Reflective Report: Business Communication Skills, Barriers, and Growth

This report is a reflective analysis of business communication, focusing on the application of Gibbs' reflective cycle to assess communication skills in a professional context. The report begins with an introduction to business communication and its importance, followed by a description of the internship experience where the student had the opportunity to develop their communication skills. The 'Feeling' section explores the student's initial emotions and experiences with the reflective process. The 'Evaluation' section identifies key communication skills, including listening, writing, and presentation skills, and assesses their importance in both professional and personal life. The 'Analysis' section highlights the student's strengths, such as strong listening skills, and weaknesses, such as a lack of confidence and empathy, and also discusses barriers to effective communication. The report concludes with an action plan to overcome communication challenges and improve overall communication skills.

BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Description.............................................................................................................................1
Feeling....................................................................................................................................2
Evaluation...............................................................................................................................2
Analysis..................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................4
Action plan.............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business communication refers to sharing information within and outside an organisation
between people that is used to promote a product, service or organisation with the goal of
making sale. Communication is the progression of emotional expressing reactions, send and
receive messages, reach common thoughtful and improve connections. The study aims to
evaluate effective business communication by using reflective cycle of Gibbs including six steps
that will include various learning styles, communication skills and barriers to the communication
in the organisation as well as in personal life.
Main Body
Description
Communication can be seen as the most essential part of our lives because living without
communication we cannot express our needs, wants and understand the other's need. I
encouraged during my selection in the internship of 6 months during my semester and I found an
individual should have specific communication skills and found the opportunity to assess and
develop my communication skills (Gibbs' Reflective Learning Cycle, 2019). The first day I
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Illustration 1: Gibbs' Reflective Cycle
(Source: Gibbs' Reflective Learning Cycle, 2019)

entered in the company, I had no idea how much I was going to learn about myself or how I
grow. Though I studied Business communication in my college but this helped me in analysing
what I experienced I real life. I am going to reflect my personal communication and the role of
effective communication skills. Also, I am going to address different communication method and
the impact of the methods in the organisation. For identifying effective communication style I
used various books, real world examples.
Feeling
I remember that during this own assessment, my feeling is mix of confusion, surprise,
excitement. In the beginning I found the reflection to be difficult as well as confusing however
with the steps things are getting clear to me (Boyle, Carpenter and Mahoney, 2017). I feel glad to
be working with my wonderful team members and In the research, my mentor, colleagues were
helped me that made the whole process easy. After analysing my weaknesses I got very
encouraged to convert my weaknesses into my strength It allowed me to identify my strength
that are my best skills as well as weaknesses that need to be improve for working effectively in
organisation.
Evaluation
I found various communication skills that is important in the organisation as well as in
the personal life. Communication skill can be defined as the ability to use language and express
information. Effective communication skills are critical element in your career and personal
lives. There is most of the communication style were there but on the other and I need to
consider many of the skills that are need to be improve (Brink and Costigan, 2015). It is vital to
have the fluent communication skills with the world regardless facing to anyone. The
communication consists of verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication in my organisation
include; face-to-face communication, over telephone and non-verbal communication include;
Listening skills: I found that being a good listener is one of the best way to be good
communicator. Listing skill is not a passive skill but a receptive skill and it requires as much
attention and mental activity as speaking. I personally experienced that many of the problem new
experienced in our daily lives are because of ineffective listening or lack of listening and like
other skills, listening takes practise. Effective listening make individual able to understand the
whole criteria in the organisation without any confusion and avoid conflicts. Listening skills is
not only important for the personal life it is as essential for the professional life (Husebø,
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O'Regan and Nestel, 2015). It makes the person more patience, allow them to understand things
better in workplace and take decisions accordingly and effectively. This skill further make me
able to understand the mission and goal of the company and what their responsibilities are.
Writing skills: Writing skills are important part of communication within the
organisation. I found out that effective writing skills allow individual to articulate their message
with clarity and ease. In the organisation, it is important in effectively communicating from the
top level management to low level employees and vice versa. I observe that manager as well as
for the human resource of the company have so much benefit of good writing skills as their task
is to write reports, emails, letters, policies, etc. that its subordinates are supposed to read and able
to understand that easily.
Presentation skills: This skill needed confidence and courage to speak in front of a
number of people. This skill have ability to influence the listeners effectively whether in the
organisation or in personal life (Kassem, 2017). I observed that many of the potential individuals
are unable to put their words efficiently whether their thoughts can be useful. I need
improvement in this skill as it is essential part of my future professional life. The presentation
skills makes able to explain ideas to others in that way that make sense and are easy to
understand.
Analysis
Below mentioned are my own strengths and weaknesses:
As per the evaluation done above, I have found out that I am having strong listening
skills which makes me able to understand things easily. Along with it, it makes myself able to
communicate for longer time periods and listen for longer time periods. Good listening skills
have made it able for me to stand as a strong individual who listens and adapts in the given
environment. Also, it makes me able to develop core understanding about the subjects that I am
learning or reading. Good listening skills are one of the strong advantages that I hold.
The weaknesses that I have observed in me includes lack of confidence which makes it
hard for me stand as an individual (Moore and Morton, 2017). It is very challenging for me
showcase my set of skills in front of a group of people. I tend to feel timid and weak while
talking to a number of people. It is important for me to develop my confidence skills in order to
achieve desired growth and success and an individual. Also, I feel having good confidence would
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make me better at my decision making and would help me as an individual to find solutions for
the problems easily.
The other weaknesses that I have observed in me includes empathy. I lack empathy while
talking to people and understanding them (Schartel Dunn and Lane, 2019). Along with it, I do
not show them the way I feel about them. The lack of empathy makes it hard for me to develop
strong relationships with people and make sure I understand them before arriving to any
conclusions. It is important for me to develop empathy in order to achieve required growth and
success and to understand people well. Empathy is one of the core skills that I need for my
personal growth and development.
I noticed that there are some barriers too in the effective communication such as;
Physiological barrier, attitude related barrier, cultural barrier, lack of training, bad listening
habits, gender barrier. These barriers are the negative affection in the context of business
communication.
Conclusion
From the research it had been concluded that effective communication skills for the
development of organisation and of individual as well. I found out that it is crucial to
communicate effectively in negations and to ensure to achieve the goals (Smith and Roberts,
2015). To establish effective business communication, they can use 7C's of effective
communication. Concise, Complete, Conversational, Clear, Considerate, Confidence, Check.
During my internship I got to know that, In the business context communication is
essential to do conversation with shareholder, superiors, peers, subordinates, employees. The
communication skills are essential for my personal and professional development.
Action plan
In order to overcome the challenges while communicating or interacting with other
employees as well as managers in the organisation I focused on various strategies and ways. I
started over interacting with my colleagues. To develop my confidence I will make sure that I am
regularly participating in group discussion and other core activities where I am able to showcase
my skills. It will make it possible for me to develop my confidence skills. Along with it, I have
found out that mostly I feel unconfident while speaking and sharing my ideas (Boyle, Carpenter
and Mahoney, 2017). In order to develop my confidence as a speaker I will make use of
techniques such as speaking with my colleagues, speaking with my seniors and talking to my
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family more and more. I will evaluate at what places I am facing problems during these
situations and will improve my communication accordingly. The next step is to develop
empathy. In order to develop empathy I will learn and understand people more and will develop
required feeling about them. Also, I will help them in situations where they require my help and
would become more compassionate. It will help me to improve my overall empathy (Brink and
Costigan, 2015).
CONCLUSION
From the above reflective report it has been concluded that communication skills are
essential in personal life as well as in professional life. For the reflection, the Gibbs reflective
cycle had been selected and from that model the whole process of the personal experience had
been covered. Further it had been analysed that an individual should have good writing skills,
listening skills, presentation skills that help in development.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Boyle, D. M., Carpenter, B. W. and Mahoney, D. P., 2017. Developing the Communication
Skills Required for Sustainable Career Success. Management Accounting
Quarterly. 19(1). pp.1-1.
Brink, K. E. and Costigan, R. D., 2015. Oral communication skills: Are the priorities of the
workplace and AACSB-accredited business programs aligned?. Academy of Management
Learning & Education. 14(2). pp.205-221.
Husebø, S. E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in
simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing. 11(8). pp.368-375.
Kassem, M. A. M., 2017. Developing Business Writing Skills and Reducing Writing Anxiety of
EFL Learners through Wikis. English Language Teaching. 10(3). pp.151-163.
Moore, T. and Morton, J., 2017. The myth of job readiness? Written communication,
employability, and the ‘skills gap’in higher education. Studies in Higher
Education. 42(3). pp.591-609.
Schartel Dunn, S. G. and Lane, P. L., 2019. Do Interns Know What They Think They Know?
Assessing Business Communication Skills in Interns and Recent Graduates. Business and
Professional Communication Quarterly. p.2329490619826258.
Smith, J. and Roberts, R., 2015. Reflective practice. Vital Signs for Nurses: An Introduction to
Clinical Observations. pp.222-230.
Online
Gibbs' Reflective Learning Cycle. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/301/study-skills/university-study/reflective-practice>.
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