Professional Development for Strategic Managers

Need to pass turnitin\r\n-Refer attached file for questions, this is Pearson BTEC Level 7

Professional
development for
Strategic Managers

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Appropriate methods to evaluate personal skills to attain strategic goals............................1
1.2 Techniques to assess professional skills required to support strategic.................................2
2.1 Carry out skill audit to evaluate strategic skills needed to meet current and future
leadership requirement................................................................................................................3
2.2 Appropriate technique to determine preferred learning style...............................................4
3.1 Personal development plan...................................................................................................5
3.2 Suitable method to assess outcomes of a PDP......................................................................7
3.3 Impact of own learning against achievement of strategic goals...........................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Professional development is the learning in order to earn and also maintain professional
document to gain informal learning opportunities. This is used to improve knowledge as well
as skills in order to facilitate the individuals and to increase their achievements as well. The
current report is also helps to provide deep understanding related to personal and professional
development. The chosen firm for this report is Tesco which is a top multinational company
and the chosen profile is Strategic manager. Therefore, study describe different methods to
evaluate the personal skills to attain strategic goals and then apply techniques to determine
professional skills which is required to support strategic direction within a firm. Moreover,
report will provide a skill audit to evaluate strategic skills to meet future leadership requirement
and also apply appropriate techniques to determine learning style. Moreover, report provide
personal development plan to meet leadership development requirement. Further report will
provide suitable method to assess outcomes and then evaluate the impact of own learning
against the achievement of strategic goals.
1.1 Appropriate methods to evaluate personal skills to attain strategic goals
Personal skills are referred as soft skills which are not easy to teach, these skills are
known as interpersonal skills. Therefore, when the person have a strong personal skills then
they may easily communicate the ideas and also listen well to others. Or else, everyone has an
ability to do something and every individuals have uses these skills in order to perform the
work in better manner (Hildebrand, 2018). Further, for a strategic manager personal skills are
time management skills, effective delegation, stress management, problem solving skills etc.
There are variety of methods that are used to evaluate the personal skills and these are as
mention below:
Feedback from the team: one of the best method that helps to realize the strength and
weakness of an individual. In this method, a candidate or a strategic manager may ask for the
feedback and then realize about own competencies. Therefore, in this situation, sometimes
some team members may provide wrong comment and this in turn leads to wrong results. For
example, in order to determine own personal skills, it is analyzed that strategic manager may
take feedback from the other team and this in turn helps to realize the key strength and
weakness.
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Prepare self- assessment: Self assessment is the tool that is used to determine own
strength and weakness. For that a strategic manager may use questionnaire in which range of
questions are asked that helps to determine the own competencies. Further, this assessment will
further provide overall evaluation of the skills which an individual posses (Christie and et.al.,
2018). For example, to determine the overall strength and weakness, individual may use their
own designed questions that helps to analyze their strength.
Take an Online behavior test: Another good method that assist to evaluate own
strength and weakness related to personal skills. Further, it is also analyzed that this online
behavior test is used to observe and describe the correct behavior of an individual. This
behavior test will assist to analyze whether an individual posses strong skills such that time
management skills, decision making skills, problem solving skills etc.
1.2 Techniques to assess professional skills required to support strategic
Professional skills are those skills which are career competencies which are required in
future. Therefore, these skills are extremely important in the business world because it helps a
business to handle the workload and also act such that it can determine their success and failure.
Thus, these skills are leadership skills, critical thinking skills and analytical skills that assist to
determine the success criteria (Kroll and Dussias, 2017). There are many techniques that assist
to determine the professional skill of an individual such that,
SWOT analysis which is one of the most important technique that assist an individual to
determine their strength and weakness. Further, this tool is comprises of four major key element
i.e. strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Such that in strength, strategic manager of
Tesco may determine own strength i.e. those competencies or characteristic which are consider
as an advantage for an individual. Next is weaknesses, which is loopholes or weak areas that
may affect the overall future plan of an individual. Opportunities which refers to favorable
aspect that assist an individual to provide another possibility for the individual. Last is Threat,
which shows the point that affect the professional career of an individual (Sangster, 2017).
For example, in order to determine the professional skills, being a strategic manager I
use SWOT analysis in which I determine my strength and weak point. Moreover, through this
method I determine that posses strong leadership skills but I lack decision making abilities and
then I make personal developmental plan In order to overcome these weakness. Therefore, in
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this way, strategic manager of Tesco may easily determine own skills or competencies and then
take actions accordingly.
2.1 Carry out skill audit to evaluate strategic skills needed to meet current and future leadership
requirement
For skill audit, Brunel skill audit tool is used that helps to determine the main
competencies. These skills are as mention below:
Rating scale
Need improvement Good Excellent
Skill audit
Skills Rating
Project management skills
Communication skills
Decision making skill
Organizational skill
Statistical knowledge
Analytical skills
Interpersonal skills
Time management skills
Ability to multitask
Leadership skills
Negotiation skills
Problem solving skills
Team work abilities
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In order to evaluate the strategic skills, SWOT analysis is used that assist to determine
the overall strength and weaknesses. Further, to determine and evaluate the skills which assist
to meet the current and future leadership requirement within Tesco. These is as mention below:
Strength Weaknesses
 I posses string project management
skills because I have a good experience
how to deal with complex project
 I have strong organizational skills so
that I will easily manage the work
accordingly and delegate duties others.
 I prefer to work in a team, because
working in a team will help to enhance
current knowledge (Davies, Curtin and
Robson, 2017).
 Also posses strong analytical skills, and
good statistical knowledge.
 I also deal with complex problem and
work accordingly.
 I also negotiate others, because of
having strong negotiation skills.
 I posses low written communication
skills and due to which I cannot
communicate words with other in
written format.
 I cannot take strong decision because I
influence from people.
 I also lack interpersonal skills and time
management skills due to which it
affect my overall work in opposite
manner.
 I poss low leadership skills and that is
why, I prefer to work in a team where I
cannot take decision alone.
Opportunities Threats
 As I posses strong organization skills
and negotiation skills, it develop an
opportunity in sales field.
 I also posses strong strategic
management skills which assist me to
looking for strategic manager in Tesco.
 Job uncertainty is the strongest threat
 Candidate who posses similar
qualification may also consider as a
threat.
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2.2 Appropriate technique to determine preferred learning style
There are many learning techniques that helps to determine current learning styles such
that Witkin's Field- dependence, kagan's Impulsivity approach, Kolbs experimental learning
model. But among all, Kolbs learning style is consider best technique which describe four
different styles such that :
Diverging: This style is used for sensitive people,who have different perception. They
also prefer to watch things and then make conclusion. (Schultz, McEwen and Griffiths, 2016)
Assimilating: In this style, people prefer good and clear information where they can
logically explore the problem and are more interested in concepts and abstract.
Converging: this type of learner are problem solver such that they apply their own
learning in order to solve practical issues. These people take technical task and also tend to be
unemotional.
Accommodating: Candidate who posses this style are prefer to do things practically
and they are also attached with the challenges and also solve problem spontaneous.
Among all, I think I posses converging learning style because I am quite less concerned
with the people and always prefer to choose practical issues so that it will help me to enhance
my problem solving skills and also assist me to generate new ideas that also assist to raise my
professional skills (Watson and et.al., 2019). Further, it is analyzed that this learning style also
assist me to attain my future goals of becoming strategic manager.
3.1 Personal development plan
Skills for
development
Importance Strategies required to
develop skills
Time frame
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Communication
skills
Communication skills
is very important to
develop, which make
me able to
communicate in team
and with consumers.
When I develop this
skill I can keep my
team morale high and
support by resolving
their issues in time
before they go out of
hand.
In order to develop
communication skills, I
had to make strategy, I
can start communicating
with my workers and
other members, that help
to develop and improve
my skills.
7 days
Decision making
skill
It is one of the most
significance skill which
I need to develop, as it
help me to take better
decision in critical
situations.
Before taking decision, I
will make discussion with
my senior and analyse the
whole situation that help
me while taking
judgement for further
benefits. I will try to
avoid making impulsive
and emotional charged
decisions that also support
for developing this skill in
effective way.
10 days
Interpersonal
skills
By developing
interpersonal skills , I
can be able to interact
with other people
through effective
Active listening is one of
the best way to develop
this skill as it helps to
build good working
relationship with others.
12 days
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communication and
listening. It is
important for me to
have interpersonal
skills because it
supports me connect
with consumers and
employees.
Time
management
skills
Development of time
management skills is
also important for me
as it permits
accomplishing task and
day to day activities in
shorter period of time
with better results.
To develop this skill, I
need to make list of tasks
that need immediate
attention, I will set up
deadlines for each
activity. I will try to set a
deadline few days before
work so that I can
complete all those tasks
that may be got in way.
15 days
Leadership skills Development of
leadership skills
through personal
development plan is
very essential as it
helps to prioritize leads
and work based on
their significance for
company.
The best way or strategy
to develop leadership
skills is developed
situational awareness. I
can be a good manager
when I will be able to see
bigger picture and
anticipate issues before
they occur. By providing
recommendation and
foresee for avoiding
potential issues I can
15 Days
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develop this skill.
3.2 Suitable method to assess outcomes of a PDP
Self monitoring is the best method can use to assess results of personal development
plan against personal work objectives (Žnidaršiè and Zupan, 2019). With this method, it is very
easy to monitor the outcomes of PDP as compare to previous objectives. It is very important
because it helps to observe and identify the gap between current and previous skills. It helps to
provide immediate feedback to people and analyse the positive results after making and
implementing PDP. Self monitoring is the source of collecting current information relate to
results of above plan against personal objectives. It helps to increase productivity and
motivational level as well as accuracy, it facilitates communication between existing workers
and management, help to avoid complexity. It supports will be individualized based on targeted
skills and people learning preferences. By getting face to face interaction, manager is able to
monitor outcome that will be gain throughout developing PDP.
In personal development context, feedback is data or information sent to group of
people about their prior skills so that they can adjust their current and future skills accordingly.
By taking feed back from seniors and other team member it is very easy to identify results after
implementing personal development plan (Church and et.al., 2018). It helps to improve
performance, retention and increase productivity rather than before. Feedback caters a clear
expectation and outcomes of performance against personal work objectives. Regular feedback
on new skills' development as well as increasing team potential for greater areas of
improvement will be beneficial in order to collect information about final results. It drives
productivity of employees aligning it with business objectives, when feedbacks given
effectively and in effective manner, it will yield great outcomes. Furthermore, it beneficial in
context of identify more areas of improvement and development that will help to gain better
success in the future.
3.3 Impact of own learning against achievement of strategic goals
Own learning offers new ways of thinking and working better than before, it impacts on
achievement of strategic gaols. As it help to improve performance, increase existing level of
knowledge that will support to achieve common and other gaols (Ohadugha, Chukwuemeka and
Babatunde, 2020). Own learning make persona able to solve their issues and achieve strategic
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goals. It helps to encourage people for working much better than before with new and
innovative ideas, it also helps to build skills that individual can use to explore new topics and
also used to handle challenging situation without taking other support. Self leaning is all about
searching new data on work in which people are interested in. seeking out data themselves
provide person a chance to learn more about their abilities and areas of improvement. As people
do more self learning, many become more confident learners, they are able to see themselves as
independent person who is capable to learn new things and do job without anyone helping
them., it can be major motivation boost for workers. In simple words, it impacts on achieving
personal as well as strategic goals positively, self learning make person able to get better ideas
use while doing job and when they perform. It is also essential since learning is good only when
such learning happens from within and not forced due to external circumstances.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that professional and personal skills
plays an effective role in the success of every individuals. Such that from the above, it has been
concluded that to evaluate personal skill, taking feedback, self- assessment is the best tool,
while on the other side, to evaluate professional skill, SWOT analysis is used. Moreover, report
also concluded that to carry out skills, Brunel skill audit is used that assist me to determine
strength, along with this, SWOT analysis is also used to determine weaknesses. Further I also
analysed that I posses Converging learning style through which I solve many problems and also
leads to new ideas. Furthermore, from above analysis it has been summarized that personal
development plan is beneficial as it helps to improve and develop new skills that I can use while
doing my job. By taking feedback from others I will be able to identify the success and
outcomes of personal development plan effectively. With the help of self learning, people can
performance efficiently and give their best.
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REFERENCES
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