Personal Quality and Career Development: Reflective Essay (UGB 260)

This essay is a reflective analysis of a student's personal and professional development, focusing on the key quality of communication and its impact on career progression. The student explores various communication theories and models, including self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and the Johari window, to understand their strengths and weaknesses. The essay highlights the importance of effective communication in the workplace, discussing its role in leadership, teamwork, and conflict resolution. The student provides real-life examples of how communication skills have contributed to their success in meetings, team projects, and interactions with colleagues. Furthermore, the essay identifies areas for improvement, such as managing emotions and responding to colleagues effectively. The student also discusses the benefits of communication skills in building relationships, both within and outside the organization. This essay provides a comprehensive overview of how communication skills are vital for personal and professional growth. The essay also touches upon the application of various psychological models such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and locus of control to understand behavior and improve communication in different situations.

Running Head: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MODULE
Personal and professional development module
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors note:

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Professional development is the process of learning and maintaining professional
credentials with time by attending the conference, informal learning opportunities. It is the
collaborative and intensive, ideally incorporated evaluating stage. Professional development
helps in understanding the way of working and acting in the workplace for better working
and establishing a healthy workplace environment. Various factors affect the working style of
an employee (Voogt et al. 2015). Professional development acts in the moulding of the
character of a person in a workplace. Handling difficult situations calmly, mentoring,
developing skills such as communication, speaking, management is improved with the help
of professional development. Professional development also reflects on learning, supervision
as well as technical assistance of a person. Professional development helps in the moulding of
the career.
The essay will be an elaborate description of my quality that has helped me in my
career development (Adler, Rodman and Du 2016). The essay is based on my quality of
communication; it is one of my best qualities that has helped in the development of my career
and self-confidence as well. Communication plays a crucial aspect of the workplace. It helps
in solving various issues related to the task. There are various types of communication.
Communication skills are a key strength that helps a person in achieving success (Darling-
Hammond, Hyler and Gardner 2017). In the essay, I will be explaining the benefits of
effective communication and the ways communication has helped me in achieving my
objectives. Communication has played a vital role in my professional development.
The act of transferring information from one place to another by a person or a group is
communication. There require a sender and a recipient in every communication.
Communication may be a very simple act, yet; it is a complex subject. Communication
involves emotions, cultural situation as well (Kennedy 2016). The complexity of
communication skills is considered desirable by employees to have accurate, unambiguous

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and effective communication, which is quite difficult. According to the Oxford English
Dictionary, "Communication is the imparting or exchange of information by speaking,
writing, or using some other medium for the successful conveying or sharing of ideas and
feelings." Communication majorly consists of three parts: the sender, the message and the
recipient. The sender encodes the message, which may involve a different mixture of words
as well as verbal or non-verbal communication (Bush, Coleman and West-Burnham 2018).
The complexity arises when the recipient receives or assumes a different message. This
complexity arises more when communication takes place among a group.
Various theories have helped me to understand my strengths that helped in the
understanding of my strengths. Self-efficacy is the concept that helps me in personal
judgement if the person I am. It is the psychological study that helps in the understanding of
the factors that I am (Bennett 1998). It can be termed as the self-assassination tool with the
use of which I can identify my skills. Self-efficacy is the power that helps a person to
understand different situation based on which I have gathered the knowledge that I have good
communication. Using self-efficacy, I have judged myself, the ways I reacted to the situation
and hence, I concluded that communication is one of my best qualities that helped me to
tackle the various situation. Apart from that, I have even used various other models and
theories that helped me to understand my personality. There were situations wherein I had to
make a decision understanding the person who is opposite to me and valuing their emotions.
Understanding of the quality has been easy with the use of emotional intelligence (Majid et
al. 2019). Emotional intelligence(EI) has helped me to empathy. This quality will help me to
be a great leader. Communication is the way that will help me in the display of empathy.
Hence, EI has helped me to utilise my skill in being empathetic.
Happenstance is a situation that has taken place due to chance (Liu, Salisbury,
Vahabzadeh and Sahin 2017). In such situations, communication is an important aspect that

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will help me resolve issues. In future, if an organisation appoints me as a leader, the idea of
happenstance will help me to understand the ways of communication that will help in the
resolving of the issues. In the understanding of the behavioural performance, these theories
have been of great help for understanding the environment based on which I will be using my
core strength (Potts 2015). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) will help me to
understand the self, which will provide a report of my psychology and help in making a
decision. In MBTI, is a personality test that will help me to understand the personality I am
having. It helps me to understand am I an introvert or an extrovert person. In being a leader,
this theory will be very helpful as it will help in the handling of people in the organisation.
Communication is an important aspect while dealing with various people and in the
workplace for conveying the message. My communication skills have helped me in achieving
various success in the workplace. In the meeting, communication is an important aspect,
especially oral communication (DuBrin 2015). There have been issues in the team, and often
our leaders would ask for suggestions. Due to good communication skills, I was able to
convey my ideas, view or objectives about the issues. It also helped me in handling various
situations in the absence of the team lead to convey what exactly the team members want. In
a meeting, I was honoured to host the meeting and provide a presentation as I have good
communication and delivering skills. Communication helps in developing better
communication with colleagues. It helps in the development of the environment of the
workplace.
There are certain areas where I fail to communicate effectively in my daily life. For
instance, when one of my colleagues asked me for some help, I did not respond accordingly,
which resulted in the avoidance of me in the workplace (Dunbar, Brooks and Kubicka-Miller
2006). I was under a lot of stress on that particular day, so I was not ready to entertain anyone
at that particular time. The out of control emotion of mine took the best of me, and it was

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unable to control the situation and understand the need of my colleague in his hard time
(Blanchard, V.L., Hawkins, Baldwin and Fawcett 2009). From this, it was clear that I have to
control my feelings and emotions while communicating with someone. One day while I was
going through my phone and planning for a trip with my friends, my mother asked me
whether I have work tomorrow. I replied with yes at that moment but I reality it was my leave
from work the next day. These are the situations that help me handle various situations that
have been mentioned above.
The locus of control is the understanding that helps in the analysis. For instance, a person
with internal locus control tends to blame or praise themselves for the result that has taken
place, and people with external locus control tend to blame or praise people. This
psychological personality is being analysed with the help of locus control (Araya, Bennie and
O’Connor 2015). It is the theory that helps me to understand the factors that have an impact
on the situation. It also helps me to analyse the situation and make a decision that will help in
better communication and handling situation.
Communication skills have various benefits in working and achieving goals in life.
Communication is the prime aspect of the functioning of the organisation. It helps in the
delivering of the job with a clear understanding. It is when the supervisor conveys a task to
employee communication is an important aspect (Araya, Bennie and O’Connor 2015). I have
been able to communicate well with my colleagues, as I have developed good communication
skills. It helped me to communicate well with the provisional employees of the organisation
and make them understand the right working style (Schulz 2008). My communication skill
has helped me in aiding in plans and strategies in the organisation. As I have been, providing
ideas and views in the time of planning in the organisation, my communication will help
deliver a plan in the future. My good communication skills have benefited me to be
acquainted with new people.

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Developing great communication skills helps me to be a leader. Communication is the
process of exercising the interpersonal influence, which can take place with leadership. The
leader communicates the rules, policies, and objectives to the followers with the help of
communicating or developing a good bond with the followers that can be made easy with
communication (Hamid et al. 2016). Communication skill for a leader will be enabled in
conveying messages to the followers in better and solving issues will be easier with
communication skills. Communication helps in coordination with other employees or
different people. The Johari window is a theory that has helped in developing mutual
understanding among the workers and improve manners and approaches in work
performance. This mutual understanding helps in the time of emergencies and aids in
achieving co-ordination of individual efforts (Gauguet et al. 2017). Often changes are not
clearly explained to the employees, with communication skills as a leader, I will be able to
understand the areas that require changes and make the employees understand why the
changes are brought. Communication is the base, which helps in the development of
relationships with others. In organisational life, it promotes good relation. The transfer on
message is communication, while intrinsically it is the transmission of understanding among
the sender and the recipients of the message (Kurtz, Draper and Silverman 2017). A free flow
of communication, through facilitation transmission of understanding, paves that way for the
development of good human relations in an organisation.
Communication has helped in building good relations not only with the people near me
but also with the public (Arnold and Boggs 2019). It comprises relations of the enterprise
with different external agencies, especially consumers and the public at large. Many
organisation that has been separating the public relation department that looks into the
problems of the organisation or in a client, handling and good communication will help me
establish a career in these departments as well. Moreover, good communication skills will

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help me in solving the problems of the clients and maintaining a good relationship with them.
The management initiated the remedial action in the correct deviation in an actual
performance is the essence of controlling; hence, good communication enables controlling.
Communication also facilitates in the delegation authority. It will benefit me to be superior in
job assignment, instructing as well as in providing training. Communication will also help me
to maintain a healthy relationship with the subordinate and the superior. The Johari window
gives me the ideas that will help in the development of the relationship in the workplace.
Hence, the theories are of great use that has helped me to identify my strengths and core skills
that will help me be a great leader in future.
Various communication attributes help in facilitating communication. The four main
attributes are flexibility, focus, responsive and calmness. A person with good communication
skills will also observe the other person and notice the non-verbal clues that enable tailoring
communication. Flexibility will encourage communication with the public. Flexibility helps
in approaching people, and flexible people will be approachable. Flexibility will help in being
a good leader as this will encourage communication with others and help initiate conversation
developing a friendly environment in the workplace (Gomez and Gambo 2016). When a
person has good communication skills, the person develops a good listing skill. It can also be
said that good communication skill and good listening goes hand in hand. It helps in focusing
on what the other person is talking about and what the other person wants to convey. Hence,
when I talk to people, I also listen to what the other person is talking about to reply to initiate
the conversation. Communication also leads to responses. Just because I initiate
communication does not mean that there would not be questions. I may response this will
help n the understanding of the relationship and building relationship. Communication also
helps in being calm and understand the other person to develop better communication
(Waniganayake and Hadley 2016). With communication skills, there have been several

7PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MODULE
changes in my behaviour and values. I have become more confident and aware of others. In
spite of sympathy, I empathise, people, when a person's life is scarce, which is a very
important aspect while working in a corporate firm. Communication helps me to encourage
people and make fair decisions in the workplace. Communication helps in reducing
misunderstanding, which may create stress. However, there are various difficulties as well
while communicating with people. Often people misunderstand my motive and assume that I
may be helping them for a purpose. People often over-communicate developing an over-
friendly relationship in the workplace, which may affect the working of the organisation.
Communication also when taking place verbally may be misinterpreted differently by the
listener. Hence, important messages are always portrayed through written communication to
avoid the communication gap.
Professional development is the key to success. It helps to have a great career and
moulding of a person's character. Various courses that help in the professional development
of a person. It is the way of enhancing a person’s qualities and characteristics. It is best used
in handling different situations in an organisation. The trainees, as well as the managers, must
take up personal development for developing the culture and environment of the workplace.
Personal development has been very beneficial in developing my career and the person I am.
I have several strengths that were boosted by the personal development module.
Communication is one of my greatest strength that has helped me to achieve various success.
Personal development has portrayed the ways I can use my communication skills in handling
issues in the workplace or in communicating with new people in the workplace.
Communication has several disadvantages and advantages. However, the advantages
enable in the complete development of the person and enhance the character of the person.
The communication skill makes a person different from another person. It gives a confidence
boost to a person. It helps in handling various clients making me adequate for handling

8PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MODULE
different clients with different intentions. However, there can be misinterpretations of
communication as well. This misinterpretation can be decreased or solved with the use of
theories or elaboration of the topic. From these and understanding of the theories, I have
developed a great knowledge about analysing the person I am. The theories are of great help
that helps in the right use of communication in every sphere of the working. Communication
is a great strength that will help in developing the person I am. Thus, it can be concluded that
communication helps in the bossing of the confidence and understanding of the opposite
person.

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