Professional Development Plan, Feedback and Journal - Cheil Australia

This report outlines a comprehensive professional development plan for a sales associate at Cheil Australia, addressing key aspects of career progression, skill enhancement, and time management. The plan includes a detailed analysis of development opportunities, such as training programs in sales, marketing, and soft skills, along with strategies for improving time management through organizational skills workshops and multitasking techniques. The report also incorporates feedback from the Human Resource Manager and the Chief Executive Officer, offering valuable insights into the strengths and areas for improvement within the plan. Furthermore, the report features a journal reflecting on the process of acquiring new skills and the learning styles employed. The student plans to acquire multitasking skills and utilizes auditory, visual, reading, and writing learning styles. The report concludes by detailing the networking undertaken to support the implementation of the professional development plan, including utilizing digital portals and libraries for research and learning resources.

Running head: ASSESSMENT 2
ASSESSMENT 2
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1ASSESSMENT 2
Background
I have been recruited and hired by Cheil Australia as a sales associate. As a sales
associate, my job is to provide best marketing and sales service to the company and providing
positive brand image to the customers. The respective paper is a professional development plan,
feedback and journal based on my current professional designation of sales associate.
Professional Development Plan
A professional development plan can be defined as a documented plan that establishes career
development goals along with the strategies to meet the goals put by the individuals thereafter. A
powerful development plan includes a clear and complete understanding of the individuals about
where he/ she is standing in the professional and occupational paradigm, a clear decision of
where he/ she wants to reach in his/ her career, gathering appropriate information regarding the
opportunity he/ she might like to harness, setting practical and realistic goals, identify the
possible resources by which he/ she could materialize his/ her goals and assessment or revision
of progress with time (Zepeda 2013). The professional development plan for my career
management as a sales associate is provided hereafter.
1. Professional development plan for ensuring quality and productivity in my sales team
Timeframe Description of
opportunity/training
Skills/
competen
cy to
develop
Skills set by
competency standards
2 years
(approximately)
Developmental training programs in
sales and marketing: The
organization where I have been
Advanced
sales and
marketing
Sales and marketing
flexibility

2ASSESSMENT 2
working as a sales associate provides
developmental training programs to
sales and marketing department
quarterly a year. The opportunity
which I will receive of participating
in the sales and marketing
development programs would enable
me to enhance my skills (hard and
soft) along with the auxiliary
competencies that I already possess
but moderately, such as emotional
intelligence, intuitive and assumption
skills. The training is important for
me as it would provide me with skill
optimization and capitalization
mechanisms which would be
beneficial for my profession in
present and future.
competencies
2.5 years,
approximately
Soft skills development programs:
Australia provides a plethora of soft
skills development programs by
different educational and training
institutes, both offline and online. As
Leadership
competencies
Team work and team
building

3ASSESSMENT 2
I am new in the profession as a sales
associate, I believe that I require
more and intense skills on leadership
so that I might be able to capitalize
the respective skill in future to build
my career. There are different
training providers and portals in
Australia where the institutes provide
both pragmatic and theoretical soft
skills development programs. With
the help of such programs, I expect to
learn leadership qualities appropriate
for my job role.
1 year
(approximately)
Creative and art- based learning
workshops and programs: The
organization where I work (Cheil
Australia) provides complementary
skills and development programs,
such as creative and art based
learning. By attending the
organization’s complementary skills,
I would be able to harness my
creativity skills to the extent that the
Creativity
skills
Innovation in sales and
marketing

4ASSESSMENT 2
organization would benefit from my
innovation in sales disposition. Such
programs would ensure my cognitive
development and provide me with the
competency of thinking abstract
ideas that are out of the box.
Therefore, I believe that appending
the respective workshops would be a
golden opportunity for me to reshape
myself according to my profession.
3 years
(approximately)
Critical thinking and problem solving
courses and workshops: Australian
government and certain private
institutes of Australia offer premium
courses and workshop camps in
critical thinking and problem solving
that I am planning to enroll in. The
opportunity of attending the
respective courses would enable me
to enhance and develop my critical
thinking and problem solving
abilities, which is an important skill
that is needed for an associate to
Problem
solving skills
Teamwork and team
building

5ASSESSMENT 2
work and lead the team.
2. Professional development plan for ensuring effective time management in my sales team
Timeframe Description of
opportunity/training
Skills/
competency
to develop
Skills set by
competency
standards
1 year
(approximately)
Business oriented organizational
skills workshops and programs:
Different established business
organizations and training institutes in
Australia conduct monthly workshops
and yearly/ half yearly courses on
business oriented/ professional
organizational skills. I have been
planning to attend the respective
workshops and courses during my
leisure or week off days. I want to
exploit the opportunity because it
would enable me to develop and
enhance my organizational skills that
are essential for executing proper
time management
Business
oriented/
professional
organizational
skills
Organizational
competencies

6ASSESSMENT 2
(Aisstraining.com.au.2019).
2 years
(approximately)
Communication skills and personality
development programs: Business
organizations of Australia are actively
conducting training and development
programs on communication and
personality enhancement. With the
help of the programs, I would be able
to harness and develop my
interpersonal communication skills
which are essential for me as a team
lead. With appropriate
communication, I would be able to
coordinate works properly which
would further ensure in saving time
(Aisstraining.com.au.2019).
Communication
skills
Skills of
interpersonal
relationships
3 years
(approximately)
Multitasking skills workshops and
soft skills programs by business
schools: Different Business Schools
of Australia provide workshops and
programs on multitasking. I would
like to grab the golden opportunity of
Multitasking skills Flexibility in work

7ASSESSMENT 2
attending and experiencing the
multitasking programs as they would
help me build up and develop
multitasking skills in me which is
essential for time management in
teamwork. The training would
provide me with a wider paradigm of
executing and managing multitasking.
It would help me to bring time
management within my sales team.
Feedback
Feedback and follow up is important in the modern and evolving workplaces. A
constructive feedback is vital for an employee’s ongoing development. The quintessential
contributions of feedback include clarification of expectations, assisting the employees to
identify and learn from their mistakes and build confidence (Cardy and Leonard 2014). Positive
and negative feedbacks are equally important for an employee to grow himself/ herself in the
respective professional field. A positive feedback boosts the confidence and sense of
responsibility among the employees, while a negative feedback makes the employees self critical
towards himself in order to understand the areas in his/ her professional life where he/ she needs
to modify in order to gain an ultimate success in the path of professional self development (Mone
and London 2018). Constructive feedbacks are the best ever practices of human resource
development the managers and other officials in a workplace can actually deliver. With

8ASSESSMENT 2
constructive feedbacks, it ensures a re-inforcement of positive behavior, correct any negative
performance and ensure that each and every employees remain professionally competent and
capable within the organization (Nyameh 2013). I, as a sales associate, believe that getting a
feedback for the professional development plan that I have created is an important part of my
process of self introspection and development. I have taken feedback from two respective
designated person: The human resource manager and the Chief Executive Officer of our
company. The feedback that they provided me after going through an in- depth introspection of
my professional self- development plan are provided hereafter.
Feedback from Human Resource Manager
The human resource manager of our company provided me with her valuable feedback
which is related to the professional self development plan that I have built up. The human
resource manager appreciated my personal development goals which I have penned down in the
beginning of the paper, which included inculcating mindfulness for improved and increased
productivity within me. As the human resource manager declared that, since the last five months,
my productivity has been moderately regressed from above average to average, therefore, she
appreciated the fact that I have understood the areas where I might be having deficiencies. She
also suggested me to take actions regarding the respective goals as soon as possible. Secondly,
the human resource manager also additionally stated me to inculcate “relationship building
skills” as she believes that I might require certain socialability skills more than the others, as I
am a sales associate who would be dealing with the customers more often than not. To
summarize, it can be said that the feedback that I have received from the human resource
manager is positive and average.

9ASSESSMENT 2
Feedback from Chief Executive Officer
The feedback that I received from the Chief Executive Officer is mixed, with both the
elements of positivity and negativity in them. The chief executive officer appreciated and praised
me for setting up an effective time management plan for myself. However, he also insisted me to
install certain changes and modifications in the plan. The modification which he advised me
included to rethink about the “multitasking skills” from the plan, as he believes that multitasking
would increase unnecessary and complicated problems/ issues in my professional life which
would increase my work burden leading to less productivity. However, Apart from that, he also
asked me to amend the section of “communication skills” where he suggested me to include
“pragmatic work situations” in the action plan along with the mention of the courses I have
penned down. He mentioned the “pragmatic work situation” because he believes that the best
way by which employees can improve their communication is that getting themselves involved
in real yet complex work situations.
Journal
Process undertaken to assess the competency
New Skills I am planning to acquire
With the help of the professional learning and development plan, I have planned to
acquire the most unique yet important skill, which is multitasking. The multitasking skills would
enable me to get a wider paradigm of conjuring and managing tasks from different dimensions.
Multitasking would help me immensely in saving my time. Rather than coming in an algorithm
of completing the tasks one after another, if the tasks are combined together, tasks could be

10ASSESSMENT 2
carried out quickly, swiftly with conservation of resources such as time and money. Multitasking
would make me a better, efficient and effective worker and increase my competitive edge
(Christensen and Schneider 2015).
Learning Styles that I would be taking
1. Auditory and visual learning styles: The audio and visual lesions, audiobooks and
webinars that are available in the websites such as YouTube would provide me with
valuable lessons. Auditory and visual learning styles are much more effective than the
conventional practices of monotonous written textbooks as the learning reaches the
sensory organs, such as eyes and ear. Auditory lessons would help me to recall easily
whatever I have learnt, helping me retain the content that has been taught in a better way
than the conventional process of reading texts. Auditory learning would help me develop
my skills better.
2. Reading and writing learning style: The reading and writing learning style would enable
me to interact with the text, apart from seeing and hearing. Reading and writing styles
would enhance my intellect as it might provide me a platform of wider cognitive
exercises and development. The e-books, articles and academic journals, books and
textbooks available in libraries would provide me a wider paradigm of theory, knowledge
and wisdom that will be geared by regular practice of writing the learning outcomes by
me.
Networkings undertaken
The Networkings that I have undertaken in order to carry out the action plan that I have
developed for my professional learning and development are:

11ASSESSMENT 2
1. Avail the internet and digital portals: As the learning and development plan that I have
set has talked about the different institutions of Australia that provides skills
enhancement courses (soft and hard skills) as well as personality development and
grooming courses, I need digital and internet portals to gather information, learn about
them and also contact them via telephone or e-mails. Therfore digital portals are of
utmost necessity in such case. Alongwith the information of the institutions, the internet
portals offer dime- a- dozen e-books, academic journals, articles and audio visual data
that might help me to conduct a thorough learning and research regarding the skill
development I need (for my personal reading and references).
2. Avail book stores and libraries (for personal reading and references): The book stores and
libraries are powerhouse of information, knowledge and wisdom. The book stores and
libraries near my locality will help me find different kinds of skill development, self-
development pieces that would provide me with an overall and general idea about
developmental processes, methodologies, tips and trickeries. With such knowledge, I
would learn to enhance and develop my skills, apart from the institutions that I would
enroll in for better performance.

12ASSESSMENT 2
References
Aisstraining.com.au.2019. Available at: https://www.aisstraining.com.au/
Cardy, R. and Leonard, B., 2014. Performance Management: Concepts, Skills and Exercises:
Concepts, Skills and Exercises. Routledge.
Christensen, K. and Schneider, B. eds., 2015. Workplace flexibility: Realigning 20th-century jobs
for a 21st-century workforce. Cornell University Press.
Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Nyameh, J., 2013. Moderating effects of organizational culture on human resource management
and employees performance. African Journal of Business Management, 7(28), pp.2767-2774.
Zepeda, S.J., 2013. Professional development: What works. Routledge.