Consultancy in Practice: Individual Report on Skills, Gaps and Plan

This individual report provides a reflection on a business consultancy project focused on human resources at LSST University. It details the skills developed and enhanced during the project, including research, problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. The report also identifies three key skill gaps: lack of knowledge in HR practices, leadership skills, and motivational skills. A personal development plan is outlined to address these gaps through specific actions and timelines. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and continuous skill improvement for professional growth. Desklib provides similar solved assignments.

Consultancy in Practice CW2 Individual Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
Which skills have you developed and/or enhanced as a result of the project?.......................1
What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start of the process?.............................2
To what extent has your level of confidence improved?........................................................2
How could you use your learning in your future career?.......................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................3
The three skill gaps.................................................................................................................3
Personal development plan.....................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business consultancy is the process of guiding and mentoring a business and its practices.
Business consultancy is the structured process in which an individual advice the business and its
members about the improvement and decision making related to the growth of business. The
individual reflection is the technique by which the person gains and insight of its actions and
reflect by addressing strengths, weaknesses and skills gaps (Mello, L.V. and Wattret, G., 2021).
The present report is the individual reflection on the process of business consultancy and also
contains and evaluation on the learning and skill development. The report will discuss the
identification of three skill gaps and action plan to improve or develop those areas for future.
MAIN BODY
Task 1
Which skills have you developed and/or enhanced as a result of the project?
The project was based on the business consultancy portfolio on human resource of the
LSST university. The University was facing the problem regarding the motivation and
recruitment of the talented candidates for the university. In order to solve this problem of client
through appropriate methods of research and through sampling I have develop and enhanced
some significant skills as a result of this project are discussed below:
Research skills: I have effectively developed research skills during the whole project. For
example, in the project I have done both secondary and primary search, developed questioner,
sampling etc. which helped in gaining the learning about research methods and techniques. As a
business consultant the research skills I have learned are very important for me in my future
growth.
Problem solving skills: as the project was all about the solving the issue of the motivation and
recruitment in the firm. To resolve this issue as a business consultant I have learned the effective
problem solving skills. The problem solving skill is basically a capability to brainstorm the
problem and its solution as quick as possible.
Critical thinking skills: In order to interpret the views of the manager as per the questionnaire
the critical thinking skills were required. Therefore, during the process of research I learned and
enhanced my critical thinking skills (Whiley and et. al., 2017).
Communication skills: As a business consultant the communication skills always remains as
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priority because to resolve any issue effective communication is must. Therefore, I enhanced my
both communication skills written and verbal. For example, in order to advice the business
owners regarding the new strategy in the business the effective communication is must to
influence and convince thus, through this project I have learned the effective communication
skills and strategies.
What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start of the process?
During the start of the project I was highly unaware of the research, their methods, process
of conducting research etc. This lack of knowledge of how to conduct a research was analysed as
the huge problem for me in the starting (Loomis and Felt, 2021). But later with the working on
the project I have effectively learned about the research methods and proper process of
conducting the research. In the starting of the project process I was also unaware of the fact that
how much important a human resource has become for an organisation in order to stay
competitive. But now I am well aware about the why organisations work on managing the human
resource effectively in order motivate them for higher performance. I have also gained the
knowledge regarding the HR recruitment in the Higher education as the project was all about the
project on human resource. In this I have understood that what challenges a HR manager has in
an organisation. Earlier, before starting the project I was didn’t knew about the importance of
time frame in completing a project as working on project I am familiar with the time
management.
To what extent has your level of confidence improved?
After, learning the above skills I have gained a huge level of confidence in mine as for the
business professional a good set of skills is the factor of competency. Most importantly the skills
that I have developed and enhanced has upgraded my other skills too which has increased my
confidence and also made me bit polished in my working (Ganni, Botden and et. al., 2018). For
example, after learning and experiencing the research and their methods I have added a new
research skill in my portfolio which has made confident to work with more efficiency. In the
early stage of the career and job as business consultant I was having a lack of confidence in my
own capabilities and skills that I own. But now after the practical implementation of my skills in
the solving the problem of the LSST I has gained the confidence.
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How could you use your learning in your future career?
The learning during the project is highly competent and useful for my future career. The
research skills that I have learned during the process and completion of the project will really
help me to do further research in different project at the workplace. The problem solving skills
developed by me are really helpful to me in gaining the advantage at the workplace in
completing my work effectively by mitigating the problem in the process of working. Thus, the
skills learned by me in the whole course of project completion will really help in my future
career to gain growth and think critically regarding the future career opportunities for gaining
new jobs.
Task 2
The three skill gaps
After the evaluation of the above task I have identified my skill gaps and areas that I must
enhance or improve in order to have future opportunities. The three major skill gaps that I have
during my project process on human resource are discussed below:
Lack of knowledge of HR practices and functions: As the project was based on the problem
related to the human resource for which it was very important to have knowledge of the subject.
But I realized that have to invest large amount of time in reading and understanding the different
HR strategies. This skills gap or incompetent in the particular resulted in delay of the work.
Lack of Leadership skills: The another skill gap I encountered during the project is lack of the
leadership skills. This skill is highly low in me due to which I unable to lead the team effectively.
In my future career growth this skills gap is really a barrier which also decrease the shine of my
other skills.
Motivational skills: As the project has the problem of motivating the employees of the LSST by
which I realized I also lack in motivating skills (Cottrell, 2017). The motivational skills are the
skills that help an individual to guide, direct and encourage other to work effetely in a team. For
my future to be brighter to work in a team motivational skills are very important in which
currently I lack.
Personal development plan
Skill gaps Actions to be taken Timescale
Leadership skills In order to improve my
leadership skills, I will take
5 months
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several actions that are:
Firstly, I learn about the
different leadership styles and
them work in the team as a
leader in order to improvise
those learning practically
during my team work. To
make this skill gap as my
strength I will learn about the
characteristics required to
become good leader and also
use them during the project in
my daily life (Sekarwinahyu,
Rustaman and Widodo, 2019).
I will use my strength of
communication skill to justify
my leadership skills and also I
will circulate the feedback to
my co- members in order to
gain the right and constructive
feedback for the progress of
my leadership skills.
Knowledge of HR functions
and policies
Knowledge of the HR
functions and policies is very
important for working in the
business corporate world.
Therefore, to increase my
knowledge of HR functions
and policies I will join a one
year course for specialization
in HR functions and policies. I
will also read about several
articles and journals on HRM
in the business to understand
the different situations of HR
and their solutions.
1 year
Motivational skills To increase or enhance my
motivational skills I will firstly
learn and gather information
on different motivational
4 months
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factors and theories for the
better understanding about the
people and their motivational
factors (Selwyn and Renaud-
Assemat, 2020). I will interact
interpersonally with people
and try to help them through
empathy so that are
encouraged and motivated.
This will automatically
improve my motivational
skills.
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CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that every individual must conduct self-reflection in
order to analyse the strengths and gaps in the skills and capabilities. It is analysed that the skills
learning is very important. Therefore, continuous improvement of skills through personal
development plan is best way to develop new skills.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Mello, L.V. and Wattret, G., 2021. Developing transferable skills through embedding reflection
in the science curriculum. Biophysical Reviews, pp.1-7.
Whiley, D and et. al., 2017. Enhancing critical thinking skills in first year environmental
management students: a tale of curriculum design, application and reflection. Journal of
Geography in Higher Education, 41(2), pp.166-181.
Stavroulia, K.E. and Lanitis, A., 2019. Enhancing reflection and empathy skills via using
a virtual reality based learning framework. International Journal of Emerging
Technologies in Learning.
Loomis, A.M. and Felt, F., 2021. Knowledge, skills, and self-reflection: linking trauma training
content to trauma-informed attitudes and stress in preschool teachers and staff. School
mental health, 13(1), pp.101-113.
Ganni, S., Botden, S.M and et. al., 2018. “Reflection-before-practice” improves self-assessment
and end-performance in laparoscopic surgical skills training. Journal of surgical
education, 75(2), pp.527-533.
Cottrell, S., 2017. Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Sekarwinahyu, M., Rustaman, N.Y. and Widodo, A., 2019, November. Problem-based learning
skills and reflection skills of biology education students through the problem-based
online tutorial. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1280, No. 3, p. 032004).
IOP Publishing.
Selwyn, R. and Renaud-Assemat, I., 2020. Developing technical report writing skills in first and
second year engineering students: a case study using self-reflection. Higher Education
Pedagogies, 5(1), pp.19-29.
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