Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
Course Title Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 3
TASK 1
2. METHODS TO EVALUATE PERSONAL SKILLS REQUIRED

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
TO ACHIEVE STRATEGIC GOALS (AC 1.1)
3
3. TECHNIQUES TO ASSESS THE PROFESSIONAL SKILLS. (AC 1.2)
7
4. CONCLUSION
9
5. REFERENCES
9

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
INTODUCTION
This report is about to formulate objectives for my personal and professional skills development for
the success of the organization and required to achieve goals set by the company. Strategy is the
most important for an organization because it consists the direction of the business. It helps for the
mission, vision, goals and success of the organization in future. Strategic Managers have many
responsibilities of plans and strategy for the company. Companies carry out different activities of
manager skills before appoint them, which needed to take suitable decision regarding the direction
of the organization. To support the strategic direction of the organization, Managers required
developing their personal and professional skills for the career progression.
I am working in Reliance Ltd. (Retail). Reliance Retail operates chain of convenience stores,
supermarkets, wholesale cash etc. reliance retail has grown to become India’s largest retailer
delivering superior value to its customers, suppliers and shareholders.
My Post: Sales Assistant in the Reliance Retail Ltd. India.
TASK : 1
 Personal skills are required to achieve strategic goals. (AC 1.1)
A skill is the ability of a person to do something well, a certain competence of proficiency. Skills are
developed by experiences, training and effort.
 Personal skills:
The personal skills concerned with how people manage and express themselves with others (family,
friends, co-workers) to build a good relationship. Personal skills are those skills that we possess and
consider our strengths. Personal skills are categorize in two ways : Soft skills and Hard skills.
I am working in Reliance Retail because I have good skills to improve myself in this organization
and in future I would get more opportunity for the better success. Now I am working as a sales
assistant in this organization and my goal is to be a general manager of this company. I achieve my
goal I have analyzed myself about my personal skills and personal skills.
I have used SWOT analyses tool to identify my strengths and weaknesses ; and analyzing the
opportunities and threats that flow from them. SWOT analysis is helpful technique that helps me to
improve myself and move towards my goal. A little thought which can helps my uncover
opportunities that I would not otherwise have spotted. By understanding my weakness, I can manage
and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt my ability to move forward. (Morrison, 2016)

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
SWOT analyses by two internal factors Strength and Weaknesses ; and two external factors
Opportunities and Threats
 Strength:
 I have a good communication skills which helps me to communicate with clients and team.
 I am very creative. I can impress clients with a new perspective on their brands.
 I am fully committed to the success of a client’s brand.
 I have the ability to ask key questions to find right marketing angles.
 Weaknesses:
 I get nervous sometimes when explaining ideas to clients and this fear of public speaking
takes the passion out of my presentations.
 Same work to get things done causes me stress when I have many tasks at a time.
 I am very fast to do things and remove them from my to do list, as a result it affect my work
quality.
 Opportunities:
 I am attending training seminars which help me to do my work better.
 I am going to a major marketing conference which allow for strategic networking.
 Next month company is going to organize a fair where people will visit and I get chance to
remove my fear of public speaking.
 Threats:
 I am often overworked due to staff shortage, and this negativity affects my creativity.
 One of my colleagues is much stronger than me and he is competing every time because of
this sometimes I lose my concentration from work.
 Now a days many other companies are in markets with the great completion and shortage of
staff our company is considering further cutbacks.
By performing this analysis, I can take decisions for next work and where to improve myself. I
can identify skills to use in a proper way to reach the goal.

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
 Professional Skills:
Professional skills are career competencies which are not taught as part of the coursework
required to earn through masters. Professional skills like leadership, mentoring, project
management and conflict resolution are value added skills essential to any career.
1. Time Management:
Effective management and leadership skill are the most important to manage time for the
professional work. If any manager or employee fails to manage time, it will not good for the
organization to reach toward set goal according to strategic plans.
The definition of time management by Harris is “The process of skillfully applying time to finish
and perfect a specific activity within time constraint.” (Harris, 2008)
As a professional, I will be tasked with completing different tasks. I have to draw upon
organizational skills to budget my time so that I can complete each task by a given deadline without
feeling overwhelmed. Time line skill might be simple but it is the best quality in a professional. The
person who show up on time is often perceived to be more hardworking by his/her employers.
 Activities to analyze Time Management:
Time management is the output of self management. I feel that I have more time to do more things
and to learn more, but I spent most of doing unproductive things and I always loose my time. I am
wasting my time talking on phone, checking emails, watching videos on social media. I need to
reduce all these things which are wasting my time and I manage my time effectively. Here are some
ways to manage my time;
I set goals and write down my own priorities so I will manage time for each goal and I have clear
idea to reach there.
I make list in order of importance. I need to make a proper daily list of things that should be
complete in a day as same weekly and monthly.
I set perfect time for each specific task and determine how long I will work for the task.
Sometimes it is very difficult to manage the time according to plans as I am working I have to
combine pressure of work and learn more things for goal.
2. Stress Management:

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
Stress management is an important skills for management success. It comes in environmental,
organizational and individual factors. Economic, political, technological certainty are the
environmental factors. Leadership, task demands, competition and conflicting demand on
organizational recourses.Every person has different kind of stress factors like family problem, job
and career problem, financial problem, health problem. It is the ability to control self, maintain with
people and events.
 Activities to analyze Stress Management.
Stress caused by internal emotions or physical strain or pain produced by the body in response to
tough situations. Because of stress person feels laziness, body ache, headache, depression
symptoms. To prevent myself from stress I follow the following steps.
I think about the reasons which cause the stress for me and find out the beginning sign of it.
I do some exercises and relaxing everyday to get rid of the stress.
I remove unwanted thoughts which are not important for me and control myself in every
situation.
Always try to be positive for each matter and ready to find out solution of problems.
I develop good stress-reduction habits for a healthy life.
To remove the cause of stress, I can change the way I deal with it, in both long term and short term.
3. Communication skills:
Good communication is very important for a person who refers to communicate with client,
customers, colleagues, employees, partners and almost everyone who connected to the organization.
Speaking skill, Negotiation skill, Listening skill, Written Communication, Public speaking,
Persuasion is the part of the communication skill. A strategic manager is not coordinate with
employees without listening their ideas and requirements for the work. The objectives of a manager
are to prepare mission and set goals for the organization.
As I mentioned that I have good communication skill and I always make my message clear and
understood.

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
 Techniques to assess the professional skills required to support the strategic
direction of the organization (Ac 1.2)
Reliance Retail is an Indian company. It is the part of Reliance organization. It has many different
parts like petrochemicals, retail, footprints, reliance jio, reliance supermarket.
Professional skills are related to the professional career and practice. These skills are used to
increase knowledge and management skills of employees in organization. Some professional skills
are leadership, coaching, multitasking and decision making skills.
My professional skills to achieve strategic goal in Reliance Ltd.
1. Leadership skills:
Leadership skills to lead a team, make decisions and work for the welfare of the organization.
Leading is to show right direction and lead others to follow that direction towards strategic goals.
The strategic manager has responsibility to assist staff in a very efficient way with the appropriate
leadership skills. Team management, Decision making, Conflict management and Resolution,
Drafting motivation strategies etc. are the part of a leadership skills. My communication skills are
good at both speaking and listening. These skills help me to work force motivated and committed. I
have gained trust and respect in my role. I listen to my team members and ask questions to make
sure that they understand what is being expressed. With my confidence I carry my team well without
afraid. I am able to remain flexible and create a positive environment within the organization. Skills
such as leadership skill will be assess with the help of observation and feedback from co-employee
or teammates who deals with me. Use of psychometric test can also be used as analytical tool to
assess leadership skill. To identify my level or excellence on this skill, I preferred to go for self
feedback form and evaluative survey to take info or data on my existing skill from team member on
parameter such as how well I am acting as a leader, am I on correct way and do my communication
and ability to interact is adequate or not. There exists option to assess leadership skills after
conducting of performance appraisal conducting by the HR department and their will be one
parameter of leadership skill to know any weakness or gap to fill it and made skills much better.
2. Coaching and development skills:
Now a day’s world has become very competitive so it is required for every profession to learn new
technical skills and other skills and keep developing to sustain the success of organization. Coaching
and development skills are one of the most important skills of any profession. Especially for the
manager it is necessary to coach and guide his/her team. As discussed earlier that communication

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
skills are very crucial for personal development, at the same time while coaching to employees good
communication skills are important otherwise it will be difficult for both.
Coaching does not only correct today’s problems, it helps keep the problems for resurfacing. I try to
guide employees not only understand goal, but to develop their skills and can teach it to others. My
coaching may take longer than correcting but it is longer-lasting. It builds a body of understanding
and if done well, helps to build a workplace culture. I will assess my accuracy in this skill with help
of measuring performance of the people whom I coached. Plus, performance is higher than par, I
will be taken it as positive and feedback will be taken from my people whom I coached, whether
they have understood what I communicated to them and what I taught to them is applicable or not.
Furthermore, I will try to take opinion from junior as well as manager in regards of what manner is
suitable to coach or develop. I have also planned for continuous analysis and develops an assessment
chart to telly my coaching ability. Furthermore, aptitude test is also necessary tools to assess my
coaching skill.
3. Multi Tasking Skills:
Multi tasking means doing many things at the same time. Every human being has the brain is
capable to do various activities at the single moment. This skill defers from person to person. From a
professional perspective, the person involved himself/herself in many projects at the same time and
balance to manage a very demanding job.
Multi tasking skill is very important for professional, it gives wisdom and vision to complete
decided different tasks in limited period of time with great efficiency. Here personal skills are
beneficial for an individual because it provides great help in professional life. Good personal skills
are always linked with professional skills.
Being a sales assistant I have to do many tasks at a time. I have to keep records of products,
customers list and requirements, qualities of products and office work. After collecting all the details
I have to send to the head office. Account details also important and I make sure to be it correct.
Coordinate with the staff to fulfill the needs of customers. I develop myself to be able to do many
tasks at a time being a manager of the organization. This skill will be assess with help of the
multitasking test to measure how well I am performing number of task at one point of time. Its one
of the most essential analytical tool (multitasking test) to be undertaking by me to know ability and
competencies to handle team and task given to me by the reliance at the same time. Moreover, live
simulation suggested by the senior manager to enrich multi-tasking skills with the greater efficiency.
Also, manager will rate me out of 10 on parameters such as different task at the same time, ability to
handle pressure or burden and outcomes achieved to the given time.

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
From the above discussion, it is clear that there are some strength and some weakness which
affects performance of individuals at Reliance Ltd. Strengths are good for professional growth
and development but there is requirement of some improvements to deal with it. Gap analysis of
skills is as under-
Skills Rating by others
(out of 10)
Self perception (out
of 10)
Variance
Leadership skills 7 9 -1
Coaching and
development skills
10 8 2
Multi Tasking Skills 8 8 0
Communication skill 8 9 -1
From the above discussion, it is clear that there is gap in skills which are acquired
by individual. There is complete information with this gap analyse about rating which an
individual give himself and rated by others. In leadership skill, there is negative rating by 1
which means there is requirement of improvement because people have view that he is
lacking in leadership skills. Coaching and development skill of candidate is good because
there is positive rating by 2 which implies that people rate him more but he thinks that there
is weak point. Communication skill of individual is also weak because as per individual's
personal point of view rating is 9 while others rate him 8, so this is also weak which
requires to be improved in order to work with Brand Reliance Ltd. While in multi tasking
candidate is good because there is equal rating from self perception and others perception.
So it is clear that individual is weak in leadership and communication skills and requires
improvement.
Conclusion:
The main purpose of this report is to discuss the value of the personal and professional
development. Professional and personal skills both are linked with each other. My personal
skills always help me to lead towards my professional skills and growth. Good personal
skills are very important for the professional success of the person as well as organization.

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
In this assignment I have discussed my strengths and weaknesses. By using different tools
I can improve my weaknesses. As I mentioned the techniques to assess the professional
skills required to achieve my goal and support the organization. I make proper plans by
using these techniques to develop my professional skills which help me for my goal.

UNIT 2 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STRATEGIC MANAGERS 2nd June
REFRENCES
Harris. (2008). https://research-methodology.net/goal-setting-as-an-important-time-management-
principle/. Retrieved from https://research-methodology.net/goal-setting-as-an-important-time-
management-principle/:
Morrison, M. (2016, 04 24). https://rapidbi.com/swotanalysis/. Retrieved from
https://rapidbi.com/swotanalysis/: https://rapidbi.com/swotanalysis/