Professional Development Plan: BHP Relationship Manager

This report details a student's professional development plan, created after securing a Relationship Development Manager position at BHP. The student identifies several skill gaps, including intercultural communication, liaison, entrepreneurial skills (innovation), and resource allocation. The plan outlines strategies for improvement, such as enrolling in communication workshops, studying cultural traditions, developing networking skills, attending seminars, and participating in creative workshops. It also addresses the need for better resource allocation strategies. The report provides a timeline for skill development and references relevant academic sources to support the proposed actions. The primary focus is on enhancing the student's effectiveness in the role, particularly in a multinational environment where communication and innovation are crucial for success.

Running head: PROFFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
PROFFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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I got placed as a relationship development manager in the company named BHP after the
completion of my degree. It is an Anglo-Australian mining, metal as well as petroleum dual
listed organization. I got the position to work in the Melbourne region of Victoria in Australia. It
is a highly successful company which at the end of the fiscal year of 2015 had been successful
in generating 256 million barrels of oil equivalent, 233 Mt of iron ore, 1.7 million tones (Mt) of
copper, 43 Mt of metallurgical coal and more than about 41 Mt of energy coal.
As it was a multinational company, it is currently working in many location, like over 25
countries. It has mines not only in Australia, but in other countries also. It has expanded their
mines in South America, Canada, Indonesia and many others1. However, after joining the
position as the relationship development office, I noticed that since the organization worked with
its overseas counterparts, communication issues were faced by members in the different
branches. My role was to inculcate many initiatives to develop proper relationship and to
increase productivity of the workers.
However, as it was my very first job, I faced a large number of issues. I was unable to
communicate with members who were of different cultural background. I had no knowledge
about different cultural traditions, preferences and inhibitions. Therefore I could not effectively
communicate with them and therefore failed to manage them. Therefore I also failed in my duty
as a disseminator. I failed to collect information properly form different overseas branches and
also could not pass them to subordinates efficiently. The intercultural communication had been
the main barriers. Therefore I should enroll myself in workshops held on communication skills. I
will develop proper intercultural communication skills which will help me to learn about
different languages spoken overseas in the other branches which will help me to communicate
1 Price, Gavin. "Spotlight on seeds for BHP Billiton Iron Ore." AusIMM Bulletin Jun 2015
(2015): 76.

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effectively and disseminate the information to the subordinates 2. Moreover I will also go
through different articles on internet and journal papers where I would be developing ideas about
different preferences, inhibitions, traditions, body languages of different cultures. This will help
me in communicating with them effectively3. I will engage with other employees overseas over
social network to enhance and test my skill. It will take around 8 months to a year (long term) to
develop new languages and about 2 months (short term) to be accustomed with their cultures.
Besides lack of intercultural communication skills, I also failed in my role of liaison. An
important role of managers is to communicate with both external and internal contacts. My duty
was to establish network effectively on behalf of the organization. I failed miserably in this role
as, I could neither communicate, motivate, encourage team spirit internally nor I could establish
proper interactions with other managers outside the organization to secure favors and
information. Therefore the new skill that I have to develop is called the proper liaison skills.
Developing proper networking is very important4. Proper courses are available which help in
2 Proctor, Tony. Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making
and innovation. Routledge, 2014.
3 Morse, Lucy C., Daniel L. Babcock, and Madhav Murthy. Managing engineering and
technology. Pearson, 2014.
4 Cruz-González, Jorge, Pedro López-Sáez, and Jose Emilio Navas-López. "Absorbing
knowledge from supply-chain, industry and science: The distinct moderating role of formal
liaison devices on new product development and novelty." Industrial Marketing Management 47
(2015): 75-85.

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providing an individual with ideas about how to develop networking skills. ‘Sector skills plans’
can also be implemented as it helps to learn the trends in each sector and also helps in knowing
the skills which are in demand and help in identification of priorities for skill development.
Proper training from business experts will also help in developing the skill5. I can also attend
seminars and conferences which are conducted by experts in the field and knowing about their
experiences and their recommendations will also help me in learning liaison skill. It would take
comparatively a larger time of about 8 months to be efficient in this work.
I also failed as in my entrepreneurial role as a manager as I had very poor innovative and
creative skills. For this, I could not develop new ideas or initiate new projects for which the work
pace became gradually slow and the workers could not find zeal and enthusiasm at the
workplace. As an entrepreneur, a manger should be a creator and innovator6. His duty is to
initiate and develop new products that improve organization’s performance. However I failed in
this too. Therefore the skill that I need to learn are the development of creative and innovative
ideas so that employees do not feel monotonous with their work. Sometime creative approaches
also help in saving severe issues in organizations. A large number of workshops are often
conducted for business professional which include many courses like artful leadership skills and
5 Knoppen, Desirée, and María J. Sáenz. "Purchasing: Can we bridge the gap between strategy
and daily reality?." Business Horizons 58, no. 1 (2015): 123-133.
6 Mathias, Blake D., and David W. Williams. "The impact of role identities on entrepreneurs’
evaluation and selection of opportunities." Journal of Management 43, no. 3 (2017): 892-918.

4PROFFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
development for creativity and innovation, art based learning in business7. Many training
mentors also help individuals to exhibit the creative sides of their clients which often need to be
recognized by the clients. Not only that, I will also go through journal articles where researchers
have provided recommendations about developing creative skills. This would mainly require
time of about 2 months to complete studying books and articles to develop my creative skill. To
be fully competent in applying these skills, I will require more than a year as the workshop
classes continue for over one year.
I also had poor resource allocating skills. As a manger, it becomes my duty to determine
the various instances where resources need to be allocated like those of allocating funds,
assigning staffs and other organizational resources. The first one would be consulting with
experienced managers who can provide me with a framework that I can follow in order to
properly allocate resources. This will be the short term goal requiring more than two weeks. In
the long run, I should go through the strategies provided by business experts in their books and
try to apply them on the work floor. I will fail several times but will gain experiences which will
make me an expert one. For this also I will join training sessions so that resources of the
organization are rightly allocated without any wastage and loss. This would take long number of
years like 2 to 3 years.
7 Engelen, Andreas, Vishal Gupta, Lis Strenger, and Malte Brettel. "Entrepreneurial orientation,
firm performance, and the moderating role of transformational leadership behaviors." Journal of
Management 41, no. 4 (2015): 1069-1097

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References:
Cruz-González, Jorge, Pedro López-Sáez, and Jose Emilio Navas-López. "Absorbing knowledge
from supply-chain, industry and science: The distinct moderating role of formal liaison devices
on new product development and novelty." Industrial Marketing Management 47 (2015): 75-85.

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Engelen, Andreas, Vishal Gupta, Lis Strenger, and Malte Brettel. "Entrepreneurial orientation,
firm performance, and the moderating role of transformational leadership behaviors." Journal of
Management 41, no. 4 (2015): 1069-1097.
Knoppen, Desirée, and María J. Sáenz. "Purchasing: Can we bridge the gap between strategy and
daily reality?." Business Horizons 58, no. 1 (2015): 123-133.
Mathias, Blake D., and David W. Williams. "The impact of role identities on entrepreneurs’
evaluation and selection of opportunities." Journal of Management 43, no. 3 (2017): 892-918.
Morse, Lucy C., Daniel L. Babcock, and Madhav Murthy. Managing engineering and
technology. Pearson, 2014.
Price, Gavin. "Spotlight on seeds for BHP Billiton Iron Ore." AusIMM Bulletin Jun 2015 (2015):
76.
Proctor, Tony. Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making and
innovation. Routledge, 2014.