Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

A reflection on the personal and professional development plan based on a group presentation on Corporate Social Responsibility of P&G. The reflection discusses the skills developed, challenges faced, and the use of democratic leadership in the group.

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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection
PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
REFLECTION

Table of Contents
Continuous Professional Development Plan.....................................................................3
The Learning Log...............................................................................................................5
Professional Development Plan Reflection.......................................................................9
Introduction.....................................................................................................................9
Skills Developed in the Journey.....................................................................................9
Key Improvement Areas with Professional Development Plan...................................11
Learning Theories and Team Performance.................................................................12
Observations from Organizational Visits......................................................................13
Conclusion...................................................................................................................13
References.......................................................................................................................14
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Continuous Professional Development Plan
Student Name:
Isaac Adeleke
Opeodu
Module Tutor:
Tanja Nathan
Ramanathan
Programme:
Developing Skills for
Business Leadership
Designation:
Post Grad. Masters
MBM
Covering the period from:
28th Feb 2019
To: 21st March 2019 Group Name: Avengers
Group
What do I want
to learn?
What will I do to
achieve this?
What resources
will I need?
What will be my
success criteria?
My target
dates for
review and
completion
Adaptability
and
Collaboration
with combined
efforts for
delivering a
good quality
work as group
activity on
CSR Class
Presentation on
a multi-
national
organization of
P & G
- I would spend
quality time
each week to
understand the
behavior of
each team
member
- I would
practice time
management
skills for
effective
presentation
- Sharing and
- UoSiL Library
Resources for
information
collection
- Computer
hardware and
software with
Internet access
for researches
- Classroom for
discussion with
the group
members
- A successful
CSR
presentation
on selective
company
- Collaboration
and
Coordination
success
without
internal
conflicts and
fallouts
By March
21st 2019
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

discussion of
ideas for open
communication
and effective
interaction.
- What’s app
group forum
for effective
communication
- Constructive
feedbacks
provided by
friends and
group
members for
upscaling the
activity
Democratic
Leadership
principles
application on
real time
situations
- I would try and
implement the
guiding
principles of
Democratic
Leadership
- Classroom for
discussion with
the group
members
- UoSiL Library
Resources for
theories and
case studies
- Computer
hardware and
software with
Internet access
for researches
- The
successful
collaboration
of team
members to
deliver end
results
- The conflict
resolution
strategies
improvisation,
in case of any
issues
By March
21st 2019
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

The Learning Log
Date Background to
my activity
What Happened? Reflections on what
I learned
How did I apply
the Learning?
28/02/19 With mutual
discussion, our
group was
Created and
named Avenger
I managed to
share and list
contacts. Phone
numbers &
Email addresses
were
exchanged.
Meeting
schedule was
initiated and
discussed under
my lead
I formed a
WhatsApp Group
for regular
communications
and updates.
I realized it would
not be easy for all
of us to meet often,
due to other
engagements of the
group member and
the limited time in
campus, therefore
we must meet in
school hours
adjusting other free
time
- I realized people
were not very
comfortable
compromising
their free times
for academic
activity
- It was difficult
to make people
willingly
participate into
active discussion
- I made people
comfortable
with formal
interactions
and a brief
about each
other
- I initiated the
communication
by quoting the
primary
purpose and
why it was
important for
all of us to
initiate the task
06/03/19 The Group
agreed for the
Company
suggested by
one of the group
members, as
P&G, having
presence in
Indonesia &
Brazil
I made efforts
for findings and
performed
initial research
on CSR
activities
Group members
suggested various
companies. We
discussed and
mutually accepted
to go on with the
P&G company
All of us was
requested to make
the initial
investigations for
the CSR scenario
by P&G in the two
countries
- I learned that
people were not
comfortable
sharing authority
- Not everyone
was good at
everything and
initial load for
researching and
presentation
sparked a
noticeable
tension
- The presentation
performer
should have
good
communication
skills and many
team members
were hesitant to
- I understood
the authority
conflict and
decided to act
as a mediator
following
democratic
style
- It was mutually
discussed, and
I allocated a
stronger and
extrovert
member to
present
- I distributed
responsibilities
that any area of
presentation
does not get
left behind due
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Date Background to
my activity
What Happened? Reflections on what
I learned
How did I apply
the Learning?
become the
performers
to lack of
ownership like
researching,
designing,
collecting
information
and searching
for
presentation
templates
07/03/19 I initiated the
information
exchange cycle
by emailing my
research content
to others
All the group
researchers
came up their
findings on the
company P&G
and exchanged
ideas
There was a delay
from the design
group due to
misunderstanding
between the two of
them
Due to lack of
authority and
ownership, the
conflict did not
come out easily
- I realized the
rising tension
and delay in
proceeding with
the task
- I arranged for
responsibilities
and divided
amongst each,
with reporting of
progress on
tasks as
mandatory for
all to me and on
common group
- I was able to
break down the
work
specification of
each members
with
transparency and
according to
each person’s
skills
- My researches
on time
management
skills and
findings helped
here to
mitigate the
risk of delay
- Internal
conflicts were
resolved with
transparency
and
responsibility
sharing
- Democratic
leadership
skills were
practiced to
resolve
conflicts
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Date Background to
my activity
What Happened? Reflections on what
I learned
How did I apply
the Learning?
13/03/19 The Group had
a meeting to
discuss the
information
gathered by
each member
I requested each
member to post
their findings
via email as the
scheduled
meeting was
cancelled
Meeting was
postponed due to
important lecture
classes
- Too much data
was exchanged
with less time
over emails
- There was not
enough time for
all findings and
for scrutinizing
the content
collected
- I weighed the
content
exchanged and
realized about
its bulk, later
informed the
same to all
team members
for saving time
on presentation
data
14/03/19 I was able to
research deeply
on the topics
allocated to me.
Due to lack of
meeting time, I
initiated
discussion on
WhatsApp
I found that the
information
gathered was
difficult to fit into
the limited slide
space.
I suggested 2
members from the
group to design
and show the
design when next
we meet
- I learnt that
effective
approach
towards
presentation
making could
help in
delivering a
better ppt
- Collaborative
effort was the
key to reaching
the solution to
problem
- With my
democratic
leadership skill
practice
efficiency, I
was asked to
allocate slides
to team
members for
creation
- I also advise
the members to
dedicate more
attention
toward the
preparation to
manage time
shortage
15/03/19 I coordinated all
the information
to the 2 other
member that
took upon
themselves to
design the
presentation
outlook for the
group
Information that
was relevant was
gathered and
shared with the
allocated team
members for the
presentation
slides.
Each member
really contributed
- I realized that
willful and
coordinated
steps can deliver
outputs even on
shorter deadlines
- I supported and
helped each
team member
to deliver the
task smoothly
with added and
edited content
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Date Background to
my activity
What Happened? Reflections on what
I learned
How did I apply
the Learning?
The group
agreed to share
further
information on
CRS by further
emailing the
group.
and participated
willingly
20/03/19 Avengers group
checked on the
progress on
slides and other
information
gathered.
I advised the
group to
consider
reducing the
information
gathered to fit
time frame.
Each member
identifies the part
of the slides
wanted to discuss
during the class
presentation
The overall
summary from the
presentation was
not clearly coming
out due to
excessive data
- Analysis
Paralysis
situation
surfaced, and we
figured directed
and clearer
approach with
only relevant
and to the point
communication
was the key to
effective
presentation
- I understood
the deadlock
we were
entering and
highlighted the
scenario,
bringing
everyone’s
attention to the
original
picture.
- We were able
to edit all
information as
a team.
21/03/19 Having checked
all that have
been done, my
group
rechecked our
presentation and
felt a sense of
satisfaction.
We were all
notified of where
each member
needs to be
prompted to
deliver its
presentation giving
final aesthetics
look
- I had certain
personal
situation and
was unable to
rehearse with
my presentation
partner.
- It was an
emotional blow
for me, and the
team understood
the concerns and
supported me
- I learned that
with the right
team spirit we
were able to
deliver a
quality
presentation
- Participative
approach is
better than
autocratic
scenario
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Professional Development Plan Reflection
Introduction
A professional development plan is a guided method of sequential steps that enable the
individual to take an insight of the past events, observe the shortcomings and draw a
growth strategy to meet the future needs and challenges. This plan can also be
extended and elaborated to include the personal learning attributes (Perry, 2017). It is
not a very formal approach but can be customized as per the needs of the individual.
Here the professional development plan is based out of a group presentation planning
and delivering for Corporate Social Responsibility of P&G.
Skills Developed in the Journey
During the assignment, six people were put together in a group. We all mutually decided
that the group name is going to be the ‘Avengers’, looking at the different personalities.
The good part was we were all happy to be put together. The major concern post
finalization of group was the common time of meeting and coordination. Since each one
of us had different classes and schedules, it became difficult for us to get together and
discuss the task. With the mutual understanding we decided to meet together, once a
week to give the final shape to the presentation, discuss ideas and strategize the
approach towards activity completion (Rhode & Richter, 2017).
Initially, it appeared to be very difficult, getting along with different personalities and
decision making. I realized I was able to maintain good interpersonal connection with all
my teammates and was able to act as a connecting link. I took some initiation steps and
acted as the driving force throughout the activity. I was happy that my team trusted me
and coordinated and went along. After initial set of certain hiccups, we were able to fall
in track. The major challenges we faced was of the lack of communication that led to
delays (Cullingford, 2017). Improper responsibility sharing added the complexities and
then I realized the urgent need of time management and leadership skills to put the
team together.
With the first-hand experience of a part of dynamic group, that was both talented and
hardworking, the only struggle was with the responsibility and ownership sharing. I
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

realized that my interpersonal connection could play a role here and I adopted the skill
set of democratic leadership and played a key driving force in the group. (Patterson,
2019) The team coordinated and I was assigned the key responsibility to share
respective duties within the team and to observe the work completion, as per the
internally discussed deadlines. I also acted as the responsibility distributer and
information hub for exchange during completion. With the experience and requirement
of the task at hand, the areas of improvement of my own became evidently clear and I
acknowledged the growth strategy, with planned approach to build atleast intermediary
levels of skills required for two objectives –
a) Adaptability and collaboration in team efforts with time management
b) Learning democratic leadership principles
What do I want
to learn?
What will I do to
achieve this?
What resources
will I need?
What will be my
success criteria?
My target
dates for
review and
completion
Adaptability
and
Collaboration
with combined
efforts for
delivering a
good quality
work as group
activity on
CSR Class
Presentation on
a multi-
national
organization of
P & G
- I would spend
quality time
each week to
understand the
behavior of
each team
member
- I would
practice time
management
skills for
effective
presentation
- Sharing and
discussion of
ideas for open
communication
and effective
interaction.
- UoSiL Library
Resources for
information
collection
- Computer
hardware and
software with
Internet access
for researches
- Classroom for
discussion with
the group
members
- What’s app
group forum
for effective
communication
- A successful
CSR
presentation
on selective
company
- Collaboration
and
Coordination
success
without
internal
conflicts and
fallouts
- Constructive
feedbacks
provided by
friends and
group
members for
upscaling the
activity
By March
21st 2019
Page 10 of 15
Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Democratic
Leadership
principles
application on
real time
situations
- I would try and
implement the
guiding
principles of
Democratic
Leadership
- Classroom for
discussion with
the group
members
- UoSiL Library
Resources for
theories and
case studies
- Computer
hardware and
software with
Internet access
for researches
- The
successful
collaboration
of team
members to
deliver end
results
- The conflict
resolution
strategies
improvisation,
in case of any
issues
By March
21st 2019
Tale 1: Continuous Professional Development Plan
Key Improvement Areas with Professional Development Plan
The identified key improvement areas of team collaboration and democratic leadership
traits adoption were the primary requisites in the goal of the professional development
plan, that I aligned with the completion of the activity. It was realized in the beginning
stage that certain basic leadership characteristics of discipline, getting things done,
improvisation, time management and delivering under pressure will become part of the
project (Jaeger, 2018). I faced many professional and personal challenges while
completing the task and tried to stay strong and on top of everything.
The need of getting together to discuss problems, the management of time in school for
discussions and information exchange were the initial barriers that made working
together difficult. These barriers were due to lack of coordination efforts, failed sense of
responsibility by each member, including me and authority concerns. But as an act of
good faith, that the assignment will teach us a greater learning, apart from the
mentioned objective, I decided to get along with it with complete willingness. I realized
that adaptability of team members, making strong interpersonal bonds and
communicating effectively is the key to delivering the task effectively (Webb & Diamond-
Wells, 2017). It was then an urgent sense of collaboration within team took over and I
introduced all in a formal way, making the objective clear and exchanging numbers and
email ids. I also created a WhatsApp group for ease of information exchange.
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

The other challenge was the lack of responsibility for the various phases of task
completion. Initially the meeting was decided for once a week, but later due to other
priority lectures they got cancelled, there was no initiation for the research initiation on
the company decided and the team faced a delay with performance due to a small
misunderstanding and lack of communication. This brought the need of a common
touch point for all who could monitor and push the team members to perform in case if
someone is lacking on the time decided. My good and strong relationship with team
puts me into a place that the team willingly coordinated and asked me to decide and
share responsibility and to take control of team progress. I interacted with all, took their
opinion, collected feedback, shared with others, ensured that the members were
communicating transparently and coordinating well. This upscaled my leadership skills
and I learnt the principles of Democratic form of leadership (Packard, 2015).
Learning Theories and Team Performance
In order to cope up with the small hitches, I decided to take the path of theoretical model
explanations of scenario in a team. I searched and identified the concerns usually
teams have, the suggested and supported solutions for managing those, the case
studies highlighting conflicts and many more (Willingham & Hughes, 2015). Learning
theories captivated most of my attention, where I realized the team’s learning stint was
driven by what factors. It helped me figure out the methods of motivation and interaction
with each and I was able to make the right balance between all.
B.F Skinner highlighted the Behaviorism, where learning is an outcome of a behavior
change from the people (Goddard, 2018). The change can be forced or self-initiated
and can be new in nature as well. The association between an action and its reaction is
a triggering event for learning from the concept (Khalil, 2016). When the designers of
the presentation in the activity delayed the overall progress, a sense of tension for
missing the deadline changed the behavior of team members. We all committed
ourselves to deliver the content compromising other events. With the next postulate of
cognitivism, which raises learning due to a drive with internal behavior, I observed a
drastic change in me (Goldie, 2016). The responsibility of team which fell on my
shoulders made me more alert with the information being shared and I concluded the
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

analysis paralysis paradox, which took shape in the group. We were all analyzing and
collecting a lot of information that was not fitting into the time window for presentation
that we had, hence the discussions for information overload came into picture.
Observations from Organizational Visits
The organizational visits and trips that were made earlier did help in managing the task
and its delivery well. When I faced an emotional setback, I lost the track of the activity
and my performance at the task got ruined. It is then I aligned my personal emotional
strength building with the professional development plan (Hansman, 2016). The
experience from interacting with staff members of organizations as part of human
resourcing skill development, I learnt that problems are with everyone. It is the difficult
scenarios that makes us stronger and brighter. It is the pressure underground that turns
the coal into a diamond.
The visiting speakers notes to have emotional and empathic intelligence while
managing a team made me realize that I needed to be performing my activities that are
on my shoulders (Alter, 2017). Although I was unable to make rehearsals with my
partner for the presentation, but I made most of my efforts to deliver the project on time.
Therefore, this project became a sharp learning memory for me.
Conclusion
A professional development plan in a group that decides to coordinate and deliver
together gets easily blended. Not only does the professional skills gets upscaled, but
some of the personal improvement areas also gets highlighted. A professional
development plan builds strong characteristics of leadership by identifying the
leadership trait naturally occurring in someone. The experience of the project is unique,
and I am confident that the learnings will help build a brighter future leader in me.
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

References
Alter, S., 2017. Building a strong bench: your leadership development plan is your"
secret sauce". Journal of Property Management, 82(1), pp. 18-23.
Cullingford, C., 2017. 13 Institutional Development and Professional Needs: Some
Reflections. Professional development and institutional needs, p. 223.
Goddard, M., 2018. Extending BF Skinner's Selection by Consequences to
Personality Change, Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Skill Learning, and Language.
Review of General Psychology, 22(4), pp. 421-426.
Goldie, J., 2016. Connectivism: A knowledge learning theory for the digital age?.
Medical teacher, 38(10), pp. 1064-1069.
Hansman, C., 2016. Adult learning theories in mentoring relationships and models.
Theory and Practice of Adult and Higher Education, p. 215.
Jaeger, A., 2018. Achieving business excellence through self-assessment for
personal and professional excellence. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, 29(13-14), pp. 1612-1632.
Khalil, M. a. E. I., 2016. Applying learning theories and instructional design models
for effective instruction. Advances in physiology education, 40(2), pp. 147-156.
Packard, T. a. J. L., 2015. An outcomes evaluation of a leadership development
initiative. Journal of Management Development, 34(2), pp. 153-168.
Patterson, C., 2019. Developing Expertise and Personal Professional Learning—A
Global Perspective. In: Enacted Personal Professional Learning. Singapore:
Springer, pp. 11-30.
Perry, M., 2017. Personal Professional Development Plans. Canadian Journal of
Medical Laboratory Science, 79(1), p. 8.
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Personal and Professional Development Plan Reflection

Rhode, J. & Richter, S. a. M. T., 2017. Designing personalized online teaching
professional development through self-assessment. TechTrends, 61(5), pp. 444-
451.
Webb, T. & Diamond-Wells, T. a. J. D., 2017. Career mapping for professional
development and succession planning. Journal for nurses in professional
development, 33(1), pp. 25-32.
Willingham, D. & Hughes, E. a. D. D., 2015. The scientific status of learning styles
theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), pp. 266-271.
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