Career Action Plan and Self Reflection Plan

CAREER ACTION
PLAN AND SELF
REFLECTION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Personal Analysis...................................................................................................................1
CURRENT STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES FOR THE POST OF SALES MANAGMENT.2
Career action plan...................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Career Action Plan can be said to be roadmap which guides an individual to gain
knowledge about the skills and knowledge that are essential for accomplishment of long term
career goals and objectives (Atsuki and Asahi, 2018). This helps in personal as well as
professional development of an individual. The Job Title that is taken into consideration within
this project is Sales Management within John Lewis, which is a well renowned and established
retail corporation carrying out its operations within the confines of United Kingdom. Sales is an
essential part of a retail company as this is the elements which provides scope for inflating the
profit margins. The project contains personal analysis, Career Action Plan, reflection etc.
MAIN BODY
Personal Analysis
As the Sales Management of John Lewis Partnership Company, it is essential for me to
have certain skills, knowledge areas and experience within the respective field I am pursuing in
order to carry out the tasks of business within the stipulated course of time. In order to fulfil my
roles and responsibilities relevantly, it is highly essential for me to possess a skill set consisting
of certain particular skills, knowledge areas and experience (Baumgartner, Hatami and De Uster,
2016). These are described in a brief manner below:-
Communication Skills: This is regarded to be one of the most essential skills that must
be present within a sales manager in order to effectively influence the purchase behaviour of
customers in a positive manner. This will facilitate faster sales and entailment of maximum
customer satisfaction from consumers.
Ability to work under pressure: This skill is essential for me as a sales manager in John
Lewis Partnership Company because it allows me to keep my calm in intense situations and do
not get angry or upset with negative customer or employer behaviour (Hassay and Isotalo,
2015). This will enable me to develop a positive atmosphere around me and to avoid any kind of
conflict that may take place.
Self motivation Skill: A sales management needs to be tactical enough to deal with all
types of consumer behaviours in an effective manner and to provide for, the possible solutions
which can help in addressing customer queries. To facilitate this, it is essential for me to keep me
self motivated at all times so that none of the most complex situations is able to decrease my
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confidence as well as morale and affect my productivity negatively. With this skill, I will be able
to ensure the execution of my role within due course of time.
Collaborative Working: This is yet another key skill which is essential for a person
holding the post of sales management within a top notch retail company. This skill enables me to
work positively with the other members of sales team in order to achieve the goal of inflating the
revenues and profits by maximum margin possible (Inks and Avila, 2018).
Time Management: It is essential for me to have this skill as this will enable me to
execute my roles and responsibilities within due course of time. Also, I will be able to ensure
that any task allotted to me is completed within stipulated time frame for the accomplishment of
long term corporate goal.
Knowledge and Experience
For a sales manager in top notch retail corporation, the essential knowledge areas and
experience comprise of Research & Development, Consumer Behaviour and Sales & Marketing
as all of these form the core upon which the selling activities are based or linked to. These are
important for me as they tend to provide the base knowledge according to which I have to pursue
my roles and responsibilities within the boundaries of John Lewis Partnership Company (Rao,
2017).
CURRENT STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES FOR THE POST OF SALES
MANAGMENT
There is requirement of some qualities through which it is easy for me to manage my
sales management position (Rippé and et . al., 2016). Some strengths and weaknesses are as
under-
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 I have good knowledge about basic
concept of marketing and sales with the
help of which I can analyse what
changes are required in working style.
 At the post of sales management, I have
to accomplish different task within
 I am lacking in decision making skills
due to which it I am not able to take
frequent decision as per change in
situation.
 In sales management position, I have to
deal with whole team to accomplish
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specified time and I have good time
management skills, hence it is easy for
me to work within specified deadline.
 Sales is the core operation for John
Lewis Partnership, so in order to
maintain good performance I am able
to keep myself motivated with
considering future benefits.
 Being working in sales management, I
have always pressure of completing
targets but I am good in representing
myself under pressure as well.
targets, but I am not able to lead them
due to which sometimes targets does
not get achieved.
 I am weak in multi tasking due to
which I am not able to perform
activities when more than one task is
allotted to me because I get overburden
with tasks allotted to me.
From the above discussed skills, it is easy to identify strength and weakness with are
positive as well as negative for me. In strength, being working at the designation of sales
management, I have good knowledge about sales and marketing, so this makes my core task
easy. I am self motivated by analyzing benefits which I get from completing task. This assist me
to get best performance and satisfy my personal objectives. When top level management, assign
with some task, then I am able to accomplish task within specified time. So my performance is
up to the mark as per senior managers. There is pressure for me and sometimes it affects
performance negatively, but I am able to deal with it with keeping myself calm and cool at
workplace.
Apart from strength, I am not all rounder, I have some weakness as well with the help of
which I am not able to give best sometimes. My major weakness is decision making due to I can
not make fast decisions as per dynamic working environment. There is problem in leading team
mate because of their difference in their nature (Schoar and Zuo, 2017). Sometimes I am not able
to understand proper way to lead individuals through which synchronization in performance of
team can be achieved. If many tasks are allotted to me, then I am not able to manage and
accomplish them. In order to overcome these skills and improving these areas career action plan
has to be made.
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Career action plan
This is the planned procedure under which weak skills and knowledge can be improved
with proper planning and understanding ways to deal with it (Schwepker and Schultz, 2015). In
order to understand changes which are taking place in external market and accept them, I rectify
my performance with using different measures.
Skills/
Competences
S
(Specific)
M
(Measurable)
A
(Attainable)
R
(Relevant)
T
(Time Period)
Decision
making skills
I have to work
as per change
in consumer
demand, but in
this situation, I
am not able to
take decisions
properly.
When I am
able to take
long time
decisions and
able to get
positive
results.
This can be
achieved with
involvement
of top level
management
and working
with them.
In current
market
changes are
taking place
with rapid
speed, so this
skills is
relevant and
fruitful for
getting better
outcomes.
3 months
Multi tasking When
supervisor
assign me
more than two
task , I am not
able to
manage them
and get
confused in
activities.
When I am
able to
perform three
or four tasks
simultaneousl
y with proper
communicatio
n to team
mates, then
this skill can
be improved.
This can be
attained by
practising,
increasing
more
concentration
and attending
seminars for
skill
development.
This is
important
because when
there is peak
load at John
Lewis
partnership, I
am supposed
to work with
more
efficiency and
6 months.
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effectiveness.
Leadership There is
requirement of
leading team
mates through
which I can
achieve targets
of whole team.
When all the
team mates are
satisfied with
what I said,
and their
working is as
per my orders.
This can be
achieved with
improving oral
speech and
understanding
ways of
leading and
directing top
level
management.
This is
effective
because this
makes my
performance
recognised
with whole
team and
people are
ready to work
under my
guidance
which is sign
of positivity.
4 months
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion of my strengths and weaknesses, it can be said that the
examination of my personality to pursue a career in sales profile was quite difficult as I am not
much effective in doing a self evaluation. It was a time consuming process for me to decide my
strengths and weaknesses after drawing feedback from my seniors as well as peers. With the
execution of this assessment, I have acknowledged my strong areas as well as the areas where I
can incorporate improvements. In addition to this, the development of Career Action Plan is done
with a view to improve and / or develop some of the skill areas which would assist me in
pursuing a strong career in the field of sales and management.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Atsuki, M. and Asahi, Y., 2018, July. Career that Tend to be Unpaid for Motorcycles Sales
Loans. In International Conference on Human Interface and the Management of
Information (pp. 31-40). Springer, Cham.
Baumgartner, T., Hatami, H. and De Uster, M. V., 2016. Sales Growth: Five Proven Strategies
from the World's Sales Leaders. John Wiley & Sons.
Hassay, D. N. and Isotalo, R. M., 2015. Conjugal Sales Agents: Copreneurs or Selling Teams?.
In Proceedings of the 1998 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference(pp. 448-454). Springer, Cham.
Inks, S. A. and Avila, R. A., 2018. An Examination of High Schools Students’ Perceptions of
Sales as an Area to Study in College, and Factors Influencing their Interest in Sales as a
Career to Pursue after College. Journal of Marketing Education. 40(2). pp.128-139.
Rao, V. V., 2017. A Comparative Study on Career Growth Opportunities for Sales Force In
Automobile and Insurance Industry. International Journal in Management & Social
Science. 5 (5). pp.233-241.
Rippé, C. B. and et . al., 2016. TONS: A guide to teaching on-line sales courses. Journal for
Advancement of Marketing Education. 24(1).
Schoar, A. and Zuo, L., 2017. Shaped by booms and busts: How the economy impacts CEO
careers and management styles. The Review of Financial Studies. 30(5). pp.1425-1456.
Schwepker, C. H. and Schultz, R. J., 2015. Influence of the ethical servant leader and ethical
climate on customer value enhancing sales performance. Journal of Personal Selling &
Sales Management. 35(2). pp.93-107.
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APPENDICES
XYZ
Career Objective
I seek opportunities which can provide aid to me in pursuing a career within Retail sector and
attaining personal and professional growth and development.
Skills and abilities
 Ability to work under pressure
 Time Management
 Management of sales rate for a corporation
 Handling sales team and communicating with hierarchical structure of sales department
 Development of effective sales strategies
Qualification
 MBA in Marketing
 Bachelors in Business management.
Declaration
All the information provided above is true to my knowledge.
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