Reflection Report: Personal and Professional Development Skills

This report is a reflection on personal and professional development, utilizing the Gibbs Reflective Cycle to analyze experiences within a module. The report details the application of various skills, including communication, teamwork, time management, and research, while also examining the leadership style of Mark Zuckerberg. It describes the student's feelings, evaluations of positive and negative experiences, and analyzes the impact of these experiences on skill development. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement in personal and professional skills and proposes an action plan for enhancing areas such as research, communication, and time management. The report highlights the student's self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and outlines steps to improve their competencies for future success. This report provides insights into the student's learning process and their commitment to professional growth.

PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Completed in PPT.......................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Personal and Professional Development means a continuous improvement cycle which is
related to the skills and competencies within an individual to secure their academic and
professional career (Olsen, 2015). This type of development provides ample opportunities for
individuals to appropriately and effectively excel in their profession by improvising or learning
new skills through indulging into effective activities. Hence, in this relation, below is a personal
reflection that is related to accomplishment of the previous task as well as working within the
module. For this report, Gibbs Reflective Cycle is used which is a framework that is associated
with reflecting on past experiences effectively.
TASK 1
Completed in PPT
TASK 2
Gibbs Reflective Model
The reflective cycle provided by Gibbs is an appropriate framework that is related to
reflection upon several past activities which allows individuals an analysis related to positive and
negative factors that were experienced by the individual effectively (Agafonova, Bryukhova and
Kaigorodov, 2015). Hence, as for the task above, a personal reflection related to the skills and
competencies applied within this module is discussed below:
Description
This section of the model represents the description of the overall experience in an
appropriate manner (Kroll and Dussias, 2017). The task above was related to analysis of the
leadership style of Mark Zuckerberg, who is the CEO of Facebook. This activity required
effective research from different resources in relation to determining the role of leadership of the
CEO of Facebook in its overall success. Along with this, the module covered application of a
series of theories which denotes which helped in analysis of the leadership by Mark Zuckerberg.
Within the overall module, there are several employability and study skills which were adopted
and implemented within the overall module, such as communication, teamwork, time and self
management, problem solving, use of ICTs and research skills.
Feelings
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All the feelings throughout the activity or experience which were effectively and
essentially experienced by an individual is reflected in this part. During beginning of the module
(Brody and Hadar, 2015), I was very much determined to learn about new concepts and theories
that were not taught to me before. Moreover, this feeling enhanced while I was working towards
accomplishing the above tasks as the module was very much overwhelming in context of
enhancing the knowledge about how leadership is important to help in enhancing the scope of
success for a company. However, I was aware that there are several skills which were quite weak
within me and which could cause several hindrances while working within the module, which
made me quite nervous at the very start of the module. Moreover, I was very much excited to
perform the above task as I admire Mark Zuckerberg as this module presented me the
opportunity to study and analyse the leadership adopted by this individual. In addition to this, my
confidence level also enhanced quite effectively after I started getting an insight about the
company, its operations and how leadership of Mark Zuckerberg drove it to become one of the
biggest social media organisations within the world. The skill which helped me develop a
positive feeling was problem solving skill, as there were times when I was presented with several
challenges and roadblocks towards accomplishing the activity. However, this skill enhanced my
competence and allowed me to feel satisfied after completion of the module.
Evaluation
This section reflects the positive, as well as, negative experiences that have been
encountered throughout the experience (Patton, Parker and Tannehill, 2015). It is perhaps one of
the most important sections within this model as it allows people to actually reflect the factors
that were positive as well as negative to determine the scope of improvement within the same. In
working within this module, there were mixed experiences throughout the module that were
encountered by me. In relation to my positive experiences, one of the most favourable aspects
throughout this module was the use of ICTs. I found it very easy and effective to use different
software to accomplish the overall module. For example, the module required to develop a
presentation in relation to present the above task in an appropriate manner. For this purpose, a
PowerPoint software was used to appropriately and effectively develop the presentation related
to present the role of leadership within the success of Facebook. Another appropriate and
positive experience related to the same was teamwork. My team members were quite helpful in
integrating their efforts with me which helped me a lot in accomplishing the requirements of the
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task. They provided me with effective and essential guidance in relation to several problems I
faced throughout the assignment, as well as improve my skills by giving me effective feedbacks.
However, there were certain negative aspects as well. For example, the above task
required in researching relevant information from credible sources about the leadership style of
Mark Zuckerberg. However, my research skills were very weak, due to which, I could not
segregate information from relevant and accurate resources, which decreased the credibility of
my work. Furthermore, another negative aspect associated with the overall module was time
management. It was very hard for me to appropriately and effectively manage the time within the
overall module, which contributed into more time onto the accomplishment of the activity. This
was due to not planning as well as prioritising the activities in a proper and sequential manner.
Apart from this, verbal communication was another negative communication throughout the
module, as I was very much hesitant in communicating the presentation within the class in an
effective manner. All these instances contributed as hindrances within the above task as well as
the overall module and I realise that there is a viable need to improvise these negative
competencies and ineffective display of skills.
Analysis
This section includes reflection upon the aspects which make sense to individuals related
to their experiences (Avidov-Ungar, 2016). Through working within this module, I realised that
an individual must possess certain necessary study and employability skills which are crucial to
ensure success and effectiveness in completing different tasks and activities. In addition to this,
the overall module makes a lot of sense in determining how leadership within people is required
to improve the systems and operations of the company to push the same onto high grounds of
success. However, another most important thing which made sense to me was associated with the
fact that there are still several skills that I am weak at, which must be improved and increased by
me to ensure future prosperity and success. Moreover, I realise that working with different digital
software is needed to ensure that a professional approach is adopted to present the same in a
creative way. Moreover, entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg could set an effective example in
relation to assuring that leadership is one of the most appropriate aspect to pave way for success.
Conclusion
It could be concluded from the above reflection, that study and employability skills are
very important to be acquired and practised by an individual to enhance the scope of personal
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and professional development. However, in my context, I realised that there are several activities
and prerequisites that could have been adopted by me to enhance the effectiveness of my
performance within the module. For example, I could have approached my tutors and assessors
in context of learning more appropriate methods of how to improve my weaker skills in a
competent manner. Furthermore, I could have also undertaken several development programmes
that would have allowed me to increase my skills in an effective manner.
Action Plan
In relation to the above reflection, there are several activities and processes which are
necessary to improvise the skills and competencies above in a better and effective manner
(Vetere and Stratton, 2016). Moreover, action plans are required to provide a detailed insight
onto the future actions that are required to highlight the scope of improvement within the skills
and competencies. For instance, in order to improvise research skills, I would be undertaking
training programmes, which would allow me to learn new research methods that are subjected
towards segregation of credible sources that are relevant as well as accurate associated with the
same. Moreover, in order to increase my communication skills, I would be attending seminars
and conferences, which would provide me opportunities to effectively speak and enhance these
skills. Furthermore, for skills such as time management, workshops and time management
workshops which would help me simulate different situations and practice time management in
an essential manner.
CONCLUSION
Thus, from the above report, it is concluded that personal and professional development
is highly crucial for an individual to ensure success and improvement in their skills and
competencies. Moreover, personal reflective analysis is also crucial which allows individuals to
reflect as well as analyse the scope of improvement within their current skills, which allows them
to pave a path towards their future success.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agafonova, S., Bryukhova, N. and Kaigorodov, B., 2015. Professional and personal
undergraduates’ development in the educational process from the perspective of
competency-based approach. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 214. pp.479-
486.
Avidov-Ungar, O., 2016. A model of professional development: teachers’ perceptions of their
professional development. Teachers and Teaching. 22(6). pp.653-669.
Brody, D.L. and Hadar, L.L., 2015. Personal professional trajectories of novice and experienced
teacher educators in a professional development community. Teacher development.
19(2). pp.246-266.
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.
Olsen, B., 2015. Teaching what they learn, learning what they live: How teachers' personal
histories shape their professional development. Routledge.
Patton, K., Parker, M. and Tannehill, D., 2015. Helping teachers help themselves: Professional
development that makes a difference. NASSP bulletin. 99(1). pp.26-42.
Vetere, A. and Stratton, P., 2016. Interacting selves: Systemic solutions for personal and
professional development in counselling and psychotherapy. Routledge.
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