Consultancy Reflective Learning Assessment Workshop - Travis Perkins - Essay Example

375277 Entrepreneurial skills Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Entrepreneurial skills Consultancy Reflective Learning Assessment Workshop A good example of a reflective account is the consultancy project reflective learning assessment workshop. Each action learning that had 5 to 6 members would undertake a serious consultancy research project by contracting with an external client. The deadline of work completion would be six-month period where the results would be assessed through formal presentation to the client accompanied by a well-written consultancy report. The assessment would be done as a group where the action learning would be a pass or a fail. The client consultancy learning provided the participants with a very rich learning vehicle. The learning involved problem solving, in this case, the client’s problem (O’Hara, p12). There was as well the deep personal and professional learning that was effective due to working as a project team and being assessed jointly. The learning involved issues like conflict management, leadership nature in a group of peers, ensuring effort equity, understanding own and others’ learning systems, managing time and working together. The projects were submitted to the client and it came a time for participants to reflect on what they had been learning, how the learning could be applied in the contexts as well as what the individuals had learned about how they learn. The process also involved reflecting on what the participants had done, analyze, and conceptualize their processes and actions. Their final reflective assessment workshop took two days of residential workshop. The main objective of the workshop was to the participants a wonderful opportunity to mirror their learning as well as finishing their final reflective learning assessment. It was also a tine for action learning program closure. It now came a time to put the reflective learning workshop into practice. This was also a two day consultancy workshop and its where there was a clarification of assessment criteria and learning objectives to the participants. The final clarifications were that the reflective learning assessment was not an essay, not a simple description but a critical reflection, not an allocating blame statement as well as not a collection of motherhood statements to make sure that the reflection gives evidence for the statements made. Reflective account of Travis Perkins Another marvelous example of a reflective account is the reflective account of the Travis Perkins, which is one of the leading suppliers of building materials in UK. It includes stocking of more than 100000 various products that are used in trade areas, plumbing, and heating. Trade is done to the customers with cash who are then invited to take the trade cash card and issuing them with trade prices for their DIY jobs. A person was employed at the Travis since 2006, he worked as a casual laborer, and he was free to work anywhere he was needed. His roles included controlling stocks, serving customers, contacting the supplier and telephone enquiries. Ever since he joined the Travis, he has greatly developed some personal and professional aspects. The main areas that he really developed are the communication due to interaction with customers and suppliers, working, leading and lastly problem solving, and taking advantage of opportunities that occur. Over the few years that he has worked in the organization, he has become an effective professional in various areas. Some of these areas include developing mature attitude, an open personality where he could engage and involve anyone in conversation or project (Travis, p20). Other professions developed are a sense of humility where he learned how to admit mistakes and learn from them, democratic countenance where he learned how to listen from other people before making decisions, and lastly a flexible nature where he learned how to adapt changing situations. He was also able to develop some skills and experience in behavior, learning computer system, understanding of what being profession means, developing of oral skills through talking to customers, increasing confidence, increasing the listening ability due to leading a small group. He also learned how to control anger and emotions, benefiting in manners while dealing with customers, developing confidence and learning to be a manager since the manager of the organization was out most of the time and as his assistant, he played the role of the manager. Conclusion In general, the reflective account is the best tool to give an individual the opportunity to learn through, classroom, projects, or even experience. In the first case, the participants of the project were able to develop some skills through consultancy assessments where they were given chance to present their works. In the second case, the person who joined the Travis organization as a casual laborer was able to achieve much than what he could expect. This shows how important the reflective account is. Therefore, every person who is in school or at work should adapt it. Personal characteristics, skills, and abilities in comparison with those of an entrepreneur Entrepreneurial skills are very different from the personal skills and abilities. However, a person is able to learn these entrepreneurial skills and gage him or herself if he or she can become a good entrepreneur. Below are some of the personal skills that can be developed into entrepreneurial if a person can be able to adapt the entrepreneurial skills. The first thing a person should do is to look at his or her personal characteristics, values, and beliefs and compare them to the entrepreneurial skills. It should be clear that a person must have the inner spirit characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Therefore, the personal characteristics that should be looked upon are as follows. The first one is the personal vision, what a person sees and intends to achieve in his or her life. The entrepreneurs are people with visions, they are able to see opportunities for improvement in many things, and what they normally see is the big picture. Therefore, to become one, a person needs to have a clear vision of what he wants to achieve in life. Secondly, there is the drive and persistence; this involves having self-motivation and energy as well as the ability to work very hard for a long time. The entrepreneurs are people who have sacrificed their lives in business systems. They have very strong self-motivation and energy to move on. They are very hard working and potential people. They are able to work very hard and for a very long time without giving up (Mind tools, p7). They are focused on what they want thus, they do not see any obstacles on their way. Another characteristic and value is initiative, this is the ability to start something and be able to complete it. Most people lack the initiative of naturally starting projects that can eventually bare good results. Entrepreneurs are good initiators; they are able to start projects, work on them, and see where improvements need to be made and where changes need to be done. They are able to work hard to ensure such projects ends with massive success. Commitment is the other characteristic that need consideration. There is the need for a person to be committed to what he or she is doing. Most people are too lazy to follow up what they had started and run it to completion. They do not have the ability to sacrifice their time in running what they had started to completion. Commitment is a skill that every person needs to acquire because it is crucial in everyday life. The entrepreneurs are always committed to their works and projects. They normally set time for such things and make sure they achieve what they intended to. Besides, there is the ability to control things and situations. The control characteristics are important when it comes to managing projects and making crucial decisions. Any person who us willing to run projects or certain activities should acquire the control characteristic. All the entrepreneurs have the ability to control activities, situations, and projects. They are able to make decisions that are important for their projects and thus they are successful. Another important characteristic is the risk tolerance. Some situations are quite challenging and there is the need to make decisions when the facts are not certain. Most people fear running projects or business simply because they are not able to take the risk. Entrepreneurs are high-risk takers and they normally make correct decisions even in uncertain facts because they never panic and they take the risk that many people fear. When they make such decisions, they get prepared for better and for the worse. Other characteristics and values include resilience, which is the ability to recover from failure, and self-determination, which is the ability to determine success due to personal initiative. A realistic Action Plan for Developing Entrepreneurial Skills In order to become a skilled entrepreneur, there are some sets of steps to be followed. It is not that the entrepreneurs have different genetic make up and they do not operate from a vantage point that directs their decisions (Mind tools, p7). The only thing to be considered is that the entrepreneurs have some certain traits in common. These traits are in four categories; personal skills, interpersonal skills, critical and creative thinking as well as practical skills. Some of the personal skills are mentioned above such as risk tolerance, personal vision, commitment, drive, and persistence among others. These are the first things that a person needs to develop in the process of becoming an entrepreneur. Interpersonal skills refer to the ability to communicate with and satisfy customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and investors. In order to achieve this, a person requires the following interpersonal skills; listening, communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, leadership and motivation, ethics personal relations and negotiation. Any person is able to learn these skills. The only thing that is required is the commitment to change your behaviors and reactions. Critical and creative thinking skills are very crucial when it comes to organizing and administering successful venture. Such critical and creative skills include creative thinking, problem solving and opportunity identification. Creativity and innovations requires discipline as they are based on discrete set of skills (Mind tools, p34). This can be improved through learning and breaking the traditional thinking and patterns. After obtaining all the skills, it now comes to a time of putting them into practice. Practical skills are the final component of entrepreneurial skills. In order to effectively produce goods or services and run company, the following practical skills are required. Goal setting, planning and organizing, decision making and application of business, entrepreneurial, opportunity and venture knowledge. Under decision-making, an entrepreneurial cycle involved helps in making critical decisions. The cycle moves from the personal vision, then to career vision, internal analysis, external analysis, overall strategy, planning and preparation, action and lastly the results. At some point, the cycle suggests that if any idea is not working out, you ought to go back to your career vision, which will enable you to realize if it is a good idea or if it needs some adjustments (Hayden, p29). After developing all the skills and the cycle, you now require to set clear S.M.A.R.T.S goals for yourself. This stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results, Time limit, and Shared. Coming up with such goals will see you through your project or business successful. Conclusion In general, this is the best action plan development of entrepreneurial skills, which should be followed by all individuals with the potential to become entrepreneurs. It begins from the basic information and skills about the entrepreneurship and it ends with the complex and the most successful goals to be set in order to achieve your strategies. Bibliography C. J Hayden, (2009). Coaching for Social Entrepreneurs and Right Livelihood Entrepreneurs. Wings for Business, LLC. Mind tools, (2010). Entrepreneurial skills: what you need to know to run your own business. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_76.htm Suzanne O’Hara, (2004). Developing reflective learning through Assessment. working paper series, Brighton Business School. Travis, (2010). Example reflective Account: work and employability certificate. United Kingdom. Read More