Study On Professional Development For Strategic Managers Education Essay

There are some certain management and leadership skills which are necessary for the growth of any business organization. Both personal and professional skills should remain healthy for the healthy organization like problem solving, decision making and planning etc. in today business environment a leader or a manager must be have some certain qualities which are helpful in order to perform his role. As behavioural theories assume that leader can be made rather than born. So there are the certain skills which differentiate a leader from the others. A successful organization is the one which look after their employees and does something for their carrier development because this is the way through an organization achieve its goals.

Personal skills evaluation:

Everyone has ability to do something all it need to do is to identify what we have and how we can utilize it in positive sense , these are some common personal skills which are going to be discussed. .

1.1.1 TIME MANAGEMNET:

This is the important personal skill through which it is able to do the things efficiently here it need to identify that at what time what we should do or what we should not .for example During the last week my target was to manage my college and my job together which I hardly able to manage it. Yes it is true that I was able to manage my time as for as job is concern and I went to college in time but other target was not achieved which was about the working on assignment that’s all about the time management to use the time wisely , managing queries and analyzing the time properly , assessing the day that how much time you giving for your tasks and how can you safe your time by doing the things in time and we can also log the things as well. Find the answers of your questions and try to get the end result by solving these problems.

Analyzing time spent to improve productivity

This is the skill which we need to be focused to analyze the time where you actually going to spend and how we are dividing the tasks according to the time and to achieve our goal just analyze that are we giving the right time on right thing? and if this is the right thing which we are focusing is it possible that if we spend some more time on right issue, we can increase the productivity for example in Tesco when I work in my section pickles, oil and spices I always start work from oil because more heavy stuff is in that section and comparatively much easier to finish and spices take more time and cower a small section so I quickly do the other job which is more important and much easier to do.

1.1.2 Setting smart objectives:

Smart objective are those which are specific, particular on certain task Set the realistic objective which are achievable, on right time make the measureable decision. Objectives are the plan for which you have to fight to achieve a certain goal we might have a many objective like my goal is to get MBA degree it’s my goal but to achieve a goal I have to set smart objectives which should be realistic, achievable and measureable like what is the thing which I am going to do?

Specific: specific means the concern of any selected topic and when we talk about specific always questions coming in our mind that why, how and for who I am going to do this.

Realistic: It is not necessary that realistic must be achievable but realistic is something that at least you have the resources to do that task for example it’s realistic to get the MBA degree foe me but in case I don’t have the sources than I am not able to get degree like money is the main source.

Measureable: it’s important for us to measure the task because if we can’t measure it we can’t do it. Measurement is the tool which we use for comparison.

1.1.3 Prioritising work task:

prioritising is the process in which u priorities the tasks according to your mind so simply it’s a skill which u learn from yourself assess your priorities and then work on them for exp my priority at the time is to get MBA degree not to focus on job because through job I just pay the rent of my flat all I need to do just focus on my study because that is the priority for me right now but with the passage of time priorities change as time to time for exp if I got married at that time or I am having a baby than my priorities will be to feed my family instead of the study. So it’s so important to analyze and prioritize your work.

This is human nature that once you start some new work it looks tough but as long as u keeps going with it you will find it quite easy. So try to find out the priority in the work and keep focus on that to get the desired result. For example I am doing to many tasks in the day I use internet after college, face book, I use to talk to my friends and I play football as well now I have to think that how much time I am going to spend on these tasks and what is my priority and how much time I am giving to my priority work and what changes I need to bring out in order to prioritise my work.

1.1.4 Problem solving and decision making:

A problem is an unacceptable condition which is unusual. If you can’t find the problem you can’t sort the problem. So this is clear that to sort out the problem always we need to know that what the actual problem is and in response to find out the problem we need to develop the skill to make the right decision at right time. We should have the ability to find out the problem and then check what should be the solution and after that take the decision.

Decision making is not easy because you always have a fear to make decision you can only make the decision when you know that what the actual problem is. We should able to developed skills of calculated risk in problem solving.

1.2 Professional skills:

Personal skills are interrelated to the personal skills because through personal skills a person is able to develop his professional skill for example effective communication and good listening is a personal skill by using these skills in any organization you are able to polish your skills like if you have a good communication skill you are able to let the people understand what you are saying and if you are a good listener than you can easily understand what your bosses are expecting from you. Now we it will be discussed about some professional skills and analyze how these skills are linked to the personal skills.

1.2.1 Coaching skills:

This is the skill which a person develops through experience and courses and it is widely used in the organizations to get the required task up to the mark. Coaches are introduced to make the employees skilful for example a area supervisor in the Carlisle security is working as a coach who is always there to train the security staff and guide them what they should do and what they are not suppose to do and in which conditions what steps they need to take and how to tackle with the difficult situations. According to Elizabeth Morgan It is vital for every business and professional organization to increase the knowledge and skills of their employees. They should strive to enhance the quality of performance, to ensure an improvement on the personal and professional front. (Elizabeth Morgan 2008)

Now the question is how a person is been able to develop his coaching skills here it need to be understand the need of the personal skills as the good coach has definitely having a good communicational skill and he will be a good time manger and he should must have a stress management skill. It is not necessary that a person who has great coaching skills must be good in practical situation because this is a skill which he has for example in sports an boxing coach might not be a boxing champion but he is able to make the other person a champion.

1.2.2 Leadership skills:

Leadership, a critical management skill, is the ability to motivate a group of people toward a common goal. There are some characteristics which make a person a successful leader. A leader is the one who can work in an environment which he can manage himself and others in a stress environment. Now again we see the personal skills stress management and using the time effectively .obviously a leader should have the skill of communication though he can communicate his team in an effective way and should be able to solve the problems when it occurs. There is the example of Tesco where we see what the role of team leader is and why he is the team leader. The reason behind it that he is the team leader because he use to work in every department in Tesco and he is able to motivate the other guys to do the right things at right time and if some time a sales assistant doesn’t not know where he had to put the stuff in shelf he will be there and able to guide in seconds that this thing should go to that place so again it’s been seen that leadership requires a good personal skills.

1.2.3 Multitasking skills:

Multitasking means, doing more than one task at the same time. This is the skill which is interrelated to the time management as if someone doing more tasks at same time it means he is going to save his time by that way. Normally the term multitasking is used in computer language because computer is able to process many programs at same time. this is the skill which a person develop with the experience for example if someone doing a office job and he is taking prints from the computer which takes time than in that time he is able to utilize it as he may can check his emails during that time and by checking his mails he is able to use the telephone to make important calls. Here we took a example of the concierge officer in Bryant court which is the reception of the residential flats. The officer is doing the multitasking by keeping eye on CCTV cameras operating phones and communicating with the residents at the same time.

1.2.4 Presentation skills:

Presentations skills are achieved through the knowledge, confidence, communication and good learning skills. Presentation means to express your or the company views in front of the people without having any fear. Presentation skill is necessary to present but practise makes it perfect and when you do the practise it mean you are working on your personal skill to achieve professional skill. In Tesco section manger and senior night manager use to give presentation on every Monday to keep the staff up to date and telling them the company target and the role of staff. Now it’s been analyzed that professional skills are achieved through the practise of good personal skills.

Presentation training is useful to develop presentation skills but nothing replaces practice. Effective presentations have targeted, simple, clear and repeated messages. (Roger lever 2009)

Conclusion:

Through this assignment it’s been seen that how personal skills are important to develop professional skills so both of these skills are interrelated to each other and a person uses both these skills to get the organization goal.

TASK TWO: Personal development

To assess my skills, I carried out a survey by giving evaluation forms to my class mates. We made a group of five members and each person rated my skills. With the help of their views I put these ratings in a suitable form. The assessment given by them is presented in the Appendices table and the final rating based on their feedback and my personal assessment is presented below.

Rating of Management and Leadership Skills

SKILLS RATING

Very good 1

Satisfactory 2

Need to improve 3

Bad 4

Learning styles:

It is been realised that we learn in different ways and learning styles. Honey and Mumford identified four different characters with quite different learning styles Activist, The Pragmatist, The Reflection the Theorist. Based on a questionnaire survey carried in the classroom, I learned that my predominant learning style is Pragmatist. I realise that pragmatist learning style has better impact in my learning activities.

As I carried out a self-confidence survey and the result is presented below

Self Confidence Analysis

Situations

Reasons

Ways to Improve

Worries of future makes me upset

Because I think too much that what will happen to me.

To overcome this I should set a proper plan about my future and then have to focus on that plan.

I do not learn from my mistakes.

Because I always ignore what happened and why was it happened.

I should make a note about the failures in a personal diary in order to do avoid in future.

I always upset if I cannot get success

Because I am getting disheartened from my failures.

I should have the courage to face the reality.

Some time communication effect my confidence

Because my native language is not English.

I should develop my language skills

I feel myself nerviest when I cannot present what I want.

Because when I select a wrong topic of presentation.

I should focus on what I want to do

Improper dressing makes me feel lack of confidence.

Because due to this I can’t concentrate on my work.

To overcome this always should dress up properly

AT the start of presentation I feel lack of confidence

Because I always ignore the preparation of introduction.

To overcome this makes a proper intro of any presentation in order to reduce the lack of confidence in the start.

Assertiveness Analysis

This survey is based on questionnaire and I identified that my behavioral style is assertive as I raised my voice if someone do not listen to me but I also listened to them properly and try to make my point clear

Weaknesses

Ways to Improve

If someone does not get my point I might lose my temper.

I try to convince other with the solid points

In case I am unable to understand a problem.

I try my best to think before I speak

Sometime when I disagree to someone I do not give them response.

I am trying to improve my convincing skills

Presentation Analysis

Weaknesses

Ways to Improve

Because of preparation I use to take less sleep before last night of presentation.

I should have enough sleep after preparation

I have less confidence weather I could make it

I should not be worried about it and speak without any pressure

In some situations I forget some points during the presentations.

I should note down on a piece of paper

I feel hesitation while walking in front of people during presentation

To overcome this one thing I have to make sure in my mind that I am perfectly all right from all aspects.

In some cases I do not have enough material

To overcome this always selects a right topic of presentation.

At the start of presentation I feel lack of confidence.

To overcome this makes a proper intro of any presentation in order to reduce the lack of confidence in the start.

I believe under these circumstances, I can learn best in the following ways:

I learn better from proven good practice, using the examples and the expertise of others.

I like to face the problem with different approaches.

I dislike situations where there is nothing to learn

Pragmatist situation quite helpful for me.

I always work when I have been forced to do job in time

The short discussions or less detailed tasks make me unhappy. So I can’t get benefit easily.

I am expecting to make practical decisions.

By presenting myself as practical person because I like to solve problems.

I enjoy experimenting to improve techniques.

I like frequently come up with the answer to a problem.

I have only interest in theories is to see if the work in practice.

Swot analysis helps us to analyze our strength and weakness and how we can create the opportunities for us and realizing the threat which are we facing at that time.

In reference to the strengths the skills that I am good at are the following. This style shows that how a person utilize his personal skills and get benefit from these skills.

Time management skill

Supervision

Customer service

Adaptable skill

Decision making ability

Conflict Management skill.

Coaching skill

Weaknesses

For an Effective leader I need to polish my skills. I feel some weaknesses to achieve my set targets of the business as a leader of the team. In following areas I think, I must have to improve in order to become an effective manager.

Presentation

Communication

Self confidence

Group discussion

Planning

Motivating

Stress management

Opportunities:

By working on the skills which I already have it is possible that opportunities can be created and after solving out my problem making issue I will be able to make effective decision for myself and my team, it will decrease the failure rate and increase the confidence. After engaging in these activities a person is able to develop his future and carrier.

Threats:

There is always a aspect of threat which can never be denied ,being a leader a person should have the ability to realize that which threats are there which make a person worry and uncomfortable. The common threats which a leader faces are there.

De motivation by top management policy

Recession period

Lack of knowledge

Lack of qualification

Self respect

Misuse of power

Personal Development Plan:

Through the skill audit it’s been realised that which are the skills I need to improve and through which skills I am able to achieve my goal. In the following table I have developed a plan for myself and analyse that what should I do to improve my skills and how can I achieve my targets.

Learning and Development needs

Aims to learn and achieving

goal

Which actions need to be taken including resources need to achieve goals

Date for achievement/review

Presentation skill

By developing these skills, I can present myself effectively in front of my senior management and other members of team which can increase the company’s efficiency and productivity. It will help me in almost every field of life to achieve what I want to tell others.

I should attend seminars, workshops and events

Participating team meetings and group discussions.

Concentrate on learning resources like tapes, videos and others.

Whenever there is opportunity to speak I should go for that.

Practising

.

25-03-2011

Communicatin skill (English)

English is an international language which is recognized all over the world and a person feel more confident and comfortable when he uses to speak foreigners and communicate in an effective way. This can support the personal objective and help to get company objective as well

By convincing the people

And introducing the business strategy.

More Conversation and discussions in English

By joining language classes and speaking freely to my mates can develop my skill

I should go to the seminars

I should watch English movies and other programs on TV.

I should read English novels, poetry and other books to increase my vocabulary.

I should prepare presentations in English to build my confidence to learn English quickly.

30-03-2011

Coaching & Counselling

Coaching and counselling is a leadership style which is used to make the employee productive for the organization and polish the skills. By counselling my subordinates I will be much closer to them and can sort the issues related to work which are really affecting their performance.

Practical work

Career and development training

Learning from the teachers and senior management on work

More discussion with colleagues and managers.

Analyzing what to do and when it need to do

Minimizing the work load and need to develop more human interaction.

15-04-2011

Planning

Planning is the major key of the success weather a person or for the organization. Through proper planning person can achieve his targets which can help a lot in his progress.

I need to identify the major objectives of my life and need to focus on these targets.

Finding solution to achieve the targets

I should analyze that my objective should be time based and realistic

Proper planning to achieve my targets and should start work from today rather than tomorrow.

As for as business point of view I should make a proper plan by arranging meetings with the seniors and stakeholders. I should attend conferences and read the survey reports.

20-04-2011

Outcomes of Personal Development Plan against personal objective:

Through the skill audit it is been identified that which are things which I need to work on and improve and which are the strength that I am having. Secondly a plan is developed to overcome the efficiencies and to improve my skills. This is my personal objective to improve my capability in language skills but it cannot be achieved until it is not been planned to learn it. It needs to develop a plan that how this objective can be achieved and which are the resources I have, what are my strength and using my strength how I can overcome my efficiency. It can be put the time limits which indicates that within the specific period this goal must be achieved for example my target is to learn the communication skill before I leave this country.

Personal objectives are so important in life because there is the purpose to spend the life. Without any purpose of life it becomes useless to live. Every one plans according to its ability to think and work on it but it really does matter how do you think and what you are going to do.

Personal development plan is a suitable written form of the person thinking that what does a person want in life and how does he plan to achieve the target.

It gives you the time to think and analyze the multiple solutions of the problem and work on them according to the plan like my objective in next three month is to learn presentation skills and it is analyzed that which are the ways through it can be achieved and how to deal with the time wasting and more focus to get the objective.

Impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goals:

This is the more effective way to achieve the goal to write down the plan and then focus on your target. All we need to do to identify the objective and realize which is important for us and which is not. It helps us in learning by focus on the working document. Thing which it need to keep in mind is that the objective should be realistic and achievable and it should be clear that what are the strength of a person to achieve his goal and which are the area he need to work on .

It does work in a great way as I set a goal for myself that till next three months I will improve my communication skills and I start work on this target by reading newspaper and books, communicating with my friends and colleagues. I have started to watch English movies on TV which did not do before. After a week it is realized that it does work as I feel much comfortable than before. Till the review date I feel most of the job will be done and there will be the difference.

I personally learn that there are many things in life which we do not give the importance but a little thing can make the difference as I plan to achieve my goal I realize that it does not take too much time and efforts to achieve the targets. I will definitely implement it in my life by setting objectives in my life and there I will set the time limit to achieve it in time. Once I will get the objective of learning skills I will set more objectives.

Appendix

No.

Skill

Person A

Person B

Person C

Person D

Result Mode

Communication

2,3

planning

2,3

coaching

2,3,4

Presentation

2,3,2

Motivation

1,2,3

Time Management

1,2

Group discussion

2,3

Decision Making

3,4

Self Confidence

2,3

Technical Ability

2,3

Stress Management

2,3,4

Conflict Management

2,3

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