Personal Development Plan (PDP) for Professional Success

This article discusses the importance of creating a Personal Development Plan (PDP) for professional success and provides exercises to help individuals think about their skills and make the most of their time at Leicester Castle Business School. It includes information on how to submit the PDP workbook and how it will be graded. Additionally, it covers the Marshmallow Team Challenge, values, and strengths finder exercises, as well as conducting a SWOT analysis and setting future goals and aspirations.

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LCBS5028
KNOWING & DEVELOPING YOURSELF FOR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN (PDP)
This PDP contains exercises that we will complete during the module. These exercises are designed
to help you think about your skills and how to make the most of your time at Leicester Castle
Business School.
This module is accredited and this PDP forms a major piece of your
module. Submission Dat

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What is a personal development plan?
The aim of creating a personal development plan is to document a process of self-analysis,
personal reflection and honest appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses. This should enable you
to evaluate your current position and where you are right now and consider your future
development.
The purpose of the Personal Development Plan (PDP) is to encourage you to learn and plan by
becoming more aware of your capabilities and the opportunities around you at the Leicester Castle
Business School. The PDP can be applied in a range of contexts, changing the way you approach
your studies, make choices in both your academic and personal life and prioritise your actions.
You should consider this as a live document that captures your current situation at DMU, your
goals and aspirations both whilst at studying at the Leicester Castle Business School and longer
term.
What do I need to do?
This PDP is divided into three parts. In each area we expect specific examples to illustrate your
point.
1. Knowing Yourself: What did I learn about myself?
2. Developing Yourself: How does what I learned about myself help me to shape my goals?
3. Promoting Yourself: How do I use the knowledge from parts 1 and 2 to develop
strategies for promoting myself for my future career?
You are required to complete the PDP workbook. You should carefully review what you have
learned during the Knowing and Developing Yourself module (including the prescribed readings,
theories and conceptual frameworks) and apply this in the PDP document.
How do I submit my assignment?
Submit on Turnitin a zip file containing the following separate documents:

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● The PDP workbook
● Your Strengthsfinder/MBTI results report
● Your completed Career Values Inventory
● Completed feedback forms
Please use only a zip file to upload these separate documents. Do not use a file of the .rar type, as
they require special software to open.
How will my assignment be graded?
The submitted plan will be marked using the following grading criteria:
Coherence (30%)
Are there clear and logical links between the 3 different sections of the report:
1. Knowing Yourself: What did I learn about myself?
2. Developing Yourself: How does what I learned to help me to shape my goals?
3. Promoting Yourself: How can I use this knowledge to develop strategies for promoting
myself?
4. Do the goals formulated in Developing Yourself clearly build on the learning discussed in
Knowing
Yourself?
5. Do the promotion strategies in Promoting Yourself clearly build on both sections 1 and 2?
Engage with course materials (30%)
● Has the student effectively used the content of the module to construct the plan?
● Does it show how core theories, models and frameworks introduced in the module have
impacted on learning and informed plans?
● Is there clear evidence of engagement with classroom experiential activities?

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Wider Reading and Reflection (30%)
● Does the plan show evidence of wide and relevant reading?
● Are the prescribed module readings used to support the plan?
● Is there evidence of independent research, using additional written or audio-visual sources
beyond what was provided in the module?
● Is there evidence that the student has not only understood the readings but also evaluated
and applied what has been read to learning and goal setting?
Quality of writing and referencing (10%)
● Is the student able to communicate effectively his/her plan and the rationale for this?
● Is there a structure to the plan?
● Does it have a conclusion?
● Are external sources acknowledged and correctly cited in the text?
● Is there a reference list?
● Is the writing style professional and clear, with accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation?

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MARSHMALLOW TEAM CHALLENGE
Questions Responses
What did you learn from this activity?
(consider how team collaborated and
worked As a team and your role within the
team
-From the activity, I learned that when people work as
team creativity usually thrives. This is evident by the
way team members brainstormed ideas and prevented
stale viewpoints that could have been raised if I was
working as an individual. The combination of these
ideas from team members was enough to solve
diverse problems arising from the project even
without consulting our supervisor.
-Furthermore, what I learned from the team was
totally different from what I expected and therefore it
assisted me to expand my knowledge and developed
my new skill set that is useful in my future career.
How will this help you when working in
teams as part of your MSc?
When working in a team as part of MSC, the
teamwork skills will help me to build trust and
establish a very strong relationship with my
colleagues. The establishment of a strong relationship
will promote a conducive working environment and
eradicate misunderstanding and miscommunication
that might occur. In addition, despite occasional
disagreements that may exist during the activity, what

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Why do future employers look for team
working skills?
I have learned will also help me encounter big
challenges that may exist in my future role. Working
with colleagues from diverse cultures and background
I have learned how to appreciate attitudes and
cultures of everyone.
Employees look for team working skills in order to
recruit a candidate that can work collaboratively with
other members from diverse backgrounds, races,
religion and gender. A research conducted by Mach,
Dolan & Tzafrir (2010) also shows that a person who
has effective team working skills has also 90 percent
ability to solve problems. Therefore, employers also
look for team building skills in order to develop a
workforce with reduced conflicts resulting from
organizational cultures and different habits and work
styles of employees.
VALUES
Questions Responses
What are your top 3 values and why are they
important to you?
My top three values include integrity, competitiveness
and creativity. These values are important as they
assist me to prioritize what I consider important for

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my self-interest.
How will knowing these values help you
during your studies and in your future career
I will know my top three values helps me if am able
to make a decision and deliberate choice that I should
focus to grow my career. I addition I consider these
values as guiding principles of my behaviour (self-
discipline) and therefore they assist in the planning of
personal and professional career development plans
that matches who I want to be in future.
What steps could you take to ensure you live
by these values? Think of some actions you
can take
The steps that I could take to live by these values
include assessing tasks or daily activities to see
whether they still match with my values, applying the
values as key motivators and integrating the values in
my conversation.
STRENGTHS FINDER
Name your top five from your strengths
profile
1.Harmony
2.context
3 consistency
4.Restorative
5.adaptability
What surprised you when reading the report?
Identify any words or phrases that you agree
with and why
What surprised me was to find out that “context” was
my strength which is very agreeable because I am
always on my phone searching for past history in
order to create a vision for the future.

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I can agree with the phrase “heads on the cloud”
which is usually labelled to people who are futuristic
and “wet blanket” which is labelled to those who are
deliberate.
What can you do to invest in these talents to
become strengths?
Identify some specific action. Least at least
I can invest the talents through –
1. Practice- through practice am likely to add more
combination of knowledge and skills which in turn
transforms talents to strengths.
2.Hardworking- The hardworking involves finding
out diverse ways from mentors of putting my
strengths to practice and also assigning myself some
challenging tasks that require more endurance.
3. Touch of alchemy- The touch of alchemy involves
imagining how my life will be in terms of health, job,
relationship and business if am living up to my
potential. Through imaginative of future, I can be able
to utilize my potential by searching for job experience
(maybe through internships and casual works) and
working hard in school to attain admirable
qualifications that employers are looking for.
How can others see these strengths as a
perceived weakness (sometimes known as a
basement)
Others perceive my strengths as a weakness
especially my consistency and restorative as
overbearing. For example, my ability to figure out

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what is wrong and finding a solution (restorative), my
colleagues see it as overbearing and seeking for
recognition or fame. In addition, some also perceive
my strengths(harmony) as micromanaging due to my
trait of not conflicting people but looking for
consensus.
What have you learned from your strengths
profile
From my strengths I have learned that my personality
type is Conscientiousness and able to fit well in
diverse cultures due to my nature of bringing
harmony, restoring conflicts and adapting to changing
environment. In addition, I have also realized that I
can become a transformation leader as my strengths
and personal type indicate that I have what it takes to
be a leader.
Consider what you discovered about yourself
and how these might relate to you as a person
and your career interest
From what I have discovered from strengths finder, I
possess the strengths that can make me a person who
I want to be in future if well utilized. In addition, the
discovery also shed light on a key area that I need to
improve in order to enhance my future career.

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Attach your strengths insight report and highlight those words and phrases that relate to you.
Attach your prioritised student action items and highlight those key actions

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Developing yourself
Setting future goals and Aspiration
SWOT Analysis
Before setting your personal development plans, you should conduct a personal analysis: Eg - What are my
strengths and weaknesses? What external opportunities or threats might affect any plans I might make?
Strengths
- Restorative ( meaning am effective problem-solver
and decision-maker as am able to make decisions and
effective decisions in some dilemma situations)
- Adaptability (ability to adapt to change easily. For
example, once I change the environment I usually take
the shortest time possible to adapt to new changes)
-consistency (Eager to learn new things)
-harmony (-Network and relationship builder)
- A good communicator (including both active
listening, oral and written)
- Social including Interpersonal (ability to have
social-awareness and interact with others effectively
Areas of improvement
-Poor Planning and organizational skills
( especially Time management is very poor as I
have received several warning regarding being
later)
- Poor in managing stress (I normally get stressed
easily if things did not go through as I planned)
-public speaking (sometimes I struggle to address
a huge crowd of people. In addition, I have
remained silent in most of the meetings and
contributed minimally.
-Not a risk taker (long term oriented).

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and intrapersonal (ability to have self-awareness)
-Tech savvy ( excellent computer skills and am also
familiar with basic software’s used in diverse
workplaces)
-team player (I have an ability to work autonomously
and within a team)
-goal and task-oriented (am a quick learner and can be
able to retain information)
-hardworking
-determined
-focused
Opportunities
- The current growth of social and professional
networks associations (I can get a good mentor to
assist me to achieve my goals )
-High level of education (my education level is
marketable in diverse job markets and therefore I can
secure a job easily after my graduation)
- I can leverage my strong networking and relationship
building skills to achieve my dream goals.
-my career path that am pursuing open doors for more
opportunities.
Threats
-Competition ( the job market is already flooded
and the level of competition is very high from
other graduates which are a threat to my career
development)
-changing demand of the job market (with the
growth of technology and invention of robots and
other artificial intelligence technologies, more
attention is shifted to tech careers which in turn
affects the demand of my career path)
-undersupply of jobs and oversupply of business
and its related field graduates.

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-with current economic, there is a trend that many
industries are inclining to hire new employees.
-lack of experience required in the job market
remains a threat as 90% of job employers need
experienced employees.
Create at least five specific goals- these can be a mixture of career ambitions, academic
achievements, personal development and starting a business
What do I want to achieve
(short/ long term goals)
How am I going to achieve it What additional
support and
resources will I need
What strengths can
I use to help me
achieve these goals
Example, I want to achieve a
distinction
I will dedicate 6 hours per
module for study
Regular follow up
with a tutor
Focus and discipline
-I want to look for a part-time
or night shifts job in a company
related to the course am
currently pursuing in order to
get experience, skills and
knowledge which is required in
my future career role.
-I will search keenly on
professional networks such as
seek.com for companies that are
hiring part-time or night shift
locums, interns or attaches and
then apply for the suitable position.
Regular checking for
updates from social and
professional networks
Network and
relationship
I want to become an
entrepreneur in 10 years’ time
(meaning am ambitious to start
I will search for mentors who have
already excelled in the
entrepreneurship sector to guide
-Mentor
Regular checking on
business trends to
Determination
Endurance

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my own company and recruit
staff).
me throughout the
entrepreneurship process and
further support me ideologically.
identify appropriate
markets for penetrating
as an entrepreneur.
I want to consider improving
my weakness especially time
management and how I manage
stress in order to fit well in the
society and also in diverse
organizational cultures that am
going to work after completion
of my course.
In order to improve my time
management skills, I will try
setting alarms and preparing early
for events. I will also seek advice
from people who had a similar
problem but they overcome it with
time.
-To improve my confidence
(public speaking abilities), I will
attend many meetings and group
works and make sure I contribute
significantly.
-to manage stress I will learn how
to appreciate nature and deal with
people from diverse backgrounds
- setting alarm for
managing time and
preparing for the event
early.
-advice from colleagues
and tutors.
-attend meetings,
conferences and
seminars.
-conduct psychologists
for advice
Planning and
organization
Communication and
social (interpersonal
and intrapersonal)
I also want to further my
academic beyond the master’s
level so that I can be able to get
job promotions and recognition
easily in my future career. In
-I will enrol in masters and PhD
program with an accredited
university (part-time) while am
still working.
-Capital (tuition fees)
-Education facility i.e
accredited university
A mentor to guide me
on the best field to
Patient
Hardworking

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addition, furthering of the
academic level will give me
insights on how to establish a
successful company in 15 years
to come.
specialize.
An organization that
supports personal and
career development
I want to attend over 3
conferences and 2 seminars by
the end of the year so that I can
get insight on how to develop
my career further.
I will search for conferences and
seminars through external and
internal sources which are related
to my career attend as many
possible. I will consider being an
active participant in those
seminars, conference and meetings
to improve my confidence in
addressing the public.
-conferences
-Meetings, seminars
and conferences
-team building
-Focus
-Networking and
relationship building
Managing and dealing with challenges at university
Outline a few challenges you might face in the next few weeks and months?
-Fear of final exams
-managing group works (some members not able to cooperate well when handling group tasks)
How can I go about managing these?
Managing time appropriately to have enough time to study and revise.
Planning early on how to handle problems that arise from group works.
Knowing my strengths what can I do to overcome these challenges

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-Knowing some of my strengths as restorative, good communicator, goal and task oriented team
player, problem solver and decision maker, I can overcome group work challenges by building a
positive relationship with teammates, inspiring them to collaborate, setting short term goals and
delegating tasks that fit individual interest.
- knowing some of my strengths as consistency, focused, determined and hardworking, I can
overcome the fear of sitting for my final exam by thoroughly revising class activities, notes and
other course materials in order to improve my confidence. In addition, using my creativity, I can
come up with flexible group discussions that will help to share knowledge and revise possible
questions to appear in the exam. This will help me feel confident and ready for the exams.
Promoting yourself
Personal branding
Question response
What is a brand Laroche, Habibi, Richard, & Sankaranarayanan
(2012) defined a brand as a unique sign,
design, words, symbol and creation of an
image that identifies a service or product and
differentiates itself from its competitors.
In the career development context, branding
has been defined as the practice of individuals
marketing themselves and their careers as a
brand.
Why do we buy one brand over another? People buy one brand over the other because of

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various reasons that include: its excellent
services (quality), affordable prices, tastes,
preference, differentiated features
(characteristics) and market demand.
What do we expect from our brands? We expect the brands to meet our needs,
expectations and demands (satisfaction) and
provide excellent services as prescribed.
Why is this relevant to my job This is relevant to my job as having a unique
brand means differentiate myself from others
in terms of creativity, knowledge, contributions
and skills in Job which in turn will assist
management to recognize my efforts and
reward me significantly. Some rewards such as
promotion or training in the organization can
assist me to develop my career further.
In the box below, write three words you would like someone to use when describing you
and why
I would like somebody to describe me as a “very honest person” which is an implication that
people trust, believe in me and also have confidence in my actions. Being honest also shows that
I tell the truth and back it up with actions with respect for what is right and esteem for ethical and
moral integrity.

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What do I do next?
Write down below all the different ways you will be promoting the brand you.
-creating positive profiles in professional networks such as LinkedIn and seek.com.
-being a social savvy (spending much time on Whatsapp group, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
and any other electronic groups that are related to my industry or career)
-building community and volunteering at events will help people recognize my abilities.
-pursuing skills that I do not have right now.
-expanding my network and building a positive presence in media
-identifying my niche ( focusing on uncommon things I have to offer by identifying my interest
and passions and how I can engage them in problem-solving and innovation)
-seeking recognition from experts and colleagues. (Having a good reputation will assist me to
promote myself as a result of referrals).
-making my talent visible (contributing ideas in meetings).
Personal reflection
What did you learn from this module? What did you discover about yourself and others?
How can you put this into practice?
From the module, I learned that personal and professional plan can grand individuals an
opportunity to expand their professional skills and exposure to other aspects in the career field. I
have also discovered that I possess some weakness which needs to be improved and I have
strengths that can assist me to reach where I want to be in 10 years’ time. I can put these
discoveries into practice by first start working on improvements (a weakness that may hinder my

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career growth) immediately and setting goals and timelines to achieve these goals and objectives.
Actions you will take to achieve your goals?
- Further my educations to master’s level and acquire other professional qualifications.
- Look for mentorship programs that will support me personally and development plans.
- Get working experience from companies.
- Promoting myself in professional networks for employers to recognize my qualifications
and abilities.
Conclusion
I can conclude that professional development plan and self-awareness (including my values,
motivators, SWOT and personal brand) are very important when it comes to “career
development” as they help an individual to identify the surrounding opportunities for
professional and career development. In addition, the professional development plan and self-
awareness can help to assess the gaps that exist between the current situation and future situation.
Reference any specific material/video/ personal thoughts that inspired and encouraged you whilst
completing your PDP
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., Richard, M. O., & Sankaranarayanan, R. (2012). The effects of
social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices,

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brand trust and brand loyalty. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1755-1767.
Mach, M., Dolan, S., & Tzafrir, S. (2010). The differential effect of team members' trust on team
performance: The mediation role of team cohesion. Journal of Occupational and Organizational
Psychology, 83(3), 771-794.
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