Personal and Professional Development Plan: National Trust

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PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
NATIONAL TRUST
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
LO-1............................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1. APPROACHES TO SELF-MANAGED LEARNING.....................................................................4

1.2. WAYS TO ENCOURAGE LIFELONG LEARNING IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
CONTEXTS.................................................................................................................................. 6
1.3. BENEFITS OF SELF-MANAGED LEARNING TO THE INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATION.........9
LO-2............................................................................................................................................. 10
2.1. EVALUATION OF OWN CURRENT SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES AGAINST PROFESSIONAL
STANDARDS AND ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES...................................................................10
2.2. OWN DEVELOPMENT NEEDS AND THE ACTIVITIES REQUIRED TO MEET THEM................13
2.3. DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES TO MEET CURRENT AND FUTURE DEFINED NEEDS.......15
2.4. PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN BASED ON IDENTIFIED NEEDS.....16
LO-3............................................................................................................................................. 19
3.1. PROCESSES AND ACTIVITIES REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN........19
3.2. UNDERTAKE AND DOCUMENT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES AS PLANNED.........................21
3.3. REFLECTION OF OWN LEARNING AGAINST ORIGINAL AIMS AND OBJECTIVES SET IN THE
DEVELOPMENT PLAN...............................................................................................................23
3.4. UPDATE THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN BASED ON FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION..................23
LO-4............................................................................................................................................. 26
4.1. SOLUTIONS TO WORK-BASED PROBLEMS.........................................................................26
4.2. STYLES AND MANNERS OF COMMUNICATION AT VARIOUS LEVELS.................................27
4.3. EVALUATION AND USE OF EFFECTIVE TIME-MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES........................29
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 30
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................31
1

INTRODUCTION
Learning is an important part of everyone’s life; a person who does not learn and develop
himself stays behind in this fast moving and continuously developing era. Importance of
learning increases when it comes to professional realm since the business has turned to be very
dynamic and professionals has to keep up with its pace to ensure their competitiveness
(Stenfors-Hayes et al., 2010). This assignment will help to understand the approaches of self-
managed learning, its benefits for individual and organizational learning and how it can be used
to encourage lifelong learning. The assignment will also explain how one’s own skills and
development needs can be understood and developed with a development plan. The
assignment will also discuss the processes and activities required to implement a development
plan and how a development plan can be updated in the learning process. Various
communication styles and time-management strategies will also be discussed in this
assignment. Altogether the assignment will help to enhance professional and personal
development by helping to understand the short-comings and developmental needs.
2

LO-1
1.1. APPROACHES TO SELF-MANAGED LEARNING
Self-managed learning can be defined as a process where an individual put efforts to develop
his personal and professional skills without the assistance of his organisation. Self-managed
learning is derived from personal motivation to grow and be better. In self-managed learning,
individual either seek assistance from a personal source or try to get inspired by others. There is
no particular number of approaches to self-managed learning since it can be approached in any
way depending on the person. Here are five approaches which help in self-managed learning.
Social networks:
Social networks offer a variety of new topics to read and learn along with connecting with
various people who can help in learning and developing. A social network is an excellent tool
where one can follow and learn from others thus providing a no-cost source for learning needs
(Hildebrand, 2018).
Use of the internet:
Internet is a great source for learning; it offers access to all the variety of topics. Just typing the
name of the area which needs improvement can open hundreds of articles which can provide
in-depth understanding and training. It offers knowledge in text, video, audio and many other
formats to choose from (Bauer, 2010).
Learning from others:
Seeking the assistance of experts is also an excellent approach to learn. One can contact
professionals or superior who are performing well to share their secret of excellence to develop
(Von Haenisch, 2011).
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New projects:
A person can ask for new and assignments or temporary projects which can help to improve
knowledge of a new area of knowledge. This approach helps in inducing versatility in the
knowledge of a person (Gibson et al., 2010).
Seminars and conferences
One should always go for seminars and conferences related to one’s professional area to
understand new trends and thoughts of other professionals. In many seminars industry experts
come to speak and offer great opportunity to learn about different visions to new professionals
(Maskit, 2011).
Approach suitable for National Trust
Employees of National trust can adopt all the available options but since National Trust is in
hospitability industry where the response of people can be judged by experience, thus learning
from others and seminar and conferences would be most suitable for them. These approaches
will also help to understand the complications which might arise in a certain situation and how
they can be dealt with.
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1.2. WAYS TO ENCOURAGE LIFELONG LEARNING IN PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS
Lifelong learning can be understood as a process in which a person continuously stays engaged
to continuously learn and develop himself by understanding own shortcomings and developing
plans to deal with them. Lifelong learning can be encouraged in many ways like:
Self-evaluation:
People should be advised to evaluate their performance based on their capabilities and goals
they want to achieve to induce the feeling for the need of learning. People who once get
involved in scrutinising their own efforts and results as per their goals and successfully
overcome their shortcoming never stop doing it and are involved in lifelong learning (Bauer,
2010).
As a manager, I can guide my team members in the process of self-evaluation and
development.
Education:
People can be educated about the importance and benefits of lifelong learning along with its
contribution to their success. People can also be thought of various techniques and tips which
can help them in learning (Zepeda, 2013).
As a manager, I can avail tutors for my team who can educate them in continuous and lifelong
learning. I can also educate them myself and provide them with enough guidance so that they
could understand the benefits and usability of learning techniques.
Kolb’s Model:
Kolb's model is an excellent tool for reflective learning and me as a manager can explain the use
of this model to my team members:
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(Source: Bergsteiner et al., 2010)
It is a process of four steps,
Experience:
Here firstly people have to try an activity to experience the performance (Poore et al., 2014).
Reflection:
Now the performance is evaluated and reviewed.
Theorising:
New and better ways to perform the activity are framed (Akella, 2010).
Experimenting:
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In the last step, the newly framed way to do the activity is experimented and the process
continues (Bergsteiner and Avery, 2014).
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1.3. BENEFITS OF SELF-MANAGED LEARNING TO THE INDIVIDUAL AND
ORGANISATION
Self-managed learning offers many benefits to the individuals but since they are an important
part of an organisation, thus anything which affects them affects the organisation however the
benefits and effects of self-managed learning could slightly differ.
Benefits to individuals
It helps to improve the skills and knowledge of individuals and helps them to overcome their
shortcomings in National trust. It also helps the employees in personal and professional growth.
It enhances the capabilities of individuals to develop them and perform complex tasks in
National trust. It also brings the employees in the good-books of superior and presents their
personality as a smart learning individual (Gibson et al., 2010).
Benefits to organisation
It removes the burden of excess cost attracted by other ways of learning. It helps National trust
to improve its performance and enhance customer satisfaction since employees are developing
and so is their performance as a team. It improves the profitability of National trust in the long-
run. It also improves team performance at national trust (Maskit, 2011).
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LO-2
2.1. EVALUATION OF OWN CURRENT SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES AGAINST
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES
My Current Skills Professional Standards Organisational objectives
Time and Self-management:
I am able to organise my time
so that I comfortably meet
the deadlines of all the works.
I keep track of the tasks and
works I have to attend in an
organised manner. I
sometimes allocate time to
activities which are a total
waste of time and
unproductive (Bauer, 2010).
Excellent time management
and self-management skills to
effectively and timely manage
all the operations and act as a
role model for the team.
It is very necessary to
understand and manage time
to attend various tasks. Self-
management is necessary
since if a person cannot
manage himself then he
cannot manage others.
Critical Thinking and Problem
Solving:
I am able to use different
methods for exploring
problems like considering
different viewpoints and
options but I lack in finding all
the alternate solutions
available (Masek and Yamin,
Excellent problem-solving and
critical thinking to understand
and solve the complex
problem of operations and
guest management
(Hildebrand, 2018).
Complex problems arise very
frequently in business thus a
manager has to be able to
handle and solve them.
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2011).
Oral Communication:
I am able to communicate
effectively and share my
thought with others but I find
it hard to understand their
thoughts sometimes
(Stenfors-Hayes et al., 2010).
Excellent oral communication
to interact with visitors.
Oral communication is very
necessary to politely
communicate with visitors
and employees.
Written Communication:
I am good with grammar and
but I have to explore various
formats and styles.
Excellent written
communication to express
intended messages to the
visitors and handle internal
and external formal written
communication of the
organisation.
Written communication helps
in expressing a message in the
written format mostly used
when addressing the masses
not present in a place.
Information Literacy- Reading
I can read and gather
information from a wide
variety of sources but
sometimes find it hard to
understand jargons and
terminologies (Maskit, 2011).
Ability to read and
understand messages.
Information literacy is needed
to understand complex
messages and in gathering
information about a location
and employees.
Numeracy:
I have good statistical and
numerical skills which help me
Ability to understand and use
graphs and numbers to
manage the business (Von
Haenisch, 2011).
Numerical and statistical skills
are needed for graphical
representation of data and
observing the information
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to explain and understand
complex data but I take time
to observe error and
inconsistency in data.
hidden in numbers.
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