Professional Development: Skill Gaps and Improvements

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Understanding Self and Others
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Table of Contents
Reflective Journal 1..........................................................................................................3
Reflective Journal 2..........................................................................................................5
Reflective Journal 3..........................................................................................................7
Reflective Journal 4..........................................................................................................9
Reflective Journal 5........................................................................................................11
Summary and Action Plan..............................................................................................13
Personal Development Plan...........................................................................................15
Reference list................................................................................................................. 18
Appendix........................................................................................................................ 20
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Reflective Journal 1
What is the core skill to develop?
Teamwork is a major factor contributing to the enhanced efficacy as well as
productivity of an organisation (Driskell et al., 2018). The key skill to be developed in
me is team-working skills. The possession of team working skills in me helps me in
solving problems in whichever team I work in, while fostering learning, creativity and
growth, while blending trust within the team. The development of this skill has helped
in in ensuring better decision-making, communicating with the team members, while
helping me in my career advancement.
Why is this core skill important? Why did I select this skill to reflect on? (use
relevant theories and concepts to support your answer)
The importance of team working skills is applicable for both workers and students.
The attainment of effectualness in workplace within a competitive marketplace is not
possible without proper team performance. At the same time, team-working skills
helped me to bring in new ideas, solving problems, building morale, while increasing
coordination and cooperation. As a result, I consider the core skill to be essential.
However, the development of team working skills needs to be done using certain
theories and I would use the skill to form effectual teams via the use of Tuckman’s
FSNPA model. The Tuckman’s model states five stages for developing teams -
forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning, necessary for developing
teams (Siregar et al., 2018). This theory will help in the formation of effectual teams
in whichever organisation I will be working, because of which I have selected the
skill.
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)
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The assessment of my competence related to team working skills has been done
through self-assessment, own reflections along with feedbacks from tutor and
peers. Reflecting on my performance and self-assessment of my skills indicate that I
have strong team working skills. On the other hand, my tutor and peers also said that
I have good teamwork skills due to my competence in planning and organising,
problem solving, decision-making, conflict resolving and persuasion abilities.
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?
No contradictions have been found between my reflection on my team working skills
and the feedbacks that my peers provided. They are also of the opinion that team-
working skills are my strength.
How might this skill help me in the future? (use references to support your
argument)
According to Khan et al. (2017), possessing team-working skills assists in improving
problem and conflict resolving. This will help me in dealing with the resolving issues
in the workplace. Team working skills will also help in the below ways -
 Increase my creativeness and learning
 Enhance my productivity
 Improve my collaboration and coordination abilities
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Reflective Journal 2
What is the core skill to develop?
The core skill that needs being developed in me is focus and attention. Focus and
attention is not only necessary for me for the personal life and academic life, but also
necessary for the workplace. I need the skill so that they can be concentrating on the
areas on which concentration is needed while being able to perform tasks properly
while accomplishing success.
Why is this core skill important? Why did I select this skill to reflect on? (use
relevant theories and concepts to support your answer)
I refer to focus and attention as a core skill since the presence of these skills is
needed for the execution of tasks in an organisation with perfection while ensuring
that no errors occur in them. These skills is a gateway of thinking for me along with
increasing my mental performance so that decisions can be made faster, problems
can be resolved optimistically and organisational success can be accomplished,
because of which I have reflected over it. I have used the goal setting theory for the
reflection of this skill. This theory states that in order to accomplish a goal, focus and
attention is a key ingredient (Landers et al., 2017). As a result, I reflected on this core
skill, as it will be necessary for accomplishing my work related goals.
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)
I have depended majorly on tutor feedback rather than the peer reviews since the
tutor is the best person who can comment on my focus and attentiveness. In the
recent past, I had been allocated a task for collecting data from a presentation in a
seminar, based on which my tutor assessed me. From the feedback as well as the
findings of my self-assessment, I have found that my current competence relating to
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this skill is poor and major improvements are needed being brought out.
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?
There are no contradictions determined from the above analysis. This is because my
own findings and the feedback provided from the tutor are the same and focus and
attention skill is a weakness of mine.
How might this skill help me in the future? (use references to support your
argument)
This skill will be helpful throughout my career, even in my personal life. According to
Marsick and Watkins (2015), focus and attention helps in reducing work errors while
accomplishing the set goals through increasing quality of work. This is going to be
helpful for me in providing better service to my organisation and improve my career.
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Reflective Journal 3
What is the core skill to develop?
Time management is a basic and core skill that I need developing. This will help me
in attaining my goals in a shorter time span while enhancing career success.
Why is this core skill important? Why did I select this skill to reflect on? (use
relevant theories and concepts to support your answer)
I consider time management as a significant skill since the presence of the skill
lowers stress, ensures productivity and goal achievement along with reducing the
chances of reworks. I can not only accomplish career success with the skill but also
improve my personal life because of effectual time management. I have selected to
reflect over this skill because of the goal setting theory. According to Latham et al.
(2017), the goal setting theory states that one must avoid wasting time over activities
that are not helpful for attaining desired goals. I have often found myself looking for
things that consume a lot of time but are not beneficial or urgent, due to which I
selected time management to reflect upon as a core skill.
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)
I have quite poor time management skills presently. This is because I had been
allocated a task for preparing a presentation on the issues my team is facing in the
workplace and presenting it to the entire team and the supervisors. However, due to
poor time management, I could not finish the presentation in time and it was an
incomplete one. As a result, all my peers and tutors said that I need immediate
improvement on time management. Reflections of mine on my behaviour and
thoughts also point out the same.
Can you identify any contradictions from your analysis above? For example, is
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there a match between how you see yourself and how others see you, or not?
No contradictions have been found between my reflection on my time management
skills and the feedbacks provided. All my peers and my tutors agree with me that I
have poor time management skills.
How might this skill help me in the future? (use references to support your
argument)
Time management skills are necessary for both professional and personal life (Anele
Clement and Don-Solomon, 2017). In future, this skill will be helping me in taking
advantage of the learning opportunities I have while reducing my stress and helping
me in enhancing focus along with improving my career success. I will be able to
prioritise my work and accomplish all deadlines with it.
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Reflective Journal 4
What is the core skill to develop?
I need developing another core skill, which is negotiation. These skills are related to
settling of differences existent among people in an organisation.
Why is this core skill important? Why did I select this skill to reflect on? (use
relevant theories and concepts to support your answer)
I consider this core skill as important, as various conflicts occur in a team and in an
organisation, which have to be solved using negotiation skills. I have selected this
skill to reflect on since during my previous project with a group of 10 people resulted
to differing conflicts and the chaos theory was used to solve it. This theory says that
negotiations can be done through differentiating complex cases from a pure chaos
(Islam and Susskind, 2018). As a result, I could understand how complex situations
can be resolved and reflected on negotiating skills.
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 possess strong negotiating skills. This is because the chaos and conflicts
that occurred in my previous project was entirely solved by me and I played the role
of a negotiator. According to my thoughts and feelings, I reflect that have strong
negotiating skills. My tutor’s feedback also stated that he is impressed with the way I
negotiated the conflict and helped in getting rid of the chaos.
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?
There are no contradictions determined. My own findings and the feedback provided
from the tutor are the same. Both of us have found that negotiating skills are my
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strength.
How might this skill help me in the future? (use references to support your
argument)
Negotiating skills are largely beneficial for workplace for lowering misunderstandings
while tackling tough situations (Hao et al., 2016). This skill will be helpful for me in
future, for rapport building, solving problems, while enhancing productivity and
efficacy through lowering conflicts.
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Reflective Journal 5
What is the core skill to develop?
Public speaking is the core skill needed being developed. I need developing the skill
because it will enhance my self-confidence, help me in getting better jobs, generating
sales, and various other ways.
Why is this core skill important? Why did I select this skill to reflect on? (use
relevant theories and concepts to support your answer)
Public speaking is a core skill and is important since it allows forming connections
and motivating changes. I consider it important because it helps in progressing in the
working world, which is impossible without public speaking. I have selected this skill
depending upon the Dialogic theory. This theory considers that communication
must be a dialogue instead of a monologue (Kent and Lane, 2017). While addressing
the task of preparing a presentation on the issues my team is facing in the workplace
and presenting it to the entire team and the supervisors, I noticed that I was trying to
communicate through a monologue than a dialogue, because of which I selected to
reflect over this skill.
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)
During the presentation in which I was speaker, I understood that I have a phobia of
public speaking and I lack practice. After the completion of the presentation, all my
peers and my tutor said that I need major improvements in public speaking. As a
result, my present competence relating this skill is poor.
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?
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No contradictions have been found. All my peers and my tutors agree with me that I
lack public speaking skills.
How might this skill help me in the future? (use references to support your
argument)
Public speaking is increasingly necessary in daily lives as well as career
development (Hostetler and Kahl, 2016). This skill will be advantageous for me to
enhance my future, get better job and accomplish by goals through communicating
with my audience.
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