Information management and reference standards

Individual Skills and Strength

INDIVIDUAL SKILLS AND STRENGHT

Listening skills, communication skills, problem-solving skills and organizational skills are very critical to succeed in life. Communication and listening skills are the essential life skills required to excel in the professional career. Individual with good listening and communication skills are not only generally better informed, the person is perceived as being pleasant with colleagues in the job place. Communication skills are important in all facet of life, and communication skills are the key to achieve a bright career. People within the organization spend 75% of their daily time engaging in communication through writing, speaking, listening and inter-debate. Communication skill is the system of expressing information concisely and effectively in an oral and written mode as well as sharing information with others in order to facilitate exchange of ideas and information. On the other hand, problem-solving skills are the set-skills that allow an individual to analyze the facts and come out with solutions. Problem solving skill is the process of finding solution to a problem through critical analysis and arrive at a conclusion. Organization skill is the technique of planning correctly to enhance successful completion of a project.

The purpose of this paper is to assist researcher to identify and clarify the skills values, abilities and strength that a researcher could bring to professional working place.

There are three major events that provide a researcher with the skills and abilities that could be used in the upcoming fieldwork experience.

Major Events assisting a research in developing the Skills

The major events in my life that assist me in developing communication skills, problem solving skills, organization skill, and listening skill were through my education (elementary education, secondary education, and university education), and my working experience. I started my elementary school in 1990, 22 years ago. Since I attended one of the best elementary schools in Chicago, teachers in the school employed varieties of technique to assist pupils in the school to develop communication skills. All teachers in my primary school understood that to achieve success in life depends on the ability to communicate effectively in the contemporary fast-paced life. Effective communication lies on the ability to use appropriate words to convey message at the right time. In my primary school, the curriculum was centered in the development oral and written communication. One of the techniques to develop the communication skills for pupils was to use symbols, graphical illustrations and images to covey the meaning of words. Through this technique, I was able to acquire the understanding of large stock of words and develop ability to communicate the meaning of these words effectively. By the time I reached primary six, I was able to develop good and effective communication skills, which involve developing appropriate vocabulary, formulating sentences, as well as using the right words, at the right time and in the right order. (Lee, 2008).

Moreover, I was able to develop a problem solving skill right from my elementary school days. As being pointed out by Omeroglu, et al. (2009), problem-solving skills are the skills children ought to be acquired in their childhood to assist them throughout their lifetime. Acquisition of problem solving comprehension and solution strategies assist children to become excellent problem solvers. The following steps were used during my elementary school to develop my problem solving skills.

Recognizing the problem

Diagnozing the problem

Asking questions about the problem

Predicting the cause of the problem

Deciding the suitable strategy to solve the problem

Knowing the problem components

Predicting the results of the action

Provide solution to a problem

Meanwhile, the communication and problem solving skills that I had developed in my elementary school assisted me to develop the advanced communication and problem solving skills in my secondary school and in my university education. During my secondary school education, communication skills had assisted me to achieve accumulation of knowledge, which could be applicable to further education in the higher institution or develop my professional career. Typically, communication in the secondary school was used to transfer knowledge to students. Through the knowledge transfer, I was able to develop advanced English vocabulary. The methods used in developing students' communication skills were through debating, listening, clarifying, body language and feedback. Students were also asked to form a group and discuss about an issue. Through this procedure, I was able to develop communication skills, listening skills, and empathy skills. Students were also encouraged to communicate in the empathic ways to develop empathy skills.

Sakofsky, (2009) defines empathy as the natural tendency to understand and share feeling and emotions of others in a caring way. Typically, empathy is a social emotion, which allows people to relate to other in an understanding way. Having the ability to understand the feeling of others is an essential social skill, and children who grow with this ability have tendency to become successful people in the future. Emphatically, children with lower level of empathic behaviors are known to be violent at schools. For example, bullying is a sign of lower level of empathic behavior, which could also, contributes to aggression, violent crimes, and sexual delinquency. Given the importance of empathy skills for the future development of students, I was taught to demonstrate empathic behavior during my secondary school days. Typically, my secondary school introduced series of topics in the social studies, and geography to demonstrate the importance of empathy in human life. Additionally, social emotional learning (SEL) was introduced in my secondary school to develop my empathy skills, values and attitudes, which were necessary to develop emotional and social competence. Typically, SEL program in my secondary school was able to promote my positive adjustment, deplete problem behaviors, and enhance academic performances.

More importantly, teaching technique in my secondary school assisted me to develop problem-solving skills. During my secondary, all students were encouraged to develop likeness to mathematics since understanding the mathematical concepts and developing ability to solve mathematical problem is one of the major methods to develop a problem solving skill. To develop problem-solving skills through mathematics, students were presented real world mathematical problem to solve. My secondary school also assisted students to develop problem-solving skill using puzzle words, and computer games. After completing my secondary education, I have already developed high level of communication skill, empathy skills, problem-solving skills, and listening skills, which have assisted me to acquire organization skills and nurturing skills at the university and within my workplace.

The effective functioning of an organization depends on the extent leaders within the organization possess organization skills. De Meuse et al. (2011) defines organization skills as having ability to plan, organize, coordinate, and negotiate to achieve organizational success. Typically, organization skills are very important in life because it enhances effective planning technique, which will assist an individual in the successful completion of a project. People with organization skills tend to be efficient because of their systematic approach of managing time, arranging the space, and clearing their desks.

Typically, I was able to develop organization skills from my workplace. When I finished my secondary school education, I got a job as a project officer. My duty was to assist a project manger in completing the project based on the client specification, and on budget and on time. My organization assists clients in developing software, and design websites. Over the years, our organization enjoyed a reputation of delivering high quality works for clients based on client's requirements and on time. Based on the good reputation that our organization had acquired over the years, we were always having influx of new projects. To complete the new project on time and based on the client's requirement, a project manager always asked me to develop the project plan before we start a project. The major advantage of a project plan is to break the project in a manageable way to ensure smooth completion of the project. To assist easy completion of the project, all project officers within the department were assigned a specific task in the project, and the specific time to complete the project. The main role of project manager was to plan, coordinate, and organize how each of the project would be completed on time and meeting the client requirement. Through organization skills implemented by our project manager, we were able to produce high quality project for clients.

Many issues within my work environment assisted me to acquire organization skills. First, I learned the strategy to organize my work to meet the deadline. One of the basic methods that can assist an individual to meet the deadline is to prioritizing work based on the degree of importance. One of the basic aspects of planning is to learn how to prioritize work and decide the order in which the work is to be done. By developing ability to arrange my work based on their importance, I was able to meet the deadline on all the projects assigned to me. Moreover, I was able to master organization skills through series of training that I had undergone within my workplace. Through training, I was able to learn theory and practice of organization skills, which I believe, will assist me in my professional future career.

My university education has assisted me in improving my communication skills, listening skills, empathy skills, nurturing skills and organization skills. During my study in the university, I have been able to develop advanced communication skills. My years of study within the university have assisted me to develop several concepts, more vocabularies and series of terminology related to my course of study and other borrowed courses. Typically, the university education has built my ability to speak modern English fluently without making mistakes. Additionally, I have been able to develop the writing skill that assists me in transforming my ideas into writing. Writing has been a major activity in the university, and my years of study have enhanced writing skills.

Apart from the communication skill, I have been able to develop listening skill. Ability to listen to lectures delivered by tutors is a major criterion to achieve success within the university. From my university study, I have been able to develop listening skills, which assist me to understand the series of lectures delivered by lecturers. The university study has also developed my listening skills from different people with different English intonation. Problem solving skill has been the major skilled that I have developed in my university education. One of the methods that the university uses to assist students in acquiring problem-solving skills is by asking students to provide solution to a real life problem. Typically, a student may be given a case study where the issue in the case study is to provide a solution identified within the case study. On many occasions, I have been able to solve the problems identified in the case studies and provide solutions to the problems. Typically, the problem solving skills that I have acquired within the university have provided me with the following benefits: