Personal and Professional Development Report: University of Suffolk

This report examines personal and professional development, focusing on the development of employability skills within the context of leadership. The report analyzes the leadership style of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, and how it contributes to the achievement of various skills, including communication, teamwork, ICT use, problem-solving, and time management. The author reflects on their own experiences, particularly a presentation, and how they improved their skills through reflection and strategic planning. The report highlights the importance of employability skills and how they can be developed through practical experience and strategic learning. It also emphasizes the role of ICTs in enhancing learning and the importance of self-management and time management in achieving goals. The conclusion reinforces the significance of employability skills for both personal and professional growth.

Personal and
Professional
Development

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Personal development is important for every individual and covers various activities that
contribute towards improving awareness as well as identity of individuals. A person gets an
opportunity to develop various skills and talents that help them in standing out as compared to
other people (Ahmed and Ward, 2016). Professional development, on the other hand is about
learning how to maintain different professional credentials like degrees, attending conferences
etc. Its main purpose is to improve overall skills and knowledge in order to facilitate overall
development of a students. This report is based on Amazon Inc. and describes how leadership
contributes to the achievement of employability and study skills that relate to communication
skills, team work, use of ICTs, problem solving skills, time and self-management etc.
MAIN BODY
Completing Task 1 has significantly contributed to my achievement of different
employability and study skills. Employability skills are important transferable skills that are
required by an individual in order to make him/her employable. These are essential because they
allow people to work comfortably with each other and apply knowledge in order to solve a
problem. Different employability skills include reading, selecting, problem-solving, making and
delivering presentations, producing different types of documents etc. By completing the task on
leadership style/skills of the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, I got an opportunity to learn about
different leadership style and how do they influence employees within the company.
Employability skills lead to an increase in the overall productivity as well as competitiveness of
an individual. I learnt that an effective leader motivates and encourages his team members to
perform in coordination so that organizational goals and objectives can be achieved efficiently. If
I ever get an opportunity to lead a team, I will involve all my team members whenever a decision
will have to be made.
This style of leadership is known as democratic leadership style and only this, I analyzed
that a leader is supposed to produce various documents. These documents can either be related to
the performance of their team members or tasks that have to be completed (Beijaard and Meijer,
2017). Employability skills are important because they help in differentiating an individual from
another. Employers within any organization look out for achievements in an individual apart

from academics that sets them aside. In order to completed the first task, I had to read, select,
analyze as well as synthesize a lot of information from a variety of sources. The different sources
included books, online websites, journals as well as different articles published on different
styles of leadership. This helped me in improving my overall communication skills, both verbal
as well as non-verbal. Good communication skills are important because they help in allowing
others to understand information more quickly and in an effective manner (Communication,
2020).
There are different models based on reflection that help the user to focus on learning and
enhance self-awareness after a particular incident. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle is one
such model that works on two different levels. Reflection helps an individual in understanding
what happened during the experience. According to Kolb, learning involves abstraction of
different concepts which can be applied to different situations (Bryce, Wilmes and Bellino,
2016). After the completion of Task 1, I was expected to give a presentation for the same in front
of the class. While giving the presentation, I skipped two slides and there were times when I
forgot what to speak next and lost my control over the presentation. Once the presentation was
complete, my tutor gave me a feedback saying that I did not prepare information effectively for
the presentation and also, lacked confidence throughout. At this stage, I felt completely
demotivated and did not feel good. I thought that I had not performed well and that I will not
receive a good grade.
While preparing for the presentation, I had memorized all the important points that had to
be spoken to the class. But during the presentation, I failed to remember some important points
of the same and stood still. When this happened, I tried to remember other points of the
presentation and spoke them instead. This situation got raised because I had hurriedly prepared
for the presentation thinking that I had memorized all the points well. And this could be seen in
my behavior. I realized that instead of being overconfident that I had prepared well, I should
have taken out time and practiced diligently. This would have helped me in delivering the
presentation effectively and with confidence. Also, after the final presentation and receiving
feedback, I discussed the same with my peers in order to get a better understanding of the topic
and strategies as to how could have the presentation be made more interactive. This experience

taught me that one should practice effectively before delivering a presentation that is engaging as
well as interactive (Dias and Cadime, 2016).
This experience helped in improving my overall confidence level as well as presentation
skills. Effective presentation skills today are considered to be one of the most important skills
because they help the presenter in keeping their presentation interesting as well as engaging at
the same time. The presenter can communicate his/her message with confidence and also
motivate the audience to listen. Proper presentation skills contribute to the different areas of
English-speaking skills of the presenter like grammar, vocabulary etc. If the presenter is well
prepared with the presentation, they will be less stressed and communicate efficiently and the
audience will also pay attention to what is being said (Hill and et. al., 2016). Various strategies
can be formulated and executed in order to improve one’s learning as well as performance. I
have developed the strategy of practicing every time and gain a proper understanding of the
audience before delivering a presentation. This will not only enhance my overall learning about
a particular topic, but also deliver an engaging presentation.
From my previous experience of giving a presentation, I have seen a progress in my
overall way of delivering a presentation as well as communicating with others. I now speak with
confidence and clarity so that the listener understands what I am trying to say. I have also seen
an improvement in my personal development because I develop achievable and measurable
objectives while planning about how to achieve them. A strategy is one of the most effective
tools that can help a person to achieve their desired goals in the most efficient way. It also
utilizes resources that are available in order to deliver desired results. Strategic planning helps an
individual in making decisions that are based on a clear vision of the future as well as logical
assumptions. I have developed a schedule of planning my personal work and managing my time
in the most efficient way. Maintaining work schedules will not only be helpful in my academics,
but for my professional career as well because I will be able to keep a track of various tasks in a
much more structured manner.
ICTs or Information Communication Technologies involve the roles of communication
as well as information technology as well as the integration of computers (Kaya and et. al.,
2017). ICTs can significantly contribute to the overall enhancement and optimization of the
delivery of information. They are beneficial because they promote learning among students and

provides them an opportunity to learn at their own pace. The overall learning of the individuals is
also enhanced through video, audio, text and images. With the completion of task 1, I have
gained the skill of time as well as self-management. I now manage and allocate my time to
different tasks in a structured manner which helps me in delivering high-quality work on time
without any delay. Also, there is less anxiety and stress with an enhancement in my overall level
of productivity as well as performance.
All the employability skills that I have gained by completing Task 1, will help me in
getting my desired job placement. The task gave me an opportunity to develop confidence and
improve my research skills. This is because in order to include the most relevant and appropriate
information in the presentation, I had to go through various sources, both online as well as
offline. Apart from this, I now monitor and measure my progress on different tasks that have
been prolonged for a very long time. I came across various problems but I was encouraged to
think effectively and find out a relevant solution for the same. Also, problem solving techniques
are considered to be essential for all individuals today (Kroll and Dussias, 2017). This is because
they help in approaching a problem in a creative as well as timely manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that employability skills play a very important
role in the overall personal as well as professional development of an individual. This is because
they contribute to an increase in the productivity and competitiveness. There are different types
of employability skills like problem solving, communication, time and self-management skills,
teamwork, research skills etc. therefore, one should always develop skills that are not only
helpful in academics but also help in getting a desired job in a good company.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ahmed, E. and Ward, R., 2016. Analysis of factors influencing acceptance of personal, academic
and professional development e-portfolios. Computers in Human Behavior. 63. pp.152-
161.
Beijaard, D. and Meijer, P. C., 2017. Developing the personal and professional in making a
teacher identity. The SAGE handbook of research on teacher education. 2. pp.177-192.
Bryce, N., Wilmes, S. E. and Bellino, M., 2016. Inquiry identity and science teacher professional
development. Cultural Studies of Science Education. 11(2). pp.235-251.
Dias, P. C. and Cadime, I., 2016. Effects of personal and professional factors on teachers’
attitudes towards inclusion in preschool. European Journal of Special Needs Education.
31(1). pp.111-123.
Hill, K. and et. al., 2016. Using the repertory grid technique to examine trainee clinical
psychologists' construal of their personal and professional development. Clinical
psychology & psychotherapy. 23(5). pp.425-437.
Kaya, H. and et. al., 2017. Personal and professional values held by baccalaureate nursing
students. Nursing Ethics. 24(6). pp.716-731.
Kroll, J. F. and Dussias, P. E., 2017. The benefits of multilingualism to the personal and
professional development of residents of the US. Foreign language annals. 50(2).
pp.248-259.
Swain, J., 2016. The effect of Phase One training on young recruits' personal and professional
development in the British army. Journal of Youth Studies. 19(1). pp.117-132.
Online
Communication. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/communication/>.