BUSN 11075 Business Creativity Assignment Sample 2024
Introduction
Personal development is the long-lasting process that includes the analysis of personal skills, abilities, and improvement to achieve both personal and professional goals. In order to ensure personal development, an individual does self-reflection which is the important cog in self-development process (Gonçalves, 2019).
Self-reflection helps to identify what skills are needed to acquire and enhance, what goals one has to meet and in what areas an individual is doing well. It helps to develop a better and achievable approach to meet life goals. The present self-reflection report highlights my personal skills which I acquire during the lectures, group work, and workshops. Further, in this essay, I present key areas that I need to gain for my own personal development.
During the lectures I gained theoretical knowledge about my subjects and also, I identified innovative and problem-solving skills. My mentors give lectures on the particular subject along with giving us a case study to solve (Raison and Jones, 2020). I believe that it is the best way to understand the topic and enhance further skills. While solving these case studies I am able to understand the roots of problems and also, I find creative solutions to solve the given problem.
For example, I get a case study of a manager and an employee, where the employee is very efficient and delivers their work on time but on the other hand, he is very rude to their colleagues and even to their manager. I need to suggest a solution, hence I explore all aspects of this case and conclude that the manager should terminate such employees because they are toxic for their work culture and if the manager put attention on other employees, then they also can become efficient (Gorny-Wegrzyn, and Perry, 2021).
It set a standard that positive behaviour and effective culture is more important for the organisation and also for other employees.
My mentor appreciates my efficiency to solve the case and give me extra marks. Hence, the lecture session improves my innovative and problem-solving skills. On the other hand, during group work I become able to work with a team and learn how to behave while working with a team. Our mentor assigns a project which has to be done by a 5 members team and he distributes all students in a team.
They assign us to find employee motivation impact on their productivity (Green et. al. 2020). My team members discuss the topic and assign each task to each team member. My task is to find suitable motivational theories for the employees of SMEs. Other members have to find employee status while they are demotivated, and what things motivate them for high productivity.
My team members complete their research and find that low pay, poor work conditions, bad behaviour of peers and managers, not getting recognition for their work, and other work -related problems demotivates them. Therefore, as per my study I suggest that Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory can motivate employees and other than that, Herzberg’s theory and Vroom’s theory also help to encourage employees (Moret and O’Dwyer SJ, 2020).
When we find the result while applying my suggested theory, we find that it is perfect for SMEs employees. The group project enhances my research skills as well as theory application abilities that determine which theory is suitable for which situations. Therefore, I can say that group work is very useful for my personal development.
At the same time, I attend a workshop conducted by my institution on leadership and managerial skills. They invite top leaders who share their experiences with us and suggest appropriate leadership styles. A SumUp start-up leader was also there and he shared their experiences of how the idea came into his mind. SumUp is the invoicing function that works through the app, desktop, and URL.
It enables you to customise invoices with business logo and company details (Ayu et. al. 2022). The leader of the company says that he finds it difficult to conduct invoicing functions and thus he started his own startup. He further states how they arrange financial, human, and organisational resources, infrastructure development, attract investment, fulfil legal requirements, and more. His experience provides me valuable insight on how to become a successful entrepreneur.
During the workshop all participants divide in the groups and work as a team. My responsibility is to track all guest’s lecture timings, fulfil their needs and inform them about their schedules and help them with any problems. It provides me the great opportunity to interact with them closely.
It improves my communication skills, presentation skills, and event management skills (Sanchez et. al. 2019). Other than that, I participate in various activities conducted in the workshop like synchronisation games where teamwork is important, and many more. Hence, it can say that the workshop is one of the best experiences of my life where I enhance my skills and get opportunities to manage leaders’ schedules.
Moreover, in my institutions, various workshops, seminars, and group projects are often conducted and I become a part of these activities. It gives me an opportunity to improve my public relation skills. I make many friends during these events which help to learn new talent and suggest career options (Miller, 2021).
Further, it improves my relationship with my mentors which support me in case of problems and solve queries. Other than that, I develop my communication skills, problem-solving skills, innovation and creativity talent, and agility to work in any situation and with any people in the team.
In order to ensure effective personal development, self-reflection is necessary which provides insight that what skills and talent I have and what should need to develop. During the lectures, group work, seminars, and workshops, I used my existing skills to perform well and some skills I learn from my mentors, peers, and lectures. However, some skills are still there which needs to acquire in order to achieve overall development (Brown et. al. 2020).
There are several models of personal development which can use. For example, Carl Roger’s, he believes that positive human relations help people to grow, there provided instructions has to be based on human relations concepts. He suggests that teacher support students to explore new opportunities, student have freedom to making choices and decisions, teachers and students are partners in learning.
He further focuses on positive self-concept where he stated that acquiring knowledge and experience through improving their interest in learning through self-concept, boost confidence, admire the talent and abilities other one possesses, and evolve with moral values that should be emphasised among students.
Therefore, Carl Roger’s work model on personal development enable the teacher and student to ensure personal growth with combined efforts (Ainaa, 2020). However, an individual can also achieve personal development goals through following difference modes of personal development.
Written reflection-It is the easiest way to manage as an individual has a lot of control. Further, reflective essays, journals, and blogs will slow down the mind and help to focus. An individual can examine its thoughts and revisit them.
In conversation with self- This mode allows an individual to reflect more organically and it feels like getting lost in your own imagination in order to be more conscious or purposeful. An individual can film itself while reflecting out loud which is better (Thaba-Nkadimene, 2020). It also can be done through vlog, podcast, and audio recording.
Reflecting with others- An individual can incorporate reflection into group work assignments for example, group projects, write an article or essay together, reflect theories in a tutorial and lecture.
Creative and other media– A person can find other student’s work and some kind of creativity from their reflections. It helps the person to learn from other’s mistakes and mitigate the risk.
These different modes of reflection can be used to acquire skills. The above mentioned events made me realise that there are a lot of things which I have to improve, for example, leadership skill, management skills, habit forming, innovation, influencing skills, organisational skills, and many more (Singh, 2018). For that purpose, I refer to Kolb’s reflective cycles which helps to improve my skills systematically.
Kolb states that learning includes the gaining of abstract concepts that can be used flexibly in a different range of situations. As per the Kolb theory the inspiration for the progress of new knowledge and learning is provided through new experiences (Purkayastha, 2019). The model has four stages. I used them for me to acquire new skills. These skills are:
Leadership skills- As I mentioned, I was part of a group project which studies the importance of employee motivation. I want to be a leader of this group but due to the lack of leadership skills I miss this opportunity. A leader has to be emotional, intelligent, democratic, understand other members’ potential and good to assign tasks. However, I was not efficient in these skills.
As per the Kolb theory it was my concrete experience where I encountered existing experience and as per the reflective observation, I feel that I should acquire leadership skills (McLeod, 2017). Hence, the abstract conceptualisation provides me new ideas as I follow top most world leaders and their leadership styles.
Further, in the workshop, I interact with different leaders to know about their experience and how they handle difficult situations. Hence, I found an opportunity to actively experiment my new skill as I lead a group in the seminar conducted in my institution.
Management skills– Management skill is equally important to leadership skills. If I have both these skills, then I can get many growth opportunities in my future career. When I had to manage the leader’s schedule for the workshop, I made many mistakes and haywire about the situation. Thus, I realise the importance of management skills. Such concrete experience and observation of new skills motivates me to acquire this skill (Stevens, 2019).
Under the abstract conceptualisation, I started to watch management skill videos and go through management books, theories, and models which provide insight about how to manage people, situation, and time. I actively experiment with this skill in my project tasks, practical, and written exams. Further, I seek the opportunity to experiment with this skill practically.
Influence skills- It is the ability to bring people or groups around to your way of thinking about a certain situation without coercion whilst considering their suggestions. During the group project, I want to analyse employee status while they are demotivated but due to the lack of influence skill, I was not able to agree with the team lead (Rosmiati et. al. 2020).
This experience and reflective observation realise me that it is very important to grab opportunities. The abstract conceptualisation gives me a new idea that I should focus on my way of communication, my opinion presentation skill, and enhance my learning which provides me competitive advantages over other peers. I experiment with this skill to influence my mentors, seniors, and peers as well. Moreover, I believe that this skill helps me in my future when I seek employment and present for an interview.
Habit forming– It is the process through which a behaviour due to continuous repetition becomes a habit (McNeilly, 2019). I realise that I follow a poor schedule like going to bed late at night, forgetting things which need to be done on time, lack of consistency, replacing my belongings, and more. However, these habits are not significantly affecting my professional growth but in my personal life it affects a lot and thus it started to impact my professional life. I experience this when I need to manage leaders’ schedules and such reflective observation influences me for abstract conceptualisation.
Thus, I started to follow written and in conversation mode of personal development as well as reflecting with others. I actively experiment with these new formed habits in my daily life (Nichola, 2016). Further, I believe that conversation and written modes are the best for personal development.
Other than that, I work on myself to improve my problem solving and innovation skills because innovation has to be creative and new and should not be repeated. Thus, regularly updating myself is important (Sakyi et. al. 2020). Likewise, problems are also different hence, being agile for every new problem is important.
Conclusion
The present reflective essay concludes that personal development is very important to achieve life goals. I realise that I have many skills and abilities which are required for personal development but there are more which need to be acquired. Hence, I used the Kolb reflective cycle to gain skills and new knowledge in a systematic manner.
References
Ainaa, R., (2020). ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING IN WRITING REFLECTIVE ESSAY BY APPLYING BLOG: STUDENTS’PERSPECTIVES. Proceeding Paper of English and Technology, p.195.
Ayu, C., Mudjiran, M. and Refnaldi, R., (2022). Developing a guided discovery model based on reflective teaching to improve students’ short essay writing skills. Linguistics and Culture Review, 6, pp.422-433.
Brown, A., Jauregui, J., Ilgen, J.S., Riddell, J., Schaad, D., Strote, J. and Shandro, J., (2020). Does the medium matter? Evaluating the depth of reflective writing by medical students on social media compared to the traditional private essay using the REFLECT rubric. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 21(1), p.18.
Gonçalves, K., (2019). ‘What are you doing here, I thought you had a kid now?’The stigmatisation of working mothers in academia–a critical self-reflective essay on gender, motherhood and the neoliberal academy. Gender and Language, 13(4), pp.469-487.
Gorny-Wegrzyn, E. and Perry, B., (2021). Inspiring Educators and a Pedagogy of Kindness: A Reflective Essay. Creative Education, 12(01), p.220.
Green, A., Martin, D. and Ghartey-Tagoe, G., (2020). Is the college farm sustainable? A reflective essay from Davidson College. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(1), pp.133-149.
McNeilly, E., (2019). Enduring Understandings in English Language Arts Reflective Essay EDUC 535 Alisha Brignall 273222.
Miller, E., (2021). Winning Reflective Essay: 2021 LHULRA Winner Elizabeth” Beth” Miller.
Moret, A.T. and O’Dwyer SJ, R.R., (2020). A Spiritual Vision for Catholic Educator Prep in a Time of Disruption: A Reflective Essay.
Purkayastha, D., (2019). Designing and Deploying Case Studies in an Innovative Comic Book Format: Reflective Essay for the Case ‘It’s Bank Policy’. South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, 8(1), pp.11-26.
Raison, B. and Jones, J., (2020). Virtual farmers markets: A reflective essay on a rural Ohio project. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(4), pp.299-310.
Rosmiati, R., Liliasari, L., Tjasyono, B., Ramalis, T.R. and Satriawan, M., (2020). Measuring level of reflective thinking of physics pre-service teachers using effective essay argumentation. Reflective Practice, 21(4), pp.565-586.
Sakyi, K.A., Mweshi, G.K., Musona, D. and Tayali, E.M., (2020). A Reflective Essay on What Public Relations Is: Its Role in Strategic Communication Management in Organizations and MNCs.
Sanchez, N., Norka, A., Corbin, M. and Peters, C., (2019). Use of experiential learning, reflective writing, and metacognition to develop cultural humility among undergraduate students. Journal of Social Work Education, 55(1), pp.75-88.
Singh, P., (2018). Writing Outside the Margins: A Reflective Essay.
Stevens, J., (2019). Runner-up Reflective Essay: 2019 LHULRA Finalist Jordan Stevens.
Thaba-Nkadimene, K.L., (2020). A Reflective Essay on Experiences and Practices of Postgraduate Supervision in the University of Limpopo: A Life History Approach. Journal of African Education, 1(3), pp.5-26.
Online
McLeod, S., (2017). Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. [Online] [Accessed Through]: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html>
Nichola, B., (2016). Guide to models of reflection – when & why should you use different ones? [Online] [Accessed Through]: <https://lifelonglearningwithot.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/different-models-of-reflection-using-them-to-help-me-reflect/>
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