Beginning Reflective Practice - Essay Example

Reflective writing Presented by Foundation Department Reflective Writing Working has been an eye-opener and place of interaction to produce results. The various clients and the workmates have enabled to have a sneak preview into the daily operations of the workplace and to come up with conclusions about my strengths and abilities not forgetting my weaknesses and to work not hem to be a better person at the workplace (Reed 1996). The learning has helped in developing mentally at the workplace and applying the various practical skills needed at the workplace. I have learned about teamwork in the work environment where the duties are assigned to each one according to their abilities and their effectiveness. Managing various tasks at the same time has proved to be a daunting task but it has been quite challenging. At the workplace, there are various people who are divergent, convergent, assimilative and accommodating (Jasper 2003). Organization is an important skill that I have learned at the workplace. The skill has come about with the help of my friends and other workmates. Watching and learning from them has been quite a learning experience. The workplace has helped me gain more at organizing other activities that would have been hard if I had been on my own. The issue of having two full-time jobs is quite hectic and an experience that has sharpened my skills at time management where I have to ensure that I finish the tasks given without delays as per my TFG. The balance has challenged me since some of my friends have been balancing between their school engagements and part-time jobs. This makes all the more determined to perform expediently in my tasks. I discovered I am divergent since most I like working groups and as explained by Kolb’s learning cycle. I have obtained various skills while working as a stylist and a full timer at the same time as it has enabled me to improve my time management skills. Time is an important factor when doing any task and therefore in regard to this I have learnt through the help of other colleagues and fellow students to adapt to the work environment and to ensure that the task given to me are done promptly; without delay and I have noticed that planning, as explained above, is an important factor in the success of doing or finishing any task. Prioritizing tasks has been an added advantage to me, and this has improved the weight I assign to tasks. These skills have been important in organizing various tasks during that are more urgent than others. It is important to note that finishing the urgent tasks reduced the stress of having to finish them in the end especially when time is not enough. Some tasks may have to go up to tomorrow while some others are to be finished early. The experience of organizing tasks according to their priority or urgency has proved beneficial and practical to my life as an individual. There are urgent but not important matters as I got to learn and urgent and important matters. Therefore critically looking at tasks and categorizing them is important in dealing with any tasks allocated to an individual in the workplace (Jasper 2003). The workplace has very many people that perform the day to day tasks. Having interacted with them, I have had to learn about interacting with each and every one of them in order to coexist. Many of the people have different mannerisms if not understood will be hard to get along with other people. Therefore, it is important to consider other people’s characteristics and understand them in order to work with them peacefully. The Kolb’s model of the learning cycle is important in making sure that one gets more out of the learning process (Merriam & Bierema 2013). Some of the experiences in the workplace are important and have enabled me to learn how to apply what I learned in the classroom. Kolb’s theory has been an important part of my learning experience as it has enabled me to better the working environment and ensure that people get along together (Kolb 1984). Setting the mind to success is important since it enables a person have an affirmative attitude towards the task that is to be done (Bilyk 2013). Therefore, it is important to have a right mindset towards the task of the day. Having the wrong mindset can affect the way tasks are done since people will not have motivation to do what they have to do to get ahead of the others (Pont 2003). Therefore maintaining the right attitude over time is important in ensuring that the tasks are carried out efficiently (Taras & Gonzalez-Perez 2014). Most of the experience learned helped me to organize various things at the workplace. One of the problems at the workplace was lack of privacy since most of the people are in an open office. Therefore, dealing with clients in such an environment may prove to be tough since some of them prefer privacy. Most of the people at the workplace especially the customers are of great important to the business therefore I had to learn to deal with them while at the same ensuring that I had the interests of the company at hand and keeping them in balance with the interests of the customers. To bring customers to a clear understanding of the business is an important task and is necessary to the business success itself (Dixon 2000). Dealing with the customers needed critical skills especially in showing then the reliability of the services provided by the business. Attending meeting and learning to deal with the clients and my colleagues are important since they have greatly sharpened my communications skills especially in meetings where one is needed to provide information that can be understood by the company. I got to engage in a lot of research especially in the documentation phases, and I got to learn a lot of documentation. Using the discussions and research has enabled me develop skills in life and business in the market. The hob also made me to be updated on the recent trends in the market about manufacturing. Being up to date is important so that the clients don’t have to deal with two businesses in the buying of their products (Lomax & Jones 2014). Being up to date ensures that one does not miss out of new produce but is up to date with the customer needs in the market. The learning experience has been a good experience in challenging especially in the daily tasks. The various challenges have challenged me and brought me to a new level in terms of communications and analytical skills. The critical nature of the various tasks especially in dealing with the customers and anticipating their needs has been an important lesson to me. Time management has been an added advantage and has helped me focus more on improving myself as a whole in terms of professionalism in the workplace. Reference BILYK, B. (2013). Reflective Essay: Kolbs Experiential Learning Cycle. Munich, GRIN Verlag GmbH. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-2013091811178. DIXON, N. M. (2000). The organizational learning cycle: how we can learn collectively. Brookfield, Vt, Gower. JASPER, M. (2003). Beginning reflective practice. Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes. KOLB, D. A. (1984). Experimental learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall. LOMAX, R., & JONES, K. (2014). Surviving your social work placement. Basingstoke, Palgrave macmillan. MARTIN, B. (2006). Outdoor leadership: theory and practice. Champaign, Ill, Human Kinetics. Merriam, S. B., &Bierema, L. L. (2013). Adult Learning Linking Theory and Practice. Hoboken, Wiley. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1376941. PONT, T. (2003). Developing effective training skills. London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. REED, E. (1996). The necessity of experience. New Haven, Yale University Press. TARAS, V., & GONZALEZ-PEREZ, M.-A. (2014). The handbook of experiential learning in international business. http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9781137467720. Read More