1.0 Introduction

During last few decades, soft skills has been becoming more significant in corporate life. In current dynamic business environment, companies are looking for individuals who has soft skills such as leadership skills, problem solving skills, team working, communication etc. On the other hand, hard skills are also equally important when it comes to operation. Thus, the employees need to develop their skills up to date. Personal Development Plan (PDP) and Continuing Professional development (CPD) plays critical role in development of employees. PDP refers the process of establishing objectives, what employee need to achieve in the career within short, medium and long term periods by assessing current situation and skill gaps and identifying development needs (Beausaert, et al. 2013). CPD is the learning and development process which employees carry out that contributes to being effective in the career (CIPD, 2021). CPD should be included a tracking and documentation process of developing skills, competencies, knowledge and experience in both formal and informal ways (CIPD, 2021). As a senior system administrator, PDP and CPD are useful for me to achieve my short and long term career goals. Further, CPD will help me to my life by assessing my work life balance. Further, it will help me to improve my performance in my current job. The relevance of CPD is conducted and attached in annexures 01.

2. 0 Reflective approach

In my previous task, I developed a reflective portfolio based on Driscoll’s model. This model is based on three simple questions; What? So what? and Now what?. What refers that description of the event what happens and experience that I need to analyze for my own learning (Driscoll, 2000). So what refers the analysis of the event. In this phase, I need to analyze what is situation or experience means. After the experience, I need to review the feelings and need to get further insights by referring subject related literature and discussing with peer or immediate supervisor (Rolfe et al, 2001). The last phase Now What refers that proposing actions following event (Driscoll, 2000). In this phase, I need to develop action plans to improve myself based on the following experience. Based on my experience, reflection approach has identified three main areas; effective leadership communication, decision making and problem solving and effective team working.

2.1 Effective leadership communication

What

As the nature of my job role, I need to attend many meetings. As a system administrator, I need to participate various meetings with different level of employees. Further, at times, my team needs to conduct awareness sessions regarding system security. However, I am struggling lot when I need to speak publicly. Further, I don’t talk much in meetings. Most of the time, I feels less confidence in front of crowds. Many times, I have felt that I have better suggestions however, I didn’t express myself at the meetings. I am introvert person when it comes to express myself. I feel uncomfortable when communicate with people who newly meet. I have felt that this personality has negatively affected to my career development. Communication is one of the most important skills which corporate individuals should have. Networking is highly important in current business environment. Corporate employees need to have good communication skills to develop networking (Armstrong, 2019).

So what

I feel that this issue is the main obstacle for my career development. The main reason to speaking less in meeting is that I feel embarrassing if I make mistake when speaking. Further, I search literature related the importance of this skill. Communication is important skill for employees to conduct essential functions such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Akilandeswari, 2018). Incomplete message or improper communication could lead to faulty interpretation and misleading information (Diaz, 2017). Further, proper communication in work place leads to increase productivity, create trust among employees and improve performance (Abraham, 2012). It is essential to think in English rather than native language to improve communication in English (Kent state university, 2020).
I also consulted my immediate supervisor regarding this matter. He also highlighted that it is my main weakness. My immediate supervisor needs me to speak more in meetings. Further, he needs me to mentor juniors to develop them. He asked me to develop my network among different level of employees. He recommended to join with toastmaster club in the company.

Now what?

Thus, it is clear that lack of communication skills would negatively affect to my future career development. Instead of my professional life, this also would affect to my personal life. I expect to develop my communication skills to improve my networking, public speaking, presentation skills, oral and written communication skills. My immediate supervisor suggested me to read books. Reading books is one of the most effective methods to improve communication skills. I plan to read one book per month. Further, there are lots of YouTube videos and online courses to improve communication skills. I start to watch you tube channel called “Learn English with Let’s talk”. Further, I start online course in coursera to improve my communication skills https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-communication-skills. I joined with toastmaster club in my company. I hope that these action plans would help me to improve my communication skills.