The Advancement of Technologies in the Communication Field - Essay Example

Aim: Being a sophomore chemical engineering sighting for job openings in terms of solidarity, the module of engineering management and leadership has imparted knowledge and enlightened us on what employers look for from University students. On the other hand, it has enhanced our skills in some areas such as boosting our self-esteem, as well as our communication skills, through exposure to inspirational lectures, and working as a team. As a result, I have been able to achieve tremendous growth in areas such as logical reasoning. Through this, I am able to be more aware of risks associated with handling projects, as well as my subsequent enactment into an industrial workforce. My prowess to analyse my personal growth on various learning outcomes related to my course has been as a result of the development of my PDP (Personal Development Plan). The PDP has enabled me to spot my speciality and flaws while putting into consideration ways of refining my skills for my future job. Reflection: Project management and Planning: ‘Project Management’, is a term which refers to the discipline of planning, regulating resources, innovation, as well as organising with a main aim of attaining a set objective. A project is said to be a short-term endeavour with a defined beginning and culmination. It is mainly usually embarked on so as to meet unique objectives and goals. The term ‘planning’, also called ‘groundwork,’ is the process of organisational thinking of the procedures or activities in an organisation so as to meet a desired goal. All in all, a plan is fabricated and also retained as well with planning. A good case study to commence with will be our chemical process design group project. Through it, the description of what project management and planning is, is revealed. Before commencement of our project week, the inception to this project week was planned prior to our meetings which were organised with minutes and agendas being recorded concurrently. I was tasked with the role of being a chair of the design project since I was eloquent and fluent. With this, I was deemed to allot full participation and leadership in the project all together. In order to meet project deadlines and also our groundwork, we used Gantt charts as well as some Microsoft programs. However, the major setback was the individual performances of project/group members in the assigned tasks. It was duly noted that the persona of each member played a critical role in project completion since some members were more involved than others. The result of this was failure in the first part of the design project. With this, I examined each member’s advantage and disadvantage, including myself, by requesting them to come up with a SWOT analysis of themselves. This assisted me to adopt dissimilar management as well as leadership techniques for individual members. As a result, majority of inactive members became more involved with the second part of the design strategy, and we successively achieved a positive result. Team work and Interpersonal skills: ‘Teamwork’ is a term that can be defined as the ability to work jointly with other individuals, as opposed to working solo, in order to separately score a specific target. The term, being note-worthy, is used in all aspects of life. Working in a team is probably a critical life experience, even for individuals who prefer to work solely. In order to solve and analyse a situation at hand, it is a necessity to embrace teamwork. This will ensure a more positive end result. The term ‘interpersonal skills’ revolves around communicating with each other, listening and understanding each other, and also the self-assurance while doing it. They include likes of individual stress management, problem solving and decision making. Great communication skills, participatory roles, as well as listening to each other (interpersonal skills), together with teamwork are mostly incorporated along with project management and planning as mentioned above. I have come to comprehend the importance of respecting my team members’ opinions, and also why each member should be assigned to a task. This forms an essence in good teamwork. Members should thus be assigned tasks based on their strength and weaknesses. I implemented this system on my previous group design projects whereby the members together with myself were able to produce a SWOT analysis. Though the SWOT analysis, a team’s weakness is addressed and a best adoptable strategy is ascertained based on individual performances of each member. Being engaged with team work has a lot to do with understanding the aim of the university’s project which needs to be completed or the organisation that you are part of. A good team workforce has clear expectations, commitment and context. However, in my own experience and with the knowledge gained from this module’s session on motivation, it has come to my realisation that establishing a reliable team requires one to build on trust with others, and select only motivated individuals with the same drive. More so, it should be put into consideration that different individuals have different persona in a general work/project setting. In addition, characteristics such as being charismatic, confident, humour, and being calm are often associated with strong interpersonal skills. Individuals of this nature are always deemed to be successful in their personal and professional lives. It is thus an apparent reason for us to emulate such qualities so as to appeal to others and also improve and develop ourselves. Leadership and initiative: According to the Oxford dictionary, the term ‘leadership’ has been defined as ‘the action of supervising a group of people or an entity’. Leadership plays a major role in success of many companies. As a result, an individual should put more effort to nurture this aspect. At Universities, with most of the work being embraced at individual level, leadership is often not required. However, an individual’s leadership skills can be improved on and tested whilst undertaking group tasks provided during the tutorials and random group assignments. In my opinion, management and leadership go hand in hand, this is even though management depends on the control and leadership expands in relation to innovation. By trying to possibly create a society in my home country (Kuwait), as well as analysing other student’s ideas in my turf, I have duly noted the aspect of leadership initiatives. The society will have a sole objective of acquiring placement opportunities for students. This will be aided though promotion of opportunities that the Universities of the state of Kuwait has, as well as improving student’s employability skills. For this reason, I undertook a survey of students and academics from Kuwait in general. The society now has around 45 members and has had five company visits. As mentioned above, I have taken the role of leader for our group design project. I have thus gained strong leadership tendencies through embracing my strength and weaknesses and working around them. In my opinion, a good leader must be able to handle a range of styles adapting to co-workers. Problem Solving: The term ‘problem solving’ is a strategy adopted in many disciplines. It is categorized as either ‘ill-defined’ or ‘well-defined’ with appropriate solutions being made as a result. The ‘ill-defined’ problems are those which have no set goals and are not solvable, in contrast with the ‘well-defined’ problems which have specific goals and clearly defined paths. Good problem solving skills can enable one achieve the impossible. This being on the basis that problems are common, with some being obviously more severe than others. Having the ability to work out problems effectively is wonderful especially in a timely fashion without facing any difficulties, but, unfortunately there is no singular way in which all problems can be solved. In many modules, I have used the technique of analytical analysis for problem solving. I have as well added some creativity to the problems I have faced. The technique which has helped me solve my problems is evaluating the question and knowing the reasons that might have caused this problem. This helps make the solving process easier. I then run the problem, decide what actions to take, make the action, and wait for the results. This technique has helped me simulate the problems in real life. Professional communication: The term ‘professional communication’ includes digital communication, visual communication, written communication as well as oral communication. However, in the modern society, there are a diverse range in communication aspects. The advancement of technologies seems to frequently outpace the number of professionals in the communication field. Conclusively, in this part of the coursework, I have gained knowledge on how to connect with different people. I have also gained more self-assurance, and I have been able to discuss ideas, listen to others’ thoughts. Also, I have learnt how to persuade people with my opinions and point of views. I am now aiming to further improve my skills to professional areas as well as University work. I would also like to expand my leadership to match individual characteristics and even increase my problem solving abilities. Personal Development Plan: skills Current qualifications Target Actions of development Project management and planning Good management and planning skills and often help inactive people to manage complete their work To achieve excellent project and management skills Looking for volunteering opportunities at University Leadership and initiative Confidence in leadership and determining initiative Modify different leadership types to different people Leading university projects as well as try leading larger projects Problem solving Good analytical skills as well as looking forward to finding more problem solving techniques to overcome difficult situations Becoming more confident with problem solving Expose myself to variety of situations and test myself Team work and interpersonal skills Enjoy working in a team and often work ahead Learn to make a successful team and understand the weaknesses and strengths of the members Expose myself to larger projects and volunteering opportunities Professional communication Communicating with people in a professional level Increase my communication skills Interacting with more people through networking sites Read More