Personal and professional development | Sample Assignment

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Task 1............................................................................................................................................4
A. Evaluation of approaches to self-managed learning and proposing ways for lifelong
learning in personal and professional life [P1.2 and P1.2].........................................................4
B. Evaluating and discussing benefits of self-managed learning in personal and professional
context [P1.3].............................................................................................................................5
Task 2............................................................................................................................................6
A. Evaluating personal skills and competencies and identifying skills for development to
work professionally [P2.1 and P2.2]...........................................................................................6
B. Identifying personal development opportunities and devising a personal and professional
development plan [P2.3 and P2.4].............................................................................................7
Task 3..........................................................................................................................................10
A. Discussing ways to implement the personal and professional development plan through
development activities [P3.1 and P3.2]....................................................................................10
B. Critically examining the process by reflecting on the aims and objectives and discussing
ways to review and update the plan [P3.3 and P3.4]...............................................................11
Task 4..........................................................................................................................................12
A. Investigating and selecting two work-based problems in work environment and identifying
and communicating solutions [P4.1 and P4.2].........................................................................12
B. Evaluating the application of effective time management approaches in varying situations
[P4.3]........................................................................................................................................13
Task 5..........................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................14
References..................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
In order to adapt oneself to the changing phases of life constant development of the self is
essential. An individual mainly faces two sides, personal and professional, and in both the
phases their skills, talents and weaknesses put considerable stress. Thus, personal and
professional development is important for all to cause an overall development of the self that will
contribute to enhance their individualistic self personally and ultimately help in professional
sphere as well. Through the development of personal and professional attributes the individuals,
as well as the organisations will be able to grow constantly undergoing the process of gaining
knowledge. This development of gaining knowledge of throughout the life of oneself enables
them to meet the challenges effectively that are constant in the way of life. Further it is a source
of achieving the set goals for an individual and also the organisations as they are into a constant
process of learning and progressing further.
Personal and professional development brings about a positive change and is highly
responsible for improving performance in both lives. For causing this change there are several
aspects that need to be considered and through proper identification of methods success can
be achieved. In this assignment, the importance of personal and professional development will
be surfaced with specific reference to the context of having worked in the hospitality industry. I
am working at a travel and tourism organisation which works for arranging personal trips of
people nationally and internationally. My role in the organisation is of a trip advisor and planner
for which I need to communicate with the clients on what kind of holiday they are looking for and
based on that I give suggestions and upon finalisation of the destination the entire trip plan is to
be executed from my end. This involves briefing them on the initial stage about entire tour
package till receiving feedback about the trip on their return.
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Task 1
A. Evaluation of approaches to self-managed learning and proposing ways for
lifelong learning in personal and professional life [P1.2 and P1.2]
Self-managed learning is one of the easiest ways to facilitate development of one’s personal
and professional perspectives (Kasworm, 2003). An individual knows better about his or her
necessities for their personal and professional lives through an evaluation of the self skills and
problems. Thus, self-managed learning skills are the first initiative of the person towards the
process of development. The four stages of the Self-directed Learning Model (SDL) feature the
different stages through which an individual can access self-managed learning (Shuttleworth,
2008). The first step is to self-motivate where one enters into the learning task by taking
responsibility and planning own learning outcomes and activities. Self-management is to control
one’s behaviour and think independently to solve problems efficiently and make decisions. Self-
monitoring helps to consciously monitor the individual’s activities and actions through self-
reflection and evaluation of the thinking process. The final stage is self-modification which
enables one to change the behaviour through self-monitoring and implementing measures that
will be best suitable for causing positive change (Phillips, 2008).
The learning process is best effective when adopted for a lifelong period. A person learns
through every stage of his or her life and till the end (Watson, 2003). Thus, they need to be
adaptable to the constant learning process and be exposed to the benefits of learning and
knowledge through several ways. The most important way is the intention to learn for which
constant self-motivation is required. Lifelong learning is beneficial for an individual or personal
and professional development to be acquainted with the updated information all the time
(Kruckeberg et al., 2011). Thus, in the personal and professional life, lifelong learning can be
encouraged through one’s ability to reflect on the actions and competencies of the current role
and the future objectives. Planning to identify the skills required to enhance self-performance is
another way followed by the steps to be taken for gaining those skills and knowledge through
active participation in various learning programmes. Every detail of the process needs to be
recorded for analyzing the extent of success in attaining the objectives of lifelong learning
(Clegg and Bradley, 2006).
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B. Evaluating and discussing benefits of self-managed learning in personal and
professional context [P1.3]
Self-managed learning in the personal and professional context helps in developing positive
skills for handling issues in the personal, as well as the professional sphere, as opined by
Pashler et al. (2008). It helps to identify the problems that exist in a person that is obstructing
them from gaining full exposure to success. Identifying the problems helps in taking the
necessary measures to groom one and enhance individual capabilities that can be effectively
used in solving personal problems, managing a task efficiently and adopting approaches for
strategic management for certain situations. Self-managed learning further improves self-
resilience, self-awareness and deal with challenges without stumbling and reach the objectives
smoothly. In the organisation, self-managed learning is very effective to build relationship with
mentors, coaches, team members, colleagues, clients and other professionals (Kurdashvili and
Meskhia, 2016). Personal expertise can be easily implemented in gaining professional growth
by solving problems effectively for building a prompt and productive work environment.
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Task 2
A. Evaluating personal skills and competencies and identifying skills for
development to work professionally [P2.1 and P2.2]
A SWOT analysis will be helpful in understanding personal skills and competencies and help to
determine the developments required that will support me personally and professionally.
Strengths
 Ability to understand the need of
people
 Trustworthy
 Hard working
 Polite
 Punctual
 Dedicated
Weaknesses
 Unable to start communication instantly
 Little shaky
 Nervous while making presentation
 Lack of confidence
 No experience of academic knowledge
on hospitality
 Lack of computer skills
Opportunities
 Gain experience through dealing with
people
 Work in a team
 Enhance my expertise through work-
related tasks
 Learn from others in an organisational
context through exposure to different
work situations
 Enhance ability to manage tasks
through learning
Threats
 Lack of support in work
 Adjusting to the culture of the
workplace
 Time pressure can lead to
mismanagement
 Increasing work pressure can hamper
self-learning and reflection
Through the identification of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats I can
comprehend the skills that I need to develop to work professionally in an organisation
successfully. The personal skills always contribute to the professional enhancement of oneself
while working in an organisation. Thus, the strengths that I possess need to be regularly
reflected upon and modified to be able to grasp new changes really fast. Apart from that, the
weaknesses should be given more emphasis because there is second chance given in any
organisation for any kind of mistakes committed due to the weaknesses. Moreover, professional
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skills include a flawless expertise in communication, as that is the core for performing the
varying operations in the workplace (Cooper and Pickering, 2010). Thus, communication skill is
extremely important to be developed, along with the ability to understand the needs of the
clients and provide them the services likewise. Determination to work is necessary otherwise
boredom will hit and disrupt performance (Baum, 2002). A person needs to be confident to deal
with organisational tasks efficiently. Academic knowledge is preferred in the respective field of
work, but if an individual has the ability to work hard and adapt to the functioning of the field
through practical then nothing can be better in training the person.
B. Identifying personal development opportunities and devising a personal and
professional development plan [P2.3 and P2.4]
The opportunities that are prevalent should be utilised and implemented for personal
development which will simultaneously contribute to the professional aspect in the workplace
(Lu and Adler, 2009). The conduction of the SWOT analysis gives a full scope of the
opportunities that are available in my case. I can understand what the clients want, thus it would
be convenient for me to gain more experience while dealing with the people. In the meantime, I
can also work on my communication skills through increased interaction and initiating
conversations with the clients and other professionals associated with the organisation. I can
work on my existing expertise through the work related programmes that will ultimately
contribute to my personal development as well. It will also help in enhancing my management
skills and enable to complete projects within stipulated deadlines.
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A personal and professional development plan will surface the basic requirements to work
effectively in the hospitality industry, as specific skills are much important to work in the sector.
Development Skills Action Plan Time Period Objectives
Planning Skills  Active
interaction
with clients to
understand
their
requirements
 Do research
on
destinations
and related
aspects to
provide
detailed
information to
the clients and
present ideas
 Monitoring the
undertaken
processes and
seek expert
guidance
12 months In the tourism and
travel organisation
planning is very
important as every
client has to be
presented the best
plans as per their
preferences that will
be facilitated by
proper planning.
Decision-making
Skills
 Thorough
involvement in
the process of
handling
projects
 Taking
decisions for
long-term
benefit of the
10-12 months Decision-making skills
are required in every
sector because each
of the employee has
to take responsibility
for their job roles and
conduct them
efficiently.
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organisation
 Taking
decisions and
implementing
them based on
the suitability
of the clients
Communication Skills  Patiently
listening and
understanding
the
requirements
 Expressing
ideas with full
confidence
 Social
interaction
6 months Communication is a
crucial aspect in the
travel and tourism
organisations, as the
initial level of
understanding the
client needs is
enabled through
communication.
Computer operation
Skills
 Getting trained
by some
professional
 Check out
YouTube
videos for
basic functions
6-12 months Manual tasks is
already on the way to
extinction and all the
tasks of recording and
saving data and
information are done
on computing
devices. Hence, basic
knowledge of
computer operation is
a must criterion.
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Task 3
A. Discussing ways to implement the personal and professional development plan
through development activities [P3.1 and P3.2]
After identification of the required skills and the needs for development, the next step is to work
on their implementation. The stage of reflection and identification of the needed criteria is much
important, as it helps and individual to know the areas in which they need to work better and
how the skills will be helpful once achieved successfully (Baker, 2009). Similarly, I have also
gained knowledge through my work experience and personal reflection the areas I need to put
more focus for excelling in my profession and to continue my career in the hospitality industry.
The first step to proceed is to initiate communication around my surrounding and interact with
other people at my workplace to gain knowledge on various fields which will beneficial for me
and also improve my communication skills. I will have to indulge more on occasions that involve
planning and participate with full confidence in other activities as well.
The skills needed to be developed require undertaking some developmental plans for facilitating
the change towards a positive outcome. The table below charts out the same for achieving the
planned activities.
Skills to be acquired Development plans
Planning Skills  Thinking new and innovative and
present it to the clients
 Taking active part in events and other
activities both personally and
professionally
Decision-making Skills  Try to comprehend the result for a
particular decision
 Solving problems conveniently and
included the concerned sides
Communication Skills  Verbally communicating and active
interaction
 Participating in verbal enterprises
Computer operation Skills  Regular practising
 Keeping involved in computing tasks
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B. Critically examining the process by reflecting on the aims and objectives and
discussing ways to review and update the plan [P3.3 and P3.4]
Once the entire plan was laid out, I focused on working on improving my skills for enhancing my
performance to a greater extent. On the basis of the charted actions, I started to meet people on
my own initiative and interacted with them on various topics. It not just helped me to improve my
communication, but also boosted by confidence in which I lacked. I could easily express my
opinion on several matters and my knowledge also increased through interaction with so many
people. My increasing confidence helped me to take decisions and present them in front of
others without hesitation and communicate the reasons for making such decision. Also, I tried to
build the trip plans in the most attractive way that impressed my clients. I was able to gather
basic knowledge on spreadsheet handling that was enough for me for the time being to maintain
the database effectively. My overall development reflected on my performance in my
organisation and supported my personal growth as well.
Monitoring and moderating existing strategies is always important to cope up with the demands
of time (Attard, 2016). This is beneficial working on the present skills and keeps on updating
them as new skills and talents are always evolving with contemporary demands and changes
that are constant (Dąbrowska-Paulewicz et al., 2014). The ways that were procured and
imbibed for the essential skills required in the workplace needs to be updated all the time for
facilitating constant progress of the skills so that it always gives an edge to my performance. At
one point of time, I felt the changing preferences of my clients and the usual tactics I used for
presenting them a trip plan is not working exactly as I wanted. Through observation of certain
cases, the changing trends emerged as a considerable reason. Thus, I had to work again on
presenting a new plan to my clients and communicate with them accordingly, which seemed to
work fine again.
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Task 4
A. Investigating and selecting two work-based problems in work environment and
identifying and communicating solutions [P4.1 and P4.2]
An organisation is involves a lot of work and requires active participation of all its stakeholders,
mainly the employees who are responsible for carrying out the organisational operations and
the customers on whom the success of the company depends. However, problems are obvious
regarding managing of the manifold aspects. One of the vital issues in the organisation that I am
presently employed in is related to effective communication. There are many trip advisors and
planners like me whose responsibilities are same, but some of them fail to communicate
properly regarding their business to the management level for which much confusion occurs and
manipulation of data affects the performance of the organisation. Exact information is also not
communicated to the clients that lead to grievances among them which are again a cause of
great distress. Along with this, managing the entire business processes within time is a big issue
with some of the employees. They fail to deliver services as promised to the clients. This
becomes a reason for chaos as well as incurs loss for the company.
To solve the problems, the management of the organisation has to take effective measures and
communicate them properly to the employees so that the issues can be mitigated to the
possible extent and profits can be gathered by the company (Hinojosa, 2012). As
communication is the main issues, appropriate training has to be given to the employees and
enlighten them on the importance of effective communication for the company that will
automatically impact their position in the company as well. For maintenance of records, it has to
be necessitated that each of the trip planner and advisors will record immediately about any
new client on the company’s database. There will be one responsible person who will monitor
the process and will report about any discrepancy. A similar module for all the planners and
advisors can be fixed for briefing about tour packages to the clients that will solve the problem of
misinformation. Every task will be limited to a specified time failing which the one at fault would
be penalized on certain clauses, but implementing this policy requires extreme attention so that
it does not create de-motivation among employees (Downie, 2004).
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B. Evaluating the application of effective time management approaches in varying
situations [P4.3]
Time management is integral to the outstanding performance of an organisation, as mentioned
by Phillips (2008). It is also important in our personal lives and adds quality to our individualistic
features. In my own experience, I have noticed some of the approaches are best for effective
time management both the personal and professional life. It is always convenient to chalk out
the various stages of the task and set a time frame. It enables to achieve the task without
wastage of time on confusion (Whittle and Murdoch-Eaton, 2002). The urgent tasks have to be
placed at first and finished on time, so that the next tasks in the row can be handled within their
time frames only. Planning tools are easily available these days and most convenient are the
mobile apps which easily help to record the entire process and even suggest automatic
deadlines and reminders to keep its users informed (Nestoroska and Petrovska, 2014).
Maintaining pocket diaries, monthly planners or notebooks are useful for the ones who are not
technologically advanced (Hicks et al., 2014). However, it is best to take aid of the apps which
are extremely developed and regularly updated to ease the individual’s lifestyle.
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Task 5
[Refer to PPT]
Conclusion
The assignment has elaborated on the necessity of personal and professional development and
its need in an organisational context. It involved understanding ones opportunities and
weaknesses and working on them to contribute in entirety to the professional world. Moreover,
the importance of self-managed learning in facilitating a personal and professional development
has been highlighted as one of the most effective ways to initiate the process of development
and imbibe the changes much efficiently. Personal and professional development has been
seen as a method for enhancing ones performance and growth both personally and
professionally and makes a person more confident about their strengths while trying to combat
the drawbacks of the self. Moreover, I have experienced this with my own life and felt the
changes after development in my personal life and professional world. This development is not
just for contributing to the organisations in which we work, but also helps us to feel empowered
from inside for instilling the good habits that helped me to face a lot of personal issues fruitfully.
Thus, the study is a reflection on all the ways for causing a successful development of personal
and professional aspects and its necessity in our lives.
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