Personal Development Plan: Achieving HR Career Goals and Objectives

This essay presents a comprehensive personal development plan designed for self-improvement and career advancement, specifically focusing on a career in human resources. It outlines the concepts of personal and professional development, emphasizing the importance of setting short, medium, and long-term goals. The essay details how to break down a long-term objective, such as becoming a senior HR manager, into achievable steps, including improving interpersonal skills, communication, and job performance. It highlights the value of each type of goal in maintaining motivation and ensuring progress. The essay also provides a practical example of how to progress from a human resource associate to an assistant HR manager, illustrating the importance of consistent effort and strategic planning. Finally, it stresses the significance of a personal development plan in fostering self-awareness, enhancing skills, and achieving desired career outcomes, concluding with a structured plan for the student to follow. This plan includes steps like developing interpersonal skills, communication, and job performance to achieve promotions and appraisals within the HR department, and setting an early morning routine.

Running head: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note

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A person can indulge in personal development plan throughout their entire lifespan by
improving and shaping their skills to make sure that they are effective in their services. In
other words, it helps to improve the performance of an individual and enables them to make
use of their full potential in their professional life. This essay discusses about the personal
development plan which is developed by the student so that they could focus and pay
attention to their field of interest to achieve short, medium and long-term career goals. As per
the course, the student has chosen a career in human resource after completion of college.
The goal of the student would be to become the senior human resource manager of the
corporate in a span of the next four years. To achieve this goal the student has divided it into
short, medium and long term objectives following a proper personal development plan, which
is discussed in the essay. This essay is structured in a single section. First, it mentions the
concepts of personal development and professional development next the concepts of short
term, medium term and long term objectives are mention along with examples related to
personal career. Lastly, the value of personal development plan is discussed along with
personal examples.
Personal development refers to the concept of identifying and having awareness about
one’s talent and potential and improving them to enhance the quality of lifestyle one is living
in (Tasker 2015). The process of personal development takes place throughout an
individual’s life cycle because a person is never satisfied when one need is satisfied another
need of higher level takes its place. In order to fulfil the never ending needs one needs to
develop and improve their skills thus the process of personal development continues.
Personal development is a wider concept as it covers different aspects such as personal
development in context of educational institutes would refer to programs, methods,
techniques, tools and analysis used to support individual development in companies. Personal
development of an individual includes enhancing self-awareness, developing self-esteem,

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self-knowledge, developing talents, fulfilling needs and enhancing lifestyle. Apart from self-
development personal development also includes evolving other people by mentoring,
coaching and guiding people. Personal development helps to visualise the future and how it
will be in the next couple of months or years, identifying the goal and structuring it
accordingly will make it easier to achieve the desired career, employees are motivated and
loyal which leads to better performance and effectiveness of the organisation. The concept of
professional development signifies that to improve the performance, skills and capabilities of
the employees, the employer provides development programme to them through formal
education, coaching, reflective supervision, technical assistance and on the job training in the
organisation or outside the organisation through vestibular training (Stewart 2014).
Professional development helps to assign the right people at the right place as only quality
employees are selected through it. This keeps the employee up-to-date with the current trends
in the market and enhances their skills accordingly. There are different types of professional
developments depending on the type of job done by the individual such as a teacher or
professor would need education and knowledge to enhance their skills, business executives
mostly need leadership skills, analytical skills and effectiveness skills.
A target which can be achieved quickly is referred as short term goals (Toffler 2016).
It is the target which could be achieved in the near future, such as a day or a week or a month,
or it can be a year also (Hayes 2015). Short term goals help to manage time efficiently which
eventually helps in achieving the long term career goals. These goals show a straight and
clear path which can be achieved very easily and therefore; it helps in reducing delay. Before
setting a short-term goal, the individual should have a definite long-term objective; for
example, in this case, the student wants to become a senior human resource manager within a
span of 4 years. This long-term objective is divided into short-term goals which can be easily
achieved in a short span of time for example; a good human resource executive needs to have

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excellent interpersonal skills, therefore, the student should focus on developing high
emotional intelligence which will ensure self-awareness and self-development as well as help
the student to connect with others through empathy. The student should keep on sharping
their communication and listening skills as these are the main aspects of a human resource
executive. After completion of the educational course, the student applies for a post of a
human resource associate in a reputed firm, understand the organization policies, job roles
and adhere to them by meeting the required targets so that the chances of appraisal are more.
Among the human resource department, there are various kinds of professions such as
consultants, specialists, generalist hence the student must have the knowledge of all the main
functions of human resource and become expertise in any one of them. The value of a short-
term goal lies in the hands of the individual on how well they can handle situations and make
progress with time. Everyone desires of having an enhanced version of themselves however a
person needs to set goals and achieve them with perseverance, patience and commitment
(Steca, et al. 2016).
It becomes difficult for an individual to stay inspired for a long-term objective,
therefore these short and medium term goals are required to influence the individual for the
final achievement (Overview of Medium‐Term Goals and Plans 2016). For example, the
student has set a long-term objective to be achieved within a range of 4 years therefore the
medium term goal will take a time-span of 2 to 3 years to get accomplished. A medium term
goal should be in align with the long term goal. Thus, the medium term goal for the student
will be to become an assistant human resource manager for the selected reputed firm.
Achieving a medium term goal would bring the individual much closer to the long term goal.
A medium term goal has sufficient time for making progress yet these are not that long to
make a person feel demotivated (Fffl.councilforeconed.org 2020). For example, the student is
able to get promotion after successful completion of one year. During the first promotion, the

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student can opt for the role of senior human resource executive and then in the next appraisal
student can apply for the role of an assistant human resource manager. Thus achieving the
medium term objective within a span of 2 to 3 years. Instead of making a single medium term
objective the student can make as many objective as possible such as setting a medium term
objective for every promotion. The student should follow a systematic approach for achieving
these goals. For becoming an assistant human resource manager, the student should address
the job targets such as recruiting the maximum number of employees each month, improving
the relationship with employees. Overall the performance of the human resource executive
should increase by being efficient in the job. Addressing the performance targets will help to
build a positive reputation in the organisation and thus getting promoted to the nest hierarchy
is easier. A good medium term objective can enhance the motivation of the student for
example, after the achievement of each medium-term objective the student needs to give
some self-rewards to remain motivated for the long term objective.
Long term objectives are those which take many years to get accomplished by an
individual (Datu, Yuen and Chen 2018). For instance, the student wants to become a senior
human resource manager after four long years in a reputed firm. These long term goals are
referred to as a vision of the future along with it brings success in life (Salles, Cohen and
Mueller 2014). Achieving the position of a senior human resource manager after four years of
working in the firm will be the most satisfying dream ever and it increases the self-esteem of
the employee as they are happy with their dream job. Achieving a long term goal needs
proper planning and ample of time. The time required to accomplish this long term objective
will help the employee to gain the skills needed for the position of a senior human resource
manager. A long term objective are based on the personal values of an individual as these
values define the choices and actions of an individual. These goals is possible to achieve after
breaking it into small and medium term goals. Successful career growth is possible through

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long-term goals as this ensures planning about the desirable job. These goals provide focus to
an individual by making meaningful progress in their life (Datu 2017). However, the work
done for the achievement of long term objectives should be productive and significant rather
than having more options and making the worst choice. For example, in order to become a
senior human resource executive, the employee should strive for improving performance by
meeting or over exceeding the monthly or weekly targets rather than choosing to shift jobs or
giving less productivity or showing fatigue at work. If an individual wants to achieve the long
term goals then they have to reduce the number of options for decision making. For example,
the employee can set up a morning routine like working more in the morning hours as that is
the time when people are more productive. A long term goal is more achievable when started
working from backward for example, thinking about the achievement, how did the individual
reach there and then accordingly planning all the steps based on what one can do at present
(Travers, Morisano and Locke 2015).
Personal development plan refers to developing a plan based on aims, strategies,
ideologies and awareness for self-improvement (Tasker 2015). This is a detailed execution
plan which helps an individual to enhance them career wise and personally. This plan
identifies the strengths and weaknesses needed for self-improvement also involves plans on
how to achieve the goals. This personal development enhances certain skills which are
required for career growth and helps to set an aim to strive for (Chen, Bao and Huang 2014).
Thus keeping the employee motivated in their professional life. A personal development plan
helps to make an individual dedicated and enthusiastic to their job, the individuals also has
the ability to plan. While making a personal development plan the personal targets should
also be identified as they are equally important. By creating a personal development plan an
individual can discover their true passion and can sharpen the skills to improve and achieve
the goal. Developing a personal development plan is the easiest way to achieve the desired

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goals in life (PLANNING 2018). The main importance of a personal development plan is that
it helps to cherish the personality of an individual. For example the personal development
plan for the above identified goals of the candidate who wants a career in human resource
would be:
 Every personal growth should be appreciated
 Developing interpersonal relationship
 Developing better communication and listening skills
 Enhancing job performance and monthly targets from the start of the job
 Achieving promotions and appraisals for reaching the position of a human resource
manager after completion of one year as human resource associate (Stewart, 2016).
 Setting an early morning routine
(This personal development plan has a pictorial depiction in the appendix)
Hence from this essay, it can be concluded that personal development plan is required to
create a purpose of life and set some targets which can be achieved over time. The personal
development plan can be for individual purpose or for work-life also. The targets set in the
plan are long-term objectives and it needs to be divided into short term and medium-term
objectives to make the target achievable and so that the individual does not lose interest and
motivation in the set goal. To make the personal development plan, effective individuals
should reduce the number of options from their life so that they do not take any wrong
decision. This essay shows examples of the goals and personal development plan formulated
by the student who wants to achieve the position in the human resource department of a
reputed company.

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References
Chen, G., Bao, J. and Huang, S., 2014. Developing a scale to measure backpackers’ personal
development. Journal of Travel Research, 53(4), pp.522-536.
Datu, J.A.D., 2017. Sense of relatedness is linked to higher grit in a collectivist setting.
Personality and Individual Differences, 105, pp.135-138.
Datu, J.A.D., Yuen, M. and Chen, G., 2018. Exploring determination for long-term goals in a
collectivist context: A qualitative study. Current Psychology, 37(1), pp.263-271.
Fffl.councilforeconed.org. (2020). [online] Available at:
http://fffl.councilforeconed.org/documents/978-1-56183-694-9-visual-lesson-10.pdf
[Accessed 30 Jan. 2020].
Hayes, S.C., 2015. Analytic goals and the varieties of scientific contextualism. In The act in
context (pp. 126-142). Routledge.
Overview of Medium‐Term Goals and Plans. (2016). Available at: https://www.kyoto-
u.ac.jp/en/about/operation/documents/goalsandplans.pdf [Accessed 6 Feb. 2020].
PLANNING, C., 2018. Personal Development Plan.
Salles, A., Cohen, G.L. and Mueller, C.M., 2014. The relationship between grit and resident
well-being. The American Journal of Surgery, 207(2), pp.251-254.

8PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Steca, P., Monzani, D., Greco, A., D’Addario, M., Cappelletti, E. and Pancani, L., 2016. The
effects of short-term personal goals on subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies,
17(4), pp.1435-1450.
Stewart, C., 2014. Transforming professional development to professional learning. Journal
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Stewart, J., 2016. Personal development plan. In Encyclopedia of Human Resource
Management. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Tasker, F., 2015. How to prepare a personal development plan. BMJ, 351, p.h4603.
Toffler, A., 2016. Writing SMART, short-term outcome objectives.
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pp.224-241.

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Appendix
Skill Current
Ability
Target
Ability
Development
Opportunity
Time Frame
1st Priority Developing
communication
and listening skill
Moderate
level
Highest
level
By participating in
various college activities
Within 6
months from
the start of
job
2nd
Priority
Developing inter-
personal skill
Moderate
level
Highest
level
By interacting with other
people and connecting
with them through
empathy.
Within 1
year from the
start of the
job
3rd Priority Setting an early
morning routine
to enhance job
performance
Low level Highest
level
Through regular practice.
It helps in achieving
higher job performance
From the
start of the
job
Figure: Personal development plan
Source: created by the author