University Reflective Personal Development Report and Action Plan

This report is a reflective personal development report analyzing core skills in a business psychology context. It begins with an introduction to psychological approaches to understanding self and others in the workplace. The report then includes three reflective journals, each focusing on a core skill: time management, teamwork, and conflict resolution. Each journal explores the importance of the skill, its relevance to the author's future career, and potential contradictions. A personal SWOT analysis is used to assess strengths and weaknesses. Finally, a summary and action plan identifies areas for development and outlines strategies for improvement, linking these to the reflections from the journal entries. The report emphasizes the application of psychological perspectives in the workplace to improve employee efficiency and productivity.

Reflective Personal Development
Report and Action Plan
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Reflective journals comprising 3 core skills....................................................................................4
Summary and Action Plan...............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendices.....................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Psychology is consider as study of mind and behaviours of an individual. It is basically a
study of functionality of mind and how it affects the behaviour. The mind of a human being is
highly complex and situations which relate to this could be hard to treat. There are number of
ways of thinking regarding how an individual behave. Such different approaches are consider as
perspectives. Different perspectives are available for understanding human nature.
Psychological perspective to understand self is individual's own self concept in order to
understand about who they are what makes them different from others. It can include the social
self, competent self, physical self as well as inner self (Nicol and Dosser, 2016). Self
understanding of individuals is about analysing what motivates their actions. It has been
suggested that the main objective of psychology is to predict and influence the behaviour. It is
important to understand the psychological perspective in a workplace because it comprises of
different individuals. Behavioural, cognitive and humanist approaches can be utilized for
understanding the perspectives.
The Cognitive Approach
It is generally a dominant perspective for a good reason. It put focus on how an
individual think. It states that individuals thought process effect the way in which they behave.
Cognition can be define as mental activity which consist of remembering thinking learning and
utilizing language. It helps to understand mental process like perception, attention, memory and
decision making. Thus, this approach can be used in an organisation in order to analyse the
behaviour of employees and their contribution in organisational operations.
The Behavioural Perspective
It is a psychological perspective regarding how behaviours of individuals has been
learned. It determines how an individual react to certain stimuli in a particular place which
reflects the behaviour (Redmond, 2017). It usually deals with the observable and measurable
aspects of human being. Thus in a work place such kind of perspectives can be use in order to
evaluate the mood of an individual by observing his/her physical expressions. It is necessary in
an organisation in order to maintain calm and smooth environment.
The Humanist Paradigm
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It is a psychological perspective which determines the uniqueness of an individual. It help
an individual to understand his/her own perspectives and opinions. In a workplace it will help the
supervisors to identify the nature of each an every individuals and they get to know thinking
skills of their employees.
Reflective journals comprising 3 core skills
The core skills which are required to attain the highest efficiency and productivity of the
employee as well as the organisation have been employed during or before the task to maintain
the smooth working of the industry or the organisation. Some of the skills have been described
below.
Time management : According to me, time management has been considered as an
essential skill so as to accomplish the given objective and aim, in the provided time framework.
The time management comprises the plan in which it has been organised and executed depending
upon the specified activities (Nicolaidou, Karagiorgi and Petridou, 2016). Thus, it is a process of
designing and planning ways to control time applied to attain a goal or aim, especially to
enhance productivity and efficiency.
Such core skill, if planned effectively leads in accomplishing the task in less time of
period, which in turn gave me free time to learn and explore other opportunities to reduce the
stress which assist in focussing and concentrating to upgrade the success level. The importance
of time management is immense, this include in improving the power to make decision in more
perspective and better way. Good time management practices, delivers such power in making the
list which further aids in analysing and comparing the merits and demerits of the goal, which
improves the ability to control and make the decisions in a controlled and effective manner. Once
the control of time has been settled and learned the ability to focus on more broad and wide
parameters enhances. With such improved skill, people do not lose their momentum and solve
the issues and objectives of tasks more quickly. The appointments and deadlines which are
required to be kept in track are made easily manageable by dividing the work in the categories
according to the time required to complete the task.
The practices is contradicted when large project emerge and the time provided is less.
Though, by using the To- do list aids in prioritising the tasks and proper action plan assist in
managing the important project depending upon their urgency and requirements. Procrastination
has also been considered as a contradiction in delivering good time management practices. Such
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habit make an individual to set the important task aside which needs proper concentration and
focus. However, multitasking also delays in organising and planning the aim because the people
gets confused between many ongoing things which results in lowering the productivity of
organisation.
I consider that time management has great relevance in my future career as it assist in
accurately prioritising the aims and objectives of task in the provided time. This practice makes
an individual learn to stick and manage according to the prior identified schedule. As the tasks
are attained on time, the level of stress got reduced and the saved time was used in other career
activities. This skill helped me to get organised and aided in managing the outer time wasters for
improving and enhancing the effectiveness of the work.
Team work : The collective efforts taken by the members of team for attaining the
common goal and aim of organisation refers to as team work. The people working in an
organisation are inter dependent when working in a team and this collective and collaborative
attempts leads in achieving the common goal and enhancing the processing of worker and the
company (Coghlan and Coughlan, 2018). The team work skill is important in thriving business
where it has been showed that the involvement of diverse team members contribute in adding
new ideas and unique concepts for the betterment of organisation and for improving the quality
of work which is being conducted in industry or any organisation.
The importance of team work is broad and assist in motivating the team members to work
in unity in the workplace. Such close and loyal relationship aids in aligning the workers to work
hard and support each other so as to accomplish the aim. The skill also helps in covering or
overlapping the weakness of an individual with the strengths of other person to attain the goal in
most effective and united way. The team work also offer feedbacks and definite perspectives for
achieving more approaches in order to solve the problem with more creativity and vision. The
Belbin team role has been regarded as an impressive way to assess the most relevant strengths
and weaknesses of each member of the team. This model helps in understanding the ways and
measures which can be implemented to improve the function and the role of the team members.
According to the Belbin, there are three roles, namely, shaper, implementer and completer which
are simultaneously involved in the action oriented plan.
The habit of limiting the communication among the team worker has been considered as
the biggest contradiction in team working. The open and daily basis communication and
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interaction is required to establish a strong relationship between the team members which in turn
aids in accomplishing the common task smoothly. Dull and less enthusiastic team is considered
as less productive to the company, thereby more fun activities should be encouraged to lessen the
struggle of the employee and building the careers.
I have came across that the skill of collective team work helps in emerging new concepts
and ideas which result in improving the efficacy of the team members and employee working in
any organisation. The united and collective work improves the quality of the work and decreases
the chance of any error by a single or a group of people. The morale of the team members has
been showed to get boosted when the work done by them are valued and successful result make
the organisation productive. The abilities to work in team makes the practices more cohesive and
attained when seen in respect to the efficiency and affectivity of the organisation. Such measure
increases the opportunities in learning more about the working of company and the job
responsibility of oneself for attaining better results in future goals and acquired aims.
Conflict resolution : The conflict resolution is the way any disagreement or argument is
resolved between the parties by finding most reasonable and peaceful solution. It has been seen
that once the conflict had arise, the most preferred course of action is to make both the parties
negotiates on there terms so as to resolve the arguments. The conflict resolution is regarded as a
method of ending the retribution in the most effective manner (Zwozdiak-Myers, 2018). I need to
develop such skill because the goals whether they are small or large can never be attained and
accomplished if there is any issue or conflict among the team workers or among the junior and
subordinates. Such conflicts affects the relationship between the employees, thereby lowering the
effectiveness of decision making and weakens the process of acquiring the predefined goal.
The importance of resolving the conflicts aids in reducing the disruptions. It has been
observed that the worker having poor power of resolving issues tends to build tension which may
get transmitted to the other employees, thereby lowering the morale of the team member. The
training sessions made to resolve the conflicts has been showed to decrease the disruption for
making the environment better and friendly. By resolving the interrelated issues the relationship
between the team members has been made strong and more respectful and professional bond has
been developed between the co workers so as to attain high end goals and aims which are
required for gaining and uplifting the economic status of organisation.
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Considering the concept of Thomas-Kilmann conflict model, it has been analysed that
there are several ways which can be used to resolves the conflicts to perform the tasks
effectively. It includes the criterion of number of options such as competing, accommodating,
avoiding, compromising and collaborating in relation to solve present issue accordingly.
However, this model is much effective for me as it can be utilised to deal with conflict situations
which facilitate to avoid specific negative impacts of the same on performance. Moreover, it is
necessary for me to utilise effective models and frameworks which are favourable to improve my
skills.
Summary and Action Plan
Analysis of strength and weakness can also be known as personal SWOT analysis.
Evaluating own strength and weakness can reveal what could be the next best step and how can
an individual can improve his/her skills. It help n overall development of an individual. It is
important to know strength and weakness. Knowing of strength an weakness will help in to
develop a better understanding of oneself. Strength help in to move forward in life and knowing
weakness will help to improve skills and gives solution to many tough situations.
The Cognitive Approach is a theory which can be utilize in knowing strength an
weakness of a person and help them to improve their skills and behaviours.
Strengths:
Working effectively within a team is my personal strength. It is my strength as I
contribute in a team with my whole potential and try to be a active member by sharing my
personal opinions and thoughts regarding any situation. Belbin theory help me to develop a
better self understanding of my own strength which will help to build communication skills with
my collogues and mangers.
Weaknesses:
My own personal weakness is that several times it found it difficult to mange time to do
tasks. I am not able to analyse how much time it will take to complete a particular task and thus
it effect my overall performance. Goal Setting Theory will help me to overcome this weakness
and help me to manage time and to increase my performance.
Personal Development Plan
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Developmen
t area
Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely
Time
management
It is one of
my
weakness
that I need
to improve
I would
improve this
by increasing
my work
capacity.
In my own
organisation
I would try
to work
more than
my capacity
so that it can
help me to
mange time.
Actions
such as
measuring
the time and
deciding
fixed time
for
particular
task will
work.
It must be
completed by
next two months.
As it will take
some time to
mange my
weakness.
Team
working
It is my
strength and
I give best
in this
particular
personal
skill.
I ask to my
supervisors at
my workplace
and they give
a positive
response.
It is
attainable
most of the
time. It is
my best
personal
skill.
Communica
tion with my
team
members
and my own
personal
contribution
for the
growth of
team.
It doesn't require
any time.
However, still I
will try to
enhance my this
particular skills
as soon as
possible.
Conflict
resolution
It can also
be consider
as a strength
of mine as I
usually do
not get
indulge in
such kind of
To measure
such skill I
will ask my
relatives,
friends and
supervisors at
my work
place.
It is easily
attainable
and I would
learn some
strategies to
resolve such
conflicts.
I will try to
solve
disputes
between my
friends and
also at my
workplace.
I will learn such
particular skill in
sometime as I
need to analyse
what skills are
need to be
developed in
order to solve
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activities. conflicts.
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been analysed that skills are abilities are required to be
evaluated to determine strong and weak skills. It includes to carry out threats on own capabilities
according to which effective cation plan can be established to foll the same. However, effective
strategies and actions should be applied to overcome with weak skills for gaining better
outcomes. Moreover, it is essential to utilise effective and suitable models including Beblin
theory, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict and many more.
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References
Books and journals
Nicol, J.S. and Dosser, I., 2016. Understanding reflective practice. Nursing Standard
(2014+), 30(36), p.34.
Redmond, B., 2017. Reflection in action: Developing reflective practice in health and social
services. Routledge.
Nicolaidou, M., Karagiorgi, Y. and Petridou, A., 2016. Feedback-based coaching towards school
leaders’ professional development: Reflections from the PROFLEC project in
Cyprus. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 5(1), pp.20-36.
Coghlan, D. and Coughlan, P., 2018. Developing organizational learning capabilities through
interorganizational action learning. In Current topics in management (pp. 33-46).
Routledge.
Zwozdiak-Myers, P., 2018. The teacher's reflective practice handbook: Becoming an extended
professional through capturing evidence-informed practice. Routledge.
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Appendices
Appendix A: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ENTRY PRO-FORMA
(Each journal entry must be presented on this pro-forma)
What is the core skill to develop?
Coordinated team work, time management and power to resolve conflicts are some
core skills which should be developed.
Why did I select this skill to reflect on? Why is this core skill important for your
development (personal and professional)? (use relevant theories and concepts
from psychology and business to support your answer)
Collective and coordinated team work are the skills which I have selected. Such work
not only benefits the company by increasing the productivity in less time but also
enhance the self confidence and communication power. I have used Belbin team role
to support the role of team work.
Reflect on your current competence regarding this skill. How did you assess
your competence? (use your self-assessment findings, feedback from peers
and your tutor, plus your own reflections on your thoughts, feelings and
behaviours to answer this question)
Currently, I think that my ability to resolve conflicts and working in team collectively
has been levelled up. The positive feedbacks of manager and peers as well as self
realisation made me realise the current competence of such skills.
Can you identify any contradictions from your analysis above? For example, is
there a match between how you see yourself and how others see you, or not?
Procrastination and multitasking sometimes make the work delay, which later obstruct
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the completion of task in time.
How might this skill help me in the future? (use references to support your
argument)
The future aspect of time management, conflict resolution and team work aids in
effective and efficient working, which allow to accomplish the aims and goals at the
give time frame and can be used in any work domain.
Appendix B: Project Checklist
You are strongly advised to look through this checklist before you submit your project
Main body of your project
You have created a title page which includes your name, the module code and
the word count
Yes
You have answered part one, which includes an introduction, and 3 reflective
journals (3 pro-formas (appendix A)
Yes
The 3 entries in your reflective journal are 3 different skills Yes
You have reflected upon the feedback you have received on your draft pro-
forma, and improved your reflections as a result
Yes
You have provided a summary of your strengths and weaknesses Yes
Using a structured approach such as SMART you have identified three (3)
areas of personal development and you have demonstrated how you plan to
deal with your weaknesses in preparation for year 2 of your study
Yes
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