Unit 13 Personal and Professional Development Assignment

Introduction

This Personal and Professional Development Assignment is related with the personal and professional development of an individual in an organization. Different approaches to development and managing skills are considered and discussed in the assignment to bring out the understanding of the self- managed learning and the personal and professional development. There are also benefits to these approaches which are explained in the assignment. In this assignment the self analysis of the skills and the competencies are also understood and hoe this can be achieved. Self SWOT analysis and the needs to achieve the overall development of an individual are briefly described. A development plan and the feedback or the evaluation of the performance and the development of an individual are also covered in the assignment. This assignment also talks about the problems of the work and the interpersonal skills and the skills which can be transferred as well as the time management skills.

 The aim or the purpose of the assignment is to develop the understanding of self analysing the skills and the competencies in order to achieve the achievement in own goals and the objectives effectively as well as efficiently. This assignment is designed to build an understanding the different methods and the plans of learning and developing the professional and personal skills.

Task 1

Report - Introduction

This report includes the different approaches and the methods to manage the self learning and gaining the lifelong learning from these approaches. This report further discusses the different ways of improving the personal and professional lifelong learning of an individual. The report will explain the benefits of the self learning capability of an individual to an organization and to the person.

Self-managed learning approaches : Self managed learning or the self directed learning is the process of learning in which the person understands the skills of learning and identifies the different sources and the learning capabilities of the individual. In this the person learns the development without the help of others and also provides the management of these skills in a manner to gain the maximum achievement in an organization. This learning technique provides the individual to analyse the desires and the wants to achieve.

Approaches to self managed learning are the ways or the efforts that can be put to achieve the self directed learning (Cunningham, 2010). These are mentioned below:

Research- An individual can obtain or achieve the learning by researching on different heads and attain the maximum knowledge on the same for improving the knowledge and the understanding of that. The research is the method to understand the topic and gain the knowledge on the same in deep.

• Superiors or mentors- The learning can be achieved by the experienced superiors and the coaches or the mentors. The mentors and the coaches of the organization provide the knowledge and improve the skills of the person in a manner to achieve the objectives of the organization effectively. The learning can be developed through observing these people in the organization.
• Meetings and seminars- The meeting and the seminars are also important in self learning management. The seminars which are conducted by the organization or the conferences where the discussion happens can be beneficial to gain the self learning to an individual. These improve the skills of communicating as well as provide the encouragement and eliminate the fear of communicating in the public.
• Access to internet- Internet is the best medium to learn anything anytime without any long process. The learning becomes easy with the technology. The internet can help an individual to develop the skills and learn the different skills and knowledge. The internet access is an easy way and an effective approach to gain the self learning management.
• Newspapers or information boards- The news papers and the bulletin boards are another methods which can improve the learning of an individual and improve the knowledge and skills of the people of the organization. The self learning can be developed through this method (Bunderson & Boumgarden,  2010).
• S.M.A.R.T goals setting- The S.M.A.R.T refers to the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound. These goals provide the basic features of the person which helps in achieving the success by the work. These goals help to analyse the five such situations in a person and able to identify the needs to improve among these features.
• Personal vision and mission setting- The person can also improve the self learning by setting the personal vision and the mission of the person as an individual and then analyse them and work on achieving them.
• Theoretical model of self-learning management- In this model four steps related to the self learning are explained they are planning, monitoring, controlling, evaluating.

Ways of encouraging lifelong learning in professional and personal contexts

Lifelong learning is the continuous learning of an individual which provides the advance and deep knowledge about the different concepts. For lifelong learning an individual should put efforts and should analyse the performance and the development of the individual continuous and lifelong. The popular or the general used way to achieve the lifelong learning is the evaluation of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of an individual. This technique is the SWOT analysis of the person. Another way to improve lifelong learning in both the contexts is strong leadership skills and also the improved and better communication skills. The encouragement in the lifelong learning can also be done by the motivation and achievement of the tasks and the goals of the individual.

These ways and the methods of encouragement whole life learning are discussed understood in detail here below:

1. SWOT or self evaluation- The self evaluation or the SWOT analysis of an individual is the great approach or the method to increase the encouragement to learn and gain the knowledge and improve the skills in the both the contexts of the personal life as well as the professional life.  In the self evaluation an individual get the chance to analyse or evaluate the strength that the person has, the weakness which becomes the challenge to achieve the tasks, the opportunities which occur and provide the chance to achieve something and the threat which generates the risk of decreasing the performance of the employee or the individual.
2. Strong leadership skills- To develop the lifelong learning the individual must consider the way of strong and the effective leadership skills in him. The strong leadership skills help the individual in leading and directing the life in a correct manner on a correct path. The clear understanding of goals and the clear performance analysis helps the individual in gaining the lifelong learning and the good skills to manage the personal as well as the professional life.
3. Better communication skills- Communication skills of the individual matters the most in a corporate world as well as in personal life. The better communication skill of the person encourages or improves the personal as well as the professional life of the person. The communication skills are needed in an organization for each level. The organization people have to deal with the clients and the customers on a regular basis and the personal life and the social life is surrounded or covered by the communication with the people. The effective communication provides the lifelong advantage and the improvement in the personality and the personal and professional context as well.
4. Achievement and motivation- The achievement in the life of an individual improves and encourages the life of the person as it has the impact on the person identity as well as the personal and professional life of the individual. The achievement of the goals or the tasks can be successfully completed if they are followed by the understood goals and the objectives. This provides the lifelong learning and the efficiency among them. The motivation helps to satisfy the individual and provide the lifelong learning. The motivation to work and the different motivational strategies of the people of the organization provides the encouragement to the individual to work more effectively and with efficiency to provide the more productive results and the improved personal and professional life of an individual (Hoyle, et.al, 2010).

Benefits of self-managed learning

The self managed or the self regulated learning is the effective way to analyse and evaluate own competencies and skills and improve and develop them to gain the achievement of effective results and the efficiency in the work. There are certain benefits to the individual as well as the organization in achieving the self managed learning.

The benefits of self managed learning to the individual are discussed below:

1. Continuous learning- The self managed learning technique provides the continuous learning to the individual and also improves the capacity of lifelong learning. The continuous learning provides the constant development and enhances performance regularly.
2. Self evaluation- By the self learning management the individual enables to achieve the self evaluation task effectively and understand the own results which helps to improve them accordingly. The self evaluation provides the self actualization to an individual.
3. Enhances satisfaction level- The satisfaction level of the individual regarding job and regarding different aspects of the life increases by the self learning ability of an individual.
4. Attaining weakness and threats- The self learning capability of an individual provide the advantage of gaining the weakness and the threats of the individual and provide the solution about how these weakness and the threats can be cope up. This advantage of attaining the weakness and the threats of an individual on time provides the efficiency in the work of the person.
5. Build confidence- It builds up the confidence among the person as the analysed situation of the person brings him more confident about what could be achieved and what could not and how the negative aspects can be improved to provide the better results.
6. Effectiveness in work and improved efficiency- The effectiveness and efficiency runs together and the people of the organization needs to achieve these two in the achieved objectives or tasks. The self learning ability of an organization provides the effectiveness in the work and the efficiency is also improved.

The benefits of self managed learning to the organization are discussed below:

1. Improves learning skills of the employee- The learning skills of the employee as the self learning ability provides the learning methods and the ways to the employee.
2. Improvements in environment- The environment of the organization also improves because of the people of the organization work and communicate effectively and in a manner to improve the skills which brings the positive vibes to the organization.
3. Increased profits- The profits of the company or the organization also increases as the employees are clear about their goals and the objectives and perform better to achieve them as they know their weakness and strength.
4. Enhanced performance of the organization- The performance of the organization also increases as employees put extra and effective efforts to complete the objectives of the organization. The employees also work on the performance of themselves which helps to increase the overall performance of the organization.
5. Focused employees- It also helps the employee to focus on the work and increases the concentration power of the employee as it provides the stability to the employee mind and to understand the goals correctly (Bezzina, et.al, 2010).

Conclusion

 The study of this report help us to build a conclusion that the there are various approaches to self learning management which can improve the skills and the competencies of the individual. The lifelong learning can improve the knowledge of the individual and it provides the ability to learn for the whole life of an individual. It also brings us to the conclusion that there are various benefits to the organization and individual of self learning management.

Task 2

2.1 CV

professional Skills	Current Level 5=strong  1 = weak	Best Current Example	Ways to Improve
Communication Skills	5	I have given presentation at the stage for certain events where my skills become the best source to interact with the people that ultimately affect my development.	There is need in improvement on my way of carrying myself at the stage as many times I become restless so if I just concentrate on my work then no problems would be left.
Listening Skills	4	I have good listening skills like I create a situation	I have to listen to the people that can be done by meditations.
Leadership Skills	5	In the events in the organization I have manage the whole events with effectiveness.	I required being more patients in leadership for which I have to do yoga on daily basis.
Planning and Organizing	5	Event held at organization	I conducted the event but I require to be more focused
Presentation Skills	3	I have given presentation on stage	I have to take session to avoid stage fear.
Problem Solving	3	I have solved problems of my colleagues in work	I have to be more patients and focus that can be done by analysis of situation.
Professional knowledge	4	I have given presentation on the stage	I have to be more compose in relation to gain professional knowledge.
Self- Management	3	At time of deadlines and work pressure	I have to manage my work with time table.
Team work	4	In the recent events all work was conducted with team work	I have to be more patients for which I have to start trusting people.
Technology Skills	3	My ability to work with computers is average	I have to take classes of computers
Time Management	3	In completion of the assignments on time	I have to create a time table in which I mention all the working and try to follow it (Barnett, 2012).

2.2&2.3 SWOT analysis

In relation to identifying and developing the needs the best suited way is the SWOT analysis that would help in identifying the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats that can affect the person. They are mentioned below-

Strengths	Weaknesses
My communications skills are effective that helps me to communicate easily with my colleagues and officials. I am goal oriented person and always try to achieve the targets that are set and never leave my work without its completion. I am a committed person who always tries to accomplish my task. I am also an optimistic person who always tries to avoid all the negative feeling from my life. My inspirations are the effective leaders in the organization and I always make my best efforts to achieve the targets. I am a good leaner and can easily learn from the visual as well as audial mediums (Gupta & Mishra, 2016).	I am a shy person and sometimes fail to express my views and opinions on certain matter that make me regret later. I am also having phobia of stage and many times while expressing myself in the meeting or on the stage I become restless and unable to put my best in it. Many times I am not stable emotionally and I am also not able to control that which leads to many demerits in my performance. I also overanalyze and over think on certain matter that creates the problems in its implementation as well as create problems in my working as personality.
Opportunities	Threats
I can overcome my weaknesses by many effective and efficient ways such as I am taking training to overcome my fear of stage so that I may able to represent my opinion on certain matter without any fear. I am also trying to increase my learning skills by taken sessions of various learning attributes so that a wide range be created that would help me to make progress in my life. I am also a team oriented person so with my effective team in the working I may overcome my certain limitations as a good and effective team helps me to overcome my limitations and also suggest ways to overcome them. My optimism also increases the scope of my ability. I always welcome feedbacks from others so that my limitation may be improved and I can have a better personality. By regular meditation, I am trying to conquer my anger and other emotional stability in an effective manner (Ozdemir et.al, 2012).	There is the limited time for the development and removal of my weakness, so there is only limited time to accomplish the task. In the routine life there is no enormous time left for self-reflection as all the day goes in complying the regular demands. There is excess competition in the work place that leads to the downfall of my morale. There are many peoples who try to sabotage my skills and left me demotivated. Work pressure also damages my creativity and skills in an effective and efficient manner.

2.4 Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified.

S.no.	LEARNING OBJECTIVE/GOAL	CURRENT PROFICIENCY	TARGET PROFICIENCY	DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES	CRITERIA FOR JUDGING SUCCESS	TIME SCALE	EVIDENCE
1.	Better communication on stage	Stage fear that leads to poor communication at stage.	To overcome stage fear, this would enhance my communication skills.	By taking session as well as classes to overcome the fear.	It can be tested at the time of giving presentation at stage.	10 days	I have seen my colleagues with the same problem and she has overcome it with this planning only.
2.	Emotional stability	Emotional unstable that leads to outrage and anger	Try to control my anger and outrage behaviour that would help in the emotional stability.	By doing meditation at the yoga classes as it would help me to achieve my goals and it would also help me to control my anger.	It can be judge at the time of work pressure as well as working in the organization.	One to two months daily yoga can help to resolve this problem.	My sister was suffering with same problem and she has done yoga on daily basis that helps her to control her emotions and making its stable.
3.	Increase creativity in my work	Due to work pressure, I lack creativity in my work.	I will try to increase creativity in my work.	It can be done by making proper time table and following the same in an effective and efficient manner.	By my increasing creativity skills at work.	A week will be requiring for proper organizing.	My colleagues have also increased its creativity by time management skills (McAdams et.al, 2012).

Task 3

Report

Introduction

The organization in the today competitive world needs the people who can achieve the objectives and the goals of the organization effectively and efficiently. To develop such skills in the people the development should be provided. The development plan is the process in which the overall development steps to achieve the skills and the competencies of the employee are included.

Process and activities of the implementation of the development plan

The personal and professional development in the organization and its employees are very important in this competitive and changing world. The organization needs to improve the professional as well as the personal skills of the employees so as to gain the maximum benefit in achieving the goals of the organization. In order to provide such development the organization some organization uses the development plan which features some activities required:

1. Scope of professional or personal development plan- The plan aim to provide the development to the areas in which the employees need to develop. The personal and the professional development in an employee will be increased by the organization.
2. Relationship between personal development plan and the interlinked factors- The development plan and the relationship between the links of the plan are understood under efforts in context of this.
3. Implementatio-The implementation of these plans are not easy as these plans need to achieve the efforts of the organization in a manner to provide the properly communicated and the training of the employees and in self learning management as some of the employees may not be able to understand self learning.
4. Influence- The impact of the personal development is a positive one in which the employees are responsible for their development (Eckert & Clarkson, 2010).

Undertake and document development activities as planned

The professional and personal development plan includes the various activities which are to be performed. Some of the important points or the activities which are to be considered while preparing a document for the development plan are:

1. To develop the document.
2. To gather all information and the requirements of the plan.
3. To bring out the meeting notes and the decisions of the meetings.
4. To record the decisions and the result of the meetings.
5. To review the document prepared.
6. To identify the errors.
7. Provide the presentation of the document.

Reflect critically on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the development plan

It is very important for an individual to develop the skills and the competencies for the professional and the personal development. The organization provides the development plan to the people of the organization to manage and to develop the skills and the abilities of the employees to achieve more. The employee using these plans should improve and develop the skills and the capabilities and then should able to analyse the learning and the objectives of the development plan. The employees should be able to compare the objectives and the aims of the development plan and the achieved objectives by the individual (Shucksmith, et.al, 2010).

The self learning and the objectives of the development plan should provide the understanding of what work has been done, what are the skills developed, what is achieved, what needs to be improved further. To achieve the desired goals a proper analysis of the achieved work should be considered. The organization should improve the ability of the employees to understand and compare between the achieved results and in aims and the objectives of the development plan.

Update the development plan based on feedback and Evaluation

Updated development plan

S.no.	LEARNING OBJECTIVE/GOAL	CURRENT PROFICIENCY	TARGET PROFICIENCY	DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES	CRITERIA FOR JUDGING SUCCESS	TIME SCALE	EVIDENCE
1.	Better communication on stage	According to feedback and evaluation the personal communication skills are improved and the stage fear has been reduced	Target has been completely achieved and the development has taken place.	The opportunities in front of me were the classes and the sessions which are properly attended.	The judgement was done on the basis of performance on the stage and in public.	It took total 20 days in developing the communication skills.	It is recorded in the performance record.
2.	Emotional stability	Improved emotional stability and built peace.	Target of controlling the behaviour worked and the emotional stability was achieved.	The opportunity emerged was the yoga classes which I participated and worked on the skills and achieved as well (Bryson, 2011).	The judgement was made at the last month work pressure and the in the stressed environment where I calmly handled the situations.	It took 3 months in total to achieve the emotional stability.	I myself felt the change and some of my colleagues mentioned it (Korthals Altes, 2014).
3.	Increase creativity in my work	Skills improved and more creative person emerged now.	Target to achieve the creativity was achieved by involving innovative and new methods to work	The opportunity of increasing the creativity was done by preparing the schedule of work and lowering the pressure and thinking creatively towards the work.	The judgement is done on the basis of incorporating the innovation and the new techniques to work which has provided interest in the work as well as the creativity to the work.	It took 2 weeks in providing the creative person to the organization.	My work was appreciated and the new innovative methods were used by my colleagues as they felt that interesting.

Task 4

Report

Introduction

In this report the interpersonal skills and the transferrable skills are discussed. The problems which are related with the work and their solutions are defined in this report. The different styles of communication at the various levels are explained as well as the effective strategies of the time managing are provided in this assignment.

Solutions to work-based problems

In the workplace the employee or the employers face the different types of problems which are to be solved according to the situations and the structures. The work based problems are those which the people of the organization face in the daily operations. To improve the efficiency of the organization and to increase the performance of the organization it is required to provide the solutions to the problems of the work. Here is the solution to work based problems-

1. Identification of problems- The identifying the issue or the problem is to be done. The identification of the problem refer to find the issue or the problem which took place and why.
2. Understand the people opinion- to understand the opinion of the people or the take on the problem of the people of the organization is needed to be understood.
3. List the solutions- The solutions to the problems should be listed down. The possible remedy to the issue occurred should be written down.
4. Examine the solutions- The solutions listed should properly examined and evaluated so as to find out the most effective and efficient solutions.
5. Select a solution- The solution which is most appropriate and effective must be selected.
6. Provide a solution- The solution must be provided to eliminate the problem (Escarrabill, et.al, 2015).

 Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels

Communication in the organization is very important as it provides the easy working and  efficient working to the organization. The communication in an organization takes place in different forms which provides the different styles of communication at different levels of the organization.

• The higher authorities can be communicated the board of directors in formal sessions or in meetings which provides the professionalism in an organization and the discussion is done in an effective manner.
• The middle level employees or the mangers can be communicated through the conferences or the seminars of the organization. It provides the proper way of communication. The verbal or the written forms of communication can be used by these level managers. Through mails and notices the communication can be done.
• The lower level managers and the employees can be communicated by the organization in a manner of notices or the big meetings and the conferences. It is the correct way to communicate in an organization at different levels.

The organization should use the written form of communicating the different levels as it is the best method to disseminate the information to the various people and is the effective way of communicating in the organization (Rocha, 2015).

      Effective time management strategies

Time management is the crucial factor of the organization which needs to be improved. The time management should be done so as to achieve the maximum results in efficient time and which does not create hectic schedule for the organization and people. The time management can be done to achieve the desired results on time and effectively and efficiently as well (Bach & Grant, 2015). There are some strategies to manage the time effectively-

1. Maintaining a diary- To manage the time on should use the diary management strategy. According to this to manage the time the diary should be maintained and the important tasks and the time allotted should be noted to complete those tasks accordingly.
2. Prioritizing the work- Prioritizing the task refers to that the tasks should be provides the importance first which are to be done first. To giving the priority to the task on the basis of importance helps to manage the time and complete the task effectively and efficiently.
3. Dividing the tasks- The tasks should be divided among the different people so as to achieve the task properly and efficiently. It will help to manage the time of the people and the maximum results will be produced (Robbins, et.al,  2011).

Conclusion

The report prepare bring us to conclusion that the self learning ability and the lifelong learning helps the organization and the individual in gaining the benefit of effectiveness and the efficiency in the performance of the organization as a whole as well as in developing the various skills and the competencies in an individual. The personal and the professional development of the individual are done by this. The report was able to communicate the self evaluation techniques and the different methods such as SWOT analysis deeply. The personal and the professional development and the development plan in an organization and its uses are properly communicated in the report. The interpersonal skills and the transferrable skills are also discussed. The report brings us to conclusion that the different strategies to manage time are also needed.

References

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