Reflective Portfolio: Self-Evaluation Report

Reflective Portfolio Self-Evaluation ReportExecutive summarizeIn this self evaluating report the chief(prenominal) task is to evaluate the progress get hold ofd during this termination and to classic in which expertnesss I need to work the approximately to make an improvement. It is mainly base on my some unityal achievements development and theories larn during the seminars and lectures, I will do an analysis of my strengths and weaknesses, for that I am doing a SWOT analysis, a future skills development program and how I am discharge to achieved it, As animationing enjoin I am passing game to attach in-class works and exercises d ane by out the semester.IntroductionDuring the term I commit had the luck to improve and learned interpersonal skills that ar essential for what managers ar tone now days in graduate students.For this self analysis report I have elect the skills that I think are the aces I have improve the most and the ones in which I need to work more, these areStrengths Good communication and indite skills and good group working skillsWeaknesses Bad beat centering and poor experienceledge in the use of ITOpportunities Improve my leadership skills in group works, my time management, race management and my IT knowledgeThreats Having difficulties with my communication or writing skills because English is my secondment language, have disagreements with group membersLearning reflection throughout the term and skills deedThroughout the term and especi on the wholey at this module I have been encouraged by my seminars leaders to improve my interpersonal skills by doing some(prenominal) diverse activities. I feel that the skills that I have improved the most are my communication, writing skills and my group working skills.Communication skillsI believe this skill is one of the most important skills that a person need to have in todays employability market because this is the principal method we use to communicate with each new( prenominal), Talking and earreach are consider as essential interpersonal skills that graduates should have according to QAA key skill list 2009.I have improve this skill through out the term by doing presentations at the opposite course modules, for example the ICT presentation, where me and my partner were asked to advised a small company if it was convenient for them to put their course online and we had to give a formal presentation in front of the class, in other modules such as Theory and practice of ancestry we are discharge to have a group presentation about our result on our fancy share portfolio and at Interpersonal skills for business module we had to do a group presentation about an activity that was called ISLAND ESCAPE ISLAND SURVEY were we were asked to convinced the audience or ISLAND SURVIVERS that our island was the best choice for coming to live at.Writing skillsThis is another(prenominal) point in which I have improved since I started the term.The main reaso ns for my personal improvement I think are the reports and course works I have had to write for the different modules, for example the Electronic portfolio, for interpersonal skills and innocent report for opening and practice for business, I have being able to achieve this with the recommendation given throughout the lectures and besides with the information that is in the module book Second edition, Chapter 9 where I could findThe four distinct stages for writing any caseful of reportTypes of reportTerms of referenceResearching and organizing the source materialIn this skill the main improvements I have made are learning the passing graphic symbols of data which are Source material and Diagramming, according to Saunders et al. (2003), Source material is the data that you will use to support your key points and provide evidence to support your recommendations. And according to Buzan (1995), Diagramming is a useful technique for abstract the main themes from the detailed backgr ound information, and also how to do a correct reference and bibliography. base workingThroughout the term I have had the chance to improved my group-work skill at all the modules, this skill is now is being considered as one of the most important factors for business development, as ACAS, April, 2003 has point out To remain competitive organizations need to make and optimum use of equipment and people if they are to wave or even surviveIn general sense people talk of team work when they want to emphasize the virtues of co-operation and the need to make use of the various strengths of employees.This skill was mainly develop at this module throughout different activities for example, the ISLAND ESCAPE, and the BOARD GAME and the NASA exercise.At other modules we also had the hazard to improve our group-work skills for example the theory and practice SHARE PORTFOLIO was done in groups of 5 to 6 people and all the group members had to decide how we were going to invest the money, in this activity many people had disagreements and some times it delay the entire group performance, one analysis we learned in the lecture and that is used to analyze the group way according to their results is the Interaction analysis it was develop from the work of Bales, 1950 and the principle of this analysis is to describe the group process and indications of factors influencing the process of it.The main thing that make all of us improved in our group work skill at this module was that we did not have the chance to choose our groups so for every different activity we had to work with different people and that make us have to take different roles at each group-activity, according to Belbin, 1981, Groups that are composed by entirely of cleaver people, or of people with similar personalities, display a number of negatives results and lack of creativity, in general group working make us improve our communication skill with other people because we had to expressed our ideas and als o listen to others peoples ideas, some studies have demonstrate that there are five main types of communication networks between group members which are Wheel, Circle, All-channel, Y and Chain, this researches was done by Bavelas, 1951 and studied by Leavitt. 1958.Time managementThis skill is not one of the strongest skill that I have but I have being working on to improved it for example I did the time management action plan, were I was able to find were I loss most of my time and what unnecessary activities I did during the day, and since then I have being able to organize wear my time and give it a better used, one positive thing I have manage to do is that throughout the semester I have not miss any death.IT skillsFor me this is one of the skills in which I need to work the most because in this century everybody needs to know how to used and work with IT, also a large amount of work places this days requires you have IT knowledge for qualifying for the job, also as Belbin, 1951 said in her theory about team up roles there are some roles that are different from the nine-roles key roles she that where needed in a team she called them Functional Roles because for these roles members are chosen for their experience and delimitate knowledge, one example is IT knowledge.For improving on this skill I received lectures and seminars about the correct used of excel, power point and even word in the ICT module, also using blackboard and submitting works through it had make me feel more comfortable with the use of computer programs and electronic academic tools.Leadership skillsDuring the activities that we did during the term we had the opportunity to developed our leadership skills when working in groups, as we learned at the lectures and seminars there are a lot of different types of leadership, according to the managerial Grid Questionnaire that we did in at the seminar my leadership style is Team Leader, Black Mouton (1964).Being a leader for me is not only t o make other people do what I said, is to earn their respect, in other words is that the people must accepted the other persons ideas or what he is offering and voluntarily decided to follow him as his leader. According to the module book there are two different progresses for the study of leadership one is the Descriptive approach and the second one Functional approach, Module book, unknown author, page 251, the Descriptive approach focus on whether a leader is a special type of person or whether there is a most appropriate style for a leader to adopt and the Functional approach according to Bower and Seahores, (1966), Leadership is behavior that results in a difference in the behaviors of others.One theory that is being used for leadership training in the Industrial society, (Module book, page 252), is the Action-centred theory of leadership, conjuration Adair 1984It consists in three sets of interrelated needs, that increase the three run shorts a leader must haveThe task rel ated functionThe team related functionThe individually oriented functionAs a result it recognizes how these three areas affect each others in terms of group performance.In management most of the times leaders are not choose by the people it normally is someone that posses a higher rank in the organization, this is known as a Headship who is someone that has a formal authority over its subordinates, Module book, page 254, according to Kotter, 1990, Is far more realistic to regard management and leadership as two complementary activities, each one having its own unique function.During the group activities we did during the term we were able to find that all of has different types of leaders each one with its own characteristic, positive and negative aspects, our leadership types are based on Lewin et al. 1939,study that divided them in three categoriesAutocratic leaderDemocratic leader capitalistic leaderConclusionDuring my time at the University of Westminster I have had the chance to develop and improve my interpersonal skills, knowing that now days this skills are what employers are looking for when they are planning to hire someone makes me think about the importance of develop, learn and practice those skills more.Interpersonal skills are really useful not only for business practice bur also for every day activity. We do not realize how often we use these skills in our daily sprightliness and how helpful they can be if we applied them well, for example time management it would help us to improve it and decrease the amount of time we waste, another skill that is very necessary in any kind of situation is communication skill, because we are always needing to express our thought or ideas to other people and if we do not know how to expressed our self correctly, specially when you are giving a first impression to an audience or to a person you are not going to be able to delivered our message correctly and the receiver of our message will not be able to unders tand what we are assay to said.Other skills such as leadership and team working are essential when working as member of a group, because if you do not know how to manage different situation the final work result is going to be very poor, and also these skills are very important for employers because they want someone that is able to adapt in different groups and that is able to perform different roles in those groups.Specialized skills such as IT or essential skills such as writing skills are also very important, specialized skills gives you more opportunities when searching for a job and essential skills are important because those are the skills that managers are looking for in their future employees.RecommendationsThere are some skills that I have already mention before but I considered that I have the opportunity to work more on them and be able to improve these essential skills which areManagementAs I already said time management and particularly punctuality is something I fee l I need to improve because is one of the first impressions that you give to a person, as Goffman, 1959, said on in his self presentation theory, and particular on first impressions, The opening impression we give is not just and impression of what kind of person we are, it also conveys our translation of the situation Each individual entering a conversation projects by dress, manner, and opening remarks proposal for what the basis of the interaction shall be, for example arriving late for a business meeting will probably make you loose the job or at least loosing the appointment, for that I would have to focus more in the jump hour of the activity and planned better my time so in that way I will arrive on time, specially to my lectures and seminars.Planning my career path is another area in which I have to work because as I am not sure what I am going to do after I graduate, until now I have decided to do an internal transfer from business management to a combined head of Econom ics and socio legal studies. I will manage to decide during the two years that I have left which path I am going to follow after getting my degree and where I will continue my studies.IT knowledgeThe best way to improved in this area is by winning modules that are related with it, for example next semester I am taking a module call essential data analysis and by doing inhabitation study and personal researches.For succeeding on my future plans development I not only have to improved the areas in which I have the opportunity to do it but also I need to pay attention to external factors that might delay my improvements, which could beEnglish as a second languageAs English is not my first language I think these might become a problem when writing reports or essays and when doing oral examination presentations it might not go along well because I might not know how to express some idea, but I think as I get more English practice this will not be a problem.Group disagreementsWhen work ing on groups sometimes you might have the opportunity to work with people that you get along with but some other times you might find yourself in a group that does not work well together or everybody is trying to get individual recognition so at the end the result will be unsuccessful, I think the way to improve this is by focus on the work, and leave individual problems outside the group, also by to developing our own personal type of leadership according to the different theories we have learned is going to ne easier to everyone to adapt to different groups and become a member of it.