Future Career Goal and Current Skills - Essay Example

Future Career Goal and Current Skills This paper showcases my reflection on personal and professional development that I got from semester 1 and 2 in LUBS. There are four key elements of this report, which are my future career goal, current skills, skills need to develop, how I developed these skills during a year, and my future action plan. Future Career Goal Since I graduated from my secondary school, I had wanted to study business and leadership so I could become a successful leader, as a long-term goal. Moreover, as a short-term goal I am looking to becoming a lecturer in the university’s in Management division. Therefore, I studied a bachelor’s degree in business, to understand the general concept of business and then I joined Leeds Business School to do my master in Strategic Management. Current skills Firstly, I am an initiative person with high level of confidence and I have taken some big decisions in my life such as getting married early, in the second year of my undergraduate study. Moreover, I quit a good job with a high salary to build up on my knowledge, which, in my opinion, will lead me to get a better job. Secondly, because I love planning, which I believe is one of my strength, I choose Strategic management program in masters. Thirdly, I have very good communication skills, partially in mother language. Skills you needed to develop For long-term goal, to be an effective leader, I need to have technical skills, which is the knowledge about a certain work, human skills which is an ability to work with people, and conceptual skills which are the key skills of creating a vision and having a strategic plan on organisation (Northouse, 2013). Moreover, as a potential leader, practicing leadership roles is really needed for structuring my personal leadership skills. Furthermore, Understanding the different cultures is crucial for me because my home country has multi-national citizens. Moreover, I need to learn the right way of delivering a message and vision effectively, under different circumstances (Appendix A) For the short-term goal of being a successful lecturer, I have to develop my-self personally and academically to provide good learning instructions to the students. This will require a lot of effort and incremental change towards build the desired knowledge (Bigs and Tang, 2011). In addition to this, it is essential for me to be critical when I explain the theories to my students. This will open their mind and improve their analysis and evaluations skills. (Appendix A) How you developed these skills A leader needs to understand different cultures. Followers, especially in home country, will not be from one nation. Hofstede presents the cultural dimensions theory that provides a framework for cross-cultural communication. The studying of Hofstede work offers a valuable insight into effects of a society’s culture on the values of its members and the way these values relate to behaviour (Hofstede, 1980). I learned from Hofstede that the society behaves differently according to its culture. A society that exhibits a high degree of power distance accepts hierarchies without the need for justification. A society with low power distance, seeks equal distribution of authority (Tuckman, 1965). Also, individualistic societies put too much stress on personal achievements and rights, while collective organizations promote the culture of cohesion and unity. People living in societies with cultures having high uncertainty avoidance tend to be anxious and emotional and try minimizing this uncertainty as opposed to those with low uncertainty avoidance, who are more tolerant to change (Hofstede, et al., 2010). All of these aspects about culture will help me truly capable of leading multi-national followers. Belbin team role report provides an understanding of the effects of teamwork on the performance of a business. According to the Belbin report, the balance in the enterprise structure among individuals with high intellect and those with a weak intellect, was the determining factor for the success of the enterprise (Belbin, 2012). Belbin team roles can be used to identify people’s behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. Most successful companies happen to be those with a mix of different people, that is, those with a range of various behaviours. The results can then be used to build productive working relationships in the workplace (Aggarwal, 2014) and to raise self-awareness and personal effectiveness (Belbin, 2012). I think lecturers can also use them to select and develop high performing teams, as well as build mutual trust and understanding. The Belbin Team Roles measure the behaviour and not the personality. Belbin describes it as the tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with other people in a particular way. By identifying the team roles, the staff in an organisation can ensure that they use their strengths to their advantage, and learn how to manage their weaknesses (Fishers, 1998). Action plan for the future Current situation Objective Skill Meeting my friends from LUBS once a month outside campus Meeting my friends from LUBS twice a month outside campus Initiative Team Working Leadership Watching TED two times a month Watching TED once a week Negotiating & Influencing Presenting only for LUBS if required Practicing a presentation skill once a week even in front of a mirror for at least 10 minutes. Communication & Interpersonal skills Professionalism Reading articles 1.5 hours a day on average Reading articles at least 2.5 hours a day up to the end of master Critical thinking All in all, I learnt that culture influences the values of people. In order for me to run a successful business with employees, critical understanding of the culture of my staff is necessary. Also, the environment plays an integral role in the success of a company. One needs to understand the resources available and the most efficient ways of exploiting the same. In addition, unity, teamwork and co-operation cannot be underestimated. Belbin points out that a team is not just a group of people with job titles but is a congregation of individuals each of whom has a role to play. The team members seek out particular roles that are most natural to them, which increases their overall performance (Belbin, 2012). Appendix A (Skills Assessment for Semester1) Skill How confident am I in this area? (1 = not at all, 5 = very) Evidence of this skill What do I need to do to develop this skill? Communication & Interpersonal skills 1 2 3 4 5 I have usually given advices to younger friends, who are currently studying bachelor’s degree in Leeds. In addition, when they face any problem they always feel comfortable to share it with me and I keep trying my best to let them understand the issue in a better way, which will lead to the solution at the end. In LUBS I have sent and received emails more than ever in my life, which increased my writing communication skills to others I am practicing the communication very well in my mother language, but I need to practice more in English, especially the English accent. Self-awareness 1 2 3 4 5 I had a common idea about my strength and weaknesses, but after communicating with other students especially in MiP group, I received a lot of feedbacks from them, which helped me to understand myself in better way. Therefore, I am ready. I need to know more about my-self, especially my weaknesses, so I can write my personal objectives correctly based on SWOT. Skill How confident am I in this area? (1 = not at all, 5 = very) Evidence of this skill What do I need to do to develop this skill? Flexibility 1 2 3 4 5 Once I meet multi-national students in LUBS I felt that I have to exploit this opportunity to change the bad attitudes that I have acquired. This change need some of flexibility in order to happen. They told me at the beginning of the semester that I needed to communicate more with them. I accepted that and joined them in a Facebook group and in some other social media applications like WhatsApp and Line. Honestly, I still need to be more flexible. I need to be more flexible and keep in touch more with other students. Initiative 1 2 3 4 5 I decided to study masters when most of my relatives tried to convince me to change my mind due to the high salary I got from working in petroleum a company. I believe that building knowledge at this early age will attract better opportunities in the future. Moreover, I got married early, and this effected my bachelor’s study positively. Therefore, I think I am a very initiative person Because I am a highly initiative person, I might need to listen to other’s opinions more. Skill How confident am I in this area? (1 = not at all, 5 = very) Evidence of this skill What do I need to do to develop this skill? Planning & Organising 1 2 3 4 5 Once I started the masters, I realised the importance of managing time due to the high amount of readings. Reading for class preparation, and reading and reviewing after finishing the classes, besides the assignment which should be submitted on time. All of that require a good level of planning and organising the time to pass all modules which required of me at the end of the semester. I need some practical experience from successful leaders to know how they have written and uploaded their plan and how to implement it effectively and efficiently. Critical thinking . 1 2 3 4 5 All of the assignments I have written in masters required at least two arguments to be “academic” and in conclusion, I needed to judge and express my opinion. The judgment made me lose marks I need to persuade the reader better in the conclusion, through understanding the best technique of writing the judgment in conclusion. Skill How confident am I in this area? (1 = not at all, 5 = very) Evidence of this skill What do I need to do to develop this skill? Team working . 1 2 3 4 5 2 modules leaders in semester1 allocated me a group, which I needed to work with to do a presentation and report. I made the presentation with the group, which was such a fantastic experience for me. Our mark was 71/100, which was an overestimation. Additionally, the monthly report for MiP was a good experience. We met many times and had a dinner in a Chinese restaurant. This built up our relation and made it stronger. I need to improve my understanding of people from other cultures Leadership . 1 2 3 4 5 I have not been a leader for the MiP group yet, but I was a leader for the group in other modules. I tried my best to motivate them and make good control. This experience was a challenge for me, because the majority of them were from one country and they used to speak their language. However, we came up with agreement to avoid using any language rather than English except if someone had difficulties in expressing a word, where he could say it in his own language and someone else would translate it to the rest. Understanding others and make them trust me more. This will make my role as a leader easier. I think I need to focus on these two aspects in the next leadership role. Skill How confident am I in this area? (1 = not at all, 5 = very) Evidence of this skill What do I need to do to develop this skill? Negotiation & Influencing . 1 2 3 4 5 Working in-group will bring some disagreement sometimes. In preparation process for the group report in semister1, some friends suggested we meet 4 times and work together and others preferred to just allocate the task and each one do his part alone, thus lacking in common voice, in my opinion. I suggested having a Facebook group and sharing documents online so each one could adjust the work. Moreover, I suggested holding a meeting once in the end, to ensure that our paper had a common voice. They agreed to that. I need to practice the negotiation and influencing skills. Professionalism 1 2 3 4 5 I would like to be a successful business person after 5 years, but once I go back I would like to be a lecturer. Noticing professor’s way of teaching various techniques used for transfer knowledge to their students helps me a lot. I am writing down any new teaching technique in a notebook so I can use it when I start teaching, after finishing my postgraduate studies. I need to practice the lecturing skills rather than just write it as a note. Appendix B (Skills assessment for Semester 2) Skill How confident am I in this area? (1 = not at all, 5 = very) How did I develop this skill during this academic year? Communication & Interpersonal skills 1 2 3 4 5 By practicing with other student in LUBS, and through facing the mirror and talking to myself, as my friend advised me. Self-awareness 1 2 3 4 5 I need to keep asking friends around me to give me a personal feedback and therefore, I can assess self-awareness improvement that I have made during the learning process. Flexibility 1 2 3 4 5 1- I updating my personal plan weekly. 2- I tried to look at any argument from a different points of view Initiative 1 2 3 4 5 I tried to listen more to the other’s ideas, which might be right in some ways that I could not see. Planning & Organising . 1 2 3 4 5 It seems hard to meet these successful people and ask them about their personal plan. Therefore, the suitable way is to learn from their experience. Therefore, I looked out for some personal interviews i.e. Steven Jobs and Jack Ma, and also personal talk i.e. TED. Critical thinking . 1 2 3 4 5 I have Learnt from the 1st semester assignments feedback, which is given to me already. I ‘am trying to avoid the previous mistakes especially the critical judgment in conclusion. Assignments from different topics in semester 2 and the dissertation will help me to be more critical. Team working . 1 2 3 4 5 I kept meeting our group members and continued learning from them, shared knowledge with them and build my communication skills and other skills that could be acquired through this communication. Leadership 1 2 3 4 5 By applying Hofstede work of differentiating the different cultures and how each nation treats them, which will work well and help me understand people better than ever. Practicing leadership skills with my friend even as a representation. Negotiation & Influencing 1 2 3 4 5 1- By learning from some documentary channels, which provided negotiation programs. 2- Watching TED talks to notice and learn how successful people influence their audience Professionalism 1 2 3 4 5 1- I used the mirror technique, which helped me to improve the communication skills as well 2- Presentations also helped me to develop the declamation skill. Therefore as a potential lecturer, I think presentations work like “mini lectures”. Read More