Professional Development for Strategic Managers - Mark and Spencer PLC

Running Head: Mark and Spencer PLC 1
Professional Development for Strategic Managers
Application of Professional Development Skills to help organizations
realize their strategic directions

Professional Development for Strategic Managers 2
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task-1..........................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Proper methods to evaluate personal skills..................................................................................4
1.2 Techniques to assess the professional skills.................................................................................6
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Evaluations of the strategic skills......................................................................................................8
2.2 Preferred learning style....................................................................................................................10
Task 3........................................................................................................................................................12
3.1 personal development plans.............................................................................................................12
3.2 technique to evaluate the results of a PDP.......................................................................................14
3.3 Impact of own learning....................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................18
References.................................................................................................................................................19

Mark and Spencer PLC 3
Introduction
Mark and Spencer PLC is leading British multinational company that headquarter is situated in
London. The company has around 78000 workers in 700 stores in the UK. It has number of
variety and stylish products, clothing and home products (M&S, 2018). It is vital for the strategic
manager to keep focus on the vision, mission and long term objectives of the company and it is
essential for the manager developing the personal as well as professional skills. To improve the
skills the manager should participate in the training and development program by M&S (Toms
and Zhang, 2016). The role of managerial skills is huge for the manager as it helps to manage
daily behavior and manage adverse circumstances to attain its aims. As an operation manager of
Mark & Spencer, I can use various tactics as well as tool to examination and to understand skills
I have and searching the skills require for further growth.

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Task-1
1.1 Proper methods to evaluate personal skills
Personal ability is vital requirement for every manager because the personality of the managers
have significant role that attract other employees to work together. Some personal skills are
defined below:
Time Management
Time managing is a significant tool that encourages completing the task within time frame. It is
essential for the mangers of M&S to direct its staff by adopting the time management tool to
attain objectives. It is possible for the mangers to oversee the time degenerate in the business and
handle with them effectively which will facilitates to straight them towards chosen task (Scott
and Walker, 2017). Along with that manager of the company must set the SMART Objectives
(specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-based) which will be helpful in bringing clarity
in the decision making process and provides direction. Strategic goals of the company can be
attained with this skill as the staff can perform their job effectively.
Communication skills
The skills of communication has imperial impact in the organization as it helps to define the
objectives, goals and the purpose the company with its employees in efficient manner. There
should be proper communication skill in the manager to deliver right information about the
company to the employees in various levels (Carroll, Levy and Richmond, 2008). Along with
that the manager has the potential to handle the conflicts in a significant manner.
Stress Management Skill

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There are number of unseen issues within the organization which can be matured and being the
cause of conflicts. In such condition, managers of the organization should have the problem
solving skills to handle the issue with purposeful solution. M &S was suffered by 0.9% of sales
reduces due to extremely spirited market builds stress among the people within the organization
(Cashman, 2017). Managers of the company should have developed the marketing approaches to
get progressed in its position (Chen, et. al., 2016).

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1.2 Techniques to assess the professional skills
It is necessary for the manager of the organization to use various practices to evaluate the
professional skills as per the requirements and objectives of the organization. Some of
professional skills are mentioned below to attain the strategic goals of the company.
Coaching and Counseling
There are a number of issues take place in the organization of M&S which are facing by the
employees of the company that impact the productivity of them significantly. There should be
proper mentoring, counseling and coaching skills used by the manager to give effective guidance
to employees (Walumbwa, et. al., 2008). It would be helpful to come out from the adverse
situations. The proper advice given by the manager to the employee can motivate them toward
performing work in well efficient manner (Eisele, Grohnert, Beausaert and Segers, 2013).
Mentoring
It is the skill of the manager which can be used by them to hold up their employees for
knowledge new executed systems in the M&S. It can be done by the manger with the help of
face to face short guiding on the job site, which is considered as the at ease to learn about the
new systems (Cooper, 2009).
Leadership Skills
The importance procedure of the company is change which can be adopted by the organization
because of the number of factors behind its environment like a change in the IT system, centrally
controlled budget and division structure (Kirkham and Mosey, 2017). The company can
overcome from this situation if the managers of the company adopt the good leadership style to