Reflective Journal: Business Skills and Personal Development

This document is a student's reflective journal detailing their learning and development throughout a business module. The journal entries cover various topics, including communication skills, leadership styles, employee engagement, business functions, human resource management, and the importance of motivation, innovation, and technology in the workplace. Each entry reflects on the session's discussions, the skills gained, and plans for further development, often referencing academic sources. The student emphasizes the importance of practical application and continuous improvement in areas such as communication, leadership, decision-making, and technical proficiency to enhance their professional growth and career prospects. This journal was created as part of a module and submitted via ULearn.

Introduction:
This template should be used to record your reflections on the weekly sessions.
Please use the spaces provided to reflect on what was discussed in class, what you
gained from the session; did you find the content useful; how can you relate it to your
studies at university as a business student. You will also need to discuss how you
intend to further develop the skills discussed in class. This is a continuous process
and should be completed during the module and not at the end.
In week 8 you will be expected to submit what you have completed so far, via
ULearn, to receive feedback. You will then complete weeks 9 to 10.
The Weekly Reflective Journal will be used in conjunction with your Personal
Learning and Development Plan and Interview to work out the final grade for this
module. The Reflective Journal and PDP will be summatively submitted in week 14
on Blackboard. Submission of all parts of the assessment are required in order to
receive a grade.
The Learning Outcomes for this module are as follows:
 LO1: To identify and use different styles and means of communication within
academic and formal contexts
 LO2: To demonstrate common study skills within a subject specific context
 LO3: To identify academic sources appropriate to the given task
Week 1
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills.
Reflective learning is meant by those learning which students thinking about they have learned,
read and done, in context of the lesson learned which they can apply in practical life. It has
significant value in an individual's life which aims to deliver a clarification and creation of meaning
in context of self. This process allows an individual to recall all the lived experiences and support is
the development of critical skills. These learning involves beliefs, values, fear, attitude,
assumptions and experiencesDuring my learning sessions, I have learned the importance of
communication skills in both personal and professional life. I came to realised that somehow I am
lacking with my communication skills and need to develop for my career and to put my thoughts
upfront so that everyone can understand my concerns. I work on my communication skills
because I was not that confident to talk with others. With a purpose to improve my
communication skills, I started taking online sessions in order listen the perspectives of others and
speaking my own thoughts on something which helps to build my confidence as well. I also started
reading English newspapers to enhance my fluency while talking in English. Moreover, I also focus
on by body language while talking with others as it plays an key role in the communication. I also
improve my tone while taking in order to ensure that it should neither too soft or too loud.

Week 2
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills.
While attending my sessions, I also came to realise the importance of being a good leader in
professional life. I learned about several types of leadership styles such as democratic leadership,
autocratic leadership, delegative leadership, transactional leadership and many more. In this
weak, I learned that developing leadership skills within me is very important in order influences
and lead others. This will help me to promote the efficiency and productivity in work-life. With the
help of leadership skills, I can influence my followers in the company and help to communicate
with my colleagues. It also help me to understand their problems and issues if they are facing in
the organisation. By knowing various types of leadership styles I can alter my style as per the
demand of the situation. I can be a participative leader in which I can encourage the team
members to take active role in the discussion and give value to their opinions as well. I can also be
authoritative leader in order to take crucial and fast decisions all alone. Furthermore, it will help
to be an active listener and effective speaker. I have a plan to develop this skill within me by
taking active participation in all activities, by influencing others, by taking more tasks and projects
for me and completed all in a disciplined way.
Week 3
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills.
In this week, I learned the value of employee engagement in the company. It is all about how to
generate a positive work environment within the organisation. I came to know several types of
strategies for the employee engagement such as reward management, engage across different
channels, good feedback and many more. While discussing all such strategies in the learning
session, I have developed different skills within me such as decision-making skills, communication
skills, critical thinking skills as well as analytical skills. All such skills will not only help to set a clear
goals but also help in the achievement of such goals in an effective way. I would like develop all
such skills by taking parts in various activities in the company, by reading more and more books
and looking for information on different websites and sources.
Week 4
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills.
In this session of learning, I came to know about various functions of business, what are their roles
and responsibilities of each function and what value they deliver to a company. We discussed
about many types of business functions such as human resource management, finance,
marketing, research and development, sales, operations and production department and many
more. I realised that all such business functions plays distinctive role in the company but are
interconnected with each other. By knowing about all such business functions one can put value
to its company and gain a successful market position. While learning about various types of
business functions I developed skills such as effective decision-making skills, reading skills, time-
management skills and so on. I have planned to develop all such skills by taking a management

course such as MBA.
Week 5
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills.
In this point of time, my mentors and teachers talked me about business communication and its
different types. I came to know that communication in business refers to a process in which
information has been shared and communicated within and outside the company. I realised that
there are various types of communication such as upward, downward, external and lateral
communication. I learned that effective communications possesses a special role in any company
as it helps in the smooth functioning of activities. While talked about business communication, I
have learned about the importance of inter-personal skills and management skills. I have planned
to evolve such skills within me by making more and more contact, by making health bond with my
colleagues and by being more socially in the company. By interacting more with my knowns, I can
create various job opportunities for me and it will also me to take another job in the company or
promoting in the present company.
Week 6
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills.
During this week of studying, I came to know about the human resource management and its
strategies. Generally, human resource management deals with the human resources in order
manage them in an effective way within the company. It involves a process of hiring, recruiting,
selecting, directing, organizing, controlling human resources. I understood various types of human
resources strategies such as transparency, social responsibilities, growth opportunities, on-
boarding training and many more. I realised that all such strategies plays a fundamental role in the
development of healthy and positive workplace environment. As I learned in the previous week
about the importance of communication skills, now I learned that problem solving skill is also very
important for an individual for the career advancement. I have planned to create these skills
within me by more concentrating on my colleagues. I listen each and every aspect of them in
order make the final conclusion on it.
Week 7
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills. Use a minimum of one academic source and reference this.
This is my seventh week of learning session and at this time I learned about the business and its
environment. I realised that having critical thinking skills is important for a person in order to
analyse the internal and external factors within the business environment. Business environment
consist of macro and micro factors that affects the business operations and activities. By attending
this session I came to know about how to analyse these environmental factors in the context of
business, what strategies have to be developed in order to know and avoid the negative
influences of such factors on business. By this, I develop self-awareness within me and consider

my own thought process, values and beliefs to understand the environment of business. It assists
me to produce a vision for the critical situation and also I learned that how to tackle critical and
challenging situation in a business setting.
Week 8
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills. Use a minimum of one academic source and reference this.
This journal should be formatively submitted for feedback, via ULearn, at the end of this week.
At this time of my learning, my mentors and teachers were discussed about motivation and the
related concepts and theories of the motivation. I realised that motivation plays a very important
role in the company which determines the performance level of the employees. My mentors told
me about two types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that are used by managers in
the company. Intrinsic motivation deals with the psychological rewards such as recognition or
appreciation, while extrinsic motivation deals with tangible or financial rewards such as
promotion or increased salary. Teachers also talked about the types of motivation that are
positive and negative motivation. Negative motivation can be a punishment while positive
motivation can be promotion. My mentors makes me realise the importance of motivation within
the workplace. In order to improve work performance, motivation plays a imperative role. With
an intent to develop this skill within me, I set small and medium term goals for me in order to get
positive results which help me to motivate in my work (Soltan and et.al., 2020). Also, I started to
focus on my achievements and failures to keep on track and celebrate the positive development
within me.
Week 9
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills. Use a minimum of one academic source and reference this.
It is my 9th week of learning session in which my mentors talked about innovation and technology.
They make realise the importance of IT skills in the professional life. In the modern era of
technologies, every company need to adopt advanced technologies to get the success in the
particular area or field. With an aim to improve technical skills within me I started reading
technical concepts and books and exploring online tutorials. Moreover, in order to learn the IT
skills within me I got a subscription on various channels and taking online session related with new
technologies. I examined the requirement and implement what is necessary to achieved. To gain
the knowledge about upgraded technologies and their related advantages will help to get my
dream job and build my career in the selected field.
Week 10
Please describe in less than 200 words what was discussed in this session and how you plan to
develop these skills. Use a minimum of one academic source and reference this.
This is my week 10 of learning session in which I came to know about the significance of customer
service department in a company. They are the base of any company who represents the brand

on their behalf. The main target of this department is to improve the brand image in the mind of
customers so they do not go for other brand in the market. For a customer representative, it is
very important to communicate well with the clients and customers and more importantly to
listen and solve their queries and issues related product or service or with brand. As English is a
universal language and it is used in every field in the whole world. I planned to improve my
fluency in English in order to understand the accent of customers and to communicate well with
them. It can be done by taking English learning classes and by communicating more with my
friends, team mates and my family member in English language.
Personal Development Plan
Name: Degree pathway:
Student Number:
Part 1 – Personal Analysis
Strengths Areas for further development
Opportunities Threats
Part 2 - Setting goals
What do I want
to learn?
What do I have
to do?
How will I measure
success?
Target date for
review?
Part 3 – Personal Objectives
Short-term goals (next 12 months)
Medium term goals (next 2-3 years)
Longer term goals (beyond 3 years)

REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Kucirkova, N., 2021. Digital Personalized Learning: Conceptualization, Operationalization and Impact.
Soltan, G. and et.al., 2020, May. System to Support Personalized Learning. In 2020 Ural Symposium
on Biomedical Engineering, Radioelectronics and Information Technology (USBEREIT) (pp. 492-495).
IEEE.
Szabó, I. and Vas, R., 2019, August. Vacancy Mining to Design Personalized Learning Analytics for
Future Employees. In International Conference on Electronic Government and the Information
Systems Perspective (pp. 58-69). Springer, Cham.
Baruth, O. and Cohen, A., 2021, July. Increasing Student Satisfaction with a Personality-Based
Personalized Learning Path. In EdMedia+ Innovate Learning (pp. 1074-1081). Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Buettner, R., Klenk, F. and Ebert, M., 2020, July. A systematic literature review of machine learning-
based disease profiling and personalized treatment. In 2020 IEEE 44th Annual Computers, Software,
and Applications Conference (COMPSAC) (pp. 1673-1678). IEEE.
Hui, Y. K., Kwok, L. F. and Ip, H.H., 2021. CRESDA: towards a personalized student advisory for
professional development. Interactive Learning Environments, 29(2), pp.329-342.
Ciolacu, M. and et.al., 2018, October. Education 4.0-Artificial Intelligence assisted higher education:
early recognition system with machine learning to support students' success. In 2018 IEEE 24th
International Symposium for Design and Technology in Electronic Packaging(SIITME) (pp. 23-30).
IEEE.
Damstra, G., Exalto, R. and Remmerswaal, I., 2019, June. What teachers want from digital
educational tools for personalized learning. In EdMedia+ Innovate Learning (pp. 536-540).
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Thompson, J. R. and et.al., 2018. Expanding inclusive educational opportunities for students with the
most significant cognitive disabilities through personalized supports. Intellectual and Developmental
Disabilities, 56(6), pp.396-411.
Gkontzis, A. F., 2019. A big data analytics framework to support adaptive and personalized learning
environments.