Learning Diary Commentaries - Essay Example

MY PERSONAL COMMENTARY (Write here) (Write the of your college/school) if not the of your or country. ABSTRACT This paper focuses on my personal commentary together with my findings and my observations in my diary log. The paper is split up into Part A and Part B. The first part focuses on four main questions dealing with, Where I am in life now Where I am going" What are the constraints that hold me back And finally my Personal development plan, which highlights what, I want to achieve and how I intend to achieve it. Part B is made up of a reflective commentary on my learning throughout the duration of the MSc year. I focus on how the learning in the four modules this semester has helped me to do better in my job at the Bank, and by raising the level of my performance has helped me now to stand as a strong candidate for a promotion to the Managerial level. MY PERSONAL COMMENTARY (Part A) Introduction: When I was growing up, one of my favourite quotes was by Alexander Graham Bell who said " A man, as a general rule, owes a very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself". I have made it a habit to write down my goals and dreams and keep track of my achievements or failures in life, and hence when we were asked to keep a learning diary or log of experiences and activities undertaken during the MSc year I was even happier because this was now officially a part of my course. Body: When I look at my life right now, I am excited at what lies ahead of me. I have always been an optimist and the future seems bright and filled with possibilities. I presently work at a bank and love my job, and am well on the way of becoming a manager for the bank in the near future. Completing my Master's degree in Business Management will add to my advantage of securing this position, which I consider to be prestigious and filled with challenges. However when I started working with the Bank, it was a whole new experience and because of the hard work and my extra effort put into my job over a period of time, I have managed to earn the respect of my colleague's and more important get noted by the senior management and win the trust of my customers. I had put down quite a few goals which I wanted to achieve at the Bank into my Learning Diary, and would review it every fortnight to personally rate my performance at work. (Brian Tracy 2003,2004) Goals give you a sense of meaning and purpose. Goals give you a sense of direction. As you move toward your goals and you feel happier and stronger, you feel more energized and effective. You feel more competent and confident in yourself and your abilities. Every step you take toward your goals increases your belief that you can set and achieve even bigger goals in the future. My personal achievements at work can be categorised under three main headings. Respect from my Colleagues: My colleagues are the greatest in the world, simply because they appreciate and respect me so much for all the hard work that I have put in, the extra hours and the fact that I am always available to help them out when they ask, even if it means I have to stay back late. My skill and knowledge acquired in the Banking sector has increased and they often come to me for advice or a solution to a problem they are facing. Trust from my Customers: Edgar Watson Howe once said " The greatest humiliation in life is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it". Thank God, that doesn't apply to me. The customers more often that not pay compliments or sometimes go a step further and put in a personal word or send across an email to my Manager's and let them know I am doing a good job. Recognition from my Manager's: The good thing about the job is that there is a lot of scope to advance and be promoted at the bank, and the Manager's have noted my performance and have conveyed their appreciation and told me that my future remains bright, which leaves me ever hopeful that soon I will be stepping into the shoes of a Manager at the Bank. My Future: (Zig Ziglar 1986,2003) " I know that your past is important, but as important as it is, according to Dr. Tony Campolo, it is not nearly important as the way you see your future. Here's why! The way you see your future determines your thinking today. Your thinking today determines your performance today, and your performance in the today's of your life determines your future". I want to settle down in the Bank and continue to work there for a while. I have my sights set on the position of the Manager and am working towards that goal every day. Learning and Self Development Objectives: My first objective is to finish successfully my Master's in Business Management, as this will give me a strong case as well as add to my qualifications and strengthen my chances of obtaining the post of a Bank Manager. I want to concentrate on two areas especially and they are Assertiveness and building Rapport. I plan to spend sometime at the Library and at least one hour a day on the Internet. I also plan to take advantage of the short courses offered by the Bank on the technical side of International Banking and Finance. My career objective is to move up the corporate ladder and one-day move In to the Vice President post and have a number of people reporting and working under me and for that I know that not only do I need to put in hard work and prove my managerial skills and talents but I also need to educate my self on the broad range and scope of Banking be it Retail Banking, Business or Investment Banking or Trade Finance. I do not want to restrict myself to specialize in one major part of Banking but rather gather knowledge on the different levels and aspects of the Banking world and be able to offer not just Managerial skills at the top level but also expert advice. Personal Constraints: I am fairly good at interacting with people but I want to move from being a good communicator and listener to a great one. Since I am set on becoming a manager in the near future I will have a number of people working under me and reporting to me hence I think it is critical for me to develop my level of Assertiveness and Rapport building skills. (Brian Tracy, 2001) Your ability to interact with others to communicate, persuade, and negotiate determines your income more than any other factor. Your ability to get along well with others accounts for perhaps 85 percent of your happiness. It is therefore well worth your while to do everything possible to be very good in this area". I believe strongly on developing my skills of Assertiveness and Rapport building because I remember an instance when I had to speak to a senior colleague of mine and let him know that there was a mistake committed on his side of things due to his negligence. It was a difficult thing to do because he was senior to me in the department and also I believe dealing with people is one of the most difficult jobs to do simply because there are many different personalities out there and offending or hurting the attitude of one of your fellow workers is not a pleasant thing to do since you work with them day in and day out. The senior employee I confronted had become upset over the fact that I told him he made a mistake and we nearly got into an argument. There is a think line between being aggressive and being assertive and I believe it is vital for me to learn more about the art of assertiveness and dealing with aggressive people be it customers or fellow employees. Working with people over a period of time has also made it clear that some people have a better relationship with the management and with fellow workers than the others and I want to devote my time in learning how to build better rapport. (Brian Tracy, 2001) Your ability to get along with others is perhaps the most important skill you can develop if you really want to be successful and happy in business and in life. Today, everything involves relationships. The most successful people in almost every field are relationship experts. They have taken the time and made the effort to be very effective in their dealings with others, and this pays off for them in better jobs, higher pay and more rapid promotion. Personal Development Plan : My personal development plan is split up into 3 major divisions and they are as follows: A) I intend to finish my Master's in Business Management with flying colours and to do that I intend to spend more time on my studies by cutting down a bit on socializing as well as to start pursuing short banking courses that will help to add to my qualifications. B) I intend to enroll in a short course on Information Technology that will help me to become more IT literate as well as increase my skills on the MS Office applications. I plan to do this in the next 6 months. C) I am going to invest not just my time but also my money and attend seminars, buy books and read articles online on developing Assertiveness and Rapport building skills. I am also planning to review my Diary Log on a weekly basis to note my progress and be more strict on my goals and how I achieve them. MY PERSONAL COMMENTARY (Part B) Reflective Commentary: (Anne Brockbank, Ian McGill, Nic Beech, 1998) " When reflective learning works, it leaves people changed. At a basic level, it can change the skills we have, but more importantly it is likely to change the assumptions we make and the approach we take to solving problems. Reflective learning and high performance take people outside their normal states of being, and it is in such new contexts that visions and values may be challenged". I totally agree with that because there were a lot of things which I learnt during the duration of the MSc year, where new ideas were formed, old ones challenged and my personality and skills developed and I increased in confidence. My Last Semester: My last semester was divided into four modules and they were International Business contexts, Corporate Strategy, Professional Skills Development and Managing People. All four modules were interesting and help me understand the Corporate world better, and also help me build confidence. International Business Context : (Johnson and Turner 2003) The degree to which business is internationalised is a function of changes and developments in the world economy. The module on International Business helped me gain a global view of the way business was conducted across different parts of the world, and how globalisation was challenging as well as helping people across the globe. Corporate Strategy : (John L. Colley, Jacqueline L. Doyle, Robert D. Hardie 2002) The natural development of most corporations during the last 30 years has resulted in some degree of diversified, decentralised operations. The tendency to lower investment risk by diversifying a company's businesses and product lines has made it difficult for corporate executives to manage the myriad of operational details in a wide range of businesses". I learnt a lot on the importance of planning and strategy and why companies do what they do in today's fast paced world of business. Professional Skills Development: This module was extremely helpful for me because whatever I learnt and studied I immediately took back and put into practice at my work place and that helped me to see the results not just in my attitude with people and the way I treated them but also made my immediate supervisors to recognise my level of professionalism. Managing People: Since my goal is to step into the post of a manager at the bank this was the most interesting module of them all and what I learnt could be summed up best by ( Zig Ziglar 1986,2003) " Successful managers recognise, develop and use all their strength recognising, developing and utlising the talents of their subordinates. Conclusion : To conclude I would say that the four modules which was taken was first interesting but also on looking back helped me form ideas, change attitudes and develop skills that helped me perform better on my job and also am sure will help me in the future to achieve my goals and dreams. References: Brockbank, Anne, McGill, Ian, Beech, Nic (1998) " Reflective Learning in Practice". Gower Publishing Company. Colley, L. John , Doyle, L .Jacqueline, Hardie, D. Robert " Corporate Strategy" McGraw Hill. Johnson, Debra, Turner, Colin (2003) "International Business: Theory and Practice" Routledge. Tracy, Brian (2001) " The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success" Tracy, Brian ( 2003,2004) " GOALS". Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Ziglar, Zig, Dhanam, Krish, Flannagan, Bryan, Savage, Jim (1986,2003) " TOP Performance". McGraw - Hill. Read More