Reflective Report on Communication, Negotiation and Influencing Skills

This report is a reflective analysis of a student's experience in developing communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, focusing on a module titled "Personal and Professional Skills for Management." The student utilizes Gibbs' reflective cycle to examine experiences in group work and professional settings, covering description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plans. The report details the learning process, including verbal and nonverbal communication, negotiation strategies, and the impact of leadership roles. It highlights challenges such as weak problem-solving skills and the importance of effective communication in the workplace. The student concludes by emphasizing the necessity of strong communication skills for personal and professional growth and outlines an action plan to improve these skills through practice, workshops, and seminars. The report underscores the importance of self-reflection for continuous improvement and career advancement.

Art of Communication
Developing Negotiation and
Influencing Skills
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Step 1: Description.................................................................................................................3
Step 2: Feeling........................................................................................................................4
Step 3: Evaluation...................................................................................................................5
Step 4: Analysis......................................................................................................................5
Step 5: Conclusion..................................................................................................................6
Step 6: Action plan.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Effective communication skills are very much necessary in personal and professional life of
an individual. It helps in leading the individual towards growth and success. Effective
communication is important to negotiation and relating to distinct human behaviours. The
listening ability, asking right questions at appropriate time as well as come across with
credibility and confidence is crucial part of subtle combination of skills required to success in
complex world. This is a reflective report in which I provide reflection on my own experience of
group work during taught session and during performing my responsibility in organisation.
Gibbs reflective model is used for reflecting on my experience which help me in examining
experiences and enable me to learn and plan things to improve my abilities and skills.
MAIN BODY
Reflective practice is referred as the deliberate and critical enquiry into professional practice
to gain deep understanding of oneself, others as well as meaning which is shared among
individuals. Reflecting on own experience provides insights about the learnings and the
knowledge which I have gain during undertaking the module. In providing reflection, I make use
of Gibbs reflective cycle which was propounded by Graham Gibbs in year 1988 in order to
provide structure the learning from experiences. This model consists of six stages including
description, feeling, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. Each of these stage in
context of my experience and learning during module and professional settings are discussed
below:
Step 1: Description
I am a student and taking the module "personal and professional skills for management".
During the module I learnt many things like learning outcomes, reflective writing, art of
communication, negotiation skills and influencing skills. I learnt about the significance of
communication skills in personal and professional growth. Communication is referred as
transferring information from one person to another either in verbal or nonverbal form. In verbal
communication, the information is shared through speech or words. On the other hand, nonverbal
communication is a way to communicate information without written words. I learnt that by
using facial expressions, body language, gestures and eye contact, I can communicate
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nonverbally with others. In the classroom, my tutor conducted some interesting activities which
helped me a lot in developing proper understanding regarding the communication. I learnt that
communication is very significant skill and is important for getting success in many life aspects.
Apart from this, I also learnt about negotiation skills from my tutor. I learnt that negotiation is a
strategic way to resolve an issue in an acceptable way in which both the parties get satisfied. I
learnt about the way to reach success by negotiating and being ready to accept compromise. My
tutor taught me about two types of negotiation including integrative (when both parties win) and
distributive (when one party won and other lose). During undertaking the module, I am provided
with an activity where I had opportunity being team leader which help me in learning about how
significant negotiation skill is for personal and professional development.
Step 2: Feeling
There are so many topics which I have learned about in the module. In the starting, I felt
curious to learn more about the subject, but little stressed also. when my tutor provided me with
the class activity, I felt stressed and nervous about how I finish the activity on time. But, my
tutor and other team mates helped me a lot in finishing the activity on time and I was happy that I
was able to understand the subject area properly. I learnt about the significance of
communication and negotiation skills along with influential skills in growth and development of
an individual. When I was provided with the opportunity to be a team leader, I felt proud even
though my group was not winner in the activity, I learnt many things from it. By doing that
activity, I learned about the tips which helped me a lot to negotiate in better way. The influential
skills like leadership help mean influencing to people more appropriately so that goals and
objectives of the academic as well as professional career can be accomplish. Apart from this, my
problem solving skill was not good due to which I felt disgust, sad and fear. My classmates were
making fun of me due to which I started to felt depressed. However, after sometime, my
confidence level was improved and I learnt about problem solving skills which help me in
resolving the small issues in appropriate way during academic tenure.
Apart from this, my senior management in the workplace provided me with the
responsibility to communicate some crucial information to all the employees within the
organisation. But, due to weak communication skills and lack of confidence, I was not able to
interact with other people in more effective way and this leads to miscommunication among the
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employees and various difficulties were created. However, my senior management was very
helpful and helped me in overcoming the difficulties which I faced during interacting with
employees and make me able to convey all the information appropriately.
Step 3: Evaluation
The overall experience of undertaking the module was very good and there are many
things which I was able to learnt from the module. The activity assigned by my tutor to me and
my group members was completed on time which motivated me and improved my confidence
level to perform the other activities in more appropriate way. Apart from this, I was provided
with the opportunity to be a leader of a team, I felt happy and I learn about how to influence
people and guide them to work effectively towards accomplishment of goals. Apart from this, I
learnt that communication skills are very much important in academic and professional life as it
helps in interacting with others in an effective manner. This also helps in conveying all the
information clearly and transparently to other team members. This helped me in presenting my
view points in front of others more effectively and completing my all the activities on time.
Everything was going well in the overall experience of undertaking module however, the thing
which do not went well during the module is my lack of problem solving skills due to which I
faced difficulties and felt depressed at that point of time. However, later on I worked upon it,
which helped me in resolving the issues properly. This in turn improves my morale and
confidence level which helped me a lot in performing well in the class.
Step 4: Analysis
From the overall experience which I get by undertaking the module, I think that even
though I have not learned everything, but I learnt many things from the module. And I thought
that I should learn more for which I have to practice more. I I felt that I need to work more upon
my communication skills for which I think exercise and practice will assist me a lot. The
learning which I got from the overall module helped me a lot and support me in improving my
skills and knowledge. I felt that what I have learned by undertaking this module definitely help
me in future and make me able to enhance my skills more so that I will be able to perform much
better in my academic years as well as in my professional life. Apart from the communication
and negotiation skills, I have to learn more about the other skills which help in managing the
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things properly like organising skills, leadership skills etc. All these skills will help me in grow
and develop professionally and attain good position in the organisation in future.
Step 5: Conclusion
From the overall discussion, evaluation and analysis of learning and experience, it can be
concluded that communication skills are very much necessary academic, personal as well as
professional life and an individual must have good communication skills in order to grow and
succeed in his or her career. I think that it is very important for me to work upon my
communication skills as my communication skills are still weak which may hinder my personal
development as well as my ability to learn more. Apart from this, the learning which I get from
undertaking the module is very important for my future career growth it will also help me in
some other situations and handling situations properly. As a student or a professional, it is very
much important for me to note down the important points and things as this will help in doing the
things in more proper and organised way. My negotiation skills are average and I was able to
negotiate on small issues. But, I still have to work upon my negotiation skills so that I can
negotiate better in future and handle all the situations in much proper and effective manner.
Step 6: Action plan
As my communication skills are weak, I need to work upon it so in order to improve my
communication skills, I will practice more and start interacting more with others. Apart from
this, I will also take some communication classes some professionals and attend seminar and
workshops which will conduct on communication so as to improve these skills in an appropriate
manner. This will help me in interacting with others effectively and make me able to to present
my opinions and viewpoints clearly to others. In addition to this, as communication skill is very
much important in today's competitive environment, improving the skill will help me in my
future career growth and development. On the other hand, my negotiation skill was also average
and I also have to work upon my negotiation skills in order to improve them. So, for improving
the skill, I will practice to develop negotiating skills. I also considered the viewpoint and
limitations of other party. I will listen to both the parties properly and consider all the possible
alternatives which help in resolving the issue and negotiate in more proper way. Moreover, my
problem solving skills are also week and I need to work upon this skill also. For improving my
problem solving skills, I will observe my seniors while solving the issues and assess the way in
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which they resolve a particular issue. This will help me in improving my problem solving skills.
Improving all these skills will help me in my future career growth and development.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that it is very much effective for
an individual to reflect upon own experience and learning from the particular event and situation.
This determine the weak and strong areas in the areas on which an individual required to work
upon. In addition to this, also help in taking appropriate actions which support in improving the
practice and learning and also help in future career growth and development. Gibbs reflective
cycle help in structuring the overall reflection in systematic way. With the help of Gibbs cycle
reflection, an individual is able to perform the reflection appropriately and presenting the overall
reflection in structured manner.
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References
Books and Journals
Gibson, A., Aitken, A., Sándor, Á., Buckingham Shum, S., Tsingos-Lucas, C. and Knight, S.,
2017, March. Reflective writing analytics for actionable feedback. In Proceedings of the
seventh international learning analytics & knowledge conference (pp. 153-162).
Cheng, M.W. and Chan, C.K., 2019. An experimental test: Using rubrics for reflective writing to
develop reflection. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 61, pp.176-182.
Williams, K., Woolliams, M. and Spiro, J., 2020. Reflective writing. Red Globe Press.
Sweet, L., Bass, J., Sidebotham, M., Fenwick, J. and Graham, K., 2019. Developing reflective
capacities in midwifery students: Enhancing learning through reflective writing. Women
and Birth, 32(2), pp.119-126.
Dressler, R., Becker, S., Kawalilak, C. and Arthur, N., 2018. The cross-cultural reflective model
for post-sojourn debriefing. Reflective Practice, 19(4), pp.490-504.
Sasidharan, A., 2018. Executing reflective writing in an EAP context using Edmodo. The English
Teacher, (2), p.13.
Leigh, J., 2016. An embodied perspective on judgements of written reflective practice for
professional development in Higher Education. Reflective Practice, 17(1), pp.72-85.
Burgoyne, M.B. and Chuppa-Cornell, K., 2018. ‘If I tried this idea again: developing faculty
professional growth through reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 19(6), pp.818-831.
Sicora, A., 2017. Reflective practice, risk and mistakes in social work. Journal of Social Work
Practice, 31(4), pp.491-502.
Gibbs, P., Cartney, P., Wilkinson, K., Parkinson, J., Cunningham, S., James-Reynolds, C.,
Zoubir, T., Brown, V., Barter, P., Sumner, P. and MacDonald, A., 2017. Literature
review on the use of action research in higher education. Educational Action
Research, 25(1), pp.3-22.
Young, A., 2020. Should we grade reflective writing?. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 96(1132),
pp.110-110.
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