Generalist Knowledge of Business and Business Principles Business Essay

In fast changing business environment many business managers often seek to have a more "generalist" knowledge of business and business principles. The aim of this module is to introduce business skills to learners, in order to help them to establish solid business foundations and understand the various leadership styles they may acquire to ensure a cooperative structure within their companies or enterprises. For me, as a "Software development" student, I was not interested at all by this module because I found it useless for my career. But now, after more than 6 courses in "business skills", I discover finally that is a very informative course, which has a positive impact on my real life, because of the fact that deal with a sample subjects which we use daily, such as time, communication, leadership,..etc. Then I changed totally my ideas, and I enjoy the course, that's why I'm writing this reflective essay about this module.

Chapter A: Learning skills Section 1: Communication Communication is the process of expression, transmission and interpretation of knowledge and ideas from a sender to a receiver by several ways. Communication has divers characteristics as speaking effectively, which allow a good transmission of the message orally and avoid the poorly understood. Writing is one of the most used ways of communication. Writing is more formal than speaking.For instance, we write to apply for an employment, training, to complain, As I mentioned before, to achieve communication process,we need transmitter and receptor, then the receptor must be a good listener to get the correct idea, in order to be able to express similar or different ideas , when he switch the role and become a transmitter. In this way, that person who has the capacity expressing and transmitting an ideas can surely lead or/and manage a group discussion easily. In spite of all, I want to mention that the most effective way of communication is the non-verbal one. Because of the fact that it request the minimum effort to transmit a huge quantity and quality of information, but the only disadvantage is that it can be done just face to face which is not possible all the time. If we apply all those technics in business life it might radically change.

Most people in business spend a lot of time communicating in writing. While the inter-office memo and the fax are old hat, you will spend a good few hours a day fighting your inbox. Add to this reports, white papers, proposals and resumes, it's certain you will need to sharpen your word power to succeed. Business person use frequently social networking to communicate between each other due to the fact that we are not all social gadflies, some of us struggle to make small talk. It is a key skill to learn though, it is true what they say, sometimes it is more who you know than what. To conclude this section ,I learned from this course how to communicate positively with people, and use all my abilities on that, either verbal or non-verbal performances. Which give an extra self confidence and a courage to speak in public without stress thanx to team work activities which allowed me to get used to work on group and talk and make people interacting with me.

Section 2: Research and planing "Research": In the broadest sense of the word, the definition of research includes any gathering of data, information and facts for the advancement of knowledge.  "Planning": The process of setting goals, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish the goals. So, if these two technics are combined , the result will be the following definition as I learned in class. Research & planning means : the search for specific knowledge and the ability to conceptualize future needs and solutions for meeting those needs. Which requires plenty of abilities , as:

• Forecasting, predicting
• Creating ideas
• Identifying problems
• Imagining alternatives 
• Identifying resources 
•  Gathering information
• Solving problems
• Setting goals
• Extracting important information
• Defining needs 
• Analyzing 
  
  
• Developing evaluation strategies

SECTION 3 : Interpersonal skills About this subject I learned a lot, from the "business skills" course, especially by practice (team work, deferent activities in or out of class ). Then, from what I learned in class and my practice in my field of work. I have summarized all major features in 7 points: Being a great "person skills", it's simply a matter of knowing the basics of how to deal with other people, and then making a conscious effort to put those basics into practice. Here are seven habits of people whom others view as having great interpersonal skills.

1. They present their best selves to the public:

Your moods change, but your customer - external or internal - doesn't care. Make a conscious effort to be your most positive, enthusiastic, helpful self, especially when that's not how you feel. If you need to vent, do it in private.

2. They answer phone calls promptly:

Few things annoy people more than not having their phone calls returned. Get back to people within 2 hours. If you can't, have your voice mail guide them to others who can help in your 8place. If you're really uncomfortable with someone and don't want to talk with them on the phone, answer their query through a fax or e AAmail. Or, call when you know they won't be there and leave the information on their voice mail.

3. They call people by their names and ask questions about their lives.

Take the time to learn and use everyone's name, especially secretaries. Most people don't. You don't have to glad AA hand, but if you see a child's picture on someone's desk, they'd probably appreciate your asking, "How old is your daughter?" Establishing some common bond makes the other person more receptive to working with you.

4.They meet people halfway:

Sometimes we're right and the other person is wrong, but many techies I observe seem to enjoy going out of their way to rub it in the other person's face. Implement the correct technical solution without making the other person feel stupid or ignorant, e.g., "That's a good idea, but given the process variables, here's another approach that would avoid contamination problems downstream."

5. They listen carefully before speaking:

A sure sign you are not listening to the other person is that you can't wait to say what you want to say, and as soon as the other person pauses, you jump in and start talking. Even if you think you know the answer, listen to the other person. Their knowledge and grasp of the situation may surprise you. If not, listening shows you considered their opinion and didn't just steamroll over them.

 6. They keep eye contact:

When you're talking with someone, look them in the eye at points in the conversation. If you're explaining something while typing on a keyboard, take your eyes away from the screen now and then to look and talk directly at the other person. After all, it's a PC, not a car; you won't crash if you take your eyes off the road.

7. They are not afraid to admit when they are wrong:

Techies are afraid that non techies will think they are incompetent if they admit to being wrong. The opposite is true. Andrew Lanyi, a stock market expert, explains, "The more you are willing to admit that you are not a guru, the more credibility you gain." No one knows everything, and everybody knows people make mistakes. If you refuse to admit mistakes or pretend to know everything, people won't trust you when you are right and do know the answer. SECTION 4: Managerial skills By practicing group activities I learned that if I would like to be a good manager or leader in the future. I will necessarily add to all my performances the human touch which enhance the productivity. The most valuable qualities that the manager will develop within himself are patience kindness,and consideration for other people.

By the way, a good manager will also develop six major skills in working to create a quality effective team:

1. Observation
2. Monitor Employee Performance
3. Implementation of Professional Development Programs
4. Demonstrates Working Knowledge and Expertise
5. Good Decision Making
6. Ability to Conduct and Evaluate Research Although machines and chemicals don't care whether you scream and curse at them, people do.

Your subordinates are not just engineers, scientists, administrators, clerks, and programmers they are people, first and foremost. People with families and friends, likes and dislikes. People with feelings. Respect them as people and you'll get their respect and loyalty in return. But treat them coldly and impersonally and they will lose motivation to perform for you. Personally I believe in one Golden rule "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you". I get also the principle that the leader must be open to new ideas even small and sample ones. Chapter B:Time management Section 5: Strategies The real goal is to help yourself become aware of how we use your time as one resource in organizing, prioritizing, and succeeding in your studies in the context of competing activities of friends, work, family, etc. The strategies I learned are:

• Blocks of study time and breaks
• Dedicated study spaces
• Weekly reviews
• Prioritize your assignments
• Achieve "stage one"-get something done!
• Postpone unnecessary activities until the work is done!
• Identify resources to help youA
• Use your free time wisely
• Review notes and readings just before class
• Review lecture notes just after class
• Review your ten applications above.
• Daily/weekly planner

Long term planner

Chapter C: Creativity Skills

Section 6:

Imagination

Thanx to the business skills course I understood that neglecting the creative side feeling that it is better to be all about the logic, isn't true because that some of the most successful business people are also the most imaginative. Because of the fact that by imagination we become creative and we generate new ideas, and by this way we can develop our self, family and work.

Section 7:

Brainstorming Brainstorming is one of the most useful technics to solve problems. There are two kinds of brainstorming:

Group brainstorming:

is a group discussion of special problem well defined in order to find out a solution by generating a very large number of ideas.

Individual brainstorming:

is the process of writing down the large number of ideas by your own, to give a solution to a specific problem.

Section 8:

Descriptive Statistics Every Tuesday we were accustomed to take a course about descriptive statistics. In my point of view I found that class very interested, but not in my case because I had the same course last year, knowing that I studied one year on preparatory classes,that's why that I found it repetitive. By and large, descriptive statistics is very subservient in our daily life. Personally it helps me to take the best decision many time, and I'm sure that I'm going to use probability more that now in my professional domain. The course is composite of :  Central tendency

1. Average: An average is a single value that is meant to typify a list of values
2. Mean:the sum of the values divided by the number of values
3. Mode:is the value that occurs most frequently in a data set .
4. Median:is described as the numeric value separating the higher half of a sample
5. Range:is a the deference between the highest and the lowest value in the set.
6. Interange:
7. Variance: Standard deviation:
8. Coefficient of correlation: 

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