PDSM Task 1: Developing a Personal Development Plan for Managers

This project, a Task 1 assignment for the Professional Development for Strategic Managers (PDSM) unit, focuses on creating a personal development plan. It addresses key learning outcomes, including assessing personal and professional skills, conducting a skills audit, and implementing a personal development plan. The assignment includes a detailed personal development plan outlining skill development objectives, activities, and support required. It covers essential managerial skills such as time management, stress management, and communication, with a SWOT analysis provided to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The plan also incorporates a self-assessment and external rating of professional skills, emphasizing innovation, critical thinking, and the ability to inspire, influence, and motivate employees. This project aims to equip managers with the necessary tools for career growth and achieving strategic goals.

project Covering Form
Course/Unit Information
Unit Name Professional Development for Strategic Managers
Instructor Information
Assignment Information

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Feedback
Name of the Assessor Steyn Heckroodt
Learning Outcomes Assessment Criteria (AC) Assessor
Feedback
LO 1 TASK
AC MET
NOT MET
1. Be able to assess
personal and
professional skills
required to achieve
strategic goals
1.1 Use appropriate methods to evaluate personal
skills required to achieve strategic goals
1.2, Apply techniques to assess the professional
skills required to support the strategic direction of
the organization.
LO 2
AC MET
NOT MET
2. Be able to conduct a
skills audit to
identify learning
style
2.1, Carry out a skills audit to evaluate
the strategic skills needed to meet current and
future leadership requirements
2.2, Apply appropriate techniques to
identify preferred learning style
LO 3
3. Be able to implement
a personal
development plan
3.1 Construct a personal development
plan that meets leadership development
requirements identified in the skills audit
3.2, Use suitable methods to assess
the outcomes of a personal development plan
against personal work objectives
3.3, Evaluate the impact of own learning against
the achievement of strategic goals
AC MET
AC MET
AC MET
Over All Result/Grade REDO
Summative Feedback:
Overall Feedback on
current work with
emphasis on how the
Some of the topics needs to be
explained more in detail.

student can further
improve in future.
Assignment tasks for PDSM
Task 1:
Scenario
Developing a personal development plan for maintaining skills that are useful in performing
various jobs. Certain generic skills are also required for meeting the set goals and objectives.
(AC 1.1– Use appropriate methods to evaluate personal skills required to achieve strategic
goals.)
One must have a set of skills sets that is required to improve / boost your carrier growth, when
you plan it for a period of say five years. To move faster through the channel of managerial, one
should have the following skills
1. Administering time:
Time management is very much required for a successful professional/ manager. It is a
set of methods and principles that someone follows to improve the quality of life. It is the
activities that we need to perform in our day to day life to achieve o the strategic goals in
log run. How do you find time for all the jobs that you need to do?By asking certain basic
question to yourself, certain elements regarding time management will be clear. These
include identifying the ways in which you spend your maximum time, recognising the
occupied and unoccupied time you have, etc. You have to use a time log to track what
you do a day. It will show all your activities done in a day with the time period. This will
gain you an overview of the activities you do a day and can avoid the time wasters or
unproductive activities. When you have identified your time wasters you can develop
strategies to avoid them so that you can use time more effectively.
2. Stress management
Stress management is an essential skill which has to be acquired for achieving success at
managerial level. Stress is the amount of pressure or tension a person has because of his
day to day activities. The best way to manage your stress is to identify the sources of
stress in your life. Also follow the following

 Say No –Learn how to say NO to your co-workers if you think that the
work they delegating to you doesn’t come under your scope.
 Avoid people – Learn to avoid people who irritates you and brings stress
in your life
3. Prioritizing tasks:
As a manager one should be able to sort or prioritize the task according to the business
need. You can classify the work into low, medium, high or critical and complete it based
on the urgency and importance.
4. Communication skills:
A good written and verbal communication is required for a successful manager.
SWOT ANALYSIS: -
Strengths
- Time Management
- Team Management
- Communication
- Quality Sourcing
Weaknesses
- Leadership
- Sitting Late hours
- Need to learn newer IT skills
Opportunities
- Commercial Deals
- Strategic Sourcing
- Building Business Relations
Threats
- Being friendly some people
misuse the leverage.
Personal Development Plan
PERSON
AL
DEVELO
PMENT
PLAN

Skills DEVELOPMENT
OBJECTIVE
DEVELOPMENT
ACTIVITIES
SUPPORT
REQUIRED Priority TIME
Technical Skills
To improve the
technical skills which
will help to work on
Global projects within
EMEA
Complete the Java for
Programmers Course
Support from the
family to go for
courses during
weekends and
holidays
Low
2
Month
s
Leadership
Skills
To improve the cross
functional interactions
between various
departments.
Work with other departments
to understand the work
functionalities of each
department.
Support from the
duty manager Medium
2
Month
s
Building Improved
Work Relationships
To complete the following
courses to achieve better
relationships at work
1. Effective Intercultural
Relationships
2. Effective Inter-gender
Relationships
3. Effective Relationships
with Customers
Support from the
family to go for
courses during
weekends and
holidays
Medium 1
Month
Managerial
Skill
Project Management
Professional (PMP)
To Complete the following
Skill Soft Courses on Project
Management Professional
(PMP)
1. Managing Projects within
Organizations
2. Project Management
Overview
3. Project Management
Process Groups
4. Integrated Initiation and
Planning
5. Direct, Monitor, and
Control Project Work
6. Controlling Changes and
Closing a Project
7. Project Requirements and
Defining Scope
8. Creating the Work
Breakdown Structure
Support from the
family to spend
time during
weekends and
holidays
High
4
Month
s
Time
management
To improve time
management skills
To do Time Management
Course from Skill Soft
Support from the
family to spend
time during
Medium 15
Days

weekends and
holidays
Stress
management
To improve stress
management skills To do Stress Management
Course from Skill Soft
Support from the
family to spend
time during
weekends and
holidays
Medium 15
Days
Communication
skills:
To improve
Communication Skills
Complete the following
course from skill soft:
• Writing a Business Case
• Business Writing essentials
a. Writing with Intention
b. Writing to reach the
Audience
c. Getting the most from
business documents
d. The writing Process
e. Business writing essentials
f. Business writing essentials
using Microsoft Word
g. Final Exam: Business
writing essentials.
h. Write a BRS for Domestic
Address Database system.
• Effective Communication
a. Effective Team
Communication
b. Improving your listening
skills
Support from the
family to spend
time during
weekends and
holidays
Medium
2
Month
s
Take the list of skills you identified in Activity 1 and 2 of our e-meeting discussion and rate
yourself. Then ask one of the following people to rate you: a fellow student, your teacher/tutor,
your employer (if you have one), your parents/carers. (AC 1.2 - apply techniques to assess the
professional skills required to support the strategic direction of the organisation).
The professional skills required to support strategic direction of the organisation are as follows.
1. Innovative. An innovative person should be able to challenge the current process or
situation and continuously monitor if the employees in the organisation are doing the
right things and also suggest if they can do it better in any other ways.
2. Critical Thinking- Every employee must possess the power to think critically over every
situation. This helps in taking decisions more effectively without causing negative

consequences. Company is directly benefited with this type of skill because work based
problems are effectively managed through critical thinking.
3. Focus on people - Must be able to resolved the issues of the people as a leader
4. Inspire - Must be able to inspire people by which they can deliver better quality results
by focusing on the company mission statements and explaining them what exactly needs
to be achieved in support of the mission statement.
5. Influence - Must be able to influence people to generate a good result
6. Motivate - Must be able to motivate them at their works. Must be able to educate, train,
and support his employees in serving their customer. A motive leader has the ability to
influence the employees at work and make sure that work environment is also a
motivation for a quality production.
7. Coaching – A change in an organization can only be implemented by a good coaching
and it is the key skill that a leader requires.It is a process of performance improvement of
each and every employ by the ways of mentoring, counselling and training. A regular
feedback from the employees is required to increase the quality of the coaching standards
and also to improve the productivity of the employees
8. Build – Build better work relations. Coordinate with the customers both inside and
outside of the organization ,conduct and participate meetings for company’s behalf
Following SWOT analysis is performed for gaining an insight regarding the skills
possessed by myself.
Strengths
 I have fluency in common languages
like English and French.
 I am self-aware which helps in me in
constantly developing good
observation. I have effective time management
skills.
Weaknesses
 I am not able to lead a group of people
with effectiveness which indicates lack
of leadership skills.
 I have anxiety problems which causes
stress when my work is not managed.
Opportunities
 Critical thinking skills can be
inculcated by me using certain
development programs.
Threats
 Increasing competition is an emerging
threat which can limit my growth.
Hence, I have to update my skills for

 I should also enhance my technical
knowledge which shall support
effective handling of tools and devices.
the same.
 The growing technology is creating
demands for efficient handling.
Technical inability causes reduction in
productivity. Hence, I need to develop
certain technical skills so that I can
survive competition.
From the above SWOT analysis, it is quite clear that certain professional skills have been
acquired by me like effective communication through fluency in language and proper time
management. However, I need to learn certain leadership attributes and stress management
techniques. These shall be helpful for me to provide my services effectively in the organisation
without creating any negative circumstances. More benefits shall be provided to the company on
a professional level when technical skills and critical thinking power is acquired by me
additionally. All these requirements are helpful in building an effective professional path.
Once you have identified the skills required and which ones you might need to develop, think of
ways in which you could acquire/develop those skills. Maintain your personal development plan
over a period of time. You will need to update your PDP regularly. Look at your first PDP and
all your reviews. What has changed? Review your progress and identify areas for improvement
in each review, you should set yourself new targets. (AC 2.1 - Carry out a skills audit to
evaluate the strategic skills needed to meet current and future leadership requirements).
SKILL Audit
for PDP
Skills
Goal(s)
(WHAT do I
want to
achieve/
change?)
Development
Objective(s)
incl.
deadline(s)
Actions
(HOW will I go about it?)
List of Development Activities
Reflection
(WHAT did I learn? HOW was
the experience?)
Key Learning Points
Technical
Skills
To improve the
technical skills
which will help
to work on
Global projects
within EMEA
Complete the Java for
Programmers Course
Learned Java desktop
programming language. This
technical skill helped to modify
the source code of applications
developed in Java
Leadership To improve the Work with other departments to Completed desk rides with

Skills
cross functional
interactions
between various
departments.
understand the work
functionalities of each department.
other departments,
accompanied by manager
designated staff, learned the
core FedEx processes and the
valuable inputs of these units
on a regular business functions
Building
Improved Work
Relationships
To complete the following courses
to achieve better relationships at
work
1. Effective Intercultural
Relationships
2. Effective Inter-gender
Relationships
3. Effective Relationships with
Customers
Completed the work
relationship course and it
helped me to interact with
FedEx employees in different
part of the world easily while
working on various projects
Managerial
Skill
Project
Management
Professional
(PMP)
To Complete the following Skill
Soft Courses on Project
Management Professional (PMP)
1. Managing Projects within
Organizations
2. Project Management Overview
3. Project Management Process
Groups 4. Integrated
Initiation and Planning 5.
Direct, Monitor, and Control
Project Work
6. Controlling Changes and
Closing a Project
7. Project Requirements and
Defining Scope
8. Creating the Work Breakdown
Structure
Completed 8 sessions and
gained better understanding on
the various phases of project
life cycle. Implemented the
learning’s in various strategic
projects in FedEx
Time
management
To improve
time
management
skills
Complete the following course in
Time management
 Time Management:
Analysing your use of time
Completed Time management
Couse and the outcome is I am
able to go out from office on
time because of prioritizing and
managing work time in an
effective manner
Stress
management
To improve
stress
management
skills
To do Stress Management Course
from Skill Soft
Completed the stress
management course
Communicatio
n skills:
To improve
Communication
Skills
Complete the following course
from skill soft:
• Writing a Business Case
Complete business writing
courses and implemented the
learning’s to document and

• Business Writing essentials
a. Writing with Intention
b. Writing to reach the Audience
c. Getting the most from business
documents
d. The writing Process
e. Business writing essentials
f. Business writing essentials using
Microsoft Word
g. Final Exam: Business writing
essentials.
h. Write a BRS for Domestic
Address Database system.
• Effective Communication
a. Effective Team Communication
b. Improving your listening skills
create job aid for several
applications in FedEx. Also
these learning’s helped to create
test cases while testing software
applications in FedEx
Personal Skills Evaluation
Personal Skill Evaluation
Personal Skills Self-Evaluation
(Out of 10)
Evaluation by Team Lead
(Out of 10)
Technical Skills 8 9
Leadership Skills 8 7
Managerial Skill 6 7
Time management 8 8
Stress management 8 7
Communication
skills: 8 7
Total 46 Out of 60 45 out of 60
Learning styles vary from one person to another. Knowing your own learning style can help you
identify your strengths and weaknesses. (AC 2.2 apply appropriate techniques to identify
preferred learning style).
There are three different types of learning depending on every individual. They are as follows.
1. Visual. In this technique, one will prepare learning using visual aids like pictures and
images

2. Auditory – In this technique, one will prefer to learn by the way of sound like music,
audio recordings or sound.
3. Kinaesthetic, / Tactile - In this technique, one will prefer to learn by using hands, body
or sense of touch
The preferences or choices through which effective understanding is acquired by the
learner help in gaining an insight for the concerned learning style. Following technique can be
applied for recognising the correct and preferred learning style of an individual. Step 1: The individual has to enrol in each learning dimension and provide respective
explanations whether concerned dimension is helpful or not. This can be performed
through using Index of Learning styles Questionnaire. The response for this shall be
helpful in identifying the right learning style for the concerned person. Step 2: Response acquired by the person has to be interpreted well and analysed as per
the dimensions of learning. The place when response depicts an out of balance situation
depicts that there is no requirement of a specific learning style while one particular
learning style is largely preferred.
 Step 3: The balance out areas depict that these dimensions of learning require certain
improvements and strategies for enhancement. However, the one which is reflected in
majority of responses is an indicator of the respective learning style.
There are some types of learners which have been categorised as follows: Sensory learners: The individuals that are highly dependent on their sensory emotions
for developing familiarity and concentration with regards to specific situations then they
have inclination towards sensory learning. For instance, blind people learn about new
individuals or identify specific situations through their sense of listening and smelling. Intuitive learners: Many a times, people completely rely on their intuitions and do not
investigate much deeper which depicts they take the risk of leaving many stones
unturned. This results in ineffective decision making at times. Visual learners: Pictures, graphs or visual graphics that contain certain information are
used as the basic source of learning by visual learners. These learners are highly
dependent on written i.e. visual info which automatically puts them into trouble of
ineffective learning through auditory skills. Verbal learners: These types of learners have ability to convert the information which is
presented in audio format into visual graphics. They are quick and efficient and also
enhance their skills through audio-visual learnings. Active learners: It is advisable to implement any decision or take any action with proper
judgement and analysis. But some people do not go for this step and directly implement

their actions. These type of learners are active learners and they do not have effective
concentration while discussions and analysis.
 Reflective learners: The individuals that have tendency of thinking deeply about every
aspect associated with an event are known as reflective learners. These tend to have less
capability of taking risks but have practical approaches.
All the aforementioned types of learners have their specific characteristics. In order to
identify the right learning style a person should be able to recognise the fact that he belongs to
certain group from the aforementioned types.