Reflective Report: Personal and Professional Skills for Management

This report is a reflective journal that explores the development of personal and professional skills for management, with a specific focus on communication, negotiation, and influencing skills. The report is structured around a five-week module, detailing the learning experiences and insights gained each week. Week 1 introduces the module's objectives, emphasizing the importance of communication and conflict management. Week 2 delves into reflective writing, analyzing critical incident reports and peer learning. Week 3 focuses on the art of communication, highlighting essential managerial skills and communication types. Week 4 examines barriers to effective communication and strategies to overcome them. Finally, Week 5 explores personal influence and negotiation skills, outlining key factors and processes for achieving predetermined objectives. The report utilizes Gibbs' reflective model to analyze experiences and draw conclusions, providing a comprehensive overview of skill development in a professional context.

Personal and
Professional Skills
for Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Week 1- Introduction to the module.......................................................................................3
Week 2- Reflective writing....................................................................................................4
Week 3- Art of communication..............................................................................................5
Week 4- Barriers to effective communication........................................................................6
Week 5- Developing personal influence and negotiation skills.............................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Skills management is define as a several practices such as understanding, deploying and
developing individuals and their skills. The effective implementation of skill management will
help in identifying skills which a particular job role required, skill of a staff and gap among these
two factor (Ahmed and et. al., 2014). For a person it is essential to develop and maintain
personal and professional skill management because through it they can get understand of other
and job allotted to them at workplace. This report is reflective statement which is based on the
main aspect that is necessary to consider in procedure of personal and professional development
is communication skills and its impact on diverse factors such as negotiation, influencing and
workplace skills. All these skills and ability are essential for attainment of pre determined
personal as well as group objective. There are various theories which a person can adopt for
personal and professional development such as Gibbs reflective model. This theory is developed
by Graham Gibbs in year 1988 (Ellis, Kisling and Hackworth, 2014). This consist of six stage
process i.e. description, feeling, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. Through this a
person can explore its experience in particular situation then accordingly they can develop
decision or strategies related to the improvement. Along with this, respective report will also
include experiences which are faced by me while experiencing situation at which several skills
can be used such as communication, influencing and negotiating. Through all these I also get
opportunities which help me in viewing the several perspective on a particular issues.
MAIN BODY
This report is a reflective journal, at which I have experienced practices related to
personal and professional skill management and for this I am more focusing on my
communication skills, negotiation skills, influencing skill and so on. For this I have used learning
material of five weeks and at every week I have learned diverse things. Explanation of my
learning during all five weeks are given below:-
Week 1- Introduction to the module
In week first I identified different personal and professional skills which are required to
be enhanced by an individual in order to attain their target objective. In this we identified aim of
conducting personal and professional skills for management module which aim is to provide us
skill that are necessary for managing personal successfully at workplace. In this week we also

able to understand role of team or peoples and how it they impact on maximizing performance
(Assiter, 2017). We also get to know about the importance of communication for influencing
workplace behaviour. This week module also helped us in developing understanding about the
inter personal conflict and its reason. Respective week module also included information about
the learning outcome which we get after completing the whole project that will include both
reflective report as well as easy. The information which we get at the end of project are
understanding of proper communication skills and how it may impact to workplace behaviour as
well as it also know about the negotiation and influencing skill which we can adopt for achieving
pre determined objective. In this week we also get know that by conducting whole project we
can develop effective knowledge of conflict management which we can used for resolving
issues. In addition to this we also able to understand use of coaching techniques for improving
our performance. In respective week we also done some class room activities like ice breaker,
question answers round and many other. Through this we able to enhance our understanding
about the personal and professional skill for management.
Week 2- Reflective writing
In the second week, I have identified different aspect of report writing which is necessary
for writing a critical incident report. In this we have analysed that the aim was to introduce us
about the incident report writing as well as peer learning community in reflective writing. In this
we have learn and understand about the essence and principles of reflection. The objective of this
is to make us understand how to compile a critical report as well as reflective log as write up. In
this I have identified that various elements that is used to record thoughts in reflective writing
and concept of peer learning as well as its use of peer learning community has be introduced to
our team. I have analysed that critical report as well as reflective logs consist of different
elements such as what happened and in this concreted experience is selected to describe its
salient features. In how did I feel about it, a proper analysis is conduct which analyse the feelings
of relevant situation. Objective assessment of what happened includes the evaluation the
situation as well as its impacts in the “cold light day” (Fallows and Steven, 2013). After this
improvement are made and them development actions are needed. It is measured properly and
then different aspects of development to which this related is used. Through this I have
understand that we learn from our reflection of experience not from our experiences. I have
identified that reflective practices are very critical inquiry about the professional practices so that

deeper understanding about oneself can be analysed. I have identified that reflective practice are
more concerned with the concept of learning from my experience as in this I can clearly think
about the what I did as well as what has happened. I have identified and analysed the different
between casual thinking and reflective practice. There are some tips given to us in order to write
an effective and efficient reflective writing. In this it is important that I am curious about that
whatever I see, hear and read. We should always carry a notebooks and pen in order to write our
thoughts. We should try to write from different perspective as well as draw on our reading to
inform our reflection. Gibbs reflective cycle is a continuous process which includes description,
feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.
Week 3- Art of communication
In week third me and my team members will identified art of communication and how it
can be impact workplace behaviour. In this week module we get to know general skills which are
needed in every manager such as learning, creativity, listening, management, time management,
leadership skills and many more (McMahon, Palmer and Wilding, 2013). Along with this we
also get to know that there are number of general skills for every manager to work effectively
such as they need to take proper feedback from their employees without being defensive. We
also understand that manager must need to have the ability to take staff's perspective in order to
see their view point in effective manner. Moreover we also understand that they also need to
develop those function which help them in conducting work effectively at the workplace. I and
my team member also get to know that it is necessary for manager to learn self reflection in order
to understand themselves in effective manner. In addition to this we also understand several
skills of managers such as they must need to acknowledge as well as reinforce their staffs
because it will help them in avoiding conflict or mistake. Along with this we also learn about
communication in week third which is related to the learning outcome one i.e. conducting
understanding of proper communication skills and how it may impact at workplace behaviour.
According to the respective week module we know that communication is define as transmission
of information or message through speaking or writing mode (Nagarajan and Edwards, 2015). It
will also include body language, speaking skills, writing skills and many others. We also get to
know that there are diverse type of communication such as verbal and non verbal. Through this
module we leaned about type of verbal and non verbal communication, verbal types are
speaking, active listening, question as well as non verbal is divided into several method such as

eye contact, gestures, body language and so on. By this me and my team member get know about
various things related to communication and we also decided to take care of all these factors.
Week 4- Barriers to effective communication
At respective week we learned about the barriers which may arise while conducting
communication at the workplace. While communicating reading this module me and team
members identify some of major problems which arise while interaction such as language,
gender difference, status difference, culture diversity and so on. Due to all these issues me, my
team and other peoples go through several difficulties which impact on their working quality and
communication (Pârvu, Ipate and Mitran, 2014). So in order to overcome these we learn number
of tips which help us in developing good communication skills and ability such as I understand
that we must always listen with intention, we also need to record or watch ourself while talking.
Along with this me and my team members also know that we can read news, fictions, memories
or blogs because it will help us in improving our communication skills and help in being open
minded. In addition to this we also get know that there are several factors which are consider in
procedure of communication at the workplace such as positivity, clarity, compensative, equality,
voluntarily and so on. By understanding the module I get to know that at workplace good
communication is very necessary because it help them in attaining productivity as well as
maintaining strong working relation at every level of the workplace. Me and my team members
also able to understand that proper communication as well as skills may affect workplace
behaviour such as it will lead to strong management. In addition to this we also understand some
other importance of this such as it will help us in team building, provide all team members to
give their opinion, lead to innovation and many more.
Week 5- Developing personal influence and negotiation skills
Through the module of week five me and my team members able to develop
understanding about the personal influence and negotiating skills. This will help us in covering
learning outcome two i.e. related to developing understanding of appropriate negotiation and
influencing skills for achieving pre determined aim or objective (Shah, 2013). According to
information given at module I get to know that there are several factors which are related to
personal influence such as confidence, commitment, trustworthy, likeability, passionate,
empowering and many more. We also get to know that there are several key ingredients of
proper influencing skill i.e. The Head, The Hand and The Heart. Moreover we also understand

that there are some skills which we required to be a effective influencer such as having ability of
creating visibility, developing and maintaining trust, leverage working and so on. On the other
hand for proper personal and professional develop we also need to develop negotiation skills that
refers to skill through which two or more individuals can settle their differences. We learned that
it is a four stage process i.e. preparation, exchanging information, bargaining and at last closing
as well as commitment. There are also several key aspect which we need to undertake for
conducting effective negotiation such as courtesy to opposite party, be confident while
representing negotiation paper and check authenticity of negotiation case (Sonnino, 2013). In
addition to this me and my team members also need to develop various skills for becoming
proper negotiator such as verbal communication skills, listening skills, problem solving skills,
proper decision making skills and so on. Through learning this week module we know that for
attaining the objective we also need assertiveness which mean to stand up for personal rights
such as feeling, believe, honest and so on. Me and my team member also get know that we need
to follow some steps for being an assertive i.e. clarity, body language, be present, focus and draw
proper line.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that personal as well as professional skills are
very important in order to gain growth in career. It is essential to understand the effective
communication skills that will help in influencing workplace behaviour. Individual must have
strong communication skills that they can work in effective and efficient manner. Negotiation
and influencing skills play a crucial role in achieve desired goals and objectives of individuals.
Conflicts will lead to have negative impact on organisation and it will affect productivity of
employees. It is significant to manage as well as resolve the conflict situation in order to smooth
functioning of employees. There are different techniques which will improve the performance of
employees.

REFRENCES
Books and journals
Ahmed, S.M. and et. al., 2014. Key attributes and skills for curriculum improvement for
undergraduate construction management programs. International Journal of
Construction Education and Research. 10(4). pp.240-254.
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Ellis, M., Kisling, E. and Hackworth, R.G., 2014. Teaching soft skills employers
need. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 38(5). pp.433-453.
Fallows, S. and Steven, C., 2013. Integrating key skills in higher education: Employability,
transferable skills and learning for life. Routledge.
McMahon, G., Palmer, S. and Wilding, C., 2013. The essential skills for setting up a counselling
and psychotherapy practice. Routledge.
Nagarajan, S. and Edwards, J., 2015. The Role of Universities, Employers, Graduates and
Professional Associations in the Development of Professional Skills of New
Graduates. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice. 3(2).
Pârvu, I., Ipate, D.M. and Mitran, P.C., 2014. Identification of employability skills-starting point
for the curriculum design process. Economics, Management and Financial
Markets. 9(1). p.237.
Shah, S.Z.A., 2013. The use of group activities in developing personal transferable
skills. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. 50(3). pp.297-307.
Sonnino, R.E., 2013. Professional development and leadership training opportunities for
healthcare professionals. The American Journal of Surgery. 206(5). pp.727-731.
Wilton, N., 2012. The impact of work placements on skills development and career outcomes for
business and management graduates. Studies in Higher Education. 37(5). pp.603-620.
Zaslavskaya, O.Y., 2013. Components of teacher's management competency: knowledge and
skills, activity, functional areas. American Journal of Pedagogy and Education. 1. p.13.