Self-Awareness Skill Development - Report Example

Personal and Professional Development Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date of Submission: Summary The report presents the process of implementing and reviewing the personal and professional development plan developed. The report presents one main development activity of the proposed personal and professional development plan, which is self-awareness. This activity was chosen since among many other skills, it is important in influencing the professional development success. Thus, the report presents why the activity was chosen, the learning style that will be employed to implement the activity. The report begins with a report on the tasks completed, then a discussion and conclusion that summarizes everything in the report. Report Analysis The activity I undertook involved engaging in the self-awareness skill development. Self-awareness is an emotional intelligence component, which comprises of the emotional awareness of an individual, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. Self-awareness is an important skill that lies on ensuring one completely understands their emotions, which can be strengths or weaknesses in both personal and professional lives. Self-awareness determines the self-worth of an individual, which leads to the improvement of the self-confidence of an individual. Self-awareness is a skill that ensures one is aware of their emotions in different situations. It ensures one understands how different actions and thoughts trigger different emotions, and how these emotions impact the general performance and how this emotions guide the personal values. In engaging in the self-awareness skill development, the intention was to effectively develop a self-analysis activity to recognize emotions in different areas and how these emotions come up. More importantly, the activity would help in understanding how these emotions affect the performance attained. The activity will improve the emotional intelligence skill, which involves increasing the awareness of one’s personal and professional views. The activity involves engaging one in a process that ensures they understand their weaknesses, strengths, limits and inner resources (Moon, 2013). It is a very important activity in competitive environments since it allows one to know their limits and focus on their resources and strengths to shine in the industry. Self-awareness is an important skill since it allows reflective learning, experienced learning and also using feedback as a process of effectively learning. Self-awareness eliminates barriers to success such as developing unrealistic goals or ideas, and other blind ambitions or relentless hard work. However, self-awareness increases the recognition of these blind spots mainly by learning from experience, feedback, observations and other learning strategies. Self-awareness also includes the issue of increasing self-confidence. Self-confidence leads to an improvement of a strong self-worth. Self-confidence increases the presentation of oneself, which depicts a charismatic leadership style of an individual. It also increases the assertiveness of an individual, which is imperative in making the right decisions. Self-confidence is important since it increases the performance of an individual in both personal and professional lives. Learning strategies used include the process of learning through experience to increase awareness of the personal style, interactions with others and feedback from people in different categories. The learning style used to develop the self-awareness skill is learning from other people and situations among other (Olsen, 2015). The activity focused on learning through experience and feedback line managers, team members and from others. Other styles that could have been used included learning through training, mentoring, observation, tutorials, and supervisions. However, learning through experience and feedback was better since it involved one’s participation in learning how the styles affect the learning process. Monitoring, Reflecting and Planning – Based on Kolb’s Learning Cycle (1984) Development Need: Self-Awareness Activity: Learning from others through feedback and experience Date of Activity: 15/6/2017 – 19/6/2017 What happened in this activity (brief description of what you did – having an experience) I learned by observing and writing down how others emotions affected my emotions and generally my performance. Next, I learned through my experience, as I engaged in some projects I evaluated how my emotions affected my performance, increase my self-awareness on how my emotions impact my performance. Additionally, both positive and negative feedback from other team members and line managers is used to learn on how my self-awareness affects my performance. What I thought and felt during and after the activity (reflecting on the experience) I discovered that my emotions play a huge role on the decisions I make and my overall performance in every task and project. I cannot change my personality, however, by understanding my personality and attitudes in different situations I can thrive by avoiding that, which negatively impacts my performance in different projects both in personal and professional activities. I learned been aware of my emotions helps me to cope with the demands of different situations, while analyzing the different decisions one has to make. Been aware of one’s emotions helps one recognize the personal values that help in setting the right goals while identifying the right priorities. Thus, in both personal and professional development, self-awareness remains a very important skill in the success of one’s life. Self-awareness helps to identify how some emotions lead to habits that affect how one interacts with others and their emotions. Thus, one learns how to be committed to making the right decisions. What I learned from completing the activity (concluding from the experience) Self-awareness is an important skill that highly contributes to the personal and professional development. The experience has helped identify on the skills regarding emotions that need to be improved, by revealing gaps that need to be achieved. It helps in identifying the one’s strengths and weaknesses that help in the development of important decisions. The self-awareness activity also was important in that it helped in the development of decision making skills, including managing one’s emotions to make sure they influence one’s development positively. I learned that when am stressed, am not easy to talk to; so to ensure I still make the right decisions to support personal and professional development. What I will do as a result from this experience (planning the next steps) I plan to continue improving and learning other activities that play major roles in personal and professional development. Additionally, feedback from many sources helped me realize that my emotions when am stressed need more and better improvement to ensure it does not affect my performance negatively since when stressed my decisions were not all logical or the right decisions. I will engage in the personal and professional development of conflict handling skills, which is also a key factor that will affect my lifelong success. Personal Development Record Name: Self Awareness Skill Learning Activity Period Covering: 15th – 19th June of 2017 Key dates What did you do? Why? What did you learn from this? How have/will you use this? Any further action? 15th and 16th/6-17 17th and 18th/6/17 18th-19th / 6/ 17 First, my activity involved determining my two weaknesses and strengths. Through experience I would learn how I have used them in developing my professional and personal activities. Determining the most appropriate learning styles Reflection activity I needed to learn my strengths and weaknesses to identify my limits and my resources to help me advance my professional and personal life. I needed to learn the most appropriate learning styles, where I learn effectively and improve my personal and professional development. The aim of the reflection was to determine if I had learned anything from the activity I have major self-awareness skills such as, I can manage stress and other negativity triggers that may affect my decision making to ensure positive outcomes. I also learned that I don’t have inner conflicts to affect my personal and professional learning. I learned that I learn effectively by learning through experience and feedback. I learned my most valued learning strategies, including the strengths and weaknesses I had I will continue learning through experience and others to learn my strengths and weaknesses I will be aggressive in getting feedback from team members, line managers and customers among many others to increase my self-awareness and other important skills. I will also learn effectively through experience. I will use this information, to continue increasing my skills and others that improve personal and professional development Personal Development Plan Name: Date: What do I want/need to learn? (specific and realistic) Where was this need identified? What will I do to achieve this? (achievable) What resources or support will I need? (awareness of limitations and opportunities) What will my success criteria be? (measurable) Target dates for review and completion (time constrained) Engineering and personal skills that will help in my professional development This was identified after I started my personal and professional development, which led to the recognition of the importance of such personal skills besides engineering What I intend to do to achieve this goal is first implement different activities and skills as noted in the original personal and development plan. Engage in internships to gain knowledge and experience, through experience and feedback I will improve on major skills such as self-awareness development activities. Conflict management development and many others Set educational goals such as the grade that I intend to attain. The internship I intend to attain to gain experience of at least two years before completing my course The timeframe to achieve my goals and the engineering skills I require is equal to the timeframe my course will consume to complete. Discussion Self-awareness involves the process of assessing the knowledge, skills, behaviours, qualities and values of one. Including reflecting on their experiences to guide on the personal and professional development. To implement the personal and professional development plan using the self-awareness activity first included defining the activities to include for the self-awareness development. The entire process also needed to define the learning style that would help learn and effectively implement the skill through the personal and professional development plan (Nicholls, 2014). To implement the developed personal and professional development plan, one has to undertake some activities to effectively implement the plan. Self-awareness is one of the activities to help in effectively implementing the plan. Self-awareness is an important skill since it helps one to identify their feelings and emotions and how they are affect one’s performance and decision making. It helps one to determine when to make decisions and when not to make them based on how different emotions affect one’s judgement. To implement the self-awareness activity of the personal and professional development, I will start through engaging in different projects where I will use some learning styles such as feedback from others, and experience to learn about my self-awareness. The aim of the exercise was to determine how well am aware and conscious of my emotions. This includes identifying how different emotions affect different decisions and what triggers the emotions. The overall process was determined to evaluate how different emotions occur, and their impacts on overall performance. The entire process as presented above was documented to show my progress. As evidenced below, my first activity was involved in identifying my weaknesses and strengths. This activity was important since it would help in presenting my limits and opportunities in attaining my set goals. That is; once I discovered my inner resources I can use them to advance on my goals by using my strengths to help in meeting my set goals either in terms of education requirements or other personal set objectives. That is; my first activity proved that my strengths are very important since they impact my decision making. I have major self-awareness skill such as, I can manage stress and other negativity triggers that may affect my decision making to ensure positive outcomes. This was the process in which the results of my activities were measured. Showing how self-aware oi am of my emotions and how they do not always affect my decision making negatively presented the successful completion of the exercise. I also learned that I don’t have inner conflicts to affect my personal and professional learning. However, my personality due to my assertiveness is sometimes perceived as the arrogance, and rudeness among others. This is one of the weaknesses I have, which I must control to ensure my performance is not negatively impacted. Learning styles refers to the best manner in which one learns or applies their skills to personal and professional learning. To implement the developed personal and professional plan, one needs a learning style that they can effectively learn from to implement and make changes to the plan as the implementation is occurring (Hadar & David, 2013). The most appropriate learning styles, as the exercise presented include learning from experience and feedback. The activity was effective since the strengths and weaknesses, and also the most appropriate learning styles were identified. The information is effective in supporting the personal and professional development learning process, which influences lifelong success. The report analysis above provides a documented evidence of the learning activity and how it will be implemented in the personal and professional development. The activity was successful in teaching on one’s strengths and weaknesses, which also gives rise to the limitations and internal resources that can be used to support personal and professional development. The current personal and professional development plan, differs from the original slightly. The current PPD identifies the need of personal skills, which are as important as my primary goals to meet my objectives. Personal skills such as self-awareness and other learning styles help in achieving the set engineering goals. To effectively learn and meet my goals in school and possible internships to influence my personal and professional development one must have the appropriate personal skills. Conclusion Self-awareness is an activity that increases one’s capability to understand themselves and their values, where they can respond to their emotions and those of others effectively to improve the performance of the task at hand. The activity was informative on showing the importance of personal skills in influences the development of professional skills and goals. The development activity presented that self-awareness is an important personal skill that plays a major role in the professional goals attention. That is; it determines the process of decision making and learning among many others that influence the projected development. The current development plan, differs from the original plan in that the current identifies the need of personal development and skills to ensuring effectiveness in the professional development, which determines the lifelong success. Thus, the activity on self-awareness implementation gave light to the need of personal skills in achieving professional goals leading to the given updated plan. Feedback information from team members showed that my assertiveness maybe perceived as negative aggressiveness. Thus, my response to this feedback was ensure that my personality is well identified, where confidence and professional presentation skills are used to make sure the audience understand my assertiveness in a positive light. The activity presented that one of my major strengths lies in the capability to manage and make appropriate decisions when under stress. Thus, other than my assertiveness, which can be viewed as a weakness, my strengths show I have major leadership qualities. References Hadar, L. L. & David, L. B., 2013. The interaction between group processes and personal professional trajectories in a professional development community for teacher educators. Journal of Teacher Education , 64(2), pp. 145 - 161. Moon, J. A., 2013. Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice. New York: Routledge. Nicholls, G., 2014. Professional development in higher education: New dimensions and directions. New York: Routledge. Olsen, B., 2015. Teaching what they learn, learning what they live: How teachers' personal histories shape their professional development. New York: Routledge. Read More