Opportunities for Professional Growth

The importance of personal and professional development is highlighted in the provided content, emphasizing the need for individuals to continually improve themselves to contribute to the growth of companies as well as their own careers. The texts suggest that employees should be given opportunities to develop professionally and personally, which can lead to increased job satisfaction, improved performance, and enhanced employee retention.

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
STUDENT’S NAME:
STUDENT’S ID:
PROFESSOR’ NAME:
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Analysing techniques of self-managed learning........................................................................3
1.2 Suggesting ways through which lifelong professional and personal learning can be motivated
.........................................................................................................................................................4
1.3 Analysing the advantages of self-managed learning for both the organisation and the
individual.........................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1: Evaluate own current skill and competencies against professional standard and organisation
objectives.........................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Identify own development needs and the activities required to meet them...............................7
2.3 Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined needs.........................7
2.4 Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needs:...................8
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Describing the activities and procedures needed the development plan’s implementation....10
3.2 Implementing and documenting activities of development plan.............................................11
3.3 Evaluating own learning critically against objectives and aims based on development plan. 12
3.4 Updating development plan on the basis of evaluation and feedback.....................................12
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................14
4.1 Choosing solutions for work-based problems.........................................................................14
4.2 Interacting in different types of styles and proper manner at different levels.........................15
4.3 Analysing and using appropriate strategies of time management...........................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
Reference list.................................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Employees and stuednts always try to improve themselves professionally and personally, so that
they can contribute to their organisation more efficiently. Professional development refers to
development of an employees, so that the person can understand the job role properly and
techniques of improving those skills. On the other hand, personal development provides an
employee an opportunity to strengthen some practices in order to develop skills such as
relationship building, mindfulness, creativity that are essential for leading life happily. The main
aim of the study is to understand importance of learning personal and professional skills to meet
both career and personal goals.
In the first section, various methods of self managed learning, techniques of encouraging
professional and personal development, several benefits of self-managed learning are evaluated,
in the second section, analysis of own competencies and skills, requirements of development and
actions for meeting those requirements, designing a development plan on the basis on the
requirements are discussed. In the third section, procedures needed for the implementation of
development plan, implementation of those plan, evaluation of own learning and updating that
plan are thoroughly discussed. In the last section, methods of resolving work-based problems,
various styles of interaction and usage if appropriate management strategies are described.
Task 1
1.1 Analysing techniques of self-managed learning
Accordin to Hopkinson (2014, p.385), Self-managed learning is a procedure through which
employees learn various things and enhance their skills in order to become efficient and
confident. Individuals can learn several things with the help of different techniques. As a student
of David Game College , one should try to improve professional career and personal life.
Conferences and seminars:
Conferences and seminars are effective methods because they provide individuals opportunities
to represent their knowledge and learn various new, interesting things. Therefore, these seminars
and conferences enrich people and make them much more confident. They help in developing
people’s presentation skills as well.
Social networking sites:
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In today’s world, millions of people use various social networking sites to stay connected with
their family and friends. These social networking sites include Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
However, these sites can also be used by employees as an effective tool for learning new and
interesting things. Many people share knowledge and information with others in various groups,
pages and forums.
Internet:
Internet is one of the most powerful tools of learning many things about various topics. For
instance, Google Scholar is very useful when it comes to accessing articles and academic
journals. All these articles and academic journals are written by experts based on various types of
topics (Moon, J.A., 2013, p.45). With the help of a general internet search, people can get huge
amount of information, which are written by many writers. Therefore, Individuals can easily
access information that are needed to become successful in an organisation.
1.2 Suggesting ways through which lifelong professional and personal learning
can be motivated
With the help of various techniques, lifelong professional and personal learning can be
encouraged. The student of David Game College can be benefitted if that person gives himself
some time for learning every day. However, they are also some other ways that help in lifelong
professional and personal development.
Personal strategies:
Individuals should read books on various topics and access internet in oder to gain knowledge.
They must also read newspapers to keep updated with the news of different countries. They
should participate in different forums and group activities. Employees must do an assessment of
their own strengths and weaknesses. They also need to understand how their companies have
enhanced their performance. They also must analyse what can happen in the future in their
organisations.
Self-reflective learning:
As opined by Dowson, P. (2015, p.44) self-reflective learning is a technique, which helps
employees in analysing their learning eperience and developing their critical thinking skills.
With the help of self-reflective learning, individuls can review their experiences, continue their
development and devise some techniques, approaches and ideas in order to develop learning.
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Generally, in a company, employees should have communication skills and time management
skills. Therefore, employees need to analyse their skills in these areas and try to improve them.
1.3 Analysing the advantages of self-managed learning for both the
organisation and the individual
Companies always ensure the objectives and goals are proply met, therefore those companies
require employees, who have time management skills, leadership skills and good
communicantion skills.
One major benefit of self-managed learning is that it will help the student of David Game
College to adjust with change. Self-managed learning ensures students keep themselves updated
with current changes regarding news, politics, finance and technology (Huffman et al. 2014,
p.448). All these knowledge helps employees to develop, achieve career and personal goals.
Another another benefit of self-managed learning is that it helps in fulfulling and enriching lives
of people. When students continuously learn new things with the help of internet, social
networking sites and seminars, these methods help them in living meaningful and active lives. If
the student of David Game College gains knowledge in some subjects, which they like, it will
help them in meeting and personal and professional objectives.
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TASK 2
2.1: Evaluate own current skill and competencies against professional
standard and organisation objectives
In order to survive in a professional world, an individual must possess some skill. Without these
set of skill, an individual cannot have a flourishing career ahead.this skill is a guideline which
helps the person to cope with the difficulties which the person will face in the professional
world. There are two main skill one must sharpen. They are as follows;
1.Communication; the skill to communicate effectively with others is the biggest skill one can
possess. Without communication, one cannot survive in an organisation nor in their personal life.
The communication helps to bridge the gap between two people belonging to different
backgrounds. Communication helps to eradicate misconception among the people working under
an organisation as well as in personal life (Pennington et al. 2014, p.260). The term
communication can be further divided into two broad categories, one is verbal and another-other
one is termed as non-verbal.Under the term, verbal communication comes the concept of formal
communication which helps an individual to express themselves freely to a group of people
while the former one called as informal communication helps the individual to create a bond or
network with another individual.
Nonverbal communication is as important as the verbal one. This gives the individual the ability
to learn body language. The body language is perhaps the most important part in all of the
communication (Lester, 2014, p.36) Body language can either open or very closed, both can
affect the relation between two people. Last but definitely not least is the ability of a person to be
a good listener. This ability helps the individual to earn the respect of another person because
some time a person wants only a good listener who will neither pass a judgement nor give any
suggestion.
2. Ability to work with others: This skill is another very important one as the organisation cannot
be run by a single individual. An individual must learn to cope up with others. Under this set of
skill comes the ability to collaborate with each other. Comes the skill of sensitiveness which an
individual must possess for another person. Comes the ability to negotiate which helps to
compromise with others.
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2.2 Identify own development needs and the activities required to meet them
When a person plans to develop themselves the first thing they should keep in mind that it cannot
be achieved until the person has a correct overview about themselves. Without this, the overall
improvement is impossible to achieve. Only after this the following steps will have a valid result;
1.One should have a clear focus on their strength and weakness they have (Sanghi , 2016, p.47).
It will be unfair to say that one must neutralise all of its weakness because, in reality, it is not
possible. But one can take efforts to minimise the shortcomings they have. The best way to
minimise the weakness one must try to maximise their strengths so that it overshadows over the
weakness.
2. The individual must have a clear vision about their life and about their career. The career
should be chosen is such a manner that they are able to harness all of their strengths and fuels
their desire. It must also able to provide the individual with a strong base of their future. After
the initial step one has to decide how far they are willing to push their definition of success
(Nicholls and G 2014, p.31). But the most important part of this step is the ability to judge the
reality of their dream career.
3. The final point is to gather as much resource available and to make full and proper utilisation
to these resources. Following a proper guideline often becomes the difference in failing and
winning life.
2.3 Identify development opportunities to meet current and future defined
needs
One of the most important tools to enhance their professional skill an individual must identify
and grab the opportunities to upgrade themselves for not only present but future demands as
well.one of the most basic quality one must try to enhance is the ability to solve the problem.
Under this skill comes the quality to be creative and innovative. The individual must have the
ability to generate ideas in a new way. No problem is too big if the individual has a proper
planning and follows them properly in an organised way (Cummings et al, 2014, p.44) Doing
proper research and having a good analytical skill gives an individual upper hand while facing
any kind of problem in their profession.
The individual must take initiative to enhance the quality of self learning because gathering
knowledge will help the individual to become up to date with the surroundings. Today the world
is heavily dependent on the cyber world. All the organisation in the world has made the social
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media as a platform for marketing their brands. It will be very useful for an individual if they
have the basic understanding of the handling a personal computer and understanding how to use
the internet (Rothwell et al. 2015, p.22) Not only this it would be better for an individual if they
learn a couple of programming language, acquire the ability to handle database i.e extracting
query use tables etc. Knowledge of presentations using power point able to communicate using
email is few of ability the individual should develop for surviving in the professional world.
2.4 Devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified
needs:
In order for an individual to enhance himself the best way to take a SMART approach. This
covers five aspects; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. The process is
given below;
Specific To increase the sale of a product of an
organisation.
Measurable Every employee in the marketing branch
meeting with their target.
Achievable To obtain a specific number of sales by
marketing branch.
Realistic The goal is realistic as the job is broken down
to every employee in marketing branch as the
given target to them can be fulfilled.
Timely 24 months.
Specific To enhance the image of the brand among the
customers.
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Measurable By rating the brand on social media
Achievable The feedback given by the customers will
provide a powerful tool to visualise the
quality service given to the customer
Realistic This objective is very realistic as it is helping
the organisation to increase its reputation
Timely One year.
Having SMART goals provide the employees with a big moral boost because by achieving
small term goals increases the drive among the employees and they are able to push the quality
of their work to new heights.
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Task 3
3.1 Describing the activities and procedures needed the development plan’s
implementation
Some procedures and activities should be followed in order to implement the development plan.
The role of companies is to increase the product's’ sale.
Training:
Employees should be provided proper training and guidance, so that they can understand their
duties and responsibilities properly. The management must make sure that induction programs
are implemented properly (Pedler et al. 2013, p.46). They should not be just formality and they
should be meaningful. At the time of giving training to employees, the HR management must
make employees aware of the organisational procedures, policies, rules and regulations. The
areas of responsibility of an employee should match that person’s qualification, work experience,
skills and specialisation. Employees should be provided brochures, manuals and employee
handbooks, so that they become familiar with the policies and rules of companies. Employees
should not be overloaded with excessive information, they may think they are given huge
amount of work pressure. HR management should also ensure employees feel comfortable when
they come to office at the very first day of their works. They should be provided promotions and
performance appraisals based on their performances (Puteh et al. 2015, p.316). It is very
important for an organisation to be transparent with all the employees. They should get a clear
picture of their performance and development chart in the workplace. In this regard as an
employee of an organisation, I have to develop my skills and knowledge properly according to
the development and skills programmes organised by the management team. I have to train
myself appropriately in different aspects of working environment.
There are mainly two types of development plans such as professional growth and improvement,
which are used for employees. As opined by Wang and Hou (2015, p.15), in case of professional
growth, the development plan is developed to help employees in the growth of their career. In
this development plan, a team leader interacts with team members and devises plan of
development and inform them about the deadlines when organisational objectives must be
accomplished. It is very important to provide deadline to employees, so that they take training
and their development plan seriously. Employees should always be motivated to attend
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conferences, training sessions and seminars, so that they can learn new skills. In the second
development plan, managers devise a proper improvement plan, so that they can develop plan in
order to enhance performance. In this case, employees are provided training to improve both
personal and professional development (Sins, P. and Karlgren, K., 2013, p.190).
In this regard as an employee I have to develop my communication skills, leadership skills and
employability skills properly in order to grow my careers and to fulfill my career objectives
accordingly.
Monitoring progress:
Employees’ progress should be measured in order to identify whether the plans of employee
development are actually providing benefits to employees. The management needs to find out if
development plans of employees are helping them in order to achieve personal and career growth
(Hicks et al. 2014, p.95). Management must evaluate the performance of employees and inform
them if any kind of change in their performance is required.
My working performance in the organisation should have to be monitored by management team
which will help to have the feedback of leaders and managers. In this way based on the
feedbacks of the management team I can achieve my career goals and as a result personal and
professional development can be possible.
3.2 Implementing and documenting activities of development plan
Time frameActivities
3 monthsAs an employee, I have to analyse whether the
training and guidance helped me in
developing properly. It will take some time to
develop my social and communication skills
(Magee, S. and Webb, E., 2015, p.48). If I
develop my communication skills, it will
make me more efficient and confident .
4 monthsIt will take some time in order to develop my
leadership skills. It is very important for me to
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acquire leadership quality, so that I can lead
my subordinate properly. If I cannot guide and
assist my team members properly, I will not
be considered a good leader (Ziemke, L. and
Ross, D.B., 2014, p.35).
1 monthIt is very important for an employee to have
good learning skills. If I can learn things
faster, it will help me become more efficient
as an employee.
3.3 Evaluating own learning critically against objectives and aims based on
development plan
I have decided to improve my employability skills, so that I can become more efficient and
confident as an employee. These skills include social and communication skills, learning skills
ans leadership skills. I decided to improve my communication skills in the time period of 3
months. However, It took only 2 months to develop my communication skills and I understood
its importance after acquiring it. For improving leadership skills, I decided to take 4 months
because it is very important for an employee to have leadership quality. At the time of working
on my leadership skills, I understood I needed the time period of 6 months in order to become a
good leader. I also took a decision to improve my learning skills as it is essential for almost
every employee in a workplace. Therefore, I worked on my learning skills and It took only 3
weeks to aquire that skills. Nowadays, I understand my duties and responsibities much faster and
perform them effectively.
3.4 Updating development plan on the basis of evaluation and feedback
After improving my employability skills, I took feedback and reviews from my seniors. Then I
understood some changes should be made in development plan. I should take only 5 weeks to
develop my social and communication skills (Farber, M., 2015, p.49). In the workplace, I always
need to communicate with my colleagues and work with them effectively. Therefore, it is very
important to develop my social and communication skills faster. If a person has good
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communication skills, that person become much more confident than others. The management
also suggested that leadership skills could be developed in the period of 3 months. When an
employee has leadership quality, it helps that person in assisting and guiding others
appropriately. The management also stated that good learning skills were also important and the
time period of 3 weeks is perfect. The management gave positive feedback about learning skills
and communication skills. However, they stated I needed to work on my leadership skills.
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Task 4
4.1 Choosing solutions for work-based problems
A London-based organisation of telephone banking, ‘Talk Team UK’ is suffering from some
problems and it is performing poorly. The profit margin of the company has fallen and many
employees left the organisation. A new business expertise has been recruited in the company and
that person’s duty is to identify current issues the company is facing and suggesting solutions ti
order to motivate employees.
One signifiacnt problem is that employees often have to work overtime. However, they are not
paid for their extra work in the workplace. Therfore, the business expertise needs to ensure
employees are provided fair ammount of money for doing extra working. Another significant
problem is that company do not provide proper training and guidence to employees. Therefore, it
becomes difficult for them to perform their duties and responsibilities efficiently. The new
business expertise needs to provide effective trainings to employees, so that they can understand
their job roles and perform them properly (Hope, J., 2015, p.7) . The opportunities of promotions
are rare in ‘Talk Team UK’, so that many employees quit the organisation. Therefore, business
expertise needs to suggest the management to analyse the performance of employees and provide
deserving employees opportunities of promotion.
Another issue is that the management rarely interact with the employees, therefore some
employees do not have any idea about their colleagues. When meetings are held for one time in a
year, employees feel undervalued in the meetings. Therefore, the new business expertise must
propose to the management that employees get the opportunties to know about their colleagues
or co-workers (Zou, X.T. and Chan, B.Y.B., 2016, p. 38). It will help the organisation in creating
a good work culture and work enviornmental. Employees will feel comfortable at the time of
working with others if they know their names. It is important for the satisfaction and mental
peace of employees who work in the organisation. Managers need to communicate with
employees, so that they do not feel undervalued. If employees face any kind of harassment or
discrimination in the workplace, managers must take immediate actions to resolve the problem.
One singnificant problem is that employees feel it is difficult to complete their tasks in the given
period of time. They leave their jobs late and face problems at the end. Therefore, the business
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expertise needs to take care of the fact these types of problems do not occur at the time of doing
their jobs.
4.2 Interacting in different types of styles and proper manner at different
levels
There are various styles of communication that can be followed in companies at various levels.
There are mainly four types of communication styles, which many people follow.
1. Open communication:
This type of communication is considered convenient when colleagues interact with each other.
This kind of communication do not have any connection with feelings and emotions. Open
communication is effective when employees talk to each other in order to initiate a partnership
between them or carry out business operations effectively. However, this type of discussion is an
informal way of discussing work related actitivites.
2. Reserved communication:
Reserved communication refers to a type of communication, which is occurred between two
different individuals and no other person can get involved in any discussion. Employees remain
busy in performing their jobs and they do not get involved in the organisation’s activities.
Reseeved communication generally happen between a supervisor and that person’s team
members or a supervisor and subordinate. Therefore, strategies do not get disclosed outside of
the team or the two individuals (Lejeune et al. 2016, p.35).
3. Direct communication:
Direct communication is straightforword and individuals communicate with each other with
confidence. In case of direct communication, a group of people or two individuals interact with
each other and discuss various types of topics face to face. When a boss provides instruction to
employees directly, it means that person is engaging with employees in direct communication.
This type of communication does remain clear and it does not arise doubts or confusion.
4. Indirect communication:
There are many people who do not like to talk to people directly and they consider it to be very
aggressive, loud and fast. They prefer indirect communication and they give importance to
accurate data or information. These people always believe in facts and figures and they do not
depend on assumptions. When some employees want to share knowledge and information with
these people, they should ensure they display proofs for their statements.
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4.3 Analysing and using appropriate strategies of time management
In the organisation, employees should be given proper training, so that they can develop certain
strategies of time management in oder to perform their duties effectively.
Setting priorities:
Employees must prioritise in which work they should give importance. They need to create a to
do list in oder to prioritise their works. However, they need to be caeful that they can always
maintain the list and do not keep various lists at the same time.
Applying a planning tool:
Many experts suggest personal planning tool should be used to enhance the productivity of
employees. These types of tools include computer programs, wall charts, pocket diaries,
electronic planners, calenders and notebook. Employees must write down schedules, tasks and
memeroy joggers, so that they can concentrate on their priorities. However, auditory learners
generally like to dictate their opininons. Employees need to identify proper planning tools which
will help them in prioritising their tasks.
Scheduling time properly:
Scheduling of works refers to planning of challenging jobs which are determined by employees.
It is not merely a recording of what they need to do. It also refers to time commitment of all the
tasks that employees ahve to perform. At first, they need to give high priority to the most
important tasks and perform them and then they have to do other tasks as well.
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Conclusion
The study focuses on the personal and professional development of employees. It is understood
that employees need to develop their skills such as social and communication skills, learning
skills and leadership skills in order to make themselves confident and efficient. It also helps the
organisations in meeting their goals and objectives. In the study, various techniques of self-
managed learning, methods of professional and personal development are thoroughly analysed.
It can be concluded that proper training and guidance should be provided to employees to
improve their employability skills. The performance of employees should be reviewed and
measured to enhance the productivity of companies as well. Employees should be given
opportunities of improving themselves, so that they can contribute to the growth of companies.
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