Terms of

Reference
On the instruction of the module leader of
4HRB450 – Interpersonal Skills for Business
module, I have been asked to develop a “Reflective
Portfolio” based on a self-evaluation SWOT analysis
and make personal reflection and comments on
the interpersonal skills I have improved and how
during the module, and the ones I want to improve
and my plan for achieve my aims.

1. Executive Summary
As a result of self-reflective SWOT analysis I have
identified my main strengths in my leadership and
decision making aptitude, group work commitment
and attendance, and my self-confidence and ability
to learn new skills quickly. However, recognize my
main weaknesses to be my tendency to
procrastinate and get easily distracted, time
management issues including to start work late
and to rush at the last minute but without missing
a deadline, and bad management with lazy people
in group work.

Improvements have been made through the

module, especially regarding time management
and the waste of time watching TV and the
internet. This is due to the awareness and analysis
of such issues and the willingness to overcome this
problem. In order to solve my weaknesses and
improve my skills it was essential to make a plan
and decide the methods I would have used. This
includes to make a time schedule with the
activities for the day and for the courseworks,
going to sleep and waking up an hour early,
avoiding to connect the internet if I have to work or
study, , listening without interrupting people, not
get emotional in any kind of conversation and use
body language to make the other person more
comfortable and aware that I am listening carefully
and that I am understanding.

A personal development plan is provided to

establish what my future goals are, in terms of
interpersonal skills and how I am going to achieve
them, including reducing the wasted time chatting
on MSN or watching TV, using Time logs to monitor
my time management, using further group
activities at university to improve the way I
manage free riders, keeping motivated and using
the technique of improvement I have learnt and
used so far.

My long term aims are to achieve a Master in

Finance and find a job with a career prospectus in
the banking sector. In order to do so, it is
fundamental to have high marks in my education
and degree, keep learning and developing new
skills, and checking on regular base what
improvement I have a made and what the next
steps forward are. Awareness and planning are
crucial for in order to accomplish the goals set.

2. Introduction
This report has been written during the second
term of the academic year 2005/06. At present I
am 25 years old and I live in London on my own. I
left my family when I was 20 and I move to London
to improve my English and to obtain a degree
followed by a master in Finance in a good English
University, hopefully London Business School.
Before starting University I’ve accomplished the
equivalent of high-school and A-Level in IT and
Electronics in Italy. I worked as a computer
programmer for 3 years and as finance assistant
for 1 year, with a couple of shorter jobs in the
middle. Leaving on my own together with working
experience helped me to develop self-confidence
and maturity.

2.1 SWOT Analysis

The follow table shows a self-reflective SWOT
analysis in relation to my interpersonal skills. It
was conduct at the beginning of the second
semester of the academic year 2005/06 for the
4HRB450 module, using seminar exercises and
auto-evaluation tests reported in appendix.

2.1.1.1 Strengths 2.1.1.2 Weaknesses

Leadership & Decision Time management and punctual

making

Attendance & Commitment Procrastination, Time wasting &

distracted
Self-confidence & Quick
learner Leadership’s issues

Meeting deadlines Active listening in informal

communications

2.1.1.3 Opportunities 2.1.1.4 Threats

Learning Spanish TV & DVD’s

Exchange program in Social life

Australia
Internet & MSN
Summer work in Italy
High aims and Keeping motivatin
University education &
degree

After completed the SWOT analysis on my self, I

have decided to investigate Time management,
leadership with some reference to group work and
oral communication skills. I decided to focus the
attention on these skills because they are the ones
where I have a greater lack and more weaknesses.
Thus, I have more improvement to make in order
to obtain my aims previously stated.

3. Interpersonal Skills
3.1 Time Management
From the analysis of the time logs (Appendix C) it
appears clear that my time management it is not
well organized and I have a tendency for
procrastination (Appendix A) and wasting time. I
have identified my main issues as procrastinating
before staring an important work, getting
distracted easily, wasting time watching DVD’s and
staring my day too late.

3.1.1 Time Logs

As it appears from Cottrell (2003), it is important to
keep a diary and a record of activities in order to
evaluate and become aware of the usage and
wastage of time. It is important to have a time
schedule and plan activities in advance in a logical
order. By following and try out some of this
suggestions, I felt that they are actually working
and I have improved my time management.

In order to improve my time management, during

the last few weeks, I have decided to wake up
earlier, at 7am. This made a significant difference,
together with my TV breaking down. Besides, in
order to maximize my time, I check my email in
the morning while having breakfast. Lately, I have
been starting my working day around 8am instead
of 10.30am as I used to.
Although we discussed in the seminar that 6 hours
sleep could be enough, due to a busy and active
life, I need to sleep around 8 hours per day.
Consequently, as I wake up earlier in the morning, I
have to go to sleep earlier in the evening. Losing 1
hour in the evening it did not affect me in a
negative way because I am more productive in the
morning and I tend to do constructive things during
the day and relaxing and “wasting time” in the
evening. Furthermore, I have realized that I waste
most of my time during weekend and I need to
reorganize my time in order to use my time more
efficiently with productive results.

3.1.2 Procrastination
According to the outcome of the “Procrastination
Indicator” (Appendix A), my biggest weaknesses
are chatting, leaving important work until the last
minute and difficulties in starting to concentrate to
work or study. This defines me as a person aware
of my tendency to procrastinate but who work hard
to keep it under control. I totally agree with this
description. I am aware of my tendency to
procrastinate, especially before starting to study. I
have identified my self as an “Excessive
Socialiser”, as I tend to get interrupted and
distracted by my friend, especially chatting
through MSN, and as a “Perfectionist”, as I always
set myself high aims and want to achieve high
results and marks, looking for more improvements
all the time.
3.1.3 Time Wasting
Through the self-reflective “Time Waste” Test
(Appendix B) I recognize that I am easily distracted
by everything that comes along while I am
studying. This often makes me loose time
distracting me from what I was doing and loosing
the concentration.

Another important issue about my wasting time is

the proportion of time that I spend in front of the
TV watching DVDs. However, the TV in my
bedroom broke down about 10 weeks ago and I
have suddenly stopped to waste a lot of time that I
have been using for other purposes. I also waste a
large amount of time replying to friend’s emails
and browsing the internet throughout all day.

Another important factor affecting my time

schedule, it is the long time I need to getting ready
before leaving the house, also due to the
interruptions from chatting on MSN, email and
phone calls.

3.2 Leadership in group

As highlighted in the SWOT analysis (Graph 1) one

of my strength is the ability and confidence of
decision making and the aptitude of a leader.
Lecture slide notes define Leadership as “a process
whereby one individual influences other group
members towards the attainment of defined group
or organizational gorals”. (Barron, 1990).

3.2.1 Questionnaires
As we discussed in the seminar, there are some
people who have a natural talent of leadership. I
believe to be one of them. As it appears from the
“Managerial Grid Questionnaire” and the
Leadership style (Appendix F and G), I tend to be a
good team leader. However, from some of these
questions I have recognized some of my
weaknesses. I tend to place relationships despite of
the good results and do not complain when people
do not work hard, I should be stronger with lazy
people. In previous experience I have noticed that
everybody was expecting me to take action or talk
to these people and they complained to me rather
than with them. Usually my attitude towards
laziness is to get the job done myself avoiding
discussion that I think will not be productive.

3.2.2 Styles
As described by Stanton (2004), there are 3 styles
of leadership: Democratic, Autocratic and Laissez-
faire. I tend to be as democratic as possible,
considering member’s opinion, planning a schedule
with approval of other’s, leaving freedom of work,
dividing tasks according to ability and consent and
try to make everybody participating and
expressing their opinion. However, some people
take advantage of this and do not do any work.
Perhaps I should be a bit more autocratic and push
lazy people to work harder, putting the work before
relationship. As a team leader I tend to listen to
others people opinions and suggestions, and I try
not to force my own ideas. However, if I strongly
believe to be right, I have notice that I keep going
until I convince the others, which on the other
hand give up quite easily.

3.2.3 Past experiences

Another notable factor that appears from previous
group work experience is the willingness of other
people to follow me. I usually emerged as leader
and people followed my decisions. During the
second semester I decided to form a group for a
business module with the leaders of previous
courseworks. Although I was expecting everybody
to have a strong aptitude towards the decision
making, they always reported back to me and
waited for me to decide and make plans.

My commitment for group work is proved by my

attendance in the lecture and seminar of this
module, as well as in all the other modules, as I
have not missed any seminar through the year.
The same applies for group works with the
assignments were my attendance tends to be
excellent. Although due to problems with time
management I may have arrived late for group
work’s meeting, I have never missed a deadline
and very punctual to business meeting, lectures
and seminars.

In the group work executed in the seminar I had

the role of observer and report back the
performance of my group. (Appendix G) I think this
was an excellent opportunity to improve and test
my leadership skills through a silent observation of
other’s people work and reflections to establish
what were their strengths and weak points. This is
one of the duties of a leader, identify difficulties
within the group and make decision to use their
strength in the best way overcoming the problems
in order to develop a more efficient environment
which increases the performance obtaining better
results.

3.3 Communicating with

other
I had always assumed that I had good
communication skills, however, after taking a test
and analyzing it (Appendix H, I), I have noticed that
there is need of other skills such as listening. In
order to have a good communication cycle it is
important that the sender and the receiver have
certain abilities. As stated by Stanton (2004), a
message has to be received, understood, accepted
and then the receiver can take action.

3.3.1 Listening
Although I have always thought that I was a good
active listener, it came to my attention that I have
some weaknesses in this area. (Appendix H).
Stanton (2004) defines the qualities of a good
listener, including interest, listen critically and
carefully, not allowing distractions, taking notes,
replying or holding the answer in order to help the
speaker. However, there are different types of
communications and active listening. I feel like
being a good active listener during lectures, by
taking notes and seminars by intervening and
taking part to the conversation when appropriate,
and not as good in informal or private discussions
because I tend to interrupt people when they
speak or I talk too much.

3.3.2 Body Language

In the communication cycle, the body language is
very important because it transmits our feeling and
the other person can perceive the wrong message.
It is fundamental to have eye contact and show
interest in order to have an effective
communication. I use body language, face
expression, tone of the voice, which tend to be too
loud sometimes but never monotone, and use my
hands a lot when communicating. People tend to
feel more relaxed and less defensive when they
feel that they are being understood. Similarly, it
happened with the tone of the voice or the
emotions that are transmitted with it. It is
important to control the emotions when speaking
otherwise you can enter in a circle where by being
too loud or sound upset, the receiver instinctively
react by being louder or more aggressive. Although
I am aware of this, I am not always able to control
my emotion in personal and non conversations.

The role play that was done in the seminar

(Appendix I) it was very useful in order to
understand the feeling and reaction of a speaker
with a bad listener. Even if it was done on purpose,
people, including me, tend to became less
confident or nervous with a bad listener,
particularly when people is ignoring you or having
a body language that clearly express that.

3.3.3 Barriers
Stanton (2004) defines different types of barriers
to communication, including differences in
perception, stereotyping, emotions and
personality, lack of interest, difficulty with self-
expression, lack of knowledge and use of jargon.

As I am not an English native speaker, but I have

been living in the UK for about 5 years, I have
experienced some difficulties when talking to
oriental people. This difficulty in communicating is
often emphasized when people do not have a high
volume of voice. However, I have noticed that
some of the English teachers have the same
problem with the same people. Thus, it is very
important for an effective communication that
people use an appropriate tone and volume of
voice, especially in a multicultural environment
when talking to different people.

It is also important to underline that asking

question is crucial when something is not clear.
Fortunately, I am not a shy person and I tend to
ask questions if I have the feeling that I have not
understood something. However, I understand that
there may be some embarrassment in asking a
question in a big lecture theater with two hundreds
people, especially in another language.

4. Conclusion
This report is the outcome of a self-reflective SWOT
analysis conducted through self-evaluating
questionnaires and exercises to establish my
weakness and strength in terms of Interpersonal
skills and analyse if I have improved them and
how.

I have tendency to procrastinate before start an

important job and get distracted by phone calls,
emails, chatting on MSN, wasting time watching
DVD’s and leaving work at the last minute.
However, I have not missed a deadline so far. Time
logs made me aware of these problems and I have
already changed my daily routine: I wake up an
hour early, disconnect the internet when starting
to study, I do not have a TV in my bedroom
anymore.

In work groups for academic purposes I tend to

have a leader role and among my strength I have
identified self-confidence and decision making.
However, I have to be stronger with people when
they do not get much work done, even if it can
compromise the relationship. Improving my time
management skills will help me to manage better
my team and the deadlines.

Although I think I am a good listener during formal

conversations such as work meetings and
seminars, I tend to interrupt people when they talk
in private conversations and use a quite loud
volume of voice. However, among my strength I
can state that I use eye contact and body
language, especially my hands.

5. Future Plan &

Personal Development
Plan
Based on the above conclusions of a self-reflective
SWOT analysis this section describes what my
goals and aims for the future are and how I am
going to achieve them.

A first important weakness that I need to convert

into strength is my time management. In both,
academia and business related work environment,
is extremely important to be able to manage its
own time, and sometimes other’s time, efficiently
and productively. The time logs have been very
useful to make me aware of how I use and misuse
my time. Since my TV broke down I noticed I tend
to get more work done and waste less time.
Besides, getting up an hour early has made a big
difference because I am more productive during
the day and less in the evening and I’ve gained an
hour of productivity in exchange for a wasted hour.
Although I have noticed improvements about my
time management, I still have some problems with
procrastinating on Internet. I have fixed a
maximum amount of time I can spend on Internet
and I am going to gradually reduce it. I also took
the decision to disconnect the internet while
concentrating on coursework in order to avoid
most temptation for distraction. I check my email
and chat on MSN during the short gaps times,
especially between classes. A further step is to
plan in advance and have a schedule to follow.
Knowing when and estimating for how long I am
going to work on something helped me to remain
focused, achieving more tasks with better results.

One of my aims is to work as a manager in a big

international company. I will use future group
works, during the next two academic years, to
improve my ability to deal with different types of
people and being stricter with lazy workers when
they tend to procrastinate or do not get any job
done in the time schedule pre-established. I will try
to find the balance between work and relationships
in order to create a friendly environment to work in
which is also very productive.

Another aim about my interpersonal skills is to

improve my communication difficulties and try a
new aptitude as a listener. I would like to be able
to communicate with different people in different
occasion, creating a comfortable situation with the
person I am talking to or listening. A first step
toward this goal is to try to let other people to
finish talking and then ask a question or intervene.
Repeating to the speaker and paraphrasing asking
confirmation of the correct received message is a
good way to improve the communication cycle.