Analysis of Self and Others: Exploring Skills for Professional Growth

This report, titled "Understanding Self and Others," explores key skills essential for personal and professional development. It delves into the importance of focus and attention, examining how individuals can improve their ability to concentrate and engage with others. The report also analyzes time management, highlighting its significance in organizing tasks, reducing stress, and enhancing productivity. Furthermore, it investigates written communication skills, emphasizing their role in conveying information clearly and effectively. The report includes self-assessments, peer feedback, and perceptions of these skills, offering a comprehensive analysis of their impact on individual behavior and success. The analysis underscores the practical application of these skills in various contexts, from the workplace to personal interactions, providing valuable insights for self-improvement and enhanced interpersonal effectiveness.

UNDERSTANDING SELF AND
OTHERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An individual need to improve his/her capacity to know about feelings and thoughts of
other person and it will be possible through developing a better understanding of himself or
herself. Self-understanding is the backbone of social cognition because it is main concept of
knowing anyone (Campbell, Northrup and Brownell, 2017).
This report is based on different skills that may be possessed by an individual in his or
her behaviour and used in daily work. All such skills are useful for every person and make it
work better for an individual growth and development. A person may use it and get desired
success. From analysing these skills it would be very much beneficial for management as well as
if person could identify them so they could try to improve it which will increase their personal
efficiency.
MAIN BODY
Focus and attention – focus and attention skill will make it possible to do number of activities
in daily life of people. This is ability to correctly and efficiently turn the mental focus in
stimulating depends upon focus attention. It refers as listening with all senses and give full of
attention to the person who speaks something. It is a systematic technique of communication
that utilized in various conflict resolution and training to the listener. It is needed when people
fully understands, concentrates and respond to the speaker (D'Entremont, Yazbeck and Morgan,
2017). Attention to any important thing is the process which involves more than just hearing
about a particular topic. According to John M. Grohol, “It is all about creating report, building a
trust and understanding all things that may hear”. In this skill, an individual must use some
element that is non-verbal signs of attentive, eye contact, smile, mirroring, posture, distraction
and many more.
Importance – It is essential for me because I always focus on the behaviour of others in several
situations that may be difficult or critical and I get better results by using this. It provides public
interest advocacy and organised community. I select it in my daily work so that I can get better
results. I will try to respond to the person who talks with me in a way that will encourage her or
him for speaking continuously. Active attention is a dimensional cognitive approach that
contains the ability to focus and select on what is important at any given time frame (Maslach
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and Leiter, 2016).
Self-assessment or Feedback – I use it and pay attention on each and every sector to showing
and for listening everything. I got feedback from the speaker and give answer them to
encourage for continue with small verbal communication. For example, I may use it in some
ethical words like “Oh Yes, I got it” in communication and show them that I understand her or
his statements. In this context, there are several people admired me for my talent about such
skill and I get better results comparing to the past.
Peer- They said that I’m very much focused and pay attention on what my current work is going
on.
Perception of other persons – This skill must develop my understanding about others and I
may know better about other persons at different areas of life such as my work place, home and
in society. In this context, I must share pertinent information, insights, experiences and
observations to the person who talks with me. I must put my feelings and then listen carefully to
confirm.
In a research study, Bodie and Gearhart found that attention and focus on another individual is
associated with the verbal and social skill and an individual can more influence by effective
conversational partner.
As my supervisor do not think that I’m very much focused or pay attention on my work.
Effectiveness or useful – I use this attention factor in my behaviour as it will improve my
personal communication and get positive results. It will be useful in retaining the memory
because all information must have maintained if an individual use this listening process. In this
skill, there are uses of different theories and principles that must help to the listener (Oden,
2017).
Time Management –this is a process of organising and planning how to divide time between
specified activities, the good time management will enable the person to work smarter and not
harder. It is the systematic process of organising the work schedule according to the given task
or assignment. A person can divide his or her time among the specified activities and it allows
the work in a smarter way. Everyone has limited time such as twenty-four hours and wants to
manage all activities in the prescribed time frame so that they are able to accomplish all tasks
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(Pan, Gruber and Binder, 2019). In this context, a person becomes successful, if he or she will
be capable to manage their time schedule. According to the Pareto's theory, 80% of work can be
accomplished in 20% of the available time and remaining 20% of work will take up 80% of the
time. It is normally used in sorting all tasks into two parts. This 20-80 rule can increase the
productivity of an individual who uses it. So for this reason, managing time is not very hard as a
concept but it is difficult to practice.
Importance – Time management is a useful technique for every one because it helps in
removing stress and work load (Valkenburg, 2017). Any person can use it in their work
schedule and get sufficient time for each and every task. I must use it in my daily work and must
ensure about different activities and tasks, which I might get it for accomplishing in the specific
time frame. In this context, I use a priority matrix that will provide me a special plan to do work.
This matrix gives me better understanding about distinction between important and urgent tasks
that might define the key priority of time. It was suggested to me that work is always easy and I
must put my efforts in completing it and how can work be done first and next with the given
time frame and this may show the urgency of work so that I am beneficial for accomplishing all
work.
Self-assessment – I must be always able to manage my time according to my work/tasks and
should know about the importance of time management so that my all the work that will be
accomplished by me further. This will be helping me into assessment of self of strength and
weakness so that I could work on it. It provides me greater productivity and my efficiency
increase at high level by using such skill. It helps in stress control and after managing my time, I
got greater opportunities to achieve important goals and objectives in my career as well as life. It
also protects me from inefficient work flow, poor work quality, advanced stress level, deadline
missing, poor communication and many more. So for this reason, I spent a little time for
learning different techniques in time management and it will provide me huge benefits.
Supervisor- they said that I could assess my own skills and weakness areas.
Perception – Time management must be used to deal with several tasks to attaining the success
and for accomplishing it and must complete it in the right way and all work with in the given
time frame. So for this reason, I often used this skill in my works and prior set goals in the
perfect way so that I will understand the effectiveness of time management. People encourage
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me because of this skill and I also attended their problems in order to satisfy them with my
work. In this process, the first stage of improving my time management is to list properly about
each task that I have to do. It may sound obvious, but speaking from experience, most of my
work used to take more time and had to leave important tasks until the last minute. At the end of
such process, I always created work schedule such as 9:00 am work starts and 6:00 pm work
ends.
As my supervisor do not think that I’m able to manage my work effectively.
Useful in the future - In normal situation, several people do not make a perfect plan for their
multi-tasking schedule because it takes too much time for refocusing on the schedule
(Valkenburg, 2017). So for this reason, I often avoid multi-tasking and accomplish my work as
timely and with better quality. It will be useful in my future and I get the best results in every
sector of my life such as professional, friends, career, family etc. I always make the best
schedule for all my jobs or tasks in my personal as well as official life. For this reason, I always
get better results and I never face any issue related to time unavailability.
Written Communication Skill – this will involve any type of message which makes use of
written word. This is most important and effective mode of business communication which
every professional should have knowledge. It is an ability to communicate everyone for a
particular thing effectively and managing all communication. A person can use it at the work
place and become successful in her or his career. This skill is applying in each level or sector
such as superior level, staff level, employee level, lower level etc. (Writing Skills, 2018) A very
good communication skill will help to achieve success throughout the career and entire life. It
refers to a systematic process in which information is transfer from one place to another place
using different medium of communication such as verbal and non-verbal. Communication must
be written and it may be digital medium such as magazines, websites so that the person who
will need to send any information then it must communicate effectively.
Importance – Written Communication skill is very important approach for each sector because
it has capability to communicate information clearly and accurately as intended (Writing Skills,
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2018). The main reason of developing an effective written communication is to send a message
with an intention of recipient understanding. In a message, if all text is poorly written and its
structure is bad then there must be difficulty in understanding a particular message and
deciphering it. I must use to judge others and concerns with them for a particular aspect.
Self-assessment – It is an essential skill to be used in my assignments and also in career. I can
develop my own personality and also to create my preferences for different things. My written
communication is strong as I could write up business proposals with documentation of them as
well. I used this in my daily tasks and also different sectors of my life and it provides a wide
range of circumstances, situations and environments for growth and development.
Peer- they think that my written communication skill is not as good as once I was not able to
formulate plan effectively.
Perception – I must apply this in my behaviour and people also admitted that my work became
better from past. I worked hard for communicating my own feelings with written
communication to other person in order to get feedback from them and make my individual
growth.
Supervisor- they think that I’m having good ability of written communication skill.
Useful in the future – It is a special skill that renders friendly nature and a person can become
famous by using this skill because it provides better techniques and growth for his or her life. In
any organization, it is required for better communication with everyone (Writing Skills, 2018). I
always get benefits from it and I always communicated my own thoughts or ideas in the best
effective way.
Team working – this is defined to as willingness of group of people to work together as one
team to achieve common goals or aim. It is a force to push ourselves in achieving goals and
targets to improve the overall quality of life (Valkenburg, 2017). According to Daniel Goleman,
working in a team provides a personal drive to achieve desired improvement and meeting
certain standards. In addition to this context, working in a team to get success through several
skilled people is a technique that got practised for encouraging in accomplishing certain goals &
objectives and solves various critical problems. In a team, all individuals work in a combination
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with their personal skills and knowledge to achieve desired goals and objectives.
Importance – It is an important skill that drives me to do several things appropriately. It is a
key component of emotional intelligence that can measure of an individual's ability to manage
its overall workings and recognise their emotions (Valkenburg, 2017). This is very much
important as will enable me to conduct and achieve my team goal even at time when I’ m not
having the responsibility of doing so.
Self-assessment – It must keep positive results and it must have derived from different
occurrence. I get self-motivated from certain things and it will be useful for me in achieving
several tasks that may be difficult. I am accomplishing all my tasks in time with accurately. I
also receive positive feedback in my career and people wants me for their core workings.
Peer- they all think that I’m very good at working as team member as I help them all time
whenever they need my help.
Perception – This skill solves many problems because this will be useful for different types of
people encourage themselves towards work hard and accomplish several tasks. In this context,
Once I get started on something, I will almost get into it and keep going. There will be times
when I have to do things and other people really don’t want to do. Working within a team is
useful for inspiration and I often use it in difficult situations. It is also helpful in setting high but
realistic targets with taking right level of risk.
Supervision- they do not agree with my peer viewpoint, as they think that I could not able to
work as team all the time.
Useful in the future – This skill team working is useful in my future for improving my work
style & strengths and I am also capable to deal with setbacks and continuously handle to pursue
different objectives despite obstacles (Valkenburg, 2017). I learn more things and knowledge
and possess positive attitude in my behaviour. People often say I work hard and get motivated
from my own lessons.
ACTION PLAN
Strength Weakness
time management written communication
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team working
focus & attention
According to all above four skills, an individual must know about his or her attitude and
behaviour so that he or she can make improvement in his personal career and life. These four
skills: time management, written communication, team working and focus & attention are useful
for the development of each person in his or her personality.
It is an essential part of daily life and it is useful in maintaining records of any business
transactions. To make the best action plan, an individual must manage all his or her different
sector of personal and social life that requires improvement. In this context, the core skills are
personality, behaviour, relationship with others and understanding human nature.
It can be powerful in maintaining discipline that may support to that messages that are
being understood. These techniques are paying attention, deferring judgements, giving feedback
and responding appropriately so it will must in an individual's behaviour and support to his or
her growth.
A person may be aware for other's nature by using all these skills because such skills
must have trained him or she in the development and that person is also capable to work with
others. Such core abilities are continuously maintaining mental effort because it is useful in
growth with using several techniques while conducting the tasks that needed an intellectual force
and the capability to suppress action or thought in an individual.
It is also useful in solving problems or misunderstandings that helps in building trust for
someone. So for this reason, it is the perfect thing to understand self and others behaviour by
understanding this report. I used it in my professional life and desire to get promoted in my
career. These skills are an important part of communication. All these features must be
considered by an individual in the listening and get better results.
Skill Specific Measurable ATTAINABLE RELEVANT TIMELY
written
communication
I will be
specifically
improving my
written
This will be
measurable
by positive
feedback
Will be
attainable as I’m
not too bad at
this skill
This is
relevant to my
career
development
2 months
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communication
skill
from
supervisor
and peers
team working I will working
for improving
mu team
working skill
Will be
measurable
with gaining
feedback
from
supervisor
It would be
attainable on
given time.
This will also
be relevant to
my career
development
as I will be
working as
team.
3 months
focus &
attention
I will work to
gain attention
and focus
Will be
measurable
by gaining
feedback
from
supervisor
It would be
attainable on
given time.
I need to be
focused and
pay attention
on all things
which are
related to my
career
development
2 months
CONCLUSION
This completed report is based on self-assessment and understanding other's behaviour.
In this report, four core skills were described that must be possessed in the human nature. I often
spoke in front of group of people and there is always a requirement for better written
communication skills. All such four skills would be always useful in achieving desired goals and
targets. These are also helpful for my own growth and development.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Campbell, S.B., Northrup, J. and Brownell, C.A., 2017. Developmental changes in empathic
concern and self-understanding in toddlers at genetic risk for autism spectrum
disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 47(9), pp.2690-2702.
D'Entremont, B., Yazbeck, A. and Morgan, A., 2017. Early gaze-following and the
understanding of others. In Gaze-Following (pp. 89-106). Psychology Press.
Maslach, C. and Leiter, M.P., 2016. Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and
its implications for psychiatry. World psychiatry, 15(2), pp.103-111.
Oden, M.S., 2017. Understanding human behavior.
Pan, N.D., Gruber, M. and Binder, J., 2019. Painting with all the colors: The value of social
identity theory for understanding social entrepreneurship. Academy of Management
Review, 44(1), pp.213-215.
Valkenburg, P.M., 2017. Understanding self-effects in social media. Human Communication
Research, 43(4), pp.477-490.
Online
Writing Skills. 2018. [Online] Available through
<https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/WritingSkills.htm>
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