How Is a Seminar on Self-Improvement, Money Management, and Career Management Skills Useful for Me - Personal Statement Example

? Business Reflective Journal Contents Contents 2 2 1st Reflective Journal 3 2nd Reflective Journal 4 3rd Reflective Journal 5 Reflective denouement 6 1st Reflective Journal Description The first reflective journal is about my experience from a workshop which I attended. The workshop was about leadership. The objective of the workshop was to understand the necessary qualities of leadership and how to achieve them through various activities. The workshop involved lecture sessions from well known leaders as well as demonstration of real life situations in leadership and communication. Critical Explanation I can relate my qualities of leadership to the time while I was attending the leadership workshop. After the first part of the workshop which involved lectures. During the first lecture, I was able to understand that the fist important requirement for a good leader is having good and effective communication skills. I believed that though I had proper communication skills I will have to fine-tune it so that it becomes more effective. In the second session various demonstrations were given. The participants were divided into groups and real life demonstration was given to us. I had to demonstrate leadership qualities during a technological change that was supposed to be occurring in a company. The change was basically related to the implementation of new automation software in the company. As a result of new implementation, strong resistance was shown by members of other groups who were from the employees. It reached a position, where the project was scheduled to be cancelled. However, I discovered that the company is not planning to layoff any employees. I also assured them that the company will arrange training sessions and make everybody familiar with the new working technique. The discussion with the employee representatives turned out to be healthy and thankfully majority of them accepted the necessity of this change. After the success of the demonstration process, the participants as well as the lecturers of the workshop praised me for exhibiting leadership skills. Reflection On the basis of the self assessments I have come to the conclusion that though I have qualities of a good leader I will have to fine-tune my abilities and skills in order to gain recognition and subsequent achievement. To be specific, I would like to undergo special training classes on communication and achieve leadership and assessment skills in one year. In order to further asses myself, I will be carrying out an assessment that reflects about the qualities of leadership present in me. I compared my leadership with Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman of Google) and Jeff Weiner (CEO of LinkedIn). Though I was sure about my leadership qualities there were few pitfalls. I was exposed to only few situations where I could use my leadership abilities. However, my current knowledge about leadership is a step forward which will help me in learning more complex leadership abilities. 2nd Reflective Journal Description The second journal reflects my experience during workshop training. The workshop training was on personal economics. The major objective behind attending the workshop was to learn money management. The major theme of the workshop was budget management and how to make a career in personal finance management. Apart from managing budget, I also learnt to identify my skills, career interests and utilize them for future growth and development. Critical Explanation The mentor for this workshop was Mr. Brendon Frill, a well known personal economics consultant. I found that person to be very nice, patient and kind. The first lesson he gave us was about creating a good impression during interview. We also prepared a life map which helped us in identifying our future goals. The second and third lesson was about preparing personal as well as family budget. I also realized that I had been over-spending from my budget. The fourth lesson was important as it helped me in understanding how to calculate credit and manage the tiny details of a personal and family budget. The mentor also showed me some real life examples and that tiny miscalculations can be disastrous. The fifth lesson helped me to get a clear understanding of the stock market and related details such as shares, options etc. I realized that it was a very useful investment idea and I will be including this in my future investment plans. Reflection The above training helped me a lot in understanding about economics and I have become much more interested and curious about the topic. The workshop cleared my concept of effective money management. Before attending the workshop I had no idea about stock market and the huge investment opportunity it has. However, the workshop was very useful in providing me with absolute learning about the various investments avenues. Overall the workshop was a huge opportunity for me and I would like to attend similar workshops in future. 3rd Reflective Journal Description The third reflective journal is about classroom training on entrepreneurship. The objective of the training was to evaluate whether the choice of entrepreneurship will be beneficial for me or not. I also attended the classroom program in order to enhance my abilities and skills to discover opportunities which are promising. Critical reflection The classroom training program was demonstrated by a series of entrepreneurs. It consisted of established, successful as well as new entrepreneurs. The first lesson was to improve my understanding on practical aspects and different approaches to entrepreneurship. During this lesson I also got a chance to interact with the established entrepreneurs personally. The lesson also helped me in understanding why entrepreneurships are gaining popularity. The possibility of a free business and taking control of your own work was indeed very attractive, especially for young, energetic and passionate individuals. The second lesson was about team building skills and it helped me in understanding the importance of being a team player in an entrepreneurial venture. In the third lesson I got important information on different start-up ventures in different cultures such as UK, US and India. This helped me in building my intercultural competence. Reflection Therefore, I can consider that the course module has allowed me to gauge the importance of entrepreneurship not only at the individual level but also for a nation. Moreover, this has also influenced me to a great extent to take up entrepreneurial activities in the near future. Although, I have grown up in an environment which always promotes employment in business sector rather than opening up and managing a new venture, but the learning from the course as well as taking inspiration from the eminent entrepreneurs, I also aspire to become a successful entrepreneur in the near future. Even though do not have any particular experience in entrepreneurial activities; I believe the classroom program will be my first step to this future career. This is also because of the fact that I also wanted to contribute towards the prosperity of the national economy. In addition, I also feel that entrepreneurial activities greatly reduce the anxiety of unemployment, as it provides employment opportunity to numerous people. Reflective denouement Management skills were an important aspect which interested me during my college days. I was able to showcase my management skills during my tenure in Nestle. Apart from that, the classroom program and the workshop also helped me in understanding various important skills for future growth. At the end of this reflection, I have arranged few important pieces of information on economics, leadership and entrepreneurship skills and the reflections ability on this skill. My overall reflection can be considered as good, as I have always been a keen observer and have always tried to grasp as much information as well as experience from any kind of situation I am thrown into. However, the reflection also helped me recognize that there are many other skills and expertise which I need to learn in order to grow and develop in the corporate field. In order to become more reflective, I found out that an individual should have a self-understanding. This understanding should not be restricted to one area. Prior to my management tenure in Nestle Inc. as well as my workshop and classroom program, my knowledge and understanding was restricted to academic theories only. Even though I did my summer internship from Dell, there was not much of learning, especially in leadership skills and entrepreneurship skills. However, during my tenure in Nestle, I learned about important leadership skills. It helped me in understanding that leadership is not only about team management, but also about understanding emotions, habits, personality traits and psychological needs of self as well as others. A reflection of my leadership skills helped me in understanding the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of my team members. Proper reflection also helped me in setting realistic and achievable goals for my career with confidence. I was also successful in making short term carrier planning. Another useful understanding of this reflection was the importance of patience and time. Being a leader is a tough job. Many situations might require sufficient amount of time and patience. Patience and understanding of employee perceptions helped a lot during my leadership situation in the organization. I can consider that the reflection has allowed me to gauge the importance of management skills for an individual as well as entire organization. Moreover, this has also influenced me to a great extent to take up leadership as well as entrepreneurship activities in the near future. Learning from the reflection as well as taking inspiration from the eminent and renowned leaders, I also aspire to become a successful leader in the near future. Thus, I believe that the above points will definitely help me in assessing and harnessing my leadership skills in future. Read More