Managing People Interpersonal Skills Portfolio - Essay Example

1) Introduction In this project, the career goal is to become a leading business man for capturing the major market share. To become an efficient business man, requires several qualities, which should reflect not only in his own activities, but also his subordinates. While aiming for a career goal, it is necessary to possess better leadership qualities. Management means leading or controlling a group of people for an intention to achieve a particular goal or objectives. The main management functions are Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. Planning means an activity to decide the future works and setting the future actions. Organizing is an activity to organize and arrange all resources for achieving the goals maximum utilization of optimal resources is the main aim of this activity. Leading is the activity to coordinate and maintain all members of management towards the objectives of organization, in this function is also relating with the motivation of all members for goal achievements. Controlling in this function is relating with the evaluation of all works and activities it is suitable for achieving the goals of organization. Organizational Principles helps to create a sense of responsibility through out the organization. The basic principles of an organization are mainly of value, customers, differentiation, strategy, organization, profit and control. The term inter personal skill generally means as integration of certain inherent qualities of an individual, which may some times leads towards in a right area, not only for him but also for his co-workers, this concept is a pattern of leadership. A good decision is relating with accurate information, modern advanced technology is providing adequate information within the appropriate time. 2) Out Comes and task maps Business plans are mainly of two types short term and long term. Short-term plans are relating with operational activity where as long-term goals dealing with strategic decision and highly based strategic plans. All business plans consisting of a set of goals and objectives it is applicable the entire area of business like marketing, Finance and HRM. The business plans either directly or indirectly affecting the stakeholders, which may be either beneficial or some times create certain difficulties. Strategic plans of a business are highly focusing on for formulating the future goals and objectives of the business. Long term plans are relating with the key strategic activities of an organization it is including the strategy of future changes like capital formation and implementation of new technologies and other strategic decisions like merging take over and other activities. Human Resource Management is playing a prominent role in the modern economy for taking an appropriate organizational or personal decision in a most significant manner. As far as an organization is taken in to consideration, human resources or the people belonging to an entity are the most valued asset. Inter personal skill means maintaining a proper communication or relation with other people. As far as an organization is taken in to consideration, the concept of inter personal skill refers to support or motivate each other to perform their role in an effective manner. The workers should encourage not only for the merits but also they used to criticize each other. Self awareness is also a crucial factor that supports inter personal skill to some extend. This is because it means understanding or evaluating about oneself, his strength and weakness. Managing people in an effective manner requires quality leadership. A leader is providing clear sense of direction through which he may earn respect and honour. Proper communication through out the organization is reflected in a good leadership. It helps to develop a sense of responsibility among the workers and more over it is possible to take adequate decisions within appropriate time. Responsible leaders are concentrating for implementing, developing, and motivating the workers by giving appropriate direction. Honesty and integrity are the key qualities of a good leader; the success of a leader depends on the trust he obtains from his followers and it is necessary to keep it in constant. Leaders were responsible for teaching, motivating, protecting, encouraging, guiding, and enhancing their interests towards work. Whenever a follower refused to follow instructions of leaders, leaders were responsible to intimate this matter to the organization as a whole. More over, Conflict of interest deals with a category of person or group of persons whose interests of benefits are in direct conflict within the interests or benefits of the company. Employers are prohibited from interfering with extraneous activities, other than their responsibility towards a company, or in some times, which are in conflict with, or prejudicial to the interests of the company. It provides a way for possible behaviour for the organization in their strategic planning and routine operations. It is very important in modern business world to achieve business success and improve organizations image. All organization has their own ethical codes to ensure their social obligation. These are applied in their day-to-day operations. The moral responsibility of an employer is to provide better work environment for their employees. Unfortunately, even passage of these laws, and regular inspections may turn work environments into unhealthy and even dangerous zones. Modern business world is beset with the challenges of higher competition. Employees plays very important role in a business firm. Good employee welfare and cordial employee- employer relationship is essential for organizational success. Adequate and effective communication is relevant for the functioning of an organization smoothly. 3) Activities and reflections 3.1) - Week 1 Relation between theory and practice- In the context of HRM, there is a slight relation between theory and practice. Theoretical knowledge improves the knowledge and wisdom of an individual, but its practical application requires certain skills. Theoretical knowledge is helpful to improve the practical performances in an effective manner. But both theory and practice is important for the effective performance of a task. For the performance of a required task, a wide knowledge about both theory and practical is essential. Inter personal communication skill is crucial, the theory and practice of communication should helps to improve it. “Participatory communication is a term that denotes the theory and practices of communication used to involve people in the decision-making of the development process” (Mefalopulos 2003). Participation in group process- For the effective functioning of an organization, the team effort is significant, because the contributions made by all members of the entity should reflect in the over all performance. Team building and group dynamics is playing a major role in the context of HRM. For maintaining a team effort or making the division of labour, the organization requires effective communication, proper co-ordination, etc. Team building is an important concept, which plays a leading role in maintaining the inter personal skills with in the organization. Rather than this, mainly there are two groups in an organization, formal and informal group. While making a group it is necessary to determine about the size, the role of its team members, etc. The performance of a group should be better than that of a work being done by an individual. But the effective performance of a work should require team effort. “Managing Interpersonal and Group Dynamics integrates cutting-edge insight into communication, conflict resolution, negotiation and teamwork to increase personal performance” (Eisenhower 2002). The success of an organization is related to the work performance of the team members, and the way in which they are achieving the stipulated goals. Learning Needs The concept of learning and knowledge is directly related to each other. Learning means obtaining effective knowledge, skill, and wisdom about a particular subject. Learning is a continuous process which enhances the depth of knowledge of a person. Learning process is a significant factor in case of personal management, because it helps to analyze the potential personalities within the organization. Due to the concept of inter personal development, the interaction among the members of an entity improved a lot. Learning strategies are effective to improve the organizational performance for accomplishing the goals. In an organization, the personnel are considered to be the key asset; because based on their attitude or performance towards the work, it is possible for the entity to reach to the destination. The effective utilization of both theoretical and practical knowledge and skill is essential for the better employee performance. “Learning organization as a group of people who are continually enhancing their capabilities to create what they want to create has been deeply influential.” (Smith 2001). The major inter personal skills required for a person, or a team or an entity as a whole is that of the ability of making proper and adequate decision, proper interaction, the concept of team building, etc. Wide knowledge and skill, as well as the mutual interaction and effective co ordination is contributing a great extend to the success of an enterprise. In addition to this, training is also effective in case of HRM. More over, training and staff development is very important for performing the organizational process, and there by attaining the goals of an entity. With the help of training, it is possible to develop the work more effectively, and the there is a mutual understanding among the co-workers. More over, the authority-responsibility relationship is also crucial while performing the organizational roles. The subordinates are responsible to perform the task allotted to them by the top management. Rather than this, the flow of communication moves from top to bottom and from bottom to top. “The organization of a team depends on its size and the familiarity of members with one another. For larger, newly formed teams it may help to assign more concrete roles to members. More informal roles may work well for smaller teams. Depending on a teams specific circumstances, some members can even alternate positions on a regular basis” (Team Organization. 2005). Effective interaction among all the departments of an organization is also necessary, because adequate communication helps to make a proper flow of the working procedures with in the enterprise. Among all other departments, HR Department is most effective; because the behaviour, working style, as well the staff selection and recruitment programme is under the responsibility of them. More over, the training programme helps to motivate the employees to improve their performance in an effective manner. Inter personnel skill improves the performance, and there by it is possible to measure the performance either individually or as a group. In addition to this, motivation is a significant factor in HR Management; because the encouragement inspires the workers to perform in a better manner. In some organization the payment system is based on the time or piece basis, or in some other it is based on the performance level, that means the payment system followed by the organization may vary from one organization to another. For attaining an effective goal of an organization, the encouragement among the workers is significant. In addition to this, a healthy competition among the workers should helps to improve their performance systematically. The managerial inter personal skill is necessary for the effective performance of the group members of an organization. Inter personal skill is a fundamental concept for developing a better working atmosphere within the entity. “The basic needs model, referred to as content theory of motivation, highlights the specific factors that motivate an individual. Although these factors are found within an individual, things outside the individual can affect him or her as well” (Motivation Theories: Individual Needs. 2008). Student Weekly Timetable Morning Afternoon Evening Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 3.2) - Week 2 Task 1: Skills Assessment JOB CONTENT SKILLS WORKING WITH DATA WORKING WITH PEOPLE WORKING WITH THINGS WORKING WITH IDEAS Ability to comprehend Arrange class time table Making friends happy Managing computer properly New ideas in computer programming Ability to respond Do mathematical calculations Making teachers’ happy Writing essays on different topics Being punctual in class Respect to elders Search ideas from internet Ability to recollect Ability to influence people Ability to express ideas Reasoning ability Ability to share ideas Ability to write Task 2: Conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) STRENGTHS Good communication skill, interested in co-curricular activities OPPORTUNITIES Can create good impression in the minds of people through better communication WEAKNESSES Poor mathematical skills, Very aggressive THREATS Competition from students who are more capable than me 3.3) - Week 3 Personality and learning style questionnaire: This step analyses the personal characteristics of the students. The learning styles and the problem faced by the students in their learning process are being analyzed using the questionnaire. 1. Do you have many friends? – Yes 2. Are you involved in any co-curricular activities? – Yes 3. What are your co-curricular activities? – Sports (football) 4. Do you read you lessons many times for learning? – Yes 5. What method do you use for studying? – Reading and memorizing 6. What is your usual grade in your exams? – B grade The above questionnaire was used to analyze the learning style and personality. Personality may be defined as the qualities that are reflected in a person’s behaviour. These qualities are the results of the social influence, educational background and the psychological condition of a person. “A brief definition would be that personality is made up the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that make a person unique” (Wagner 2008). Personality is the trait that makes a person different from others. Psychological characteristics are the most influencing factor on ones personality. Experts have even formulated different theories of personality after vigorous observation and study of the personality of different persons. A person will have unique characteristics within him from the very childhood days. These characteristics are then developed in a positive as well as negative way through social interaction and through better academic influence. Personality is the behaviour that makes a person recognized wherever he goes. This is the factor that determines the success and failure of a person. The interpersonal interaction programme in different sessions in the programme has greatest influence on developing ones personality. In this session students from different backgrounds are involved and also experienced tutors are handling different sessions. This is of great help to the students who have attended the session. As this is a programme for many weeks the students will be able to develop the interpersonal skills through the interactive sessions. Interviews at the session will help to attain useful information from the tutors. This programme is a chance to learn and copy better behavioural pattern from others and to express ones ability to others. Learning style is another factor that will be developed through proper attention in the programme. Learning style refers to a person’s way of learning things. Each person has their own way of studying. Some people learn by writing it for several times, some others learn by reading silently and some by reading very loudly. “Some people prefer to read about a concept to learn it; others need to see a demonstration of the concept” (Learning styles. 2008). Demonstration is sometimes the best way to learn things as the learners get a practical knowledge of things. Better concentration will help learners understand the topics better. Learning also depends on the scope of the topic and the interest of the learners on the specific topic. Teachers have immense role in teaching the students’ different topic and to explain it in such a way that helps them most. There are many methods to improve learning styles of a student. The different sessions at this programme will help those students who face learning disability. Learning disability may be due to several reasons. Poor memory is one of the major reasons of learning disability. Poor memory is also closely associated to poor retention. In the different sessions in the programme different experienced tutors gave different classes on improving the learning style. They have suggested many methods to overcome the learning problems. The students who face different types of learning disability have helped themselves by attending the session. The sessions were highly interactive and every student was asked to present themselves on different topics. This has helped the students to make a self-development. Interviews have helped the tutors to know the learning disabilities of the students. The tutors have suggested sufficient methods by which these disabilities could be improved. Therefore, the session was highly helpful in terms of learning styles. Ten-Item Personality Inventory-(TIPI)   1 = Disagree strongly 2 = Disagree moderately 3 = Disagree a little 4 = Neither agree nor disagree 5 = Agree a little 6 = Agree moderately 7 = Agree strongly   I see myself as:   1. __7___ Extraverted, enthusiastic.   2. __6___ Critical, quarrelsome.   3. __7___ Dependable, self-disciplined.   4. __7___ Anxious, easily upset.   5. __5___ Open to new experiences, complex.   6. __1___ Reserved, quiet.   7. __7___ Sympathetic, warm.   8. __1___ Disorganized, careless.   9. __5___ Calm, emotionally stable.   10. __1___ Conventional, uncreative. It can be seen that strong agreement is made for the traits of Extraverted, enthusiastic, dependable, self-disciplined, anxious, easily upset, sympathetic and warm. The personality totally reflects all those characteristics. 3.4) - Week 4 Analysis of critical incident- Usually the life experience which gone wrongly will influence our future life, because the event that passed badly will always gives us a learning point. For example, if a student failed in his exam due to lack of well preparation, then from that experience he learned a lesson about the concentration in the studying aspects and take the aspects of examination more seriously. As a result of this last experience, the student tried to take it more consciously and he should try his level best to pass out the examination because the certain accidental events in one’s life will turn out to be good or key points in the rest of his life time. Active listening- It means, if a peculiar statement or concept has been described by a person, such fact should be understandable to the listeners effectively, and then only there should arise a mutual understanding among them. The theme should understand in an effective manner is essential in this regard. It means the listener should carefully hear or understand the speech of the talker. Adequate attention and conscious mind is significant for active listening. Active Listening Exercise- In case if the process of active listening is taken as an exercise, it consists of three categories of persons like the talker, the listener as well as a person who is providing opinion about the exercise, such as a spectator. Among these three, the listener is playing a most crucial role, because he is the one who is belonging to a major part of the active listening. During the time of exercise, the observer is also giving stress towards the listener, rather than the speaker. This is because; the reaction of the listener is the key factor in analyzing his learning skills and the capability of active listening. Personal development Planning- Planning means a process of setting goals or destination. For accomplishing any target, a well prepared plan is significant; because on the basis of such plans only the pattern of our work flow will proceed. So, for attaining personal development also an effective plan is a must. The learning style and our experience is helpful to measure our self development, and on the basis of that an individual should set his goals, that is by realizing his skills and needs and try to minimize weaknesses or gaps, then it is possible to attain the personal development in an easy manner. Personal Development Plan - Date: Name: Development Need: What do I need to do better? SMART Goals: How will I meet this need? Resources: What resources are available to help me? Evaluation: What evidence do I have of progress? Overcome weaknesses Being organized Help of the teachers Feedback from friends Take initiative Proper direction Support from friends Knowledge from results Innovative ideas Optimistic approach Other learning resources Self evaluation 3.5) - Week 5 Time Management Questionnaire 1. How clear were you about your various objectives? – The activities to be done at every level are being clearly understood. 2. To what extent did you achieve them? – All the activities to be done at different levels were done properly. 3. How many hours did you work? – I worked for eight hours per day 4. How many of these hours were spent directly on work aimed at achieving your objectives? – Almost seventy five percentage of the overall time was dedicated for achieving the objectives. 5. If you would have liked to work more hours, what prevented you? – What prevented me are the other commitments that are to be done at the seminar. 6. For how many of these hours do you think your work was fully effective? – Around 6 hours on every day was really effective and in accordance with the requirements. 7. What prevented you from being more effective during the hours that you did work? – Loss of concentration 8. Did you spend time working on something less important, leaving a more important task undone? – In some days from the two hours left one hour was spend for some irrelevant works. Motivation Motivation is one of the most important factors to be present in a person. Motivation may be referred as a person’s willingness to take initiative for achievement of the final goal. Motivation is always the result of several factors affecting a person. The motivation level of a person can be low, medium and higher. A highly motivated person will be a good achiever. In contrast a low motivated person will always face failures in their activities. Here motivation is studied on students’ perspective. “Motivation can be defined as a concept used to describe the factors within an individual which arouse, maintain and channel behaviour towards a goal.” (Bolton). A highly motivated student always try to secure good marks in their exams and they properly walk in their career path. But a student with low motivation will always be less interested in their academic activities and will be misguided in their career path. One of the most important characteristic of a motivated student is that they will begin their activity without any stimulus from outside. There are different factors that affect the motivation level of a person. Individual characteristics, work environment and external environment are the factors that affect the motivation level of a person. Individual characteristics include person’s inborn characteristics, academic background, age, gender, etc. work environment includes the salary of a person, the interpersonal relationship at the office and the total organizational environment. The third factor is the external environment which also has great influence on the motivation of a person. External factors mainly refers to the society in which the person belongs and the cultural factors around him. The motivation of a person increases only when he is satisfied with his needs. The needs of a person can be classified into physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, ego or esteem needs and self actualization needs. Physiological needs of a person are the combination of his basic needs such as food, water, clothing and shelter. When he is satisfied with the basic needs the next level need arises which is the need for security. Security need is satisfied by better salary and security from other threats. The third level need is social need which is the need to be a social being or the need to mingle with the members of the society. After that comes the ego or esteem needs which is the need to enjoy better status in the society. The final need is self actualization need which can be achieved by satisfying his long term desire. A particular need arises only when his lower level needs are satisfied. This programme also contained a session that dealt with motivation. The students of various motivation levels are identified in order to give proper solution for the students who are less motivated. Expert tutors are the ones who engaged with the students regarding motivation. This programme mainly contained an interactive session between the students and the tutors. Through this interaction the tutors identified various areas where the students lagged behind in terms of motivation. After careful identification of the areas where the students lacked motivation the tutors have advised them proper solutions. In an organization when an employee is given better salary and better working environment he will achieve better results. Therefore, the programme had helped the students to learn more about motivation and the need to improve the motivation level for better career prospective. The solutions given by the tutors were accepted by the student’s in order to improve their motivation. 3.6) - Week 6 Self assessment communication questionnaire: This questionnaire was helpful for analysing the communication problems faced. 1. Are you low toned or high toned during communication? – Moderately toned 2. Do you become nervous while talking to a high profile person? – No 3. Are you confident to speak in a public? – Speak 4. Do you have good vocabulary for speaking? – Moderate 5. Do you run short of words while speaking? – Some instances 6. Are you a poor speaker, average speaker, good speaker or excellent speaker? – Good speaker Communication is a prominent concept in the personal management phenomenon. This is because, for the proper flow of workings passing of relevant and recent trends and in formations through out the organization is very effective. If there are any changes takes place within the entity, which should know to each other in the organization through communication. There is a need of proper flow or chain of command is necessary within the entity, for passing the in formations quickly among the staff members. The link of passing information should be systematic, otherwise, there is a chance of delay in getting the in formations among the members. Well co-ordination and mutual understanding is a positive factor for performing the given task effectively. Both internal and external communication is important for the organization, because the external parties like suppliers, creditors, etc. are also eager to know about the workings of the organization. Due to the technological advancement and recent trends takes place in the organization, it is necessary to update the changes and amendments in a better manner. The financial performance of a business unit is also necessary to evaluate, because the external parties who were eager to know about the effective functioning of the system, and whether the entity is running effectively or not? Or whether the organization is financially viable or not? All these should be properly informed to the beneficiaries of the organization. “Development communications are organized efforts to use communications processes and media to bring social and economic improvements, generally in developing countries” (Paterson 2005). Communication is a link which helps to be aware of the overall working style and conditions of the organization, and almost all members of the enterprise should develop a better understanding and cordial relationship among each other. Therefore, inter personal skill among the staff members are effective for accomplishing the goals already being set. Communication skill is also another quality that could be improved only by better interaction with people. Communication skill is very closely associated to the personality of a person. The most important factor necessary for good communication is a good command over the language. “The purpose of communication is to get your message across to others clearly and unambiguously” (Introduction. 2008). The communication styles of a person are influenced mostly by the group with which he is mostly associated with. There are different modes that are used for communication in the modern age. A communication can be said to be effective only when the receiver of the message understands clearly what the intension of the sender was. The fact that the receiver has understood the message is evident from the feedback given by the receiver. The three major processes in communication are encoding, transmission and decoding. Encoding is the process in which the sender transforms the message he wants to convey in the form which will be understood by the receiver. In the second process transmission of the message occurs. The sender transmits the message in the most suitable method. The final process is decoding. Decoding occurs when the receiver receives the message and reads it and make out the meaning of the message. This programme was highly helpful for the students as they are taught better way to communicate to people. Different interactive sessions has helped the students to present themselves before others with confidence. 3.7) - Week 7 Curriculum Vitae PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS Trust worthy Organizing skills Ability to settle disputes Hard working Empathetic Enjoy helping others Enjoy supervising activities Dislikes disorders Optimistic Ambitious INTERESTS & HOBBIES Sports (football) Reading Listening to music COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE MS Office Average typing speed 3.8) - Week 8 1. Are you a good communicator? (In speech or writing?) – Yes 2. Are you methodical and systematic with data? – Yes 3. Do you work well as part of a team? – Yes, I work very well 4. Do you work well under pressure or to deadlines? – Yes 5. Are you creative and have innovative ideas? – Yes 6. Are you good at leading and organizing others? – Yes, very good LEARNING & WORKING IN TEAMS – REFLECTION ACTIVITY Exercise – What different types of team can you identify in organisations that you have belonged to? Indicate beside each one whether you consider them to be effective or ineffective teams. The different types of team that can be found in the organization are friends’ group and demographic groups. The teams that are formed in the organization are effective. The friends group is effective as they have good group cohesiveness. Demographic groups are also effective as innovative ideas are brought into the organization. Exercise – The text suggests that there are a number of factors have an influence on whether or not a team achieves its purpose: team members understand the team purpose team has appropriate members team is the right size team has appropriate leadership team works through team building stages team has agreed plans and methods of working team members communicate well team conflicts are resolved; team members co-operate team has necessary facilities and resources team reviews its effectiveness and learns from experience Think about the teams you listed in the first exercise as successful. Which of these factors were present in each case? Friends group: Understanding team purpose, agreed plans, co-operation of team members, proper facilities and learning from experience are the factors present in this group. Demographic group: This group is formed generally on the basis of age and gender. The qualities of this group are appropriate members, appropriate leadership, necessary facilities and agreed plans. Exercise – From your experience with work and social group activities, can you briefly identify the characters or roles that you most often play? Characters mostly played are as follows: 1. Arbitrator or dispute settler, 2. Activity planner, Exercise – Are you happy playing these roles? What other roles would you like to develop? I am happy playing these roles. The other roles that I would like to develop group treasurer and group leader. How could you develop your repertoire of roles? The roles can be developed by trying to influence others and by developing money management skills. 3.9) - Week 9 Perception and culture Perception and culture are two factors that affect the interpersonal behaviour of a person. Perception refers to a person’s method of interpreting things. It is a result of a person’s preconceived ideas. Perception can be said to be biased when a person makes out a wrong idea of the instance. Culture refers to the general behaviour of a person or a group of persons. Usually culture is attributed to a particular country, state or locality. The programme was highly helpful for the students as it helped to make a self analysis of their perception and culture. Activity 3 - Perception - Reflective Activity Briefly describe the situation – what happened? This happened in my class room. It was a mathematics class and we were busy solving mathematical problems. In between my friend who is sitting beside me asked for my ruler. But I could not find it. We searched for it and it was seen missing. Therefore he asked the teacher whether he could borrow a ruler from the boy who is sitting in the front bench. Teacher asked him “Roshan don’t you have a scale of your own?” She then permitted him to borrow. He borrowed the ruler and started solving the problems. Suddenly I found my scale lying beneath my notebook. I took that and started doing the problems after saying Roshan that I found my ruler. This time teacher was watching us and she said asked me “why are you so selfish? Why didn’t you give the scale to him?” But I said her fact and she didn’t believe. The friend of mine being an introvert did not speak anything to support me. How did you feel about the situation? I felt very badly as I was accused for an act which I have not committed. What did you do? I tried my level best to make the teacher know the fact but she didn’t believe. What were the consequences – for you and for any other people involved? The consequences were that I lost the impression on the teachers’ side and my friend was sad that it was because of him I met with such an insult. How can you explain what happened using the concepts involved in the process of perception? This is basically the mistake of perception. The teacher has a preconceived impression about me. She is aware of the fact that I am poor in mathematics. Since I am weak in mathematics the teacher considered me as a bad students and she also considered that I am not good in character. This was a wrong perception. Do you understand more clearly how the situation arose, now you are aware of these concepts? ‘ Now I am more aware about the happening of such instances and the probable solution for that. Would you act differently now? Say why or why not? I would definitely act differently in future if any such instances arise because a wrong perception in ones mind will remain forever if it is not rectified. 3.10) - Week 10 Interpersonal skills – interviewing for work Interview is an integral criterion in the selection of a person for any job. Interview examines a person’s ability to present themselves before others. It clearly identifies a candidate’s ability without clearly. The character and confidence level of a person is analysed by the instant responses made by him during the interview. In eleventh week practice was give to the students for facing the interview. In this when any particular person indulges in interview with the tutors the other students kept watching. This made them learn through the observation of the interview process. Interview was conducted in a group of three or four members. During the preparation phase of the interview the different questions that are to be asked were prepared after proper discussion among the students in the concerned groups. The interviewer was able to draw necessary conclusions regarding the students. They were able to find the students who were lagging behind. Such students were given proper solutions to overcome their problems while facing the interview. This is of great help for the students in identifying their problems and finding solutions for it. Ability and skill There are certain basic abilities and skills that students need to develop in their life. Three of the important basic ability and skills are as numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning. These three are necessary for an individual through out their career for self development. It refers to a person’s ability to perform different mathematical tasks. The mathematical tasks refer to those that can be done by using simple algebra and equations. These show the basic mathematics to be known by a person. The programme employed certain classes on basic mathematics in order to improve the mathematical skills of a person. The students were asked to do many problems during those sessions in order to check their ability and to identify in which area they needed improvement. Verbal reasoning is the ability of a person to understand the language and to make out the meaning of any passage or given sentence. “This test includes a number of short passages of text followed by statements based on the information given in the passage” (Verbal reasoning-comprehension exercise. 2008). Verbal ability of a person is usually tested by giving them a passage along with certain questions of which the answers are given in the passage itself. Therefore, a person with good verbal ability can answer those questions in the correct sense. Such types of exercises were employed in the programme which helped the students to understand where they stand in terms of verbal ability. The tutors also gave suggestions for improvement to the students who are having problems with verbal reasoning. The third skill is spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning refers to the ability to express ideas by the usage of graphs and other diagrams. This is a better mode of communication as diagrams help to communicate ideas better. Pie charts, histogram, etc. are examples of spatial reasoning. Students were given different sessions to help them to develop their skills on spatial reasoning. Expert tutors have given various sessions to the students on improving their spatial reasoning ability. A WORKING MODEL OF ASSERTIVESS 3.11) – Week 11 Person specification checklist Person specification Your strong points? Points you want to make in the interview - candidate Points for interviewer to ask about Good degree from a reputable university Yes I possess a good degree from one of the best universities in the country. I am able for the job that is vacant Questions about the core subjects studied in degree. Strong Excel skills Communication, persuading, convincing I am a candidate who possesses most of the qualities required for the job. What are your best qualities? Good track record of work after university 2 years of work experience in insurance product marketing Better knowledge of the insurance market What are the factors that affect the insurance market? Good team working skills Ability to settle disputes Good arbitration skill What are your HR skills? The ability to explain complex business models to colleagues and clients who are non-accountants Ability to teach others I can inform others about complex problems and concepts. How co-operative are you with the colleagues? Prepared to travel to different parts of the UK – sometimes at short notice Loves traveling to different places I have already visited many places Do you have a passion for traveling? Work unsocial hours when required Duty is my priority Will work for long hours if work is pending Will you work for more hours if any work is pending? Other points that you want to bring out – for candidate? - - - Any other points you want to explore – for interviewer – candidate to leave this line blank - - - 4) Summary of all Reflective Learning’s The different learning exercises were of great help in assessing the personality from different perspectives. The assertiveness model clearly assessed the general attitude towards job and working environment. It clearly identified what the attitude towards the boss is when I am supposed to work under pressure. It looked into my right and the employer’s right so that the general behaviour is based on that. Similarly the person specification checklist was very effective in analysing how the performance would be in an interview. What qualities are reflected in front of an interview board is reflected by doing this exercise. The importance of interpersonal skills and the need to develop interpersonal skills were properly laid down after each analysis. Analysis of the critical incident was able to draw the attitude properly. The main result of critical incident analysis is learning the chances of getting facts misunderstood. 5) Actions The different exercises that were performed sorted out the qualities and weaknesses. It properly laid down what the positive and negative qualities were. From the analysis of positive and negative qualities the areas were improvements are to be made were found. On the basis of this sufficient solutions will be done to overcome the shortfalls. The aggressiveness and low patience will be overcome by maintaining a calm mind in future. 6) References BOLTON, Lisa. What is motivation? [online]. Information technology and management: http://opax.swin.edu.au/~388226/howto/it2/motiv1.htm EISENHOWER, Dwight D (2002). Managing Inter personal and Group Dynamics. Format and Learning Environment. [online]: http://anoovaconsulting.biz/managing-people.html Introduction. (2008). Why communication skills are so important. [online]. Mind tools: http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/CommunicationIntro.htm Learning styles. (2006). [online]. University of Minnesota Duluth: http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/student/loon/acad/strat/lrnsty.html MEFALOPULOS, Paolo (2003). Theory and Practice of Participatory Communication: The Case of the FAO Project "Communication for Development in Southern Afric. Summary. [online]. Soul beat Africa: http://www.comminit.com/africa/evaluations/Evaluations2007/evaluations-461.html Motivation Theories: Individual Needs. (2008). [online]. Cliffs notes: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Motivation-Theories-Individual-Needs.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8908.html PATERSON, Chris (2005). Development Communication. [online]. Mbc.: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/developmentc/developmentc.htm SMITH, Mark K (2001). Peter Senge and the learning organization.: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm Team Organization. (2005). [online]. Inven Teams. Last accessed: http://mit.edu/inventeams/organization.html Verbal reasoning-comprehension exercise. (2008). University of Kent.: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/verbaltest.htm WAGNER, Kendra Van (2008). What is personality? Components of personality. [online].: http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.htm Read More