Personal and Professional Development Plan: Semester 1

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Personal and Professional Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

Table of Contents
LO1: Understand how self-managed learning can enhance lifelong development ........................3
1.1 Approaches of self managed learning....................................................................................3
1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning can be encouraged.............................................................4
1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning.........................................................................................4
LO2: Be able to take responsibility for own personal and professional development 5
2.1 Current skills and competencies against professional standards...........................................5
2.2 Own development needs and activities required to meet them.............................................5
2.3 Development opportunities to meet defined needs................................................................6
2.4 Development plan..................................................................................................................7
LO3: Be able to implement and continually review own personal and professional development
plan..................................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Activities required implementing personal and professional development plan:..................9
3.2 Undertake and document development activities as planned:...............................................9
3.3 Own learning against original aims and objectives:............................................................10
3.4 Update the development plan based on feedback and evaluation:......................................11
LO4: Be able to demonstrate acquired interpersonal and transferable skills ...............................12
4.1 Solutions of work-based problems......................................................................................12
4.2 Communication in various styles at various levels..............................................................12
4.3 Evaluation and usage of time-management strategies.........................................................13
Reference List................................................................................................................................14

LO1: Understand how self-managed learning can enhance lifelong development
1.1 Approaches of self managed learning
The notion of self-managed learning refers to the process in which the learner initiates the
learning by himself/herself. In self learning the goals, aims and objectives and targets are
typically set by the individual. It is known for enhancing the learning experience drastically,
whether the student is learning for academic purposes or for the sake of professional
development (Arkorful and Abaidoo, 2015, p. 29-42). However, there are several approaches
that an individual can consider for self-managed learning. They are as follows:
 Utilizing internet: The current era is an era of globalization and it is marked by its
availability of information over the internet. The range of divergent data available on the
internet is huge and it has become very easy for an individual to access all those data for
personal development. Therefore, there is no doubt about the fact that internet is one of
the finest tools that is used by the individuals who want self-managed learning. As opined
by (Arkorful and Abaidoo, 2015, p. 29-42) any productive information gained over the
internet can directly be implemented and transferred by the learner in the organization in
which he/she works. Seminars and conferences: Seminars and conferences are effective tools of initiating the
process of self-managed learning. It provides the people the opportunity of demonstrating
their knowledge before a group of people; this not only develops the skill of the speaker
but also the listeners or the audience ends up learning new things. Development of the
presentation skill is the major contribution of seminars and conferences, which empowers
both individual and the organizational skill. Using social networking website: People these days tend to spend increasing proportion
of their time in social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and so
on. In such social networking websites individuals with the zeal of learning can join into
certain communities where they can meet new people share knowledge and information.
Apart from that, several of these websites have bulletin boards and forums from which
new topics can be learnt very smoothly. Social networking websites like YouTube have a

divergent range of data available related to various topics, which the learner can easily
access and accumulate knowledge (Hargie, 2016, p. 234-245).
1.2 Ways in which lifelong learning can be encouraged
There are several ways in which lifelong learning can be encouraged both in personal and
professional context. The ways of encouraging lifelong learning are as follows:
 Self directed learning: The things that the individual really want to learn are needed to
be identified at first. The personal interest of the learner can prove out to be beneficial to
self-direct the learning. According to (Sangster, 2017, p. 129-135), in self-directed
learning the learner tend to have better sense of their learning needs and they possess
better idea regarding which training style suits them the best.
 Prioritizing learning goals: In an organizational context it is often witnessed that due to
lack of time learning goals falls under the shadow of work goals. The employer can think
about connecting the learning goals to that of work performance to encourage lifelong
learning. Apart from that, milestones, learning KPIs along with reward system can
facilitate learning process.
 Connecting the employees with inspirational mentors: Again in an organizational
context keeping employees motivated towards new learning experiences is a daunting
task. To make the process easier the employers can take the help of formal mentorship
programs to make the employees lifelong learners. This mentorship programs helps the
employees in connecting with the more experienced colleagues and other experts of the
industry. This caters the employees with the platform of discussing challenges,
ambitions and ideas, and thus reinforces personal as well as professional learning.
1.3 Benefits of self-managed learning
 Organizational benefits: The positives of self-managed learning are the benefits of
organizational benefits. Organizational benefits of self-managed learning are as follows:
 Creates better performance at work
 Increases confidence level and motivation
 Creates the ability of taking more responsibilities
 Facilitates the process of developing better relationships and/or developing new
relationship with the fellow members of the organization

 Enhances the understanding regarding business expectations
 Individual benefits: The benefits of self-managed learning from an individual
perspective are as follows:
 Developing new skills, which can help in improvement and progression outside
the organization (Arkorful and Abaidoo, 2015, p. 29-42)
 Helps in dealing with new challenges and fulfilling personal objectives
 Facilitates the process of understanding and learning new approaches to life
 Develops the skill of dealing with self-conscience and ambiguity
LO2: Be able to take responsibility for own personal and professional development
2.1 Current skills and competencies against professional standards
Professional skills Current Level (5=Strong, 1=Weak)
Communication skill 3
Leadership skill 3
Presentation skill 3
Time management 4
Core-Knowledge 3
Decision making skill 3
The table that has been presented above portrays the necessary skills that I require in the
professional field. It has represented the skills and competencies that I need to develop and the
last section of the table shows the level of skill which I currently possess.
2.2 Own development needs and activities required to meet them
To identify own development needs my existing level of skills and the required professional
level of skills are needed to be compared so that the strategy of fulfilling the goals can be
formulated. I have identified that I have shortfalls in core knowledge, Communication,
leadership and presentation skills, and decision-making skill. The activities that are required to
develop these skills are as follows:

 Core Knowledge: In order to develop this skill I will have to indulge into the topic and
accumulate more knowledge by reading, writing and researching on various subjects
 Communication skill: Listening is an integral part of any communication; by letting
other people speak during a conversation and keeping an open mind during the
conversation can help me to improve my listening ability. I will have to stop mentally
criticizing what the speaker is telling during the conversation. Moreover, I will have to
learn about various verbal and non-verbal modes of communication to develop my
communication skill.
 Leadership skill: I will have to take all the opportunities where there is a need of
working inside a team. Moreover, I will have to learn the possible ways of cultivating
the environment of open communication. Apart from organizing the team processes, I
will try to outline the roles and responsibilities beforehand.
 Presentation skills: Practicing is the most reliable way of developing the presentation
skill. Having a thorough knowledge about the topic is also necessary for eliminating any
sort of nervousness during presentation. Making myself aware about the most prevalent
distractions can help me in avoiding them during presenting a topic before a group of
people. Furthermore, I can use visualization tools and aids to make the presentation
engaging and attractive.
 Decision making ability: Narrowing down the options by analyzing the advantages and
disadvantages is one of the fines ways of developing the decision making skill. In this
regards cost-benefit analysis may come in handy. Apart from that, having a personal
opinion that is well supported by statistics and logistics can enhance this particular skill.
2.3 Development opportunities to meet defined needs
Setting the goals and objectives is often considered as one of the best starting points of
identifying the opportunities of developing the skills to meet the defined needs (Gould, 2017, p.
489-490). I ensured that the skills which I want to develop are specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and time targeted. The opportunities that I will try to grab to develop my skills are as
follows:
 Presentation skill: In order to improve my presentation skill I will try to attend reports
that are being presented within our organization. I will also seek help from my

colleagues who are good in presenting reports before a large group of people. Initially, I
will present my works before my peer group members and colleagues and ask for their
feedbacks.
 Decision making ability: I will take participation in a problem solving course to
identify my personal thinking preferences and also to learn about various techniques and
tools that can help me in solving problems. After developing confidence I will try to
apply my skills in smaller tasks to understand whether the decisions that I am making are
correct or incorrect.
 Leadership skill: To develop this skill initially I will try to lead smaller groups of
people. I will try to enhance my skill by applying my leadership skills within the
organization by taking the responsibility of leading a team for comparatively smaller
tasks then I will try to build upon that.
 Communication skill: There are several application available online where I can
communicate with complete strangers. Initially I will use those applications to develop
my listening as well as speaking abilities. Simultaneously, I will take the help of
YouTube to learn about non-verbal communication methods. After developing
fundamental knowledge I will try to interact more with my fellow team members.
 Core knowledge: The current era is marked by the availability of online information (Jo
et al. 2015, p. 214-225). In order to develop my core knowledge about any particular
topic I will try to take help of wide range of articles that are available online. After
accumulating primary knowledge for in-depth study I will register myself in relevant
courses.
2.4 Development plan
Target Action to achieve Evaluation Time frame
Core-knowledge
development
 Using online references
and articles
 Seeking help from the
colleagues
Confident while
describing a
particular topic
12 Months
Improving
presentation skill
 Attending various
seminars and
conferences
Elevated level of
confidence and
getting less
3 Months

distracted during
presentation
Enhancing
communication skill
 Using online
applications
 Using social media
websites like YouTube
for developing non-
verbal skills
Enhanced ability of
conveying a
particular idea or
information to
another person.
Using gestures and
cues more
confidently
6 Months
Improving
leadership skill
 Indulging into more
leadership activities
 Taking responsibilities
of leading teams for
smaller tasks
Enhanced ability of
leading a team and
engaging the
members in the
process
6 Months
Enhancing decision
making ability
 Participating in problem
solving courses
 Taking responsibility of
making decisions in
smaller tasks
Improved
capability of
providing correct
decisions quickly
3 Months
LO3: Be able to implement and continually review own personal and professional
development plan
3.1 Activities required implementing personal and professional development plan:
To implement personal and professional development successfully we can go through the
following steps.
 Define Goal- At first we have to decide what we want to achieve in our career as well as
in our personal life. We have to initiate with the ending in mind.

 Set a Deadline- To accomplish any task we need a certain timeframe. Time required
less/more than that makes it futile. Therefore, while planning we need to be realistic and
specific time-wise.
 Personal Analysis- We have to analyze our strength and weakness along with the
opportunities and threats our surroundings offer us. Thus, we can set action to overcome
our weakness and make good utilization of our strength (Parks-Leduc, 2015, p. 3-29).
 Formulate Action- When our areas of development are identified we need to find a
strategy to accomplish the same. It should be definite, strategic, continuous and ongoing.
 Undertake Development- We need to complete our action plan accordingly.
 Record Outcomes- Outcomes of our regular practices should be noted down for further
evaluation.
 Evaluate Progress- After executing all the steps we should compare our desired outcome
with the actual outcome to evaluate our progress.
 Learning from Others- While making our own development plan ourselves we can also
communicate with our team members or other professionals, tutorials, informal networks
to get a better result.
3.2 Undertake and document development activities as planned:
Below are the development activities I have gone through.
Objective Time Resources
Needed
Action Evaluation
Enhancing
leadership quality
6 months Senior
managers
Observing the working
procedure of senior
managers
After 6 months from
beginning I felt
confident in leading
teams under me
Improving
decision-making
quality
3 months Training
opportuniti
es
 Learn from training
provided by company
 Gain from further
experience while
working
 Revise to improve
complex decision-
making
Feeling confident and
quick in taking any
decision
Increase core
knowledge
12 months Company
training
and online
 Followed company
training
 Learnt from online
Secured extra
benefits

courses courses
Enhancing
communication
skill
6 months English
environme
nt
 Watched movies and
videos
 Tried to
communicated with
colleagues properly
 There were obstacles
at first
 Developed gradually
 Fluent
communication
Presentation skill 3 months Company
training
and senior
colleagues
 Have gone through
the company training
 Learnt from the
senior colleagues
Gained confidence
in presenting my
topics
3.3 Own learning against original aims and objectives:
Comparing my own learning against original aims and objectives I realized that my strategies
must be more realistic, definite and achievable. Otherwise it will create frustration and
depression. Formal training has clear standard and evaluation procedure while informal training
is a constant process with no specific way of evaluation when it is completed. My aims and
objectives were revised using SMART approach as it is difficult to evaluate the outcome of
subjective aims (Hargie, 2016, p. 120-137). I realized my flaws, my actual level and position.
In order to accomplish self reflection, I utilized the famous and useful Gibb’s reflective model. I
understood generally my way of thinking is correct but low confidence and hesitation in
expressing myself leads me down. However, after this session is concluded, I feel a little
confident and if I continuously work on my shortcomings, I can overcome them.
3.4 Update the development plan based on feedback and evaluation:
After evaluating outcomes and taking feedbacks from colleagues I decided to update
development plan as follows.
Objective Feedback and
evaluation
Reason for change New action plans in
addition to the
previous plans

Enhancing leadership
quality
One of my colleague
advised me to watch
online lectures on it
It will improve
understanding
leadership skill better
Watching
inspirational and
motivational speeches
of great leaders
Improving decision-
making quality
Got no other
suggestions;
evaluation indicates
it’s going right
No changes No new actions
Increase core
knowledge
Received suggestion
of doing some
necessary courses
from institutes
It will provide deep
knowledge
Taking admission in
institute for specific
courses
Enhancing
communication skill
Reading newspaper
can be helpful
It will build up
vocabulary
Reading magazines,
newspaper
Presentation skill Using online
resources was a
suggestion
It will increase
presentation skill
Watching online
presentation videos
Reading articles on
how to deliver a good
presentation
LO4: Be able to demonstrate acquired interpersonal and transferable skills
4.1 Solutions of work-based problems
The most prevalent work-based problems are having excessive workload, being unnoticed even
after putting into great effort and conflict with co-worker. The solutions of these problems are as
follows:
 Excessive workload: According to (Oplatka, 2017, p. 552-568) being overwhelmed by
work is not at all good in an organization; it tends to reduce the quality of work and affect
the physical as well as mental health of the worker as well. In order to mitigate the issue
the individual must pick an adequate time to communicate that the workload of him/her

has become chronically unmanageable. The context of the workload increase is also
needed to be conveyed with proper logic and some options can also be suggested tactfully
to the manager.
 Being unnoticed even after putting great effort: Very few managers are attuned to the
efforts that are put into by the subordinate. Instead of sitting around and waiting for the
work being noticed the worker can highlight the key victories during conversations.
However, this is needed to be done in moderation because excessive highlight may seem
like bragging.
 Conflict with co-worker: It is often witnessed that in a workplace conversation with
certain co-workers often devolves into disagreement and conflict. In order to mitigate this
issue, firstly the ego is needed to be removed from the equation. Genuinely admiring and
complementing the efforts of the co-worker can make the relation better. However, if the
situation still persists the individual can either seek help from the HR department or
choose to remain unflappable in such situations.
4.2 Communication in various styles at various levels
Communication within an organization depends heavily on the situation. At various levels or in
various leadership styles the communication mode tends to change in accordance to the situation.
The leadership styles and the respective communication modes are described below:
 Democratic leadership style: It is also known as participative leadership because the
leader himself/herself emphasize on actively involving with the team. In this type of
leadership style communication is generally encouraged, which boosts innovation and
creativity. Straight-forward way of communicating ideas and information is a prevalent
feature of this leadership style (Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016, p. 190-216).
 Autocratic leadership style: It exists on the opposite side of the spectrum of democratic
leadership style. Naturally, environment of communication is not at all encouraged. The
leader posses the ultimate power of giving order and making decisions. Sharing of ideas
and information are not encouraged if not asked by the leader.
 Laissez-faire leadership style: It is also known as hand-off leadership style, where the
leader tend to provide necessary tools and resources and steps back and give his/her
subordinates to make the decision. Communication between the subordinates is