Personal Development Planning
Terms of Reference
On the instruction of the module leader of 4HRB450 - Interpersonal Skills for Business module, I have been asked to develop a "Reflective Portfolio" based on a self-evaluation SWOT analysis and make personal reflection and comments on the interpersonal skills I have improved and how during the module, and the ones I want to improve and my plan for achieve my aims.
. Executive Summary
As a result of self-reflective SWOT analysis I have identified my main strengths in my leadership and decision making aptitude, group work commitment and attendance, and my self-confidence and ability to learn new skills quickly. However, recognize my main weaknesses to be my tendency to procrastinate and get easily distracted, time management issues including to start work late and to rush at the last minute but without missing a deadline, and bad management with lazy people in group work.
Improvements have been made through the module, especially regarding time management and the waste of time watching TV and the internet. This is due to the awareness and analysis of such issues and the willingness to overcome this problem. In order to solve my weaknesses and improve my skills it was essential to make a plan and decide the methods I would have used. This includes to make a time schedule with the activities for the day and for the courseworks, going to sleep and waking up an hour early, avoiding to connect the internet if I have to work or study, , listening without interrupting people, not get emotional in any kind of conversation and use body language to make the other person more comfortable and aware that I am listening carefully and that I am understanding.
A personal development plan is provided to establish what my future goals are, in terms of interpersonal skills and how I am going to achieve them, including reducing the wasted time chatting on MSN or watching TV, using Time logs to monitor my time management, using further group activities at university to improve the way I manage free riders, keeping motivated and using the technique of improvement I have learnt and used so far.
My long term aims are to achieve a Master in Finance and find a job with a career prospectus in the banking sector. In order to do so, it is fundamental to have high marks in my education and degree, keep learning and developing new skills, and checking on regular base what improvement I have a made and what the next steps forward are. Awareness and planning are crucial for in order to accomplish the goals set.
2.
Introduction
This report has been written during the second term of the academic year 2005/06. At present I am 25 years old and I live in London on my own. I left my family when I was 20 and I move to London to improve my English and to obtain a degree followed by a master in Finance in a good English University, hopefully London Business School. Before starting University I've accomplished the equivalent of high-school and A-Level in IT and Electronics in Italy. I worked as a computer programmer for 3 years and as finance assistant for 1 year, with a couple of shorter jobs in the middle. Leaving on my own together with working experience helped me to develop self-confidence and maturity.
2.1 SWOT Analysis
The follow table shows a self-reflective SWOT analysis in relation to my interpersonal skills. It was conduct at the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2005/06 for the 4HRB450 module, using seminar exercises and auto-evaluation tests reported in appendix.
2.1.1.1 Strengths
2.1.1.2 Weaknesses
Leadership & Decision making
Attendance & Commitment
Self-confidence & Quick learner
Meeting deadlines
Time management and punctuality
Procrastination, Time wasting & Easily distracted
Leadership's issues
Active listening in informal communications
2.1.1.3 Opportunities
2.1.1.4 Threats
Learning Spanish
Exchange program in Australia
Summer work in Italy
University education & degree
TV & DVD's
Social life
Internet & MSN
High aims and Keeping motivating
After completed the SWOT analysis on my self, I have decided to investigate Time management, leadership with some reference to group work and oral communication skills. I decided to focus the attention on these skills because they are the ones where I have a greater lack and more weaknesses. Thus, I ...
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Active listening in informal communications
2.1.1.3 Opportunities
2.1.1.4 Threats
Learning Spanish
Exchange program in Australia
Summer work in Italy
University education & degree
TV & DVD's
Social life
Internet & MSN
High aims and Keeping motivating
After completed the SWOT analysis on my self, I have decided to investigate Time management, leadership with some reference to group work and oral communication skills. I decided to focus the attention on these skills because they are the ones where I have a greater lack and more weaknesses. Thus, I have more improvement to make in order to obtain my aims previously stated.
3. Interpersonal Skills
3.1 Time Management
From the analysis of the time logs (Appendix C) it appears clear that my time management it is not well organized and I have a tendency for procrastination (Appendix A) and wasting time. I have identified my main issues as procrastinating before staring an important work, getting distracted easily, wasting time watching DVD's and staring my day too late.
3.1.1 Time Logs
As it appears from Cottrell (2003), it is important to keep a diary and a record of activities in order to evaluate and become aware of the usage and wastage of time. It is important to have a time schedule and plan activities in advance in a logical order. By following and try out some of this suggestions, I felt that they are actually working and I have improved my time management.
In order to improve my time management, during the last few weeks, I have decided to wake up earlier, at 7am. This made a significant difference, together with my TV breaking down. Besides, in order to maximize my time, I check my email in the morning while having breakfast. Lately, I have been starting my working day around 8am instead of 10.30am as I used to.
Although we discussed in the seminar that 6 hours sleep could be enough, due to a busy and active life, I need to sleep around 8 hours per day. Consequently, as I wake up earlier in the morning, I have to go to sleep earlier in the evening. Losing 1 hour in the evening it did not affect me in a negative way because I am more productive in the morning and I tend to do constructive things during the day and relaxing and "wasting time" in the evening. Furthermore, I have realized that I waste most of my time during weekend and I need to reorganize my time in order to use my time more efficiently with productive results.
3.1.2
Procrastination
According to the outcome of the "Procrastination Indicator" (Appendix A), my biggest weaknesses are chatting, leaving important work until the last minute and difficulties in starting to concentrate to work or study. This defines me as a person aware of my tendency to procrastinate but who work hard to keep it under control. I totally agree with this description. I am aware of my tendency to procrastinate, especially before starting to study. I have identified my self as an "Excessive Socialiser", as I tend to get interrupted and distracted by my friend, especially chatting through MSN, and as a "Perfectionist", as I always set myself high aims and want to achieve high results and marks, looking for more improvements all the time.
3.1.3 Time Wasting
Through the self-reflective "Time Waste" Test (Appendix B) I recognize that I am easily distracted by everything that comes along while I am studying. This often makes me loose time distracting me from what I was doing and loosing the concentration.
Another important issue about my wasting time is the proportion of time that I spend in front of the TV watching DVDs. However, the TV in my bedroom broke down about 10 weeks ago and I have suddenly stopped to waste a lot of time that I have been using for other purposes. I also waste a large amount of time replying to friend's emails and browsing the internet throughout all day.
Another important factor affecting my time schedule, it is the long time I need to getting ready before leaving the house, also due to the interruptions from chatting on MSN, email and phone calls.
3.2
Leadership in group
As highlighted in the SWOT analysis (Graph 1) one of my strength is the ability and confidence of decision making and the aptitude of a leader. Lecture slide notes define Leadership as "a process whereby one individual influences other group members towards the attainment of defined group or organizational gorals". (Barron, 1990).
3.2.1 Questionnaires
As we discussed in the seminar, there are some people who have a natural talent of leadership. I believe to be one of them. As it appears from the "Managerial Grid Questionnaire" and the Leadership style (Appendix F and G), I tend to be a good team leader. However, from some of these questions I have recognized some of my weaknesses. I tend to place relationships despite of the good results and do not complain when people do not work hard, I should be stronger with lazy people. In previous experience I have noticed that everybody was expecting me to take action or talk to these people and they complained to me rather than with them. Usually my attitude towards laziness is to get the job done myself avoiding discussion that I think will not be productive.
3.2.2 Styles
As described by Stanton (2004), there are 3 styles of leadership: Democratic, Autocratic and Laissez-faire. I tend to be as democratic as possible, considering member's opinion, planning a schedule with approval of other's, leaving freedom of work, dividing tasks according to ability and consent and try to make everybody participating and expressing their opinion. However, some people take advantage of this and do not do any work. Perhaps I should be a bit more autocratic and push lazy people to work harder, putting the work before relationship. As a team leader I tend to listen to others people opinions and suggestions, and I try not to force my own ideas. However, if I strongly believe to be right, I have notice that I keep going until I convince the others, which on the other hand give up quite easily.
3.2.3
Past experiences
Another notable factor that appears from previous group work experience is the willingness of other people to follow me. I usually emerged as leader and people followed my decisions. During the second semester I decided to form a group for a business module with the leaders of previous courseworks. Although I was expecting everybody to have a strong aptitude towards the decision making, they always reported back to me and waited for me to decide and make plans.
My commitment for group work is proved by my attendance in the lecture and seminar of this module, as well as in all the other modules, as I have not missed any seminar through the year. The same applies for group works with the assignments were my attendance tends to be excellent. Although due to problems with time management I may have arrived late for group work's meeting, I have never missed a deadline and very punctual to business meeting, lectures and seminars.
In the group work executed in the seminar I had the role of observer and report back the performance of my group. (Appendix G) I think this was an excellent opportunity to improve and test my leadership skills through a silent observation of other's people work and reflections to establish what were their strengths and weak points. This is one of the duties of a leader, identify difficulties within the group and make decision to use their strength in the best way overcoming the problems in order to develop a more efficient environment which increases the performance obtaining better results.
3.3
Communicating with other
I had always assumed that I had good communication skills, however, after taking a test and analyzing it (Appendix H, I), I have noticed that there is need of other skills such as listening. In order to have a good communication cycle it is important that the sender and the receiver have certain abilities. As stated by Stanton (2004), a message has to be received, understood, accepted and then the receiver can take action.
3.3.1 Listening
Although I have always thought that I was a good active listener, it came to my attention that I have some weaknesses in this area. (Appendix H). Stanton (2004) defines the qualities of a good listener, including interest, listen critically and carefully, not allowing distractions, taking notes, replying or holding the answer in order to help the speaker. However, there are different types of communications and active listening. I feel like being a good active listener during lectures, by taking notes and seminars by intervening and taking part to the conversation when appropriate, and not as good in informal or private discussions because I tend to interrupt people when they speak or I talk too much.
3.3.2 Body Language
In the communication cycle, the body language is very important because it transmits our feeling and the other person can perceive the wrong message. It is fundamental to have eye contact and show interest in order to have an effective communication. I use body language, face expression, tone of the voice, which tend to be too loud sometimes but never monotone, and use my hands a lot when communicating. People tend to feel more relaxed and less defensive when they feel that they are being understood. Similarly, it happened with the tone of the voice or the emotions that are transmitted with it. It is important to control the emotions when speaking otherwise you can enter in a circle where by being too loud or sound upset, the receiver instinctively react by being louder or more aggressive. Although I am aware of this, I am not always able to control my emotion in personal and non conversations.
The role play that was done in the seminar (Appendix I) it was very useful in order to understand the feeling and reaction of a speaker with a bad listener. Even if it was done on purpose, people, including me, tend to became less confident or nervous with a bad listener, particularly when people is ignoring you or having a body language that clearly express that.
3.3.3 Barriers
Stanton (2004) defines different types of barriers to communication, including differences in perception, stereotyping, emotions and personality, lack of interest, difficulty with self-expression, lack of knowledge and use of jargon.
As I am not an English native speaker, but I have been living in the UK for about 5 years, I have experienced some difficulties when talking to oriental people. This difficulty in communicating is often emphasized when people do not have a high volume of voice. However, I have noticed that some of the English teachers have the same problem with the same people. Thus, it is very important for an effective communication that people use an appropriate tone and volume of voice, especially in a multicultural environment when talking to different people.
It is also important to underline that asking question is crucial when something is not clear. Fortunately, I am not a shy person and I tend to ask questions if I have the feeling that I have not understood something. However, I understand that there may be some embarrassment in asking a question in a big lecture theater with two hundreds people, especially in another language.
4.
Conclusion
This report is the outcome of a self-reflective SWOT analysis conducted through self-evaluating questionnaires and exercises to establish my weakness and strength in terms of Interpersonal skills and analyse if I have improved them and how.
I have tendency to procrastinate before start an important job and get distracted by phone calls, emails, chatting on MSN, wasting time watching DVD's and leaving work at the last minute. However, I have not missed a deadline so far. Time logs made me aware of these problems and I have already changed my daily routine: I wake up an hour early, disconnect the internet when starting to study, I do not have a TV in my bedroom anymore.
In work groups for academic purposes I tend to have a leader role and among my strength I have identified self-confidence and decision making. However, I have to be stronger with people when they do not get much work done, even if it can compromise the relationship. Improving my time management skills will help me to manage better my team and the deadlines.
Although I think I am a good listener during formal conversations such as work meetings and seminars, I tend to interrupt people when they talk in private conversations and use a quite loud volume of voice. However, among my strength I can state that I use eye contact and body language, especially my hands.
5.
Future Plan & Personal Development Plan
Based on the above conclusions of a self-reflective SWOT analysis this section describes what my goals and aims for the future are and how I am going to achieve them.
A first important weakness that I need to convert into strength is my time management. In both, academia and business related work environment, is extremely important to be able to manage its own time, and sometimes other's time, efficiently and productively. The time logs have been very useful to make me aware of how I use and misuse my time. Since my TV broke down I noticed I tend to get more work done and waste less time. Besides, getting up an hour early has made a big difference because I am more productive during the day and less in the evening and I've gained an hour of productivity in exchange for a wasted hour. Although I have noticed improvements about my time management, I still have some problems with procrastinating on Internet. I have fixed a maximum amount of time I can spend on Internet and I am going to gradually reduce it. I also took the decision to disconnect the internet while concentrating on coursework in order to avoid most temptation for distraction. I check my email and chat on MSN during the short gaps times, especially between classes. A further step is to plan in advance and have a schedule to follow. Knowing when and estimating for how long I am going to work on something helped me to remain focused, achieving more tasks with better results.
One of my aims is to work as a manager in a big international company. I will use future group works, during the next two academic years, to improve my ability to deal with different types of people and being stricter with lazy workers when they tend to procrastinate or do not get any job done in the time schedule pre-established. I will try to find the balance between work and relationships in order to create a friendly environment to work in which is also very productive.
Another aim about my interpersonal skills is to improve my communication difficulties and try a new aptitude as a listener. I would like to be able to communicate with different people in different occasion, creating a comfortable situation with the person I am talking to or listening. A first step toward this goal is to try to let other people to finish talking and then ask a question or intervene. Repeating to the speaker and paraphrasing asking confirmation of the correct received message is a good way to improve the communication cycle.
