Professional Communication Development: A Self-Reflective Essay

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CW 1 – Essay
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Part A
This is a self-reflection of my experiences on effective communication and my
development because of the communication process used in the organisation. This self-
reflective report will pay attention to professional communication and the things that I
learned by communicating in that particular manner. To present the reflection in an
effective manner, I will use Driscoll’s models of reflection. This model is the best way
to present a reflection as it answers basic three questions like what, so what and now
what (Smith, 2016).
(Fig. 1: Driscoll’s model)
(Source: Bu author)
I was working in an organisation as a business analyst, and it was my responsibility to
analyse the market opportunities and then communicate effectively about the business
opportunities to higher management. This was a great experience in my life as I worked
in an organisation for the first time. When I first joined the organisation, I was provided
with training to carry out my roles and responsibilities effectively. During my training, I
realised that one of the most important things that are paid more attention to the
organisation is effective business communication. Even the person that provided me
with training to carry out my job role also emphasised on the communication aspect
(Greenaway, et. al., 2015). As a business analyst, I had the duty to evaluate the market
opportunities and present them to the top level management in an effective way so that
they can make the best use out of it. While working in the organisation, I realised that
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What So what Now What

everybody in the organisation had utmost communication skills. Yes, I have to accept it
that I was not very good at communicating or interacting with everybody. In the
organisation, I also had very good experiences as I was involved in meetings and
presentations that proved very beneficial for me as I lacked effective presentation and
public speaking skills.
In the business organisation, it was my duty to present the business opportunities in
front of the management, and it was very important for me to have effective
presentation skill, and I lacked them. After analysing and watching other people
presenting their presentations and speaking with confidence in front of people, I also got
courage and confidence to give presentations and speak in public (Coffel, et. al., 2016).
I also had to write reports that were to be presented to my seniors, and for that, I had to
have effective writing skills. I noticed that a downward and upward communication
process was followed in the organisation. A scalar chain was established in the
business, and everybody communicated according to that chain only. It was a
professional communication system. Although we had some informal groups in the
organisation and interacted in an informal way but then also to communicate any
relevant business information, we had to follow the process of communication set in the
organisation. Earlier my performance was not up to the mark, but ultimately, I was one
of the best performers of the association as a business analyst. As I am a student, I can
write exams, but writing reports for business organisations was a tough task for me. I
should thank my seniors who supported me and helped me to have effective writing
skills so that I could write good reports that were understandable and useful for the
management (Adler, et. al., 2015). As I learnt about effective presentation skills, report
writing skills and formal interaction, my performance gradually improved in the
organisation.
I worked in the organisation for one year, and I must say that working in a business
organisation has helped me a lot in my professional development. First and foremost
thing that I learned there is to interact and communicate with people effectively. As
students, we interact with other students and teachers, but communication in an
organisation is very different. There is a chain of communication that is to be followed in
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an organisation to communicate with the seniors or the management. Working in the
organisation was a very good experience for me as I learnt about many new things that
are not possible to learn outside an organisation.
Part B
Working in an organisation had been a very learning experience for me. I can see many
changes in my personality and my professional skills. I want to be a good manager in a
multi-national firm in my future, and for that, I need to possess some effective skills that
I can say I have gained through working as a business analyst. I had low interaction
skills, and I am good at interacting with people now as we had formal and informal
communication in the organisation. As a student, I need to give various presentations,
but earlier I was very afraid of speaking in front of others, but now, I can confidently
present my views in public and also engage them in my presentations. I have learnt all
these things while working in the organisation. There are lots of changes in my
personality too. I am a more groomed person, mow. I now have knowledge as how to
talk to different people. I also gained insights about effective writing skills and they are
now proving advantageous for me to score good marks in my assessments. I think I am
a better and confident person now. In my opinion, all these skills that I have gained
while working as a business analyst will help me a lot in my future as a manager as then
I will have great responsibilities to manage a team of people. I will be able to do that
with effective business communication skills.
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References
 Adler, R.B., Kotler, P., Grey, A.M. and Hugos, M.H., 2015. Communicating at work:
strategies for success in business and. info: Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 2015.
 Coffelt, T.A., Baker, M.J. and Corey, R.C., 2016. Business communication practices
from employers’ perspectives. Business and Professional Communication
Quarterly, 79(3), pp.300-316.
 Greenaway, K.H., Wright, R.G., Willingham, J., Reynolds, K.J. and Haslam, S.A.,
2015. Shared identity is key to effective communication. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 41(2), pp.171-182.
 Smith, K., 2016. Reflection and person-centredness in practice
development. International Practice Development Journal, 6(1).
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