EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT: LNG019-6

Reflective report
Assessment 1

Name: Hamza Iqbal Sahi

ID: 1523306

Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................ 3
2. CPD......................................................................................................................... 4
3. Evidence................................................................................................................. 6
4. Self-Awareness....................................................................................................... 7
4.1 Big Rock Priorities............................................................................................... 7
4.2 MBTI.................................................................................................................. 7
4.3 Belbin team roles.............................................................................................. 8
4.4 Johari................................................................................................................. 8
4.5 SAQ................................................................................................................... 8
4.6 SWOT................................................................................................................ 9
5. Opportunity Awareness........................................................................................ 10
6. Abilities................................................................................................................. 10
7. Conclusion............................................................................................................ 10
References................................................................................................................ 11
Appendix.................................................................................................................. 12
Appendix 1: MBTI.................................................................................................. 12
Appendix 2: Belbin Role........................................................................................ 13
Appendix 3: Johari Test.......................................................................................... 14
Appendix 4: SAQ Test............................................................................................ 15

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1. Introduction
The set of skills that are imperative to survive in an international workplace has changed
dramatically since the last few years. Today an individual is working in an international work
place be it a university or a multinational corporation. Today the dynamic work place requires an
individual to have a set of both soft and technical s skills in order to service (Nardon and Steers,
2008). According to Alam, et al., (2010) the changing business environment, modern
organization cultures, globalization, advancement in technology have made it mandatory for the
individuals to upgrade their skills and capabilities through self awakens and continuous
development. Dalakoura (2010) claims that in an international environment an individual has to
deal with a number of stakeholders like team mates, high performance work groups, partners,
leaders, belonging form diverse cultural backgrounds, there for having the ability to work with
multi cultural teams and having leadership qualities is key to a successful career. An international
manager must be resilient towards complexities of the international work place by having a mix
of communication, personality, interpersonal and risk management skills. According to Hoyrup,
(2004) it is essential for an individual to create a self awareness followed by a continuous
development process in order have a competitive personality in a highly competitive world.
Brockbank and McGill (2006) claims that an individual should engage himself in a reflective
learning process which allows him to internally explore himself, highlight the areas of concern,
trigger by experience, clarify the meaning of self and create a continuous development mind set.
Since I am an international student, working in a dynamic and competitive environment, my goal
is the self evaluate myself, highlight my deficiencies and improve on several areas that will help
me becoming a successful leader and a manager in an international business world. I will be
applying for a multinational company after I graduate therefore this reflection report will help be
critically evaluation my personal influence in continuous learning, development and working
work others and therefore highlighting areas that I need to develop upon.
This reflection will consists of exercise, group learning, work experience and theories taught
throughout the semester like the MBTI, Johri, SWOT analysis, Belbin Analysis, SAQ. These
techniques are based on the self awareness criteria, further feedback from peers, teachers, and
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learning form the experiences will in terms of Knowledge, Skill, Abilities, Attitudes are also a
part of this approach, The continuing professional development (CPD) approach is used in the
discover and develop.
Prospecting: The sales force will be responsible to prospect for potential customers in
their sales territory and develop a sales database.
Pre approach: Gather knowledge about the buyers behavior, his influences, his buying
potential and needs.
Approach: after the assessment the sales person has to approach the potential buyer in
his territory.
Presentation and demonstration: The sales person has to make a presentation of the
company products and services and make demonstration if applicable in order to
convince the buyer.
Handling objections: The buyer will have many questions and objections that the sales
person has to successfully handle.
Closing Sales: The sales has to be close by getting the purchase order form the buyer
mentioning the quantity requires, per unit process, sales tax, delivery schedule, address of
the warehouse to deliver products and the terms of payment.
Follow up: Another important step in the selling process where the sales person has to

2. CPD
Olteanu, (2016) declare that a person should be adaptive to change and self review and reflection
always brings opportunities for change. Figure1 depicts the process of the CPD. The process
clearly shows the sub processed that forms the basis for the development cycle. The process
starts form the self assessment, feedback form group members and the supervisors followed by
putting the self review into development plan and practices. The third stage of the process is to
analyze the findings of the development and learning experience. The analysis may be improved
by obtaining a professional review. The process is continuous and enables a person to develop as
per the changing and dynamic needs of the international work environment (Simmonds , 2003).

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Figure 1 CPD process (Cox, 2004)

The reason why I have chosen this approach because:

It will help me improve on the existing skills,

It will open opportunities to discover and acquire new skills.
It will broaden my knowledge and understanding.
It will help me in achieving my aim which is to develop myself to work in an MNC after
my degree.

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Figure 2 Factors of an international manager (Paul, 2008)

Before engaging in the self awareness activity I researched the literature in order to figure out the
competencies, skills and capabilities that are imperative for an individual to become a success
full manager, a leader and perform in an international workplace. An individual needs to have a
set of interpersonal skills, Knowledge and most importantly a personality that blends together to
make an individual a competitive resource in the international market. The most important skills
are the ability to work in cross cultural team, communication skills, confidence, dedication,
commitment, trust, honesty, emotional intelligence and Risk management skills. So the following
table discusses the portfolio of theories and practices that I learned during the course for self
awareness and evaluation. The results will be analyzed in light of the skills identified in figure 1.

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3. Evidence

Evidence
type

How and why will I use it? If I decide not to use it why not?

Big rock Having awareness of the big rocks in life and then prioritizing these tasks in
Priorities a busy and occupied life.

MBTI

This exercise will help me to discover my personality, my psychological

type and perceptions.

Belbin
team
roles

This behavioral test will help me identify my team role and make
my clear of my responsibilities working in a group.

SWOT

To understand my strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities I have and

the threats I need to realize. Then analyze all these to strategically plan
strategy to develop myself for the future aim.

SAQ

JOHARI

The stress assessment test is also performed which allows me to check my

level of stress, anxiety and depression.

To become my relationship with others and my own self, this will help me
access my problem solving and conflict management skills, also
communication skills with the group members.

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4. Self-Awareness
I have conducted to following tests and exercises in order to gain knowledge of my character,
knowledge, motives and desires.
4.1 Big Rock Priorities
The big rock priorities helped me to have a clear vision, goal, and awareness of what is important
in my life and what unnecessary bits takes up most of my time. If we keep on filling a jar with
the minor stones then time comes when there is no more space for the big rocks which are really
important for survival. After reading the importance of this exercise, I noted down the major and
miner stones of my life. The major stone is my Career, My family, my health and then my career.
So I have planned to focus on these stones first and reduce devoted time to minor stones like play
station, sitting idle in university and at home, talking about useless tings with friends.

4.2 MBTI
In order to create awareness about my personality I have conducted a Myers-Briggs Type
indicator test. The results of the test are attached in the appendix 1. According to the results
suggested that my personality type is a Consul (ESFJ). This means that my personality consists
of Extraversion, sensing, feeling and judging. My role is Sentinel and my strategy is social
engagement. All these personality traits reflects that I have the ability to survive in the
international work environment however I have few missing personality traits like I make not a
decision maker, risk taker, strategic, trouble shooter and a negotiator. The results of the MBTi
test are attached in the appendix 1.

4.3 Belbin team roles

The team roles basically define ones ability to contribute, behave, and collaborate with others in
a team orientation (Perry et al., 2013). In order to become aware of my team role I have
conducted the Belbin test. According to the results of the Belbin test I am an implementator and
specialist. Being an implementator I posses the ability on how to get the things done for my
group. I have the ability to turn my ideas into action plans. This ability also makes ma a group
leader. I have been leading several projects and Presentations in my University career. I had the
ability to understand all the culturally diverse people in my group, understand their point of view
and make convert them into substantial contribution towards my group. Furthermore the Belbin
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suggests that I am a specialist, a person who specializes in the knowledge. In my team

presentation I was specialized in Power point and excel skills therefore I took the responsibility
to shape the ideas of my group into a presentable PPT and therefore secured good grades as a
team. The results of the Belbin test are as attached on appendix 2

4.4 Johari
The Johari test is basically used to understand the relationship with the others especially when
you are working in group. The result of my Johari test is attached in the appendix 3. Known to
self and not know to other I am accepting, Helpful, Dependable, Trust worthy and self conscious
however Know to other which was not known to myself I am bold, calm, caring, knowledgeable,
responsive sensible, sentimental and Idealistic, This means that I am acceptable in a group,
people have no difficulty in building is a relationship with me, people appreciate me however I
need to project my skill that are not known to people like I am help flu, trust worthy and
dependable. Trust is important in all relationships be it family, friends of corporate.

4.5 SAQ
The stress assessment test is also performed which allows me to check my level of stress,
anxiety and depression. He results of this test are attached in the appendix 4. High levels of
stress, anxiety and depression limits the ability to work effectively and manage pressures and
conflicts. Therefore I have conducted it to become aware of my ability to handle stress in work
situations. I answered several questions that finalized the stress score as 52% which is in a
moderate range; Anxiety is 43 % which is in severe range and my depression level in 48% which
is in moderate range. I need make sure that I pull the level down into the low range because all
these especially anxiety limits the performance where in international work environment work
pressure and demand is high. I have planned to do yoga, Sports, exercise to manage my work life
balance and keep and improve my work related productivity.

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4.6 SWOT
Strengths

A team player,
Self aware,
Good social engagement ability
Trust worthy
Ambitious
Hard working, dedicated and committed
Quick learner

Opportunities

To work in an MNC
To become a Good team player in
corporate life
To expand my knowledge
To learn from experts and other group
members

Weaknesses

Low exposure in international world

Moderate communication skills
Not a risk taker
Not a good stress manager

Threats

Huge competition in the international

job market
High work pressures and possibility of
conflict
Group politics

5. Opportunity Awareness
Working in a group in the international platform in my university gave me a opportunity to
discover my skill to work in a culturally diverse teams. I believe d that the skills acquired from
the home country were redundant in the international context. I therefore got the opportunity to
enhance my exposure, knowledge, communication skill, negotiation sills and awareness.

6. Abilities
Following are my abilities:

I hold a masters degree from a prestigious UK based organization.

I hold an Internship experience working for an MNC in my home country.
I can speak multiple languages.
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I have sound knowledge about MS office, Stats Graphics, SAP, and all basic computer

softwares.
I have good research skills both primary and secondary.

7. Conclusion
The assignment presents a complete analysis of my personality and capability. I have the self
awareness that at the university level I have acquired skills of a team player and leader however
this exposure and skills are insufficient for me to become a competitive resource in the
international market. I need to improve my communication skills, confidence, conflict and stress
management skills. I need to start collaborating with my supervisors in University who have
industry experience and industry professionals because It is wise to earn form experience of
others only this is how I can become successful initially in the international work place and get
selected for an MNC.

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References
Nardon, L., and.Steers. R (2008). The new global manager: learning culture on the fly.

Organizational Dynamics 37(1): 47-59.

M. Alam, A. Gale, M. Brown, A.I. Khan, (2010) "The importance of human skills in
project management professional development", International Journal of Managing

Projects in Business. 3:(3)495-51.

Simmonds ,P (2003) "Continuing professional development and workplace learning 2:
CPD and you how CILIP is meeting the continuing professional development needs of

its members", Library Management.24:(3)169 -170.

Hoyrup, S (2004) "Reflection as a core process in organizational learning", Journal of

Workplace Learning. 16:(8)442-454.

o Brockbank, A, McGill, I (2006) Facilitating Reflective Learning In Higher Education.

McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Copyright.

Olteanu, C (2016) "Reflection and the object of learning", International Journal for

Lesson and Learning Studies.5:(1)60-75.

Cox, M.D. (2004), Introduction to faculty learning communities, New Directions for

Teaching and Learning.2004 :( 97)5-23.

Dalakoura,A (2010) Differentiating leader and leadership development: A collective
framework for leadership development, Journal of Management Development.29:(5)432

-441.
Perry, E Jr, Dennis F. Karney, Daniel G. Spencer, (2013) Team establishment of , self
managed work teams: a model from the field, Team Performance Management: An

International Journal.19:()87-108.
Owen, G (2004) "Mind the gap!: The critical role of continuing professional
development", Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal,
Vol. 18:(3)7 -9.

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Appendix
Appendix 1: MBTI

Figure 4Myers-Briggs personality test (Cherry, 2016)

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Appendix 2: Belbin Role

Appendix 3: Johari Test

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Appendix 4: SAQ Test

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