REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Business Skills For Leadership

Table of Contents
Introduction to Journal ................................................................................................... 3
Essential Postgraduate Study Skills ............................................................................... 5
Integrating I.T and Data skills in Management and leadership................................. 9
Team work effective management of interpersonal relationship ......................... 11
Stress Management ......................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 15
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 17
Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 20
Appendix 1.0 ............................................................................................................................... 20
Appendix 1.1 ............................................................................................................................... 21
Appendix 3.0 ............................................................................................................................... 23
Appendix 3.1 ........................................................................................................................... 23
Appendix 4.0 ............................................................................................................................... 24
Appendix 4.1 ........................................................................................................................... 24
Appendix 4.2 ........................................................................................................................... 25
Appendix 4.3 ........................................................................................................................... 25
Introduction to Journal
Reflecting on experience is a vital capability for your own self-esteem, this report
reflects upon the learning obtained and applied throughout the journey of Business
skills of leadership. Throughout this report there shall be four topics the author
will touch upon, which are the following; postgraduate study skills, Integrated I.T
and Data skills, Team work and stress management. Reflection is believed it’s the
power of pragmatic learning and highlights the breadth of its reach, to include,
work based learning, ships and work placement this could all be part of a work
based learning programme to develop the authors ability in a work environment.
(Gray, 2007) According to Gray “research suggests that this is the most effective
when it involves others and as a significance the chance to co-operate and share
ideas about change, adjustments and new ways of operating”.

Integrating my research and the four topics that will be introduced in this report
are essential business skills which are analytical in success for my postgraduate
study, most importantly these skills will provide me success in any work placement
under management and leadership. These types of skills will allow me to obtain a
graduate job in a managerial role successfully and have the advantage over other
graduate students looking to secure a job. The life we live now has tremendously
grown therefore its getting more competitive to find the job you dreamed of but
understanding and developing these skills will definitely place me on the market to
allow my knowledge to prove within a business. However, thinking process does
involve two different aspects of it which is reflective thinking and critical thinking.
These are not separate processes but rather fall closely connect (Brookfield 1987).
The main areas of reflection include personal learning points, how the elements
add up to contribute to successful management and leadership to then see how I
have developed these skills.
Developing upon what has been mentioned the main areas that will be reflected
include personal learning points, meaning how will the elements add to successful
management and leadership, how I will develop my own abilities, attributes and
finally the strategies I use to overcome this. According to (Ramsay and Sweet 2008)
Creating this type of journal is a valuable way to plan and review personal
accomplishments. This is very beneficial to produce such journal as its produces a
sense of achievements, manage a detailed self-evaluation, the strengths and
weaknesses of understanding my own self esteem as a consultant and lastly this
will definitely allow me to overcome the whole idea of been critical.

Throughout my journey in business skills and leadership I can reflect upon the
opportunity I have got professionally and personally to build my self-esteem. I had
a lack of understanding skills to demonstrate in such areas. (Hartog 2002) says
“reflection will allow you to assess and, where appropriate, adapt your thinking
and behaviour towards your subordinates and peers and in that way improve your
professional practice”. This will enable me to develop a deeper understanding of
how critical reflecting upon yourself is.
Branch & Paranjape, 2002, p. 1187 “reflections lead to growth of the individual-
morally, personally and emotionally as well as cognitively” which reflects the
strengths, values and beliefs of learning the skills for your own future. Considering
(Gibbs, 1998) reflecting cycle, is a series of stages which will get you to think
about reflect on your experiences. So for instance having these classes is my
experience and then looking over them and seeing how this all will help me
become a better person physically and mentally in a work place. In gibbs
reflective cycle there are 6 stages so therefore I will go through those cycles as I
speak on the report.

Gibb's Reflective Cycle (1988)

This model has proven to be effective as it has given me the learning of experience
by analysing and evaluating them constantly. William et al. (2013) states that the
reflective practice is a means to effectively unite theory with practice, by
developing learning and knowledge.
Reflecting upon myself is important as I believe its developing my understanding in
the subject areas this however will all lead to development of my profession. The
subject areas have all importance to me especially team work, at postgraduate
level you are taught to present and work together. (Project-management-
skills.com, 2017) article demonstrates the importance of team work because it
creates human synergy. Team work is important as it prepares you for a
professional job after graduating it amplifies the result of each member it’s better
to get more informational from more than one member rather than individually.
The first point I will be developing is essential post graduate skills, this signifies
the main aims a masters level should believe for development says (David 2011).
The whole aim of this report is to show my learning experience, personal
development and performance management to improve in my understanding of
leadership and management to be able to take on in the future.

Essential Postgraduate Study Skills

According to (reissner, 2014) critical thinking, reading and writing are the leaders
of postgraduate study, managerial work and continuing professional development
(CPD). Critical thinking, analysis and synthesis are key skills of any business and
management student (QAA 2007). To develop my critical thinking and reading I
read about it on the university portal that was posted by my tutor. (see appendix
1.0)

Before completing my undergraduate study, I wasn’t ready to go back home and

start a normal job, coming from Gibraltar is difficult to build a career out there.
It’s all who you know who you will work for. Therefore, I praise myself better than
that and decided to widen my knowledge on a master’s degree. My attitude
towards a postgraduate study was very slim as I didn’t realise how different the
learning journey was compared to undergraduate so I created a swot analysis see
(appendix 1.1). As a postgraduate student you are expected to work at a more
advanced and independent level. (Hart 1998) says you are expected to think
independently and contribute to the knowledge of your own field of study by
engaging in research and any other experiments. Essential postgraduate study
skills aren’t useful just for students but developing these skills and attributes is
also very beneficial within a work place (currie 2005). One of the major elements
I improved on during my time as a student is critical reading, which has been
beneficial when research needed to be looked at carefully. (Cameron 2009)
promoted that becoming a more critical independent on your reading you then
spend less time reading but yet more time taking in the information and processing
it. Therefore, analysing Cameron’s statement, is potentially something I didn’t
believe was true as it takes me a long time to read the perfect journals or books.
However, with the lifestyle I have picked up I struggled to read all textbooks I
would of liked to in which I decided to use a simple technique to speed up the
reading process. This process is called SQ3R which stands for (Survey,
questionnaire, read, recite and review) this method has been introduced by
(Robinson, 1946)
(Robinson, 1946)

What this actually does is you start off with the survey its intended to get the
overall picture of what you going to study before you even get into too much detail
on the book. The tips to the survey is to always read the title, introduction,
chapter introduction and look at charts or any graphs. For instance, I use a
technique of highlighting important information I need to allow myself to
remember. Then moves on to the questions, this is where you ask yourself the
why, what, when and who. Turning the headings into questions. We then look at
read, read the section for the answers, as you read for the section look for
answers. Recite, at the end of each section recite the answer to the question in
your own words. This is where you take notes and use your own words. Lastly is
review, review your answers to be able to make sense of the overall coherence of
the chapter. Looking back at what I have done to reflecting upon my past, I
noticed by using this technique to read critically I improved the way I obtained
relevant information.

Throughout my undergraduate career tutors expressed the importance of critical

thinking, reading and writing but I didn’t consider these skills as important in the
real world, I thought it was just an undergraduate study skill I needed to get good
grades. However, I now see how important these skills are for a postgraduate
student and taken them beyond to a work placement. Critical thinking is not a
matter of accumulating information, a person with a good memory and problem
solver doesn’t mean they are good at critical thinking. Instead its someone who
knows how to make use of information to solve problems. Therefore, seeing other
class mates around me always approaching questions makes me feel am not good
enough to do so myself but having this unit has allowed me to approach my studies
or at my day time job in a more strategic manner as its allowed me to use an
organised method of thinking. Critically thinking at how I was to what I have
achieved now in my studies and in my work placement I can surely say I used my
methods of learning to achieve my targets.
1.1 core critical thinking.

The above diagram shows the different skills for critical thinking, using these skills
to complete my report will keep me constantly in the right process. Successful
critical thinking combines the following skills (Grant Tilus,2017)
1. interpretation skills – having the ability to understand the information you
are being presented with and been able to communicate the meaning of
that information to peers.
2. Analysis – having the ability to understand and recognize what elements you
will need in order to determine and accurate conclusion.
3. Self- Regulation – having the awareness of your own thinking abilities and
the elements that you are using to find results.
The above 3 skills are the ones I believe I relate too, to critically think, read or
write, I can define more to these areas to being a postgraduate student. However,
this can also be taken into consideration when building my performance
management skills in a working environment will enable me to make more justified
and make decisions which will make great success.

Overall critical reading, thinking and writing are the foundations of postgraduate
study, CPD, managerial work and leadership (Lau 2011). Most importantly by
developing these skills I will have the ability to have confidence as a student and
in my workplace, as its essential I progress to full time leader. As mentioned
previously there is more areas to postgraduate than just obtaining a further
knowledge.
Integrating I.T and Data skills in Management and leadership

The profound influence technology continues to have on business is incredibly

high, according to research conducted by the society of human resources
management over the next five years nearly 60% of companies plan to increase the
number of jobs that require data analysis skills. (EmployTest - on Apr 10, 2017)
Taking all this into account I believe it’s important as a student looking to build a
future in the business world, to have a great and deep understanding of IT and be
able to work with the data.

Before coming to university I picked up IT A Levels so I have developed an

advanced understand of the fundamentals of IT in a workplace. However, as a first
year student back in 2013 I had to undertake two different topics which were study
skills and Data analytics skills. They were challenging as we had to undertake tests
within a limited time for about 30 questions on Excel. However, I feel grateful for
doing well as that was enough for me to progress and succeed in my studies to get
into second year. However, I can assure myself this didn’t stop there I carried on
building my knowledge and understanding further when I was out on placement in
china shanghai for a recruitment company, where I was dealing with data
constantly. On the other hand, if I was to do a deeper role in business such as
finance I think I would be guessing throughout it and making myself learn more.

I believe Microsoft excel is one of the most required software programmes every
work place will have and expect you to know how to use it for many different
purposes. Microsoft excel has recognised to be advantageous for day to day
commercial activities the information of excel has become essential for businesses
carrying out their tasks and to read best results says (Melissa James, 2015) looking
back at my experience in my work placement in china it is vital to comprehend
how critical it is to know how to create spreadsheets and turning data into charts
and constantly updating them. However, attending my lectures at university on IT
skills proved to be useful and successful as I learnt how to create short cuts and
different key rules to become better at it. See appendix 3.0 from attending my
seminar on IT I was taught a graph on its own is not good enough to succeed there
always needs to be an interpretation to follow it. Describing groups of data could
cause possible issues, one which it’s not categorised and another is not been read
properly. Learning the different way to create histograms was rather interesting
as I had never created one before. Using formulas such as MIN, MAX, AVERAGE and
STDEV to calculate each one of these and find the appropriate cell. However, this
has enabled me to play around with histograms and learn my ways to
understanding it as showen in (appendix 3.0), prior to this I did not know how to
join bars to show the type of curve of the graph, also didn’t know how to use the
data analysis tool that excel has which allows you to create add in’s. Before
undertaking postgraduate work I had done a little on describing data, however I
only considered putting data into simple graphs and providing the correspondence
as a mean of describing data.
On another note I did learn that once the valued information has been grouped
together than you can analyse it further by creating multiple groups as seen on
(appendix 3.2)

Furthermore, the database excel is ubiquitously in the business world especially

businesses that are adding up numbers constantly such as marketing, business
development, sales and of course finance (James Kwak,2013). The world
population is dramatically changing, is of great importance for humanity’s impact
on the earth’s natural environment but the reasons behind all this is for hope of a
good future for all and in life we live in the increase of educated people is
amazingly important. This just means people can contribute to the solutions that
improve global well-being (Roser et a l, 2017). For reasons like this it’s very
significant to have the right skills needed to establish and manage team of people
online, knower days’ companies work internationally so managers are finding
themselves in the situation of having a team of people in an office, but since the
technology is growing they now are capable of producing information online to be
able to communicate with global businesses.

I believe the most important I.T skills are the channels a business uses, digital
skills is one that I look up to. Every business should have a platform of marketing
to promote their business without it its proven that a business struggles to connect
with their audience. These are the social media platforms available: Facebook,
twitter, LinkedIn and blogs. This is one of my main priorities if I’d ever look for a
job I’d like to work in a marketing digital company because I believe I have the set
of skills and the passion to help a business succeed. When I worked in a small
business in Southampton called future employment it’s a recruitment agency I was
a recruitment consultant and a market resourcer. Here I created a stronger
platform to engage with audience my age as recruitment is important to build
connection with those high talented individual who need their dream jobs. All
these experiences I have gained I will keep building in future to create a powerful
profile of my own to have an advantage over others.

Team work effective management of interpersonal

relationship
Poor communication lies at the root of many problems companies face this can be
misled to mistakes, quality problem, missed deadlines and lost properties.
Developing a good team will always demonstrate in the work they do. Using
appropriate team building is one way of producing a successful one, this will boost
people’s communication skills but also build a good relationship with one another.
A team is a group in which the individuals share a common aim, which the jobs and
skills of each member fit. “As any good racing driver knows, the team who
designed and built the car and the team who service it before, during and after
the race are as necessary for success as the person driving it” says (Adair, 2016) A
group can be more than one person basically any number of people who are willing
to interact with one another which perceive themselves to be a group (Schien,
1980).

According to (Michael A, West. 2012) The growth of modern organizations has

created a context in which teams no longer work in isolation. “Teams must always
work together with other teams and with organizational system and processes to
achieve the goals we aspire to and overcome the challenges we face”. From any
organization point of view there are two groups in business and these are formal
and informal. I believe a formal group is when its purposely designed to achieve an
organizational objective. It can also mean been a functional group which is
surrounded of managers and their subordinates. On the other hand, informal
groups will be ones that achieve some specific objectives they are formed by such
groups by themselves. (Management Study HQ, 2017) These groups will be
analytical to my success in the business environment I wish to proceed for my
development in leadership and communication. I sometimes forget how important
informal teams and only look over the formal teams, after reaching these criteria’s
I chose to reflect upon my thinking on team work. I now understand the difference
in both aspects and where they both sit which it builds relationships to sharing
ideas to then looking over issues which may be ignored if it was under formal
teams. (FAIRHURST,2015)

Developing an effective team is vital and to be effective you need to take certain
measurements into consideration. Effective team work is the key to a successful
operation of any organisation weather it’s in business or not and a strong team will
make it all the way through. We all know the amazing things team work can do to
an organization but there are limitations to this, the risk associated with labelling
group members with specific roles will make them feel restricted and not be able
to express themselves to the fullest. My perspective of team roles may have gone
over board and not recognized the team until it may have been too late, this
reduces quality, time and been productive. This has definitely taught me how to
form different stages of members coming together, in our lectures we always did
group work and team work and each member had a role. This allowed everyone to
share their capabilities and knowledge. If there was a weakness from a member
there always was us to help that weakness become a strength so the whole team
becomes a stronger one.

Douglas Smith has a theory on the five stages of teamwork, he calls it the team
performance curve. With his theory I have been relating my knowledge about team
work and understand the whole picture of it. The five stages are working group,
pseudo-team, potential team, real team and extraordinary team. If we go into
detail about each its interesting to know how he has come up with such an
enthusiastic idea to create all members. He says working group is nothing more
than a collection of individuals who desire to a common objective. Pseudo team all
circulates when the members of a working group first decide to become a real
team which therefore means collective performance will decrease as a result.
Then we have potential

Stress Management

‘Stress is a state of physiological imbalance in the body which has unpleasant

emotional and cognitive components’ (Epstein R, 2009)
Stress can be categorized in many different ways especially to those who are
suffering from the imbalance in the body, this affects each individual differently at
times some may manage it easily and for others it will be hard to come around and
cope with the physiological state. Describing stress in a business workforce is
important a manager, they will need to recognise stress in themselves and others
around them. According to (Taylor & Seeman, 1997) ‘promote that stress in the
work environment is a concern in multiple perspectives’. Reasons behind this is
because stress contributes to organizational inefficiency, high staff turnover and
sickness & absence.

I found throughout my journey at university, learning how to control and perhaps

identify stress has proven to be a success in my life. This has dramatically changed
the way I cope with assignment deadlines, planning and controlling my emotional
absence for living in a different country to my family. I found that stress can be
under controlled by two types of strategies. One in which was how I planned my
daily routines and what I had to do next for couple of weeks. (See appendix 4.0)
writing out my deadlines and adding my classes to my calendar allowed me to
organise my work in advance which therefore helped me stress out less and a
constant reminder because I was able to visually see it and it reminded me the
night before the event. Mind mapping and colour coding was another state of
mind I used to make my work easier, especially when it was harder units I didn’t
understand. This allows me to look at the whole picture in a bigger perspective.
See (appendix 4.1) A model I looked into was the Inverted-U model which is also
known as the Yerkes Dodson law, this however was created by Yerkes, Dodson 1908
so many years ago but they say age doesn’t matter it’s a model which has stood
the test for many people.

The Inverted-U model (also known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law), was created by
psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson as long ago as 1908. Despite its age,
it's a model that has stood the test of time. See (appendix 4.2) to describe what
they have to say about the model. Reflecting upon my learning and attributes time
management is a tremendously important skill that I have developed and continue
to develop to be able to manage stress more professionally. (Matt Mayberry, 2015)
makes a statement about how mastering time management will increase
productivity but it can also produce health benefits as well. When time is managed
wisely it minimizes stress which therefore improves the overall quality of life. It’s
not just because I’m in university, I’m just using google calendar to plan my life
and schedule my work but it’s for self-awareness and relaxation to know where I
will be heading. Another source of keeping my stress under control was reading
about (Heidi K. Gardner & Mark Mortensen, 2017) they have a good way of making
my mind think about my priorities and how to sequence my work.

By reflecting upon my time and how I always used to get stressed I must say was
living in a shared flat with girls and sharing bathrooms and kitchens. Most student’s
houses are not well done and are left to shatter on its own, I lived in a freezing
cold house and constant failure of hot water which caused all lot of arguments
around the flat. Especially when it was deadlines everyone used to get on each
other’s nerves. Coming from a different country and culture was very hard to
integrate with how people work around here. I used to constantly call my family
and moan about the situation I was in, then again that was causing stress to my
family as I was KM away from them. In (appendix 4.3) I will show you how I dealt
with stress. Another aspect of stress relieves for myself was going to the gym alone
and just running on the treadmill it allowed me to mentally focus on my breathing
and motivation to feel better about my body. However, I have come a long way
from that and grown up to a mature student living with my partner in a flat in
ocean village just the two of us. This allows me to reflect upon myself in how far I
have come.

Stress has a major impact in a person’s life, the way they work and react to things.
This can become a serious factor when dealing with stress to then depression to
then becoming ill and this all affects your career. As Heidi K, Gardner says, there
are different steps to take when manging stress firstly to understand where it is
coming from. This could be anything as little as lost your keys to as big as a family
problem. But most importantly for students looking back at your university and
highlight what caused you the most stress and next time don’t allow it don’t let it
overcome yourself. To focus and fight what makes you angry and stress. However,
going back at the long term attributes to be able to allow it to control my
emotion. For me being able to manage stress is key and by writing this section on
stress management has helped me focus how I have been doing and what I can do
better so every journey has been a learning and understanding.

Conclusion
To conclude my journal, I can utterly say that the understanding gained through
presenting this was beneficial to me. This will allow me how to use these skills in a
working environment and in a personal one too. This has also been a good way of
reflecting back on my accomplishments and how I made changes and what I should
do next to improve my personal skills of development. Some people may say doing
this is not to beneficial but in my case I have definitely expanded my skills and will
be handy for future jobs. Even though in my appendix I shown a swot analysis but
regardless what’s on it there is always some room for improvements especially
when starting a work placement id need to change my personal swot analysis as I
would have gained more knowledge and understanding.

It is gobsmacking looking back at what I learnt from writing this journal of how
important reflecting upon yourself is and overcoming certain areas I struggles with.
However, attending the lectures does help you to develop this portfolio especially
when writing about your personal skills outside university and bringing them to
practice allowed me to see the larger areas of it. With this I could relate to
different theories and apply my knowledge. This however has also helped me as a
person to highlight my strengths and weakness and what I should do to reach my
maximum potential. What I also learnt always take the opportunity if someone is
willing to help you develop your knowledge and understanding.

As the above areas I choose to study in this journal has majorly helped me develop
my stress management and performance levels. However, the postgraduate study
skills were to develop my success at my master’s level, as its believed they are
representative of level 7. Interesting to know that the 3 critical skills were the
most important as they helped further expand my professional identity. Therefore,
understanding all the effects that helped me develop have been valuable as I now
know what I need to do to overcome any obstacles I face.

Lastly learning how to recognise my stress levels was very important to me as I felt
this would always overcome my emotions and leaves me at a dead end. It was
stress relief talking about it in my journals as it allowed me to identify and analyse
how I was going to change things. Lastly the fundamentals of IT are extremely
important as they are considered in every job around the world. I would say it was
fun and understanding to learn about the deeper aspects of excel and how to use
It. Coming to an end of my journals this has all helped me look back at how I have
been doing and how I should do things next time.
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Appendix

Appendix 1.0
Appendix 1.1
Personal swot analysis

Together with a swot analysis I also created a ESE test to show my employability self-
evaluation.
Appendix 3.0
Excel spreadsheets

Appendix 3.1

Min 18.93
Max 81.70

Food Expenditure Food Expenditure Frequency

Frequency of Food Expenditure
15.00 20.00 2
60
20.00 25.00 0
25.00 30.00 7 50
30.00 35.00 15 40
Frequency

35.00 40.00 31
30
40.00 45.00 40
45.00 50.00 56 20 Frequency
50.00 55.00 56
10
55.00 60.00 44
60.00 65.00 24 0
25.00

45.00

65.00

85.00
20.00

30.00
35.00
40.00

50.00
55.00
60.00

70.00
75.00
80.00

65.00 70.00 19
70.00 75.00 4
Food Expenditure
75.00 80.00 1
80.00 85.00 1
85.00

Median 52.50
Lower quartile 36.25
Higher quartile 68.75
Interquartile Range 32.50

90th Percentile 78.50

Mean 49.78
Standard Deviation 10.50
Appendix 4.0

Calendar to help me organise my schedule.

Appendix 4.1
Mind Mapping and highlighting important aspects
Appendix 4.2

The above shows the relationship between pressure and performance, for instance peak
performance is achieved when people experience a moderate level of pressure. I would say
students as they leave everything last minute regardless the constant reminder drom tutors
but it is the reality of how students work. So where they experience too much or too little
pressure, their performance declines and becomes procrastination
On the other hand the graph also shows the situation people are under challenged it proves
no effort and not appreciate their work.

Appendix 4.3
As you can see from the above picture I used to do cheerleading, for me this was a way of
getting out of my own flat and going to exercise and interacting with different friends. Some
people may say how does this help stress, well since I was the main person who gets
chucked in the air I had to use my core strength and balance and this allowed my brain to
focus on myself and just have fun. By doing this for 4 years I was lucky enough to compete
for the university at the national championships where I placed first with a gold trophy. (yes
that is me in the air smiling away to the judges).