evaluation is the third stage in the reflective
cycle and is really very helpful to collect a few useful information or data (Bassot 2015). The
stage has helped me to evaluate the entire experience of the boat ride. Moreover, we got delayed
in reaching the destination because we had met with a number of issues. We failed to deliver as a
team in decision making and had also lacked in effectively communicating the plans. We also
faced challenges in the decision making. After so many conflicts of thoughts, we had finally
landed on the decision that we will head to the destination in two different boats. However, the
decision making took a long time indeed. The incident has helped me realise that I personally
need to improve in certain areas such as communication, teamwork, behaviour and cooperating
work.
I have found the reflective cycle as immensely helpful as it just did not help me in
evaluating the experiences but also to make an analysis of the same. Had I been good at
communication, I could have effectively managed the conflicts. This is one of the leadership
skills which are a must for the ever-growing skill based competitions at the workplace. An
effective communication is needed to effectively communicate with managers. This is also

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required to lead a team effectively (Joia and Mangia 2017). My inefficiency to work as a team
had caused me to suffer. I missed the opportunity to encourage others as I did not know the
importance of teamwork at that point in time. Behaviour is another very important skill which
the analysis section of the reflective cycle has helped me to understand. Behaving like a leader
can make the difference as a leader is well equipped with the set of skills needed to effectively
manage a team. Moreover, I can figure out that I am needed to work extensively on improving
myself to become an effective leader. A cooperative work is the last thing which I could figure
out from my experience of the residential tour. A team is all about the cooperation of diverse
skills which are required to commence the diverse activities of a project (Wilbur et al. 2017).
The Gibbs cycle has helped me to identify and analyse also that I must work upon to improve my
skills to cooperate effectively with others. My professional career will get a lot of such
opportunities where I will be asked to work with teams. At that time, the ability to effectively
cooperate with others will only help me. I find myself as being blessed to be a part of such a trip.
I had no such ideas before regarding the skills which are vital for a bright professional career.
Thankfully, the residential trip and the opportunity to construct a reflective writing have both
helped me to reach closer to such things.
The fifth stage of the Gibbs cycle is about constructing the conclusive section so as to
identify the future needs and to appropriately plan the actions to accomplish such needs. The
reflective cycle was so helpful and path guiding to me as well that I was able to figure out my
future needs. Hence, I need to undergo the personal and professional development plans to
improve my skills in some chosen areas such as communication, cooperation, teamwork and the
leadership behaviour. The boat ride had produced a lot of issues that I was never aware of. Prior
to that ride, I was quite confident in my professional skills and had thought that I would easily

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manage the trip. However, the trip has actually made me realise that I was only over-confidence.
The over-confidence in me just clashed with numerous issues which ultimately affected the
entire trip. We all could not enjoy the boat ride and had actually failed to leverage the
opportunities. I personally failed to deliver as a leader. Now, I have a challenging task ahead to
improve my professional career by effectively working on the identified weaknesses in me.
The reflective writing on my experiences of the residential trip has happened when I
started thinking of my overall experience. We had lived there for three days and were involved in
the number of activities & the games. However, the one experience which largely drew my
attention towards was the boat riding. It remained an unforgettable experience for me and others
in the group as well. I personally can never forget the ride as initially what was looking for an
easy and entertaining task had ultimately turned into the number of challenges. The incident
contains a pile of learning resources for me. When we were to start the trip, I was very confident
of reaching to the destination earlier than the other group. However, we all reached late to the
destination and could not enjoy the ride as well. The challenges that we faced all along the ride is
a never forgetting experience to me. We even clashed on unnecessary things such as the decision
making for groups and the ways to tackle the entire trip. The ride has made me realised that I am
not very capable of dealing with a team; I am rather a person who is deniable to unexpected
challenges. The fear in me to speak up and come up with new ideas is a serious issue. Notably,
the hesitancy to speak up in groups can potentially give place to a communication gap and can
also prevent the exploration of new ideas (Venkatesh et al. 2014).
The incident had enough of learning lessons for me. According to Ngang and Chan
(2015), a person can undergo a series of alteration at the different stages of life. Life while being
an adolescent is full of learning phases such as at homes or at schools. In the likewise manner,

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the life of a university graduate is full of opportunities where one can learn a diverse range of
things. It just requires a sincere effort and an ability to understand the skill-based needs
(Cunningham and Villaseñor 2014). My life is also very similar to what has been spoken about.
Prior to this trip, I found myself good at various things such as the ability to effectively
accomplish the project, lead from the front, ability to communicate effectively, capability to
manage the challenges and others. However, on looking back to the trip with the help of the
Gibbs cycle, I am now a totally different person. I actually have some serious weaknesses in me
which can affect my career also. I, as one of the members of groups, had failed to maintain an
effective bonding between groups. I could not also cooperate effectively with my peers. I failed
to support and establish an effective communication between groups. This is indeed a problem as
opined by (Usman and Tasmin 2015) that leaders who listen to their peers are more certain to get
a number of suggestions. It is all about creating an environment where suggestions and ideas
pour in from various corners.
In future, if I get an opportunity to work in a group or trip to a certain place, I would
rather approach the entire proceeding in a different way. I would rather be confident this time of
exploring the different leadership skills such as communicating effectively with peers, forming a
strong team bonding and showing an utmost participation in the decision making. As opined by
Masalimova and Barinova (2016), one being creative in thinking can achieve and do anything in
his or her life. It was also said that one seeking a help from the universe will certainly get this. I
just need to work hard on improving the areas of improvement. In course of the action, books on
different subjects such as emotional intelligence, professional skills’ development and others can
prove to be the effective path guiders (De los Ríos-Carmenado, Lopez and Garcia 2015). Such
books will help me to learn a lot about the skills which are vital for a good work life. According

7A REFLECTIVE WRITING
to Ma, Xin and Du (2018), development of professional skills is a long-term process and is
affected by different experiences at the various stages in life. Experiences can be both good and
bad depending on the circumstances; however, both of the experiences should be remembered
forever. Good experiences will show the professional and personal skills one has. On the other
hand, bad experiences will teach the ways to follow to become a skilled professional (Hoffses et
al. 2016). Good experiences will allow us the moments to feel good about the achievements
whereas bad experiences will motivate to perform even better in future.
In summary, this can be said that it is pretty important to consider each and every stage in
life as a learning period. In fact, learning is not just limited to homes and the educational
institutions only; it is rather extended till the end of life. The learning goes on with successive
experiences at the different circumstances. One such circumstance are working in groups. One is
expected to work in teams at their different stages in a professional career. Working as a member
of a team is never an easy task to handle. It is full of challenges that can be seen in different
forms such as the poor team work, ineffective team bonding, incapable of communication
between team members and lack of innovation into the team. Despite all such circumstances and
the challenges as well, it is important that one is able to identify both their strengths and the
weaknesses also. I feel fortunate enough for a fact that I recalled the entire residential trip and
used the Gibbs Reflective Cycle to identify the areas of improvement in me.

8A REFLECTIVE WRITING
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