***Week 8 - Professional Competencies*** I asked my mentor who is part of the National Mentoring Consortium (NMC) programme to give me feedback on the professional competencies sheet, here is what he said...
Professional adult’s rating: 8
Reason: Aisha expresses herself well; she listens and engages confidently with impact. She is candid, clear and puts forward her views with conviction. For these reasons, Aisha is an effective communicator, regardless of the medium, and I would rate her communications skills highly.
Professional adult’s rating: 9
Reason: Aisha is observant and interested in things big and small. She doesn’t strike me as a person who gets distracted easily or be put off by the small print. That said I am confident her judgment is good and she know not to overly focus on the detail to the detriment of seeing the bigger picture.
Professional adult’s rating: 8Reason: Aisha is skilled at building and maintaining an effective network of trusting relationships with a wide range of people. She is approachable and equally confident and comfortable having to take the initiative to create new inclusive and collaborative relationships. I am part of the ‘National Mentoring Consortium’, which is a UEL based programme, joining Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students (BAME) with a mentor to help develop their career prospects. It differs from StarTrack as my mentor offers me advice based on his profession. My mentor works in the Foreign Commonwealth Office and had said the following about me :
Professional adult’s rating: 8
Reason: Aisha is both happy within a team and working solo. She is the sort of person who can be given a task and be trusted to complete the challenge with little supervision and to a high standard. She is prepared to lead a charge, take ownership and well judged risks within the authority delegated to her to deliver but she also has the wisdom to refer upwards or seek advice to meet objectives or changing priorities.
Professional adult’s rating: 8
Reason: Aisha is cooler than a cucumber and not easily flustered. She manages herself in an organised manner and is at ease working with pace and energy. She is rarely put off by having to multi-task, always remaining focused and consistent on delivering a quality performance no matter what she sets her mind to.
Professional adult’s rating: 8
Reason: I have not had the opportunity to test this competence directly. However, Aisha has indirectly demonstrated behaviours that would indicate her team-spirit is strong, she is visible, approachable and accessible, and to me, she would be a keen and valuable member of any team. Aisha has indicated behaviour that shows she would proactively contribute her efforts to make significant impact to get her team’s job effectively done. Given her character that I have observed, I am confident she would be open to taking on different roles within her team and will get to know her fellow team members, listen and understand their viewpoints and show respect and sensitivity towards different perspectives yet have the confidence to challenge assumptions and in turn, welcome challenge however uncomfortable.
Professional adult rating: 7
Reason: I am confident that Aisha can take responsibility to tackle and deal with problems proactively and act decisively to find a resolution. She understands the risks of inaction and is able disassemble, analyse and when necessary prioritise to propose constructive solutions and better manage problems effectively.
Professional adult’s rating: 8
Reason: Making effective decisions comes naturally to Aisha. My observations of her behaviour have indicated that she is thoughtful and will carry out appropriate analysis to support her decisions or make robust ad deliverable recommendations. She is not rash, good at recognising trends, consult and will carefully evaluate options, impacts and risks before making arriving at a conclusion. She is happy challenge and be challenged and where appropriate involve others to seek and act on feedback to build engagement and credibility in her decision making.
Professional adult’s rating: 7
Reason: Not really observed in detail but given all the preceding Aisha is likely to enjoy and excel in blue sky thinking to see linkages and the bigger picture.
This task in itself has allowed for me to develop my own sense of confidence in my own skills and ability to perform. I believe that my ability to highlight my stregnths from my studies and hobbies to that of the workplace has increased.
