Learning Team Skills and Assessment Paper

In the University of Phoenix curricula GEN480 Capstone course, Learning Team C represents a somewhat diverse group of skills. Based on a matrix of categories including field of expertise, strengths, business skills, computer skills, and language, the four members of Learning Team C shared their self-assessment in each of these. It is interesting that there is a good complement of customer service, leadership, business acumen, computer skills, and even some additional foreign language skills. Patrice Davis – A strong customer service background with good listening and communication skills. Patrice is also team-oriented and has good basic computer skills. Cindy Jost – A member of management, Cindy has experience in the travel industry and in addition to leadership, lists communication, negotiation skills and software knowledge as strengths. Silvia Miller – Silvia represents the quality assurance management side of commercial banking. Her strengths are leadership, people skills, flexibility, software knowledge, and speaks three languages including fluent Portuguese. Mike Wray – Seasoned leader and manager with a focus on health care supply chain management. Mike brings experience in common-sense approach process improvement and good communication skills. He also has a good understanding of software and databases and their best application. The skill of these positions is a combination of personal strengths, business skills and computer skills. The personal strengths range from professionalism to social skills, from dependability to honesty, from ambition to understanding, and trustworthiness to leadership skills. From the examination of the skills listed it appears that the skill required in most functions listed is public speaking and presentation skills. Although public speaking always has been recognized in the business community, the online learning program does not incorporate this class into their curricula. Public speaking and presentation skills are essential in the management and leadership field. The student can overcome the fear of facing people, and can improve their communication skills. For instance, in a job interview, the interviewer judge the person based on their qualifications but also the ability to deliver a good public speaking session. For a college student the ability of deliver good public speaking session are also tested. Unfortunately, the clarity of the speaking skills cannot be heard because of the online learning environment. There are many things you can do to improve your public speaking skills: Preparation of the presentation: Good public speakers prepare the material to be presented. He or she will outline the presentation to have a clear view of what the speech is about. Also, they know their audience. Tell a Story: This is one of the best tools available to use to persuade other people. Use your voice effectively: To keep people interest about the story, a voice variation is important for instance the use of pause and voice excitement. Use your body: this is extremely important when communicating because you need to engaged your listeners. Another way through which a person can become more effective at public speaking is to become a member of Toastmasters International. â€Å"Toastmaster International is a nonprofit organization that offers a proven and enjoyable way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills† (Toastmasters, 2010). In fact, based on the description of experience and skills presented on the Team C Matrix, the team presented two consulting firms as potential employers. Consulting firms are a popular career choice for college graduates. As the need for specialized professionals in areas of business is growing so is the specialization of consulting firms. Three consulting firms that make a good match based on Team C’s skill set include Navigant Consulting a management firm, Pricewaterhouse Cooper LLP an accounting firm and Mercer LLC a firm specializing in human resources (List of Top Consulting Firms, 2010). The benefit for companies to hire a specialized consulting firms is to ensure a better delivery, quality and over all monitoring of their current project. Team C’s members bring a variety of skills to the hiring table. When searching for companies to apply to the goal is to finding the best fit base on experience and education. Navigant is a management consulting firm out of the greater Chicago area (Navigant Consulting, 2011). The team member that would best be employed with Navigant is Michael Wray. Based on his leadership skills and management expertise is a good fit here. Silvia Miller is the team member with a financial background so the best fit for this team member is a position within the firm of Pricewaterhouse Cooper LLP. Pricewaterhouse specialty is accounting (PWC 2011). Mercer is a company focused in Human Resources which is also part customer service (Mercer, 2011). This company has career paths that will meet the need of all Team C’s members but Patrice Davis and Cindy Jost would be the best fit here because of their customer service expertise. Some needed skills are a continual thirst for learning. Once a person stops, learning one also stops growing. Also can be a hindrance in the ability to be innovative and creative. This skill is sometimes obtained through company-sponsored classes, seminars, and incentives to attend and complete such company sponsored learning opportunities. Another needed skill is statistics and research design. This is researching in-house to define the research problem, find an answer by designing a study and the appropriate instruments. Coding, analyzing, reporting, and making recommendations on the discoveries of the defined problem is a part of research design. This skill is obtained only if the company sees this as an asset and important to the company. If the case, someone can be brought in who has experience in statistics and research design. Cross-cultural understanding is also a skill needed because in this economy more minorities are entering the workforce all the time. This skill is obtained through company sponsored cultural days or seminars. Possessing a business skill is a needed skill. Employees need to have â€Å"business savvy† a combination of technical training and interpersonal skills. This skill is obtainable by one receiving technical training and the teaching of good interpersonal skills, preferably during achieving education prior to entering the workforce.