Personal and Professional Development for Business - Coursework Example

?Personal and Professional Development for Business Introduction General consensus is that reflection is a useful way of letting others know about what we have learned from our experiences, how we have evaluated what we learned, and in the light of which where we think we stand and aim at going next. In this essay, I will explicate how different experiences and lessons I have gained through two years of college have helped me become more interested professionally. The ability to evaluate what is learned and effectively apply those lessons to personal and professional life is staggeringly important to be identified as a responsible and refined businessperson. The lessons gained should be turned into handy tools to develop personality which proves to be very useful in later professional years. Many valid and reliable aspects of my personal and professional development so far will be discussed in the coming sections to analyze the extent to which I can be considered successful or trained so far. This reflective review basically aims at presenting an insightful, comprehensive, and enlightening analysis of my professional skills and practical experiences. Experiences of Education and Training (Last 2 Years) My college has played a critical role in helping me gain a variety of exquisite business experiences. Till now, I have remained engaged with many interesting group projects to analyze what it takes to beat resistance and go all the way through to achieve something. Such practical experiences have introduced me to new skills also which every student aspiring to be a great professional essentially depends on, like the ability to blend in a team leading to quality teamwork. Working with a good team while motivated by same goals as everyone else now forms a resolute feature of my personality given considerable experience I have gained in that area. Instead of letting myself get sidetracked by conflicts which so often mar the spirit of teamwork, I concentrate on looking beyond temporary troubles and try to steer people towards shared interests. This has enabled me to make abundant use of communication skills also because naturally people cannot be persuaded to contribute without smart talent talk (Srikantaiah & Koenig 2008: 144). My experiences have told me that the right attitude should be to engage others in my thought processes. I have always enthusiastically participated in every academic and non-academic activity which offered even a minimal opportunity of growth and expansion. It is usual for different reputable organizations in the world to be more attracted to employees who are innovative in their design and I absolutely conform to this hiring approach by pushing boundaries and going further than most other people. Interactive skills I accrued through college experiences are also worth mentioning here because I was not as sociable in life as I am now after two years if college education. Development and Key Lessons Learned (Last 2 Years) On grounds of what I learned at college through incredible professors and student discussions and in practical life through student union engagements and internship, I am now familiar with a smarter way of organizing and applying certain ideas. These ideas relate to engaging people, showing them ways to contribute, achieving mutually shared goals, and keeping positive attitudes. I have learned that people who are not passionate in their personal life cannot be passionate about work either. A person’s innate dispositions matter a lot in professional career as in how satisfied/dissatisfied he/she will be with work and job etc. (Buchanan & Bryman 2009: 206). I have noticed during my time at college that personal stress has always affected my work performance resulting in dissatisfaction, while others appeared satisfied with the same nature of work. This made me learn how important it is to have positive attitude about life to excel professionally. Personality is developed by encouraging students to make huge investments in their field of interest through state-of-the-art lectures and hands-on simulations. Likewise, I have also had much training to develop a new way of thinking, organizing ideas, and reaching solutions in order to enhance the position of some organization I may work for in the future. Certainly, a prodigious impact is produced by many lessons learned during the last 2 years on my development as a smart and intelligent aspiring professional who is dedicated to improving the status of a company. This is evident from the changed way of analyzing different concepts to my advantage. This does not mean that I have acquired all that is essential to the personality of a good professional because I understand that learning is a lifelong process. But, what I have learned so far will definitely play a strong role in how I operate during my professional career in the future. Current Situation A- Strengths It is critically important to have momentous personal and professional strengths to survive in the fiercely competitive contemporary business world. I consider myself lucky in reference to the riveting ability of socializing and leaving a good impression on people. The importance of sound interactions cannot be stressed enough in my field of interest because attracting recognition is impossible without heavy socialization. Engaging people and channeling their moods has always remained my area of expertise. I dislike the idea of an ambiguous conversation which is open to multiple interpretations, rather I like to point my suggestions at people in a direct manner. This strategy compels people to pay attention to me and conscientiously consider my ideas. Also, I have a habit of accomplishing tasks innovatively no matter how mundane they are because I believe even trivial things can be turned into staggering achievements if time and energy are invested wisely. I have this tendency to dig with acute intelligence into complex issues and implement smartly engineered approaches when needed to motivate people to commit to me. Thinking out of the box and effortlessly reaching out to people from all backgrounds are recognized as highly valuable strategies to influence people. This suggests that I have significant potential to satisfactorily lead people. B- Weaknesses Despite being good enough at charming people and shrewdly perceiving intricate situations, I do not consider myself sufficiently accomplished in areas of multitasking and quick decision-making. Also, the tendency to manipulate people to get things done when there is not enough time to motivate them gets quite discomforting sometimes. I fully acknowledge how often research stresses leaders to make people aware of their roles and tell them how their efforts will lead to good performance (Scheer 2003: 29), but occasionally due to limitation of time I tend to get things done the easier way by sharp manipulation. I have noticed on grounds of my college experience that people like me better when I am honest with them and recognize it when I am being manipulation. This suggests that I perform best when I am myself and should be fully committed to overcoming my deficiency of occasional manipulation. I often focus at length on one issue which affects my performance in other tasks making it harder to swiftly get through an intimidating load of work. That does not mean that I have an innate disposition to delay work. In fact, I always meet deadlines. Only sometimes the tendency to get immersed in one aspect limits me in thoroughly reflecting work. Development Plan Issues Process Timeframe Multitasking Getting through a huge load of work requires good multitasking skills, but sometimes I find myself lost in one certain aspect which affects other areas. I will make improvement in this area by developing time-management plans in the future allocating specific time period for each task according to its importance. 06 months Decision-making Snap decision-making is not exactly my greatest proficiency, but I am willing to make changes in this area by working on my judgment skills and rapidly processing data. This is because crude judgment and fast data integration are vital to reach decisions faster without compromising on quality. 06 months Manipulation Manipulating others to make contributions to work may help sometimes in getting a task done on time, but it does not let others appraise their roles and acknowledge their contribution. Although rarely done, I still intend to overcome this shortcoming by motivating my colleagues to do things with interest and creativity and collaborating with them. 06 months Procrastination Investing a great deal of time in more interesting tasks and having to delay or postpone less interesting ones is a potential weakness. I want to bring changes here by thinking of every task as equally important and having the same potential to impact my reputation. I will not consider any task boring and hence avoid it. 06 months Persistence on quality I usually feel very reluctant to finalize a project until it is absolutely perfect. This persistence on quality sometimes interferes with other group members’ interests who consider my insistence a means of delay. But, I am committed to change this shortcoming into an opportunity by being open to others’ opinions and improving my listening skills. I will try to maintain a balance between perfectionism and others’ input. 06 months Conclusion In conclusion, it is fundamentally important for every businessperson to be able to identify and evaluate personal and professional strengths and weaknesses. Self-analysis done on objective basis without interference of prejudiced perceptions holds immense benefits. After contemplating the valuable experiences I have gained and key lessons I have learned so far, I find myself more motivated to change for the better and enthusiastically work over my deficiencies. Instead of an inflated sense of self-importance, a modest attitude with an innovative approach ensures success. References Buchanan, D & Bryman, A 2009, The Sage Handbook of Organizational Research Methods, SAGE Publications Ltd, Great Britain. Scheer, A 2003, Business Process Change Management: ARIS in Practice, Springer, Germany. Srikantaiah, T & Koenig, MED 2008, Knowledge Management in Practice: Connections and Context, Information Today, Inc., USA. Read More