Personal Reflection Report
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Personal Reflection Report
Table of Contents
TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc10133576 \h 3
Optimism PAGEREF _Toc10133577 \h 3
Work Ethics PAGEREF _Toc10133578 \h 4
Servant Leadership PAGEREF _Toc10133579 \h 4
Emotional Intelligence PAGEREF _Toc10133580 \h 4
Resilience PAGEREF _Toc10133581 \h 5
Creativity PAGEREF _Toc10133582 \h 5
Critical Thinking PAGEREF _Toc10133583 \h 6
Team Work and Communication PAGEREF _Toc10133584 \h 6
Cognitive Thinking PAGEREF _Toc10133585 \h 7
Key Management Challenge PAGEREF _Toc10133586 \h 7
Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc10133587 \h 8
References PAGEREF _Toc10133588 \h 9
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to critically analyze what has been learned throughout the semester. The paper sums up the ideas and theoretical concepts that I have learned from others. An in-depth analysis of the key findings has been done. All personal experiences regarding communication, teamwork, critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, servant leadership, work ethics, optimism, cognitive thinking have been gathered together at a single paper. The main focus of this paper is to collate these reflections by utilizing theoretical concepts learned throughout the semester. A key management challenge has also been discussed in the paper, and a critical reflection has been done on the key management challenge.
Optimism
Optimism is considered to be a mental attitude that tends to reflect a hope or belief that the results of certain events would either be desirable, favourable, or positive. In my semester, I have come to the understanding that optimism does not mean to engage individuals in fantastic or wishful thinking. In other words, optimism is simply a way to look at the world in a way that tends to give more support to the optimists (Davis et al., 2015). There is no doubt that an optimist has a healthier outlook and often lives longer than a pessimist. In my personal experience, I have found myself to be a person who used to be a pessimist, but with the passage of time and the learnings from the semester, I have been able to make myself a sort of optimist. My motivation to become an optimist came from some of my classmates, and the theories that I have studied also helped me to understand why it is a fair job to become an optimist. When it comes to my future goals, I will be focusing on giving my best to maintain myself as an optimist and guide others as well.
Work Ethics
Work Ethics are considered to be the set of beliefs in the moral benefits of work. In simple words, it can be said that work ethic tends to refer the ways in which individuals feel about their job or career (Pullen et al., 2015). In a nutshell, it can be assumed that work ethics cover behaviour and attitude. In my personal experience, I have observed that the term “work ethics” pertains to show how someone is doing his/her job. When it comes to my future implications, I believe that the level of respect that I may show to my co-workers, and the way I will communicate and interact with my subordinates will define my work ethics.
Servant Leadership
Servant Leadership is undoubtedly a great approach for the supervisors or higher authorities to get the best out of their employees (Seto et al., 2016). There is no doubt that servant leadership builds better organizations, and tends to enrich the lives of individuals. During the course of my semester, servant leadership has been one of my favourite theories to learn. Personally, I have never seen any such leader who believes in servant leadership. However, when it comes to my future goals, and aims, I have decided to implement this theory at my workplace. One of the best things about this theory of leadership is that it begins with the natural feeling that the leader wants to serve his/her employees, which is something not commonly seen everywhere (Northouse, 2018).
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence, simply known as EI, is considered to be the ability to understand and manage an individual’s own emotions as well as the emotions of the people around him/her. There is no doubt that individuals who have a high degree of emotional intelligence know exactly what they feel, what their emotions mean, and the effects of these emotions on other people. By understanding all of this, I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to the leaders, having emotional intelligence is undoubtedly crucial in terms of their success. In my personal observation, I have discovered myself to be a person who is quite calm and does not react too much while being under a lot of stress. This is something that a person with strong emotional intelligence pertains to have. The matter of fact is that before learning about emotional intelligence in this semester, I was unaware of this trait that I profess. In the current scenario, I have decided to focus more on this as it will definitely help me in my workplace.
Resilience
I have gathered a wealth of knowledge about resilience, which is considered to be the capacity for recovering rapidly from difficulties. There is no doubt that resilience is one of the key terms that are quite essential in the current world (Witmer et al., 2016). Being a student, I often find myself in a situations where it becomes quite difficult for me to recover any time soon. Resilience is undoubtedly a great trait that each person must have in order to compete in the workplace. In my future engagements, I have decided to focus on certain aspects that will help maximize my capacity for recovering from difficulties.
Creativity
When it comes to creativity, it is the use of original ideas or imaginations for creating something. I have developed the understanding regarding creativity that it is the most important factor for future success. One thing that must be taken into consideration is that creativity, being a pivotal force, is also a process to bring something new into being. In some people, I have observed that their creativity level is really exceptional. The point to highlight here would be that creativity tends to require commitment along with passion. One question that came to my mind was whether creativity is possible in businesses. Well, the answer to that question would most probably be yes as I personally believe that a person has to be willing to take risks and progress through difficulties in order to get to the finish line. Since my early childhood, I have been creative in certain activities, and after learning the advantages of being creative in this semester, I will be further improving this talent in my future as well.
Critical Thinking
Studies and research show that critical thinking has become more than a single concept. In simple words, it can be said that it is a real-life model which helps individuals build skills that tend to prove highly valuable in the workplace. The matter of fact is that critical thinking is often misjudged with criticism, but there is a lot of difference between the two of them (Kamerer et al., 2017). It must be considered that critical thinking tends to focus on the ability to follow logical steps. Critical thinking is something that has been missing in me in my early life, but this subject has gone a long way to help me acquire the basic necessities for critical thinking. When it comes to my future prospects, I have decided to enhance my critical thinking skills, which will undoubtedly help me get the best out of myself whether at the workplace, or in general life.
Team Work and Communication
Another important aspect of the workplace is to build a strong team. There is a high need to understand that the results of a combined action by a group are always efficient and effective. The matter of fact is that teamwork is considered to be the collaborative effort of a group of people for competing or achieving a particular task. Studies and research show that working in a team results in great productivity (Salas et al., 2015). One thing that must be taken into consideration is the fact that for any team to become successful, there are certain requirements that must be followed. If a team is committed and understands the goals, there is a high chance that it will achieve its goal within the specified time frame. When it comes to my personal experience, I have always worked great in a team, and in the future, my main focus will be to enhance my communication skills as much as possible. The reason for this is quite simple, as effective communications help others understand and feel comfortable while taking reasonable risks.
Cognitive Thinking
Cognitition is considered to be the process that allows an individual to acquire knowledge by the help of experience, and sensory input. There is no doubt that cognitive skills are quite essential in the workplace as they are used to comprehend, process, remember and apply external information (Norman et al., 2015). While studying about cognition, I understood that each person pertains to have his/her own method of cognition due to which each person tends to assimilate information differently. I have aimed to focus on developing my cognitive thinking skills, as they will help me acquire knowledge through my own experience.
Key Management Challenge
I have witnessed a key management challenge at an organization facing a high turnover rate. The reason for the high turnover rate was the employee not being satisfied by their employers. In that scenario, most of the employees were not treated the way they should have been treated. Due to this, a large number of employees were leaving the organization. In case I get a chance to be the manager of that organization, I would definitely apply soft and hard skills learned from this subject. As one of the main reasons for the high turnover rate was the behaviour of employers. Therefore, being a manager, I would work on applying servant leadership in the organization. The reason for that is quite simple as servant leadership helps in making the employees feel secure about their job, and they feel appraised by their employers which results in personal satisfaction as well (Northouse, 2018). The other side of the coin would question why employers are strict on their employees. The answer to that question would either be the slower performance of employees or the organization not being able to meet its goals (Seto et al., 2016). In such a scenario, I would implement teamwork. The employees will be engaged to work in teams, and it will definitely boost the work (Salas et al., 2015). A program will be initiated which will work on enhancing the communication skills of the employees as it will allow them to work effectively while working in a team.
Conclusion
It is concluded that being an optimist is more relaxing than being a pessimist. Work ethic tends to refer to the ways in which individuals feel about their job or career, and there must be given high consideration to work ethics as it serves in creating a better environment of the workplace. When it comes to servant leadership, it is undoubtedly a great approach for the supervisors or higher authorities to get the best out of their employees. One thing that must be taken into consideration is that creativity being the combinatorial force is also a process to bring something new into being. There is a high need for all organization to focus on teamwork and active communications for their employees.
References
Davis, A. K., Ge, W., Matsumoto, D., & Zhang, J. L. (2015). The effect of manager-specific optimism on the tone of earnings conference calls. Review of Accounting Studies, 20(2), 639-673.
Kamerer, J., & Russ, T. (2017). Critical Thinking and Decision Making Handbook.
Norman, G. R., Monteiro, S. D., Sherbino, J., Ilgen, J. S., Schmidt, H. G., & Mamede, S. (2017). The causes of errors in clinical reasoning: cognitive biases, knowledge deficits, and dual process thinking. Academic Medicine, 92(1), 23-30.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Pullen, A., & Rhodes, C. (2015). Ethics, embodiment and organizations. Organization, 22(2), 159-165.
Salas, E., Shuffler, M. L., Thayer, A. L., Bedwell, W. L., & Lazzara, E. H. (2015). Understanding and improving teamwork in organizations: A scientifically based practical guide. Human Resource Management, 54(4), 599-622.
Seto, S., & Sarros, J. C. (2016). Servant Leadership Influence on Trust and Quality Relationship in Organizational Settings. International Leadership Journal, 8(3).
Witmer, H., & Mellinger, M. S. (2016). Organizational resilience: Nonprofit organizations’ response to change. Work, 54(2), 255-265.
