Personal Development in Business Management Sphere - Essay Example

? Personal Development Plan March TABLE OF CONTENTS Your Strategic Rationale, Masters Objectivity and Self Analysis 3 Strategic Analysis of your Masters Abilities 4 Communications and Assessment One 5 Working in Teams 5 Developing your Academic and Scholarship Abilities 6 Masters Learning Personal Reflections 6 I. Your Strategic Rationale, Masters Objectivity and Self Analysis Having grown up in an environment that encourages entrepreneurship and trade, I was raised to have taken great interest in business management and financials. I remember being engrossed in books and magazines related to marketing, eventually making me feel that my calling was towards this craft. I have the mind of a businesswoman. This is probably the single, strongest reason why I was determined to pursue a degree in Business Management. My quantitative skills, particularly in Mathematics and Economics, have always been evident since my secondary years. I have a knack for business analysis, a number-cruncher so to speak. One of my strengths is that I can keep up with numbers, analyze them and interpret them into useful data. For me, this is one of the best traits any business person could have. However, due to personal considerations, I took up Bachelor’s Degree Majoring in Early Childhood Education from Umm Al-qura University in my home country of Saudi Arabia. For four years, I focused on building a solid background for a potential career in the Academe – something which I was also able to learn to enjoy. The experience was also remarkable, because in the process, I was able to develop my inter-personal skills due to interfacing with my professors, classmates and peers, and during my practicum, with students. This phase has made me for flexible in terms of establishing relations with various types of people. The enhancements were more of on a personal level. There was much fulfillment in the process. When I graduated from this course, I felt that there was so much to share to my future students. I was optimistic that I could build a career as a teacher. Later on, my family decided to move on to Europe, again, due to personal considerations. There was not much chance to put my bachelor’s degree into practice and that previous life-long interest in business management became evident again. In my mind, I had this vision to merge my interest with the bachelor’s degree which I have already taken in KSA. I wanted to be able to build a school in my hometown – a project which entails good business management skills, as I would not only be the educator, but the administrator and manager of the business as a whole. So it follows that I should seek further studies for me to be equipped as a business manager. Having gone through this decision making process, I decided to enroll at the University of the Wolverhampton Business School for a Masters Degree in Business Management. II. Strategic Analysis of your Masters Abilities Getting into a Masters Degree program entails a different set of skills and abilities. It requires a great deal of independence and self reliance, with the ability to perform self study more than being reliant on other people, the educators or classmates (Studying at Masters Level 2012). At an academic level, there are three major areas that a Masters Student needs to develop: (1) basic principles of producing academic work (researching and writing); (2) skills for study; and (3) critical thinking and reflection (Step up to Masters 2012). Furthermore, compared to getting an undergraduate bachelor’s degree, the effort to level up must be there. In the online article You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College, it emphasized on several differences between the two: breadth vs. depth; memorization vs. analysis; reporting vs. analyzing and arguing; reading it all vs. copious skimming and selective reading (You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College 2012). Taking an undergraduate course is not a walk in the park, but obtaining a Masters Degree takes doubled effort and added passion on the part of the student. Knowing all these, I recognize that although I basically possess the right skills for me to enter the postgraduate level, there are still several abilities that I need to further develop. I am confident that I can be an independent student who is very resourceful and creative in addressing the requirements for my Masters Degree. I also have the right analytical skills that sustained me all throughout college, and even during my crossover from my home country to Europe. However, there are areas for development such as being more proficient in academic writing, and having the right study skills for me to manage the workload and the requirements. One year through the program, I am now confident that my strengths will overshadow my weaknesses, being the determined person that I am. My strong desire to get the job done will be my guiding tool towards achieving my academic and personal goals. I am continuously improving, not only as far as skills are concerned, but also on the commitment level. I am now, more determined than ever, to finish off what I have started and embark on a career that I have always planned for. III. Communications and Assessment One Part of the feedback given to me was to put more effort to improve my communications skills. With this, I have resolved to find ways to improve my verbal and written communications skills by joining student groups and being active in projects that would demand me to contribute in both ways. Moving forward, I resolve to take an extra mile in ensuring the quality of my written work, particularly on the use of the English language. This skill I am confident to further develop with sufficient practice and guidance from my mentors and peers. IV. Working in Teams Teamwork is work done by several individuals with each doing a part essential to the efficiency of the whole. A team player should have an ability to work with other individuals towards a common goal (What is Team Work and Why is it Important to Your Organization 2012). Most jobs entail teamwork, not only in school but particularly in the workplace. Teams come in all sorts and sizes, and sometimes, the roles of the individuals are proportional to the team size and the level of goals and objectives that they are set to achieve. At the academic level, teamwork is necessary especially for group assignments. There is a common goal to get good marks, or simply just to pass the course they are enrolled in. On a larger scale, student organizations require a good amount of teamwork to get their campus projects done. Team players are often recognized to be good contributors in a project. They are the ones who exert more effort to get more work done, and essentially the people deemed agreeable and easy to work with. They promote a certain level of harmony among the group. In an online article, it says that to function more productively, team members must share a common belief about their expected roles, as well as the goals of those involved in the project (Teamwork 2012). The university is the training ground for social and civic activities, and this is where students are trained towards effective teamwork. Even though at the onset of the program, some are constrained by personal attributes to perform as a team player, along the way, he must strive to achieve certain levels of improvement. As mentioned, I have a good foundation for good interpersonal skills. I recognize the need to share goals with a particular team, to work as an individual, but with the common goal of the group in mind. I like the idea of building a project together with a team, and I can easily adapt to different cultures and personalities, which helps me to become synchronized in group activities. Basically, it helps that I am amiable and a good listener. I can say that I am a good team player, and am determined to even do better as I progress in this course. V. Developing your Academic and Scholarship Abilities Since the Masters Level is essentially a notch higher than the Bachelor’s Degree, everything else must be raised to that level, too. Academic pieces are expected not to be just in a narrative style, but more of on an analytical approach. There must be less grammatical and typographical errors, if none at all. It addresses desired outcomes, developing arguments, unfolding supporting lines of reasoning, and drawing logical conclusions from these presented evidences. It is highly critical, and is reflective of you as an individual (Writing at Masters Level 2012). Efforts to resolve course requirements must be done within the given timeframe. There is less room for mistakes and a lot of areas to be creative, highly analytic and effective. VI. Masters Learning Personal Reflections All these learning on having the right amount of Masters Skills are taken into heart, and since the start of the program, I have been carefully trudging this path towards remarkable self improvement. Acquiring the right Masters Skills, although there is still so much to develop, has helped me tackle other roles, in the academics or even on a personal level. The resolve to do things right, and to ensure that my assignments are delivered in the best quality are the main driving forces for me to continue moving forward. The most notable skill that I have improved is probably being able to manage my time, such that I have a good career and personal balance. Being in school takes a lot of my time, and I have other personal roles to fulfill. There are twists and turns that I have to undertake, add a little more time to one role and cutting some on others. But although this will be a continuous balancing act, I am confident that I am pulling and pushing at the right amounts, such that I can deliver what is being expected of me, both at school and on a personal level. I am satisfied with my progress as a Masters Degree as I can see myself getting nearer my personal and career goals, and acquiring a lot of insights and knowledge along the way. The knowledge and learning will not only be applied on a Business Management level, but also as a teacher-educator. Teaching lessons is one thing, but teaching lessons learned from life are much more important. I can already see a perfect blend between my college degree and my greatest interest, which is Business Management. Reference List Studying at Masters Level. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/ECL/tef/93191.htm Step up to Masters. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/stepup/studyskills.html Teamwork. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=IAT304 What is Team Work and Why is it Important to your Organization? Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Team-Work-and-Why-is-it-Important-to-Your-Organization&id=1693070 Writing at Masters Level. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.doceo.co.uk/academic/m_writing.htm You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://gradschool.about.com/od/transitions/a/Graduate-School-Vs-College-You-Ll-Need-Different-Study-Skills.htm Read More