Reflective writing

Developing a reaction to one's own developments can be facilitated by reflective writing, which is a crucial component. This is significant since doing so can be a crucial step in persuading employers that a person is qualified for a position (Orsmond and Merry, 2013, p.740). Through this method, a person can identify their areas of weakness when it comes to reaching a particular goal and work to strengthen those areas while also acquiring traits that will help them succeed. The personal assessment provides a thorough study of a person's personality and how their actions impact their ability to achieve. Through self-evaluation, an individual can learn about their success, recognition. This helps them to establish their work values may need in growing professionally (Dik et al., 2013, p. 363). The other importance of self-assessment is to understand whether the values that one has can fit in the culture. For example, the ability of an individual to communicate with others can be assessed to know whether they can fit in a particular group of people or not. The most critical aspect of self-assessment is when looking for a career and when growing in the current position. One can establish what characteristics or attributes that they have that can be important for proper performance of a particular job. It is important to come up with a plan that shows areas that will need improvement in case one wants to perform better.

This paper is an analysis of the personal assessment of skills and attributes to determine the areas that need improvement for better performance. According to Kolb’s model, a person competent learning can be in four stages (DeCoux, 2016, p.203). The first phase is having a concrete experience when a new direction that an individual is focusing on. Secondly, observation is the second stage where one determines the inconsistencies that exist. The third stage is abstract conceptualization where reflection gives rise to a new idea on what should be done better. The final step is active experimentation where the views are subjected to practical issues to find out the results. Through these stages, an individual can establish the highest points that should be maintained for better performance and the weak points are identified to come up with measures to counteract them for better performance. Therefore, self-assessment is a valuable exercise that enables one first to establish how well they can perform in different areas. After this, one can identify the key areas where they need to concentrate in guided by the goals they have set. An analysis is then carried out in those critical areas to determine ways of improving performance to attain the set goals.

Generally, in this exercise, the first step is to determine the rating which is how well one thinks they can perform a particular task. This means that the scores indicate performance from poor to excellent. The second step is guided by the idea of what one wants to achieve. This means that one has to select six aspects that they think are important in their future endeavors. Then one has to identify the developments that are necessary for ensuring that the goals are met. In this case, the six aspects those need to be considered in my self-assessment are the professional and technical competence, critical thinking, research skills, innovation, time management skills and openness to experience.

SWOT analysis is an approach that is used to determine the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities to provide an opportunity to maximize performance (Bull et al., 2016, p.109). It analyses the internal and external factors that can influence a situation either positively or negatively. In this case, a SWOT analysis was used to evaluate the professional competence to determine the areas that present opportunities for improvement and those that can be used as positive points in the career field. It was also crucial in analyzing the research skills and innovation capabilities. The strengths are the internal capabilities that can give best results. The weaknesses are interior and can be controlled by an individual for better performance. Opportunities and threats are all external, and the individual has no control over them. The SWOT analysis was carried out on two occasions before and after applying the recommended changes. The first instance found that my professional competence was affected by some weaknesses.

Strengths

Commitment in good performance

Passion to learn

Motivation

Dedication

Time management

Weaknesses

Poor communication skills

Lack of experience

Weak career management skills

Lack of career direction

Opportunities

Good economy

Good industrial trends

Emerging demand for a new skill

Referral to a high-powered contact

Threats

Reduced demand in my new skill

Changing professional standards





In this case, when focusing on the professional competence that I have, I found out that some areas were untapped which could be beneficial. These are the opportunities. The weaknesses and the threats had to be dealt with to ensure better career development. The strengths could be used in self-development to improve performance. In this case, some of the measures that would have been taken would be first of all determination of the right career that I want to make. This will give me an opportunity to concentrate on building a path that will lead to better life. The second option will be to undertake some career development opportunities (Akkermans et al., 2015, p.540). This may involve acquiring more education and seeking to work in other places to gain experience even if it is doing voluntary work. The other aspect is to work under someone in the workplace so that you improve your skills and performance. The threats are external and cannot be controlled by an individual. However, in this case, to increase my professional standards I would have to continue studying to ensure I can reach the goals set by the professional bodies. Good performance will always increase professional competence even at the times when there is a change in demand for a particular skill (Bozionelos et al., 2016, p.142). After the analysis, the SWOT diagram was as follows.

Strengths

Commitment in good performance

Passion to learn

Motivation

Dedication

Time management

Job experience

Good communication skills

Good job performance

Innovation

Weaknesses

Inability to multi-task



Opportunities

High demand for ones career

Better paying jobs

Threats

Lack of career progression







A personal development plan is another piece of evidence that can be used in determining the performance in any aspect. It involves keeping a specific and realistic target to concentrate on attaining them (McGrath, 2014, p.21). These objectives make the elements that are to be achieved bright, practical and also help to avoid procrastination. This activity was carried out in two phases before and after the analysis of the capabilities.

Aims



To learn good research skills and time management.

Actions



Seek programs that elaborate on how to undertake research well and successfully

Avoid procrastination

Resources



Internet



Measurement



Undertaking a task successfully and undertaking a successful research project

Review & time scale

Keep a tight schedule of all the planned activities





After a completion of the personal development plan, I was able to improve on my score and now believe that my time management enhanced to excellent from highly efficient. My research skills also improved to excellent. The reason why this is a useful piece of evidence is that it provides an avenue to determine how to carry out essential developments in life.

This self-assessment was carried out in a bid to determine the skill capabilities that I possessed and discover the areas that required further development. To enable me to carry out this assessment, I used the Kolb’s learning cycle. It states that people learn from everyday experiences and as such, they have a chance to change their weaknesses to high points. This model also treats reflections as a critical part of learning. The four steps were undertaken as follows:

Stage one of this model talks about the experience. At any given place and time, life presents some lessons from which we can learn. In this case, I had a lot of skills to learn from. First, I want to have a career that is successful. In the society, competence in any profession is essential. I, therefore, undertook an exercise of stipulating the requirements to ensure that my career is thriving. These are education, job experience, excellent performance and excellent time management skills. Most people in the world remain unemployed because they do not possess the necessary competence in a particular field (Zhao, 2015, 135). Therefore, from these experiences, I learned that I need to concentrate on my career development. From this stage, I discovered that some opportunities requires being utilized to aid in our personal growth.

The second stage is the reflective part. This is where I sat down and reflected on what I have done so far in my career development. One of the things that I have undertaken is to go o the university. This was an opportunity to reflect on the things that have to be done if at all I have to perform best in my set areas. First of all, I wanted to be right in critical thinking. This is a skill that makes it possible for one to be able to analyze a situation before making a decision. This can only be developed through a process. The other skill I wanted to create is excellent research skills and time management. This is because at any place it will be important for one to understand how to be a good researcher efficiently. In the university, there are numerous opportunities to develop this skill.

The third stage of this model is the conceptualization where instead of thinking about the experiences, one generates a hypothesis of them. In this case, I have had numerous experiences that have not been satisfactory. At this stage, I made assumptions of what makes my performance in all of my areas of interest difficult. First of all my professional competence is not excellent because my education level is still wanting and I lack the necessary skills. The reason why I have poor time management skills is that I keep on procrastinating and hence I never do a thing at the right time (Barnett, 2016, p.5). This causes a lot of time wastage.

The final stage of this process is planning. This is where one carries out an experience to determine whether the said hypothesis is correct. In this case, I had set to do a set of activities all of them with their time frame. However, I found out that at first, it was hard to keep the timelines. It was then clear that the reason I have poor time management skills is that I never complete a task in time. Therefore, from this self-assessment procedure, I learned of the weaknesses that I have that could hinder my success and development and determine the ways that will make me perform better.

The evidence gathered was through the use of a SWOT analysis and a personal development plan. First of all, all the weaknesses that I identified required to be improved for better personal development. Using the study of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, I established the causes of poor performance in research, time management, and my professional career. Before the audit, I had weaknesses such as Poor communication skills, Lack of experience, Weak career management skills and Lack of career direction. To overcome all these problems, I engaged in activities such as trying to understand what I want to do with my career and the benefits I want to enjoy. Secondly, I considered how I could get more experience in my job to make me perform better. After an in-depth analysis of all the aspects, I was able to reduce these weaknesses with the only problem being the inability to carry out more than one task at the same time. Therefore, after the audit of my capabilities, I was able to improve the performance of most of them. It is also clear that the university has indeed enabled me to work towards developing my career and I have been able to learn some skills such as research and time management because everything has to be done in good time.

Goals are set for one to have a direction of what they want to achieve in life. Short term goals are set to be completed within one year. As a student, it is important to me that I learn proper time management within these 12 months. In the real world, as one enters the career life, they have to be right in allocating the tasks within the particular time to be able to ensure proper performance at work and the personal growth (Lent and Brown, 2013, p.557). This should be well achieved before leaving school for matters of efficiency and convenience after college. The other skill that I have to learn is communication skills. In a working environment, one has to have excellent skills to be able to handle the customers and the employers. Communication skills range from writing, listening and reading (Arnold et al., 2015, p.250). The future of any person’s career is dependent on the communication skills. Reading and writing skills are essential because one has to prepare reports and as well communicate with the senior and junior staff. Oral communication is a skill that I need to perfect before entering the career field. It will also be necessary within the 12 months to improve on my performance so that I will achieve the required standards set in my career field. All these short-term goals are essential for my personal development to learn on how to relate to people as well as colleagues.

On the other hand, the medium term goals are set at a further date up to three years. They are supposed to be guidance on the direction in life which an individual wants to take (Keohane and Olmstead, 2016, p. 8). My medium-term goals are related to my career and the performance that I want to achieve. First of all, within three years, I want to be a lucky career person with good experience and working relations. This is because, in these days, performance is vital in retaining any job. The rate of unemployment is high with the United States figures standing at 4.4% (Compton et al., 2014, p.351). This means that it is crucial that whatever weaknesses one has in the career field, they have to be looked at. The second medium-term goal that I want to achieve in three years is career development. This can be defined as the process of managing learning and work. It is a process that is necessary for determining an individual’s preferred future. Three years to come I would like to be more experienced and taking further studies in my career field to increase competitiveness even in the future days. The other medium-term goal that I want to achieve is to have fully developed my research skills and carried out a successful research. This can be done alongside other colleagues or as an individual.

The reason why it is crucial to set medium-term goals is that they motivate an individual towards self-improvement (Paixão and Gamboa, 2017, p.215). This is to mean that when one knows precisely how they want their future to be in some years to come, and then they will work hard towards that goal. The most critical aspect of my life is to have a stable career within some few years to come. This can only be achieved by knowing what I want to meet and within which timeframe so that I will work towards making a better future. Medium term goals also give us an objective that we can strive to achieve (Paixão and Gamboa, 2017, p.215). Working without goals makes one work with no specific direction. Therefore, in my case to be able to achieve my career goals, I have set some limits that will make me work objectively. Short term goals, on the other hand, are essential because they make us learn how to manage our tasks and perform duties without procrastination (Hendrickson and Roberts, 2016, p.333). They are also crucial in making us achieve some skills that are important to help one in the long run.

In conclusion, there is a right need for people to carry out the self assessment. It enables one to know the weaknesses and the strengths that they have and work towards becoming better. This reflection has been critical in making it clear on the goals that I have and the necessary means that I can undertake to improve performance, especially in the career field. The short-term and medium-term goals are an essential aspect that determines the direction that one needs to take. Therefore, this is a reflection that has enabled me to understand my capabilities in life and how I should work towards better performance in the future.

























Works cited

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