Consultancy Assignment: Evaluation of Learning & Skills Development

Question

Task: Consultancy Assignment Task one:
Having worked as part of the team solving your client’s business problem, this task requires you to reflect on the process and evaluate your learning and your skills development. Your critical evaluation should be supported with examples.

Consultancy Assignment Task two:
Taking into account your evaluation in task one, this task requires you to identify THREE skills gaps or areas where you consider that further development would be useful, for you to be successful in your business career. Propose a plan of action for filling these gaps/developing these areas.

Answer

Consultancy AssignmentTask 1
Professionalism and skill management are two things that are required to make a successful career. There are several skills that this company has taught me in my due course of time being with them. Management skills have no doubt always proved to be an asset for companies. A good manager knows how to boost up their employees and bring them together as a team. Being a part of a team that helps its clients to solve their business problems, I have learnt a few skills like data management, leadership skills, time management, discipline and responsibility. There has been an increase in my speaking and communication skills as well. Earlier I was scared of public speaking and was unable to express myself with words. But working with this team has made my skills better and made me confident (Mishra and Mishra, 2020). During the days of my higher studies, I had very little or beginner level knowledge about data and time management. Having worked with the time for quite some time now, I am sure that I have improved my knowledge about the skills to an intermediate level. Though I am sure that I still have room for improvement certain skills like writing an email to a client or customer were unknown to me (Chasanah, 2020). Working with this team has taught me such skills. There has been a remarkable improvement in my discipline, and I have started to meet deadlines unlike before. This project has transformed me into a new person who is more confident. Leadership was always of keen interest to me, and thus I presume I had the qualities that a good leader should have. But with good leadership comes great responsibilities, and that was where I was lacking. My sense of responsibility was something that I definitely needed to work on. And being a part of this project has made me a responsible person and probably a better leader. Email- writing was one of my weakest points. It took time, but the team helped me grow. They were patient enough to teach me and help me grow. The skills that I have inculcated from this project are just enormous, and I will always be thankful for being a part of this project. My judgement has also increased and developed, and I am able to provide customers with the necessary and suitable diplomatic solutions that work best in the given situation. As a core member of the team, I have even attended certain seminars that have not only morally boosted and motivated me but also have shown me different ways by which I can improve my skills more and more. Earlier I never really came to the limelight unless necessary, never really showed my interest or took an initiative (Orey, 2021). But now, I have started taking initiative and have started taking steps towards becoming a more known and prominent member of the team. All this has only been possible with the help of my co-team mates. They have guided and helped me in every step of this journey, to become what I am today, a more confident self. Problem-solving was definitely not my zone of comfort, but with the course of time, I have learnt and probably flourished in this field. Due to my lack of communication and management skills, I have been rejected by a lot of companies. But this company decided to nurture me and teach me what I lacked. It is because of them that I have excelled in my professional as well as my personal life. These rejections are what made me stronger (Costigan and Brink, 2020). Over the course of time I have started to inculcate and grow a professional attitude that is very necessary to excel in my career. The professionalism has definitely helped me a lot in providing customers with exceptional business solutions. Having a diplomatic mind has helped me to provide my clients with a quick, hustle-free, diplomatic solution. My day-by-day growing better communication skills have sometimes also been effective in solving the ongoing disputes within the employees (Tyas et al., 2020). It has helped me to conduct meetings that are productive but also are also under the time constraint. Skills like handling the data and generating reports were also taught to me, which I believed to have mastered up to an intermediate level. Providing support to the customers is one thing I am very sure of, and thus have expertise in it. Over the course of time , I have learnt that all that a customer wants is someone who can provide them with exceptional, interesting and unique solutions , and I believe to deliver and render them their needs as much as possible. All these qualities have helped me render my services to our clients and have left them with satisfaction. I sincerely hope that the qualities that I have learnt and inculcated, as being a part of the team, would further help me deliver my services in a much efficient way.

Task 2
A business career sounds too lucrative but the reality is difficult and takes a lot of effort and improvements in a lot of fields. A thinker, a leader, a fighter and a solver, it takes a lot to even start your career in business. The calculative mind with a fighting spirit is just the start. In this field there are no limits at all, one has to polish himself again and again to shine better and work better (Gaur, 2020). As an individual, I think I have a huge room of improvement to train myself and deal with every unforeseen circumstance and every challenge. Be it leadership or management, it is all important when you are doing something so challenging. In the field of business you need to be always ready for any situation, farsightedness is also a must. We come across so many people who have achieved so much fame and success for their careers, some became national examples while others became globally famous. What we fail to realise is what the reason behind these success stories is. It is hard to believe that so many of these people were the ones who hardly managed to earn a living once in their lives but through sheer hard work and determination they did achieve what every student, every kid dreams of. Personally reading these kinds of stories and my observation till now did make me realise about the gaps that I need to fulfil in my life and therefore develop myself to a new person who can stand confident and ready to achieve heights in this particular field (Kalogiannidis, 2020).

References
Chasanah, C., 2020. The Effectiveness of Learning Models on Written Mathematical Communication Skills Viewed from Students' Cognitive Styles. European Journal of Educational Research, 9(3), pp.979-994.

Costigan, R.D. and Brink, K.E., 2020. Developing listening and oral expression skills: Pillars of influential oral communication. Journal of Management Education, 44(2), pp.129-164.

Gaur, V., 2020.Developing Interpersonal Communication Skills. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(8), pp.3568-3574.

Kalogiannidis, S., 2020. Impact of Effective Business Communication on Employee Performance. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 5(6).

Mishra, S.K. and Mishra, P., 2020. Functional Aspects of Communication Skills for Professional Empowerment. Journal of English Language and Literature (JOELL), 7(1), pp.79-85.

Orey, M., 2021. Communication Skills Virtual Training.American Society for Training and Development.

Tyas, A.S.P., Muam, A., Sari, Y.I.H. and Dewantara, C., 2020. The effectiveness of blended learning in improving students’ workplace communication skills: A case study on OLIVE website test result. Lingua Cultura, 14(1), pp.1-13. ?