Introduction
Professional development in any social career is very significant among individuals, since it catalyzes the achievement of anticipated goals and objectives. Before starting this module, I only perceived my active nature being one of my useful techniques for exploring new things with limited research. Since I enrolled in this module, I have sequentially understood how important an individual should always reflect his actions to enhance sustained personal and professional development (Gillie 2005: 141). Particularly, I have realized a great potential in me for development of potential enthusiasm and open minded in problem solving processes through brainstorming.
However, I have realized how ineffective my learning style is, since I have not been able to plan for my career. Throughout the module, I have been able to learn how to deal with other people efficiently, while upholding my personal development through self actualization. I have come to understand that, it is very important for a professional to continue assessing his/her skills regularly in order to make appropriate adjustments whenever necessary so as to enhance competence and maintain high performance in his area of specialization (Samantha 2005: 69).
Analysis of Learning
Since I have been an activist in learning, it has always been encountering various challenges in planning for my careers. As I have noticed, this module has really helped me to pay attention for my professional skills by focusing on my behavior in order to develop the best skills out me (Schon 1999: 79). Particularly, I have had been special interest in managerial career though I had not reflected on it much. At the initial stages of learning in this module, I could not figure out how demanding and committing professional development is, until I realized how it requires personal commitment and devotion to develop the anticipated skills in an individual (Barsade 2002: 651).
After several lessons in this module, I have come to understand my weaknesses and how I should commit myself to get rid of them for sake of my future career. Particularly, I have come to understand how high emotional intelligence reinforced with reasonable cognitive intelligence is useful in controlling team work (Baud 2000: 263).
After completing this module, I have come to understand how I have strong skills to deal with team work, as I have always been considering the feelings of other people a lot. Being an activist, I have come to realize how inevitable conflicts are between me and my colleagues. As learned in this module, effective management of conflicts requires high degree of emotional intelligence, which I have identified in me (Whetton & Cameron 2007: 35). As it has come to my recognition, I arouse a lot of attention among my peers when I speak. This module has shown me that, I posses remarkable personal leadership skills (Baker 2000: 123).
More so, this module has really helped me to understand how important self awareness forms a basis for self efficacy and actualization. One of the most significant things that I have realized after completing this module is that, I usually make great risks of being an activist in learning (Woerkom & Croon 2008: 328). Considering that I usually rely quick brainstorming in various problem solving strategies, it has been a great weakness since I usually reflect very little on the outcomes involved. According to Covey (2005: 81), effective problem solving should be multi-dimensional and sequential to enhance reflection on the achievements made on the progress.
To enhance self efficacy and efficiency, I have come to know that it is important for an individual to identify his/her potential in order to facilitate setting of personal goals. One thing that made me enjoy in this module is that, I have strong I am a good mentor since I usually motivate people by encouraging them in various ways. This is reflected by the way people listen keenly when I speak. I was very happy in recognizing this potential in me because; I like leading and guiding people in various contexts. (Brody 2007: 61).Being aware of my good social skills by having strong passion to help other people from various challenging situations, I am very convinced that I will be competent in the managerial field.
Being aware of my proficiency in communicating with other people by paying close attention to what they say, the way they listen to me attentively, I really see a great potential in me of becoming a good manager. Since I have realized my ability to manage time properly and identify problems accurately I perceive an underlying trend of my ability to become an efficient manager in social situations. The possession of good team building skills has become one of my major motivating agents for my professional development in managerial career, as reflected in my previous ability to solve various social conflicts successfully (Carver & Scheier 2000: 69; Vince 2001: 1331).
Considering my current ability to learn as an activist, I am planning to apply pragmatist and reflective theories to enhance my efficiency in problem solving techniques. By employing pragmatist’s and reflectors’ theories to cultivate the best results out of me, I believe I will be able to cut down my weaknesses and develop more constructive skills. Since I have known my weaknesses after going this module, I now plan to use the available literature to build by profession on reliable skills. Particularly, I will apply the literature learned to get personal feedback and cherish remarkable skills to develop in me as I year to propel my managerial career higher (George et al 2007: 131).
Throughout the module, I have come to recognize how inborn skills can be possessed without one being aware of. As it has been noted in this module, unequivocal excellences in all individuals’ undertakings are ultimately dependent on the level of devotion an individual engages in. since I am socially oriented, the profits that I would be getting would arise from the works meant to benefit the entire society (Jackson 2002: 53). This would help nurture my overall credibility in the entire society, in which my future prosperity in my managerial career depends on. More specifically, an individual should understand what underlies his progress up to that moment in order to establish a focus for achievement of the desired goals and objectives (Dutton 2003: 152).
Being strongly focused on nurturing my leadership skills and management techniques, I have found that I have the potential to establish strong foundations of high integrity and responsibility on my dealings. This will ensure cordial and long-lasting relationship with my seniors and juniors, both at work and in the entire society. It is my believe that, through hardworking and being devoted, I would be able to achieve my goals, which entirely determine my success in life. I therefore long to serve the overall society with integrity and honesty, which would further ensure positive relationship with my clients and the society at large (Gill 2003: 310).
Competence Development
After identifying current skills I have considered self-management, interpersonal, self development, personal leadership and engaging with others competencies as very important for my career. In self management competency, I have selected learning styles as quite important for my career development. According to Honey & Mumford (1995: 132), efficient managerial development should entirely involve appropriate learning style in order for an individual his/her abilities and weaknesses. By understanding my learning styles; it has been easier for me to establish reliable strategies for development of efficiency in social interactions.
I have come to realize that, I posses activist learning style where I am much interested in new inventions without empirical research, in which I have been mainly relying on brainstorming strategies. Since I have not been keen on the feedbacks I receive in my various works, I should now be more aware of the outcomes of any decision I make in order to reduce the risks of various outcomes (Hampton 2010: 69). Since through activist learning I have been taking unplanned risks, the realization of this weakness through my learning style will make me establish good framework for building my future career.
In the interpersonal competency, I have selected conflict management as a fundamental competence to enhance my professional development. Since I am an active learner, it is obviously hard to avoid conflicts. Since effective control of emotions forms a basis for successful management of emotions, I have been entirely relying on emotional contagion to control my behavior when dealing with my group members (McCarthy & Garavan 1999: 441). Since I am anticipating becoming a manager, effective conflict management strategies will ultimately make me more proficient in dealing with team behaviors within my organization. I have come to realize that, I have high emotional intelligence which has been enabling me to deal consider other people’s feelings and emotions. As a result, I have been successfully been interacting with other people without much of alienations.
More so, in the self-development competency I have selected reflective thinking as a competence which I think is helpful in my professional development. Since reflective thinking helps in understanding what one has done and subsequently identifies the mistakes made for their correction in advance. Being an active learner, I have realized the importance of reflective thinking in me, which would ensure my proficiency in my decisions (Gill 2003: 309).
Through following the structure of reflective thinking, I will be able to nurture efficient decision making processes which will ultimately make me more effective in my future managerial career. By so doing, I will efficiently deal with social situations efficiently since I will be making decisions rationally after reflecting the outcomes involved (Woerkom & Croon 2008: 324).
In personal leadership competency, I selected empowerment as an important competence for my future career. As a leader in any social situation, the understanding of the inborn skills and subsequently nurturing them forms a basis for a prospective leader (Samantha 2005: 79). Since I am an active learner who has good social communication skills, I would like to nurture my leadership skills by conforming to the best leadership skills required for efficient social interactions. It is my belief that, successful interpersonal relationships will help me have strong basis for my managerial career (Gill 2003: 310).
Further, in the engaging with others competency, I selected cultural awareness which I believe will foster my profession higher in the contemporary society dominated with cultural integrations. As a result of globalization, prospective leaders should be aware of cultural integrations which are currently taking effect among organizations (Ramburuth & Welch 2005: 17). Being aware of how the world is becoming closer and the cultural differences among the people narrowing significantly, I would like to understand various cultures deeper and widely in order to deal with the people more productively. The skills I have learned in this module will significantly help me to deal with cross-cultural differences among my groups in order to enhance co-existence (Ramalu et al 2010: 82).
Conclusion
As result of successful completion of this module, I have developed a feeling of being socially responsible in my various undertakings, as I anticipate becoming a manager in my future career. Since this module has made me understand my potential, which has ultimately formed a basis for my plans of self actualization in various endeavors. Particularly, self efficacy has become part of my planning tool of various accomplishments I will engage into, as it was strongly emphasized as an important aspect of professional development in this module. With the world becoming more interconnected, effective social orientations were revealed in this module as quite effective for successful social interactions.
Since this module has been quite helpful in my realization of the unique qualities I posses, I feel good that I will be able to focus on the important aspects of my behavior to facilitate my professional development in managerial career. From my reflection and personal insights, some patterns of being consistent with my social interactions have been realized. Generally, my approach to competent professional development in the future will be multi-dimensional by considering every aspect of the activity I plan to undertake to enhance my coherence and consistency societal needs and requirements.
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