Personal and Professional Management Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Personal and Professional Management
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

In personal and professional management assignment paper we will understand about the need of personal a professional development in an employee’s life. We will also understand about the need and importance of self-managed learning as well as the lifelong learning. We will also learn about the audit of personal skills and from the derived result, we will develop a plan for the development of the skills. We will also learn about the different ways of communication in organisation at different levels and also about the time management and its importance.

Task 2

2.1 Personal Skill Audit and the skills required to work professionally in an organisation.

Knowledge and skills which I consider to be important for my current activity	Your Ability Rating (1-5) or strong / weak / somewhere in between
Negotiation skills Communication skills Team Management Punctuality Result Oriented	4 4 3 3 2
Knowledge and skills which I consider to be important for my future activity	Your Ability Rating (1-5) or strong / weak / somewhere in between
Grievance Handling Multitasking Presentation skills Client Servicing	4 3 4 4

The skills required in the organisation are as:

• Communication – It is very important to communicate properly with the client and as well as the team members.
• Negotiation skills – It is very important to negotiate in situations with the vendors and the labours to achieve the goals.
• Team building – No organisation can work without team members and hence team building is required.
• Grievance handling – As an employee every small and minor matters should not need the help or the care of HR, some matters can be solved by the employees themselves.
• Client servicing – It is very important skill as this is the reason why the business keeps running. And also this is the prime motto of the organisation.
• Punctuality – The employee should be punctual for the duties performed, delaying the duties means showing ineffectiveness
• Result oriented – The employee should be focused to achieve the organisational as well as the personal goal. Etc.
• Multitasking – The employee should be able to handle more than one task at a time.

These are some of the skills required to work professionally in the organisation.

2.2 Development needs and the activities required accomplishing them.

Audit of the skills is nothing else but the analysis of your personal skill set or in other words auditing of your Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats that is the SWOT analysis (Gallardo-Gallardo , Dries & González-Cruz 2013). After auditing my personal skills with the help of fellow organization members I am able to chart it as:

Strength Negotiating skills Communication skills Flexible to changes Leadership Punctuality	Weakness Low Marketing knowledge. Presentation skills Short temper Grievance handling
Opportunities The working environment The training provided by the company Promotion and appraisal	Threats Unhealthy lifestyle. Job security. Inconstant growth

Strength: These are the characteristics or the features that help you in understanding and performing the work. The more the number of these characteristics (strength) you will have, the more excellent service you will provide. Also it helps an employee to be confident and satisfied with the job and the working environment.

• Communication Skills – I have a very good communication skill which helps me to convey my messages easily and clearly.
• Negotiation Skills – I am very good in negotiating the terms with the people and the employees this help me to get the work done from vendors and employees.
• Flexible to changes – I am very flexible to all the changes that helps me to achieve my goals in every situation.
• Punctuality – I am very punctual and due to this the juniors and my team members are always on time this helps in the performance and the growth of organisation.
• Leadership – I am a very good leader and so my team members are always happy with the decisions and the working environment.

Weakness: These are the characteristics or a feature that lacks you in performing the job. The less the number of these characteristics (weakness), the better the performance you can show. These characteristics are judged with the fellows or colleagues, and thus the employee or personnel feel weak at certain qualities. Also this gives a sense of competition and uneasiness between the personnel’s.

• Low marketing knowledge – I don’t have much marketing information and knowledge which makes me lack at the time of appraisal
• Presentation Skills – I am not good when I do have to perform a public speaking present myself or some idea.
• Grievance Handling – I am not as good as compared to the other managers in my organisation in regard to handle grievance.
• Short temper – I am short temper in nature and get irritated easily upon the violation of rules and regulations.

Opportunities: These are the characteristics or the situations which may help or may not help the personnel; it totally depends upon the personnel and his behaviour towards the changes or the opportunities. The more the number of these situations (opportunities), the more chances the personnel have to show his skills and talents and improve the performance. Also it gives a sense of development and the importance of the personnel in the organisation.

• The working environment – The environment created in the organisation is very helpful in showing performance and skills.
• The training provided by the organisation – The training provide by the organisation is one of the best available in the industry.
• Promotion and Appraisal - The promotion and appraisal given by the company is much better than the competitive company.

Threats: These are the characteristics or the feature which keeps the employee or the personnel under the pressure and diminishes the performance and the quality of work. The more the number of these characteristics (threats), the poor will be the performance of the personnel. Also it gives a sense of uneasiness and disbelief in the mind of personnel.

• Unhealthy lifestyle – To keep up with the competition in the market we have to keep on working hard and stress becomes a part of work.
• Job Security – the job security in the industry and the organisation is very low.
• Inconstant Growth – The growth rate in this organisation is slow and so the career development is a little difficult.

	Short-term Time Frame (3 - 6 months)	Mid-term Time Frame (6 months – 2 years)	Long-term Time Frame (2 years – 5 years)
My Goals	Learn Business Management, by taking classes in college	Join some organisation as an intern and learn the techniques and skills required.	Take higher qualification and join some advance course.
Skills and knowledge to be learned	Communication skills, negotiation skills, etc.	Technical skills, Flexibility to changes, business etiquettes,  organisational skills etc.	Team building, Grievance handling, open to new challenges, etc.
How to gain skills and knowledge	Attending workshops, part time working on working sites, etc.	Full time intern or employee, onsite training, etc.	Assistant site manager, Conferences, Seminars, etc.
Resources	Books, Newspapers, Magazines, etc.	Equipment’s, Tools, machineries, etc.	Higher qualifications, expert advices, colleagues experiences, etc.
Time Scheduling	On-going process	Upcoming process	Future upcoming process
Stating Time	This month started	After three months	After 2 years
Finishing Time	Within next three months if needed one month extension	After 2 years if needed six months extension	After 5 Years if needed 1 year extension
Completion	This will be completed by 2015 end	This will be completed by the mid of 2018	This will be completed by the year of 2021.

2.3 Development opportunities to meet current and future defined goals.

• Self-Managed Learning: Self-Managed Learning is the process where an individual is determined or motivated to learn with or without the help of the others. In this process the individual has to understand these steps:
• Need of learning: It is very important to understand that what are we learning, why we are learning, and why it is necessary to learn. Because, until and unless you can’t understand the need of learning you can’t create the hunger and desire for learning and development.
• Objectives or goal of learning: After understanding the need we have to objectify the goal of learning process. It is very important to know the finish line before starting any race; similarly it is very important to create a goal or objective with a deadline as well for the learning and development.
• Resources available and required for learning: After understanding the need and objective of learning now we have to understand the resources available and required for learning. It is very crucial step because this step can bring the changes in the learning process. If the availability of resources required for learning is limited than we may need to come up with some other or new learning plan.
• Strategizing the plan for learning: In this step we need to strategize the plan of learning. This step is a result of the above three steps the specific needs, the goal, and the resources required, all working simultaneously. In this step we strategize a plan with the clarity of when, where, and how the plan will work.
• Implementing the plan of learning: This is the second last step and very critical as well. In this step whatever we have strategize we start working on that.
• Evaluating and controlling the plan: This is the last step and most crucial step, in this step we evaluate and control the plan we are working on, and if needed to change some step we may need to accomplish that too.
  • Learning from professional trainers and mentors.
  • Learning from my own mistakes and experiences.
  • Training provided by the organisation.
  • Short term courses available in market.
  • Reading case studies, journals, magazines etc.
  • Role play with the fellow employees.

2.4 Devised plan based on identified needs

For the development of my personal and professional life and career, I have made out a plan with the deadline and the proper methods and monitoring techniques as well (Kirkwood & Price 2013). I have already started working on the plan and after the successful completion of this plan I will make a new plan for the development required at that time.

Improving my Communication Skills: By end of August

• Reading novels, watching movies and NEWS (On-going process).
• Adding vocabulary in the communication process every day (End of August).
• Participating in debates and discussions (Monthly).

Improving my Self-Confidence: By end of September

• Attending seminars and lectures for increasing self–confidence (Monthly).
• Working in front desk and attending different clients (On-going process).
• Interaction with the fellow employees (On-going process).
• Participating in different activities (End of September).

Improvement in Client Servicing: By the end of 2016

• Involvement in the activities related to client servicing (By the end of November).
• Role plays of attending clients (By mid of October)
• Training from the seniors and experienced colleagues (On-going process).
• Improvement by taking feedbacks and reviews from seniors, colleagues and customers as well.
• Improvement by participating in different assessments and surveys.

Evaluation of:

• Behaviour.
• Key Result Areas (KRA’s)
• Other Merits

Before, while and after the self-managed learning.

• Controlling, coordinating, and monitoring the process in a regular interval of time.

Task 3

3.1 Discus the process of and activities required to implement the development plan.

We need to understand the objectives to achieve the goal like why do you want to learn, what make you want to learn, etc. These basic understanding of the objectives are the most essential step to know before following the plan. “Why do you want to learn”, this is the first question, we need to understand that why do we want to learn and develop, isn’t the available job role, responsibilities, power and success are satisfying or enough. The next question we need to understand is “What makes you want to learn”, what is the motive of this learning and development, do you admire someone and want to be like them or is it self-motivated. The next question “What will happen after learning”, etc. after clearly understanding these basic and fundamental questions about goal now we can understand the process of and activities required to implement the skill development plan. The very first thing about the implementation of the process of activities of the development plan is to be clear and sure about the business objectives and goals of the plan. This has to be done because the plan can only be successful if it is feasible in nature. Also the plan has to be developed in a way that many small goals leading towards the main and big goal could be accounted. This way it can help in judging the improvement of the plan.

Doubting is the main factor of failure of any plan. It is very important to not let the doubt come in the action plan (Traxler, 2009). The best way to dispose the doubts from the action plan is to recheck the plan and have faith and believe in it. Positive attitude towards the plan helps in keeping yourself motivated and encouraged to follow the action plan. Also it helps to perform better in the daily life and routine. Research and Development is the step where the need of up gradation or change in the actions of the plan is required. After initiating the plan you may come to understand the need of up gradation or change in the course of action plan. Taking Professional help is the step where you need to take the advice, guidance and knowledge from the experienced seniors or professional executives. Evaluation is one of the last steps, through this step you have to objectify the differences that you have overcome with this action plan and again need to create a next action plan.

3.2 Undertake and document development activities as planned.

Through all the possible activities which are essential for personal and professional development. To the specific need each one of the activities would be performed. The accompanying are the some key centres which are obliged when need to get prepared document for development. Make report gather all the information and all requirements, this report is in like manner containing meeting, notes and decisions (Fishman et al. 2013). Record the outcomes of the impressive number of social affairs, once in a while need to chronicle all the looming insights, notes and thoughts etc. Need to review the drafted report with alternate associates, endeavour to find the getaway provisions, by doing this present it's help to improve the present technique. So this is fundamental to present this record among each and every other part. This furthermore helps to present some new considerations which give the colossal impact all alone and master progression course of action. For example:

I started a weekly report process for myself.

• January 1^st week
  • Joined the office.
  • Understood the environment, working style, rules and regulations of the organisation.
  • Completed paper works, documentations and the other formalities.

• January 2^nd week
  • Got assigned and introduced with the team, I am going to work with.
  • Team leader assigned me on a pending project with a colleague
  • Learned about the project and the requirements.
• January 3^rd week
  • Went for meeting with the client.
  • Assisted my colleague on planning and presenting for the project.
  • Received approval for the project.
• January 4^th week

• Execution of devised plan.
• Supervision of the stages completed.
• Feedback and review received from the client in the context of project.
• Generating and submitting the report to the team leader.

• February 1^st week
  • Assigned on a new pending project with a new colleague.
  • Understanding the need and requirements of new project.
  • Client meeting for the project.
• February 2^nd week

• Presenting the devised plan for project to the client and team leader as well.
• Received approval and started executing the plan.
• Supervision with the successful completion of the project.
• Received feedbacks and reviews from the client and the payment as well.

• February 3^rd week
  • On the basis of my performance with the last projects, I received the feedback and the reviews upon my performance from the colleagues, team leader, client, and senior management.
  • I was explained and guided that where am I lacking or need to perform better.

• February 4^th week
  • I performed the SWOT analysis and skill audit upon myself.
  • With the help of SWOT analysis and skill audit, I was able to strategize a skill development plan for myself.
  • Discussed the plan with team leader, human resource team, and other senior management.
  • Received reviews and feedbacks for my plan.

• March 1^st week
  • Deputed for receiving the training on client servicing, grievance handling and effective communication.
  • Enrolled myself for taking classes in presentation skills and temper controlling.
  • Started learning new vocabs for good communication.

• March 2^nd week
  • Training continued with new techniques
  • The classes for presentation skill and temper class was coming to over.

• March 3^rd week
  • Training process was over and now I and other colleagues were participating in Group discussions, role-plays, hoax meeting etc.
  • We were judged by the senior management on many aspects like communication, presentation, tone of voice, etc.

• March 4^th  week
  • Participated in different seminars and conferences to test my skill and ability.
  • Submitted the reviews and feedbacks from the trainers, seminar and conferences organiser to the office.

• April 1^st week
  • Training was finally over.
  • Received a new project.
  • Did brainstorming with the team members
  • Created the work flow.

• April 2^nd week
  • Met the client and understood the requirement and needs for the project.
  • Developed a presentation for the project.
  • Presented the presentation to client.

• April 3^rd week
  • Received approval after certain changes.
  • Devised a plan to accomplish the project.
  • Implemented the plan.

• April 4^th week
  • Supervised the project.
  • Successful completion of the project.
  • Received positive and appreciable feedbacks and reviews from the client.

• May 1^st week
  • Senior management is happy with the improvement in the performance.
  • Assigned 2 new trainees under me to train.
  • Assigned some small projects to accomplish with the help of one colleague and new trainees.

• May 2^nd week
  • Received advance training session for completing new projects.
  • Attended some seminars and conferences on the behalf of the organisation.
  • Submitted the future working of my team and myself.

• May 3^rd week
  • Started working on the new projects.
  • Training and assessing the trainees.
  • Brainstorming with the team for the presentation.

• May 4^th week
  • Presented the presentation to the client.
  • Couldn’t meet with the client needs and requirements.
  • Again created a new presentation but failed again to please.

• June 1^st week
  • I was taken out of the project, due to the mistakes done by me.
  • I was sent for a short leave to take rest.

• June 2^nd week
  • I was welcomed back with an apology letter attached with my SWOT mistake and Skill audit report which mentioned where I was lacking.
  • I was called by the senior management and was forgiven for the mistakes done but with a warning.
  • I was told to meet human resource department for training and development.

• June 3^rd week
  • Received a new small project with new colleagues to help.
  • Helped my team members to create and present the presentation.
  • Helped in bringing the changes required in the plan.

• June 4^th week
  • Received approval from the client for the plan.
  • Created the work flow and initiated at the earliest.
  • Supervision of the work flow.
  • Successful completion of the project followed with positive and appreciable feedbacks and reviews.

3.3 Reflect critically on your learning against original aims and objectives set in the development plan.

It is very important to reflect critically on the learning against the original aims and objectives in the development plan as through this procedure only you can understand that what all the goals and objectives you have successfully achieved and what you didn’t. Once you have the knowledge that there are still some objectives to be achieved you can further plan a strategy to achieve them as well. To reflect critically you may need to ask these questions to yourself:

• What have you done

• I performed SWOT analysis.
• I took skill audit of myself.
• I came to know the skills and areas I was lagging behind.
• Thus with the help of professional and seniors I devised a plan to develop that skills.
• The plan included taking classes, reading books, watching movies and NEWS, more involvement in client servicing, participating in seminars, conferences and group discussions.

• What was the objective of the training

• The objective of the training was to accomplish the projects successfully with easy efforts and so I was required to know the proper knowledge of communication and presentation skills with the excellent client servicing as well.

• How much objectives have not been met.

• Some objectives like grievance handling and marketing knowledge were not able to meet with this devised plan.

• Why didn’t you achieved the plan, what is the reason

• I didn’t achieve some objectives because of lack of time. I over judged myself and thus miscalculated the time.
• Also I was a little stubborn or rude in beginning of the plan. I was afraid and shy to try some new methods or principles which were essential for grievance handling and marketing.

• What can you do to achieve the rest of the objectives

• I will devise a new plan to achieve these objectives and will be very cautious at the time of calculation while planning.

• What changes have the training brought

• I have improved my communication, presentation, team working skills. Also the training helped me to keep myself motivated, encouraged and disciplined and goal oriented all the time.

Etc. is some of the essential questions you need to ask yourself (Desimone, 2009). And after this step you need to follow these steps:

• Initial Meeting Preparation: What do we have achieved from the development? The reason to ask this is to make sure you and your team members who have gone through the training are having the same mental satisfaction regarding the training
• Previous knowledge and experiences: You have to understand the difference between the knowledge and experiences you have achieved before and after the training. This will help you to understand that do you need a new training plan or not.
• Motivation and Expectations: It is crucial to realize the motives to achieve from adopting an individual and trained improvement plan. What sort of abilities you needed to grow in your exploration and arranging. You likewise need to recognize what other individual and expert kind of points and goals you expected in your coming years. You have to identify what are long terms and what are short-term objectives for personal and professional development. To do that advancement arranging it ought to be plot of work, keep survey the arrangement, what sort of preparing and exploration routines are needed.

What are the qualities and abilities we have furthermore need to know where change is important in type of aptitudes, talents and information. All the more essentially need to comprehend what is careful need to chip away at.

3.4 Update the development plan based on feedback and evaluation.

Taking continuous reviews and feedbacks from the seniors, colleagues, clients and the professionals as well about the development plan is very important and essential (Boud & Brew 2013). There should be the following questions to be asked in the feedback

• What is your opinion on the development plan
• Are the objectives of the plan feasible
• What should be the amendments or the changes in the plan
• How will your changes will help the plan

After taking the feedbacks and reviews from the respective people we need to:

Planning: We have to consider and make an arrangement activity to accomplish the objectives and examination improvement arrangement. A clean and great starting is to characterize the objectives and destinations, and verify you have the assets and time to finish them. Characterizing the objectives which help you to comprehend what is going to do and what are the normal results. While work with your exploration and objectives accumulate all the data and information and new abilities and make an audit archive (Felten, P. 2013).It is imperative to audit such objectives which we officially accomplished by doing this we may research further what still we have to enhance or show signs of improvement results. We need to change the plans with respect to the reviews and feedbacks we have received from the people so that, our plan and the objectives are more feasible and easy to adopt.

Reviewing: If we spend time in reviewing our plan and the objectives achieved it will give us a sense of understanding about the position where we currently are and the position we need to be in the coming time (Wilkie & Moore 2003). This will similarly help us to give a definite picture of what we need to accomplish? What’s more, what did we accomplish? What we expand on qualities and what we strengthen our drawbacks.

Task 4

4.1 Investigate one work based problem in your work environment and select solutions to this problem.

One of the major problems faced in the work environment I used to work, is the lack of team work (Kirkwood & Price 2013). Due to the absence of the general manager there was a lot of chaos among the higher management upon the leadership and which was affecting the lower management as well. The issues aroused due to this problem were:

• Every manager was trying to give orders to the others.
• Biasness and favouritism among the managers and their subordinates.
• The efficiency of staff was reducing.
• The jealousy among the staff was increasing
• The objectives of the organisation were unable to achieve.

Due to this problem ultimately the organisation was suffering a lot. And hence the organisation came up with some remedies:

• Team building activities were brought.
• An office trip was organised where recreational activities were organised.
• The managers were provided training for the leadership.
• The eligible manager was promoted to the general manager post.

4.2 Describe the different styles of communications at various levels in your organisation.

There are various types of communication process that are used in my organisation like as:

• Verbal – In this way of communication the messages or the thoughts are exchanged with the help of words and voice (Wolf, 2000). For ex: Talking in the meetings and conferences.
• Non-verbal – In this way of communication the messages are exchanged without the help of words.
• Written: In this way of communication the messages are exchanged with the help of written medium. For ex: Letters, notices, etc.
• Tele-communication: In this way of communication the messages are exchanged with the help of telephone or internet. For ex: Talking on phone, via emails.

4.3 Evaluate the effectiveness of different time management strategies used in your organisation.

Time management is a very important aspect to consider achieving the objectives and goals.

There are some time management strategies like:

• Prioritising workloads: In prioritising workloads the time is divided in a way that the tasks can be accomplished within the time. It may be troublesome for somebody to figure out which task will be more critical (Kendrick et al. 2013). Since task priority may be different for the different people. Moreover while performing the task which are critical it puts the delegator in incredible weight of due dates.
• Reliable estimates of task time: In this strategy a specific time is given to perform the task or the activity. This type of method is widely used in the corporate sectors, where an employee is given a certain time to complete the task. This type of strategy is very helpful in organisation to judge the performance of the employees.

Conclusion

After working in my organisation and preparing these papers I came to the conclusion that for any employee the personal and professional development is very necessary. To analyse the assessment of personal and professional development the employee need to do SWOT analysis and according to the analysing report the employee has to develop a plan or strategy through which they can achieve the objective of the development. I performed the SWOT analysis for myself and then planned a strategy for the personal and professional development. Additionally the significance of self-guided learning and deep rooted learning were sketched out by doing the errands. A thought of tackling complex issues with distinctive avocations and applying diverse ideas to take care of these issues has been caught on. Notwithstanding this creating thoughts and applying arrangements to discover fitting results have been caught on. Similarly significance of time administration abilities likewise has been investigated. General the entire examination and information accumulation lead to uplifting feedback of enhancing me

Reference

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