PS4S26 - Reflective Essay: Enhancing Project Management Skills

This essay provides a reflective analysis of the author's personal skill development, specifically focusing on communication skills acquired during college, which are deemed essential for project management. The author discusses previous communication challenges, the importance of effective communication in a professional setting, and strategies for improvement, including seeking feedback and developing emotional intelligence. The essay also touches on the broader aspects of interpersonal skill management, such as conflict resolution and team synergy, highlighting the significance of communication in leadership roles and overall career advancement. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and solved assignments for students.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Assignment Part A:
Personal Skills Acquired in College
I have identified that I have acquired Communication skills in the new college.
Before entering the college and before enrolling in the course I had weak
communication skills but my skills gradually improved after I strated the course and
completed it. Communication is the process by which people exchanges different kinds
of information by speaking, writing or by using other forms of medium. It is a two way
process where there is always a sender and a receiver. Communication skill is the most
essential skill that has been acquired by me during the completion of the course. As we
all know, the basic requirement for project management is an effective communication
skill. The presence of a proper communication skill can help me out in my future
endeavors. Communication will not be effective once the person with whom I
communicate cannot understand me. The basic understanding in such a case is very
much necessary to start the project or take the project to another level. Frequent and
effective communication will ensure that each and every one is on the same page and
help me to avoid any kind of uncomfortable conversations in the future. From the
perspective of the clients with whom I will be communicating in the future,
communication of the project details in writing along with a periodic status report is
absolutely essential as it will help to reinforce the message and also build a rapport. The
key interpersonal management communication skill will be to master the ability to listen
and be clear and ensure about my own understanding in this regard. The time when
information flows with the right messaging, at the right time, to the right person, through
the right channel, almost any hurdle can be overcome.

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My Earlier Problems in Communication
There was a time before my entry into the college when I was extremely feared
of normal communication with different persons. My introvert nature made me shy to
interact with the people and learn new things. I seldom spoke with others and often
feared to and was equally unable to match new environments. This was one of the
largest problems in my life as my parents feared my future as they were concerned
about me on my behavior in a workplace after I receive a job. However my new course
on interpersonal skills totally changed me and made me self dependent and extrovert in
nature. The change in my behavior and nature was thus one of the most awaited
welcome changes that can easily change my future.
Importance of Communication Skill
I believe that Communication skill will be one of the most important as well as the
valuable subject that will actually help me to sustain all the adversities and the
difficulties that will be presented to me by the corporate world. I can reflect that I have
acquired a very strong communication skill which I have improved by attending sessions
and reading books as well as watching videos on communication skills development. It
is utmost important for me to acquire critical as well as strategic skill as because
communicating properly helped me to be unique as well as presentable in the
competitive market. Such a characteristic will also ensure me to easily climb the ladder
of the business world easily and survive the different kinds of threats in the competitive
world. Having a well polished and smart communication skill offers a wide range of
choices in different industries that are operational in different economical sectors.
Communication Skill, acquired by me during my course of stay in the college, according

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to me is the largest skill that will help me in the future just because of the enormous
scope it presents. The vastness of communication lies in the fact that it covers a large
number of skills starting from the likes of interacting with different individuals, cultivation
of a positive outlook, understanding other persons, controlling the emotions,
management of communication, practice active talking, being assertive and showing
interest in the colleagues and speaking in a proper and organized manner. This can be
seen as really good prospects for my career. These exciting prospects on learning
communication skills were the main reasons behind my selection of Interpersonal skill
Management as the basis of my study. Apart from my own choice I also got influenced
by some of my seniors who gave me extensive and useful tips on the bright prospect
offered by the industry to a person having tremendous communication skills. The field of
Interpersonal skill Management is one of the most interesting fields and as said earlier I
have been able to learn a lot of different things from the course and the concepts of skill
management. However, learning proper and effective communication from this
particular course will surely be one of the greatest assets of my professional career
which will be used by me in the coming days and will act as the basic skill for me to get
a job with a respected designation. Having great communication skills can help me to
take matured and improved decisions once I get into a job. Apart from such the means
of communicating properly will also help me to judge the others in the workplace and
have a basic idea of the people and the working environment. Another important thing
which I have learned from my stay in the college is that communicating effectively can
help to deal with different situations calmly and will also make me capable of negotiating
and striking a right deal. The formal study of the interpersonal skills has helped me to

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strengthen my skills in the area of strong communication. An effective theoretical
management will allow me to gain a better view of the Communication perspective and
will make me one of the experts in the following field. I am on the path to become a
Human Resource manager and with the completion of the following course I have been
able to understand the various complexities and intricacies linked with communication
and ways to talk and deal with different kinds of people. I am sure that the knowledge
gain from this course would definitely help me in short term and long term in my career.
I can reflect that I have formed an action plan to improve my communication
skills. I first approached my peers, colleagues and my professors to obtain their views
on my communication skills. Some of the respondents pointed out that I have strong
communication skills while others pointed out flaws like impulsive nature and lack of
diversity management skills, especially while communicating with people from different
backgrounds. As far as I am concerned my exposure in the following field and my
knowledge in the following field, I have came to know about the gradual growth of the
demand of the role of operations and especially project manager in each and every
business organizations. The companies operating in the market have been providing
excellent business opportunities in higher management roles on start of the career in
different kinds of roles on interpersonal skills. The presence of a number of different skill
learning like patience, being an active listener, managing a large group of people are
different reasons that had attracted me more towards the skills of interpersonal
management. Considering interpersonal skill management as a discipline of science it
has helped me to learn a number of tools like preparing the plans of how to keep quite
in tense situations, estimating the cause and finding the root of problems, estimating the

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plans of the future, management of different problems just on time, different kinds of
cost constraints as well as different kinds of technical growth. The field of my study has
always been entertaining and appealing and the vast range of activities in it has been
divided into a number of different areas. As said earlier the management of the projects
involves a number of subjects, it has been helpful for me to learn about different things
related to art. Some of them included, the skills acquired by me on how to communicate
with different people and manage them in the workplace who generally comes from
different kinds of cultures and are totally different in mindsets and their thoughts. This
particular skill has been helpful for me to get a practical knowledge of managing people
by judging them and then tying them in a particular line of trust within the workplace of
the organization. On the other hand I have also been able to develop my
communication skills during my course as interpersonal skills management will itself
involve the likes of the determination of the budgets, calculating the days and many
other complicated problems that clearly comes under the management of skills Apart
from this it also helps in the development of the soft skills by teaching about conflict
management and how to get well along with the people in bringing synergy among the
team. Last but not the least the course on communication has also helped me to
develop myself and my emotional quotient. The importance of emotional quotient
cannot be denied especially when it is one of the most important requirements for
professional growth in the modern era. Overall my skills in communication will help me
in my future prospects and make me one of the best employees in the workplace. The
interpersonal skill gained by me can also help me to acquire an important post like that
of manager, supervisor or any other officer in the future.

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As said earlier, in current times of aggressive budgets and timelines whereby the
deadlines are getting shorter with huge pressure of delivering more in less,
Communication is ought to be the key as well as to play an indispensible role in the
modern day industry. I can point out that improvement in the communication skills
developing courses have helped me to communicate with different personnel within the
operations team. The communications skills have been effective in enabling me to
interact with specialists from different fields like computers and fine arts on behalf of the
BCC. The following course has also helped me to understand how to motivate the team
and help everyone to realize their true potential and thus develops leadership traits in
me also which will be helpful for me in getting the leadership position in the long run. I
think Interpersonal skills management is incomplete without the extensive study of
Communication. Therefore, it is important that any course of interpersonal skill
management must have the focus on communication. Another important skill that
should have mentioned by me earlier was the course on digitally managing
Communication. The digital management of communication has been one of the most
important additions in my skills as its absence can even lead me to rejections from most
of the business firms that engages in any kinds of projects and are perfectly suited for
me. A great Human Resource manager according to me is the blend of competence,
experience and excellent communication skills which have been developed by me when
I along with other mates completed practical courses on projects and learned how to
develop and manage works effectively in order to complete it in the most effective
manner. When I imagine myself as a Human Resource manager, I generally remember
about the bad reputation of the managers in this case as people often express their

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unenlightened thoughts on what we do. Most of the people generally have the idea that
Human Resource managers have to be at their best of communication in order to solve
all the queries related. Properly communicating with the people can help improve the
bad reputation. While that’s true, anyone who’s ever managed such a role knows there
is far more to Human Resource management than being a tin pot dictator who barks out
orders to the team and then returns to their desk for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. In
fact one has to make all the necessary arrangements to properly communicate with the
people. My skills tells me that as a manager of communication, I will have the capability
to work through the knowledge on the application of the knowledge, skills, tools as well
as to apply different kinds of techniques in order to complete the communication
accordingly and meet the requirements of the people. The definition of the management
of the different kinds of projects succinctly communicates the ideas that my future job if
the case might be as a communications manager demand that we possess varied
competencies, one of which is skills. Yes, we must be knowledgeable; yes, we must
have the right tools; but critically, I must know how to apply the exact techniques to the
different kind of the projects.
I have been able to gather important communication skills from the course on
operations that I completed. Some of them can be said to be one of the main
characteristics in these regards are as follows;
Leadership Skills-
The very first thing that I was familiar with after the completion of the course on
operations management and specifically Interpersonal skills Management has been the
knowledge of leading teams and being a leader who shows the way. The leadership

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roles clearly mean to lead the way and manage different teams, setting the vision for the
organization and also to motivate the team by coaching them and by inspiring them on
the lines of the organizational duties. If in my career I become a manager it will be my
duty to lead the team from both a strategic and operational perspective. In such a case I
have to communicate the vision and mission of the organization with the employees
who will be working under my guidance. The communication of the vision and mission
along with the goals of the organization is necessary for the organization to resolve
conflict and set out a group of individuals who are easily trusted by the organization.
The key management leadership skill is to make sure that I lead as an example and to
make sure that people just does not recognize me as a leader. Therefore it is important
for me to apply my communication skill in these regards to be a leader.
Planning Skills-
During my course I have seen all of my professors and my educators stressing
on the proper scheduling of the different projects as because the maintenance of a
proper schedule can ensure the success of the project and ensure the Our ability to
organize tasks in the right order, to hit the right outcome at the right time is a major part
of our jobs as communication manager. It is absolutely critical that as communication
managers, we must know the proper scheduling and reciprocate the information to the
other parties or the stakeholders in the workplace. Proper planning and conveying the
proper information can be said to be one of the most important elements that need to be
completed by the communications manager. It is the duty of the communications
manager to get an exact detail of different plans and programs of the organization or the
workplace and communicate the same in the right time and the right place to the

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people. Communication of the planning is thus one of the most important parts of the
total process. The extent to which I will be able to plan and communicate effectively will
directly have an impact on the ability of the company to be successful.

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Assignment Part B: Report:
Introduction:
Operations management refers to designing and controlling of the operations of
companies to ensure that the production activities commence so as to meet the
operational requirements of organisations. Hitt, Xu and Carnes (2016) define the term
operations management as the process of planning, organizing and supervising the
production of goods and services. It can be pointed out that educational institutes,
especially the higher educational institutes provide a vast array of courses right from
arts to hospitality management. Moreover, they are have to team up with professional
organisations to offer placements to their students. It is evident here the the operations
of educational institutes cover diverse areas and require efficient management to
ensure that they are able to provide quality education to their students. The positions of
operations managers is a very critical position in these educational organisations.
Operations managers employed with educational institutes have to manage diverse
areas of operations like management of the diverse educational courses as well as
administrative areas. Renowned educational institutes in order to ensure high level of
educational and administrative operations employ trained operational managers. The
aim of the report would be to examine the job description of Senior Manager for
Caribbean Examination Council. The report would be based on a job advertisement for
senior manager advertised on the leading online recruitment portal of cxc.org. The
operations manager would work with the Barbados Community College (BCC) which is
one of the most colleges based in the Barbados. Since there is no such vacancy at the
BCC at present, the advertisement would give an idea of an actual advertisement. The
study would then advance to explore the operational challenges which the the

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successful candidates selected for the post of senior manager. This would be
followed by pointing out how these candidates would advance to counteract
these challenges and issue to establish themselves as efficient operations
managers.
Examination of job description of position of operation manager:
The advertisement floated on cxc.org starts with a job title followed by
information like division, department/unit location of employment. The aim of this section
is to educate the prospective applicants about the job in the organisation. The
advertisement in this section would establish the brand power of the Barbados
Community College as an employer. This is followed by job summary and key duties
and responsibilities which helps the candidates to judge their own professional goals
against the operational requirements of Barbados Community College (Nolan and
Garavan 2016). An analysis of this section would show that by encouraging the
candidates to reflect on their professional goals the company actually seeks to establish
strategic fit between the candidate or prospective employee and the educational body.
Hollenbeck and Jamieson (2015) point out in this respect that the establishment of
strategic fit with employees enable employers to retain employees for larger tenure.
This enables the educational institutes to form concrete strategies since complex
business strategies require integration of several operational areas like student
management and financial operations. Thus, by establishing a high level of strategic
fit the global college is able to align its human resources with its future education
operational requirements. That is why the college aims to acquire competent and
appropriate employees who would serve it for a longer span of time and ensure