2019-S3-MGC1201 Communication for Business Professionals
Communication Self-
Development Action Plan
Students will be required to develop a detailed action plan on how they will improve a specific skill within communication (for example; assertiveness; written skill; oral presentation; negotiation; conflict management). The development of a plan for personal skill development - is an important step in the learning process. The specific purpose of this learning task is to assist the students in effective planning for achieving their development objectives and managing their personal performance.
For Assessment Item 3 students are required to identify a specific skill within Communication that they wish to improve (refer to examples above); Students will devise an action plan made up of a number of steps (or actions) based on specific academic theories which will enable them to improve their personal performance in their chosen skill. More information will be provided in class that will assist the students with this task.
MGC1201 – Communication for Business Professionals
Assessment Task 3 – Professional Self Development Plan
Goal
The chosen skill for the report is oral presentation and the aim of the report is to develop and improve the necessary communication skills and personality traits to be able to perform effective oral presentation.
Rationale
Oral presentation is not only a useful skill in higher education, but also holds a special requirement in professional life (Gunderson and Gunderson, 2019). As a university student at the moment and working as business professional in the future, I would like to use my oral presentation skills to excel at managerial positions by conveying information to my employees using this skill.
Achieving the Aim
Some of the critical success factors to ensure that I was able to improve my oral presentation skills can be proved through feedback from my peers. Once I have followed my action plan accordingly, performing some oral presentation in front of my colleagues and peers would help in self-assessment. Furthermore, their feedback as the target audience can be the determinant of my success as an effective presenter.
Action Steps
The assessment focuses on Oral Presentation as the skill area of communication that requires development for personal and professional performance. The improvement and management of the skill area have been done with the help of an action plan consisting of the necessary activities and based on academic theories identified for development. The action plan includes the step by step activities that would ensure a necessary change in behaviour and attitude required for development in the communication skill area. The action steps are based on the academic theories identified for skill development and help in achieving the goal and objective of the assessment.
| Skill Area | Associated Action Step | Expected Outcome |
| Oral Presentation | Identify the specific areas of oral presentation, which I lack the necessary skills and want improvement. | Determining the specific areas of action would help me focus on the most key areas of oral presentation where I lack expertise and assess the level of improvement that I need. |
| Research in detail about the requirements for excellent oral presentation skills(Inc.com, 2020). | Gathering information from multiple sources would help me identify the academic theories associated with an oral presentation and the significant requisites for making an excellent oral presentation. | |
| Identify strategies for conducting effective oral presentations. | This would help in quickly determining the key criteria for improving oral presentation skills. | |
| Take part in a demo oral presentation to determine my anxieties associated with public speaking. | Controlling personal anxiety in front of an audience would help make the presentation more confidently. | |
| Identify the methods of oral presentation that is capable of delivering the message effectively to the target audience. | Short and precise way to deliver a message helps save time and convey the key information to the audience without making it boring. | |
| Maintain a journal or diary for all actions and timelines of the various steps. | Maintaining a journal helps monitor and keep track of the progress that I have made and ensures completion of the tasks within the specified timeline. | |
| Record a video when conducting a demo oral presentation to analyse my own performance carefully. | Later analysing the recorded video would help to identify the body language and voice tonality used to address the audience and determine the key strengths and weaknesses of the entire process. | |
| Take part in a self-assessment questionnaire to further identify the areas where I lack expertise and the areas where I excel(Virtualspeech, 2020). | Effective oral presentation requires confident communication skills as well as body language to keep the audience engaged. Using self-assessment questionnaires would help analyse personality traits and characteristics that are needed for effective oral presentation. | |
| Attend language classes to improve linguistic skills and learn the proper use of the word for better communication with the audience. | The language used for the oral presentation is the basic means of communication with the audience, and any grammatical error or wrong use of the word might result in poor performance. Developing thorough knowledge about the language used as a medium is essential to carry out interaction with the audience more efficiently. | |
| Watch video tutorials of other good quality oral presentations. | Watching and evaluating video tutorials of excellent oral presentations by experts would provide an overview of how to address the target audience and other complementary attributes. | |
| Determine how to match the message with the target audience. | When it comes to interacting with the audience orally through a presentation, aligning the message to the needs of the target audience is essential and should be done before preparing the oral presentation(Edward Lowe Foundation, 2020). | |
| Make sure that delivery of the message is done in a clear and engaging manner. | It is not the oral presentation but the underlying message that is conveyed to the audience that keeps them engaged to it. Focusing on a clear and concise delivery of message would help keep the oral presentation brief yet engaging. | |
| Understand the differentiation between informational and motivational presentation. | As oral presentations can be primarily of two types, learning the major differences between informational and motivational presentations would help adjust the voice tone and delivery style accordingly. | |
| Learn the appropriate use of visualisation associated with an oral presentation to make the delivery of message more interesting and engaging. | Professional oral presentations almost always involve complementary visualisations and images to support the conveyed and message and make the overall communication process more interesting(Wordstream, 2020). However, it is necessary to assess what visualisations go well with which speech and message so that they are in sync when addressing the audience. | |
| Learn to prepare an oral presentation consisting of three major segments, namely plan, develop and write. | When preparing an oral presentation, each of the three steps requires special attention and practising the planning, development and writing phases of the oral presentation would help create an effective one. | |
| Develop effective body language when addressing the audience. | Excellent communication skills are not enough for an oral presentation and needs confident body language as well to make sure I am comfortable in front of the large audience. | |
| Learning to engage the audience through attentive appearance, direct eye contact and not reading from the notes. | Ineffective oral communication, instead of reading from the printed notes, explaining the content to the audience directly helps keep the conversation more engaging. Also, appearing to be attentive and direct eye contact also maintains the interest of the audience on the topic. | |
| Practice working individually by reviewing the speech anxiety self-assessment (van Ginkel et al. 2017). | When speaking in front of large audiences, speech anxiety is a common phenomenon which prevents delivery of the effective oral presentation. Self-assessment by working individually would help areas of concern and prevent any form of speech anxiety during the delivery. | |
| Practice and visualise the presentation before conducting it real life. | As practice makes a thing perfect, it is often difficult to carry out the presentation successfully at the first attempt is difficult. After writing and developing the presentation, practising and visualising the entire process beforehand helps to ease out the pressure when performing it originally (van Ginkel et al. 2015). | |
| Learning how to maintain a sense of humour during the entire presentation. | Oral presentations can turn quite boring if the message is conveyed in a strict and professional tone alone. Maintaining a sense of humour and using bits of funny anecdotes during the oral presentations keeps the audience engaged in the process. | |
| Prepare and develop skills to explain the answers when enquired by audiences. | Oral presentations are interactive as audience members can ask questions regarding the topic after the presentation is complete. Practising to remain prepared for any questions that might be related to the topic would make the entire presentation process successful. | |
| Prepare a mock oral presentation and deliver it to a colleague or friend and use an observer checklist for necessary feedback. | Using an external source of judgement would help evaluate the process more precisely, and the observer checklist would ensure identifying the main areas of strength and improvement with greater precision (De Grez, Valcke and Roozen,2014). | |
| Practice speaking in a clear voice and change of tone to deliver the message to the audience accurately. | Apart from using correct grammar and linguistics, speaking in a loud and clear voice is also necessary as it helps to ensure audiences at the back are able to hear the information. Also, every information in the presentation should have their own appropriate tone of voice and learning to change the tone accordingly is needed for effective oral presentation. | |
| Practice maintaining eye contact with the audience to keep them engaged in the presentation. | When it comes to interacting with the audience, maintain eye contact is key to look confident and be prepared for any counter-argument from the audience. Also, maintaining eye contact with the audience makes them comfortable and keep them engaged in the topic of the presentation. | |
| Take necessary personality development training sessions to feel confident in front of audiences. | Necessary personality traits for speaking confidently in front of large audiences requires training and practice and cannot be done without personality development training. Getting necessary tips from mentors and tutors would help build the personality traits needed to address large audiences. | |
| Keep practising in front of a mentor or friend for a time period of 10 weeks, to make the skill as perfect as possible. | Using only self-assessed activities is not enough to identify the areas of improvement and progress in skills. Using an external source for feedback would ensure additional points and offer a cross-checking for their entire skill development process (van Ginkel et al. 2017). |
The action plan consists of the necessary action steps that help me achieve my aim of developing communication skills for oral presentation. The desired changes in behaviour and attitude have been included in the action steps based on the academic theories of professional communication. The action plan provides a step by step approach to achieve the goal and fulfil the objective.
Login
Pages: 4
Words: 890