Personal and Professional Development Report: Skills Audit and Plan

This report delves into the crucial aspects of personal and professional development, examining skills audits, interpersonal and transferable skills, and a personal SWOT analysis within the context of a Harrods salesman role. It explores the application of these skills in various responsibilities, including sales, customer relations, and team work. The report further identifies and analyzes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, culminating in an individual appraisal using a Proforma to assess performance. The content also emphasizes the importance of time management, leadership, and problem-solving, and concludes with the development of a personal and professional development plan to enhance career growth and achieve personal objectives. The report provides a detailed analysis of a salesman's role, responsibilities, and performance objectives within a retail environment, offering insights into the skills required for success.

Personal and
Professional
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODCTION..............................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Skills audit in the context of personal role, responsibilities and performance objectives...........1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
(a)Identification of interpersonal and transferable skills.............................................................3
(b)Personal SWOT analysis:........................................................................................................5
c) Individual appraisal.................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Personal and professional development plan...............................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFECRENCE..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODCTION
Personal and professional development are essential part of an individual career growth.
It requires learning and improving skills throughout his career in order to achieve personal
growth. Professional development is just about developing strengths from working perceptive
while during this process personality of an individual is developed. Thus it can be said that
personal development is part of professional development. Skill set of employees at workplace
gets increased by performing various tasks. Growth of people mainly depends on their ability to
work outside of their comfort zone and dealing with the challenges. The choices they made leads
to the personal development. In the report topics which has been covered are skills audit and
performance objectives, interpersonal and transferable skills, personal SWOT Analysis,
individual appraisal within the organisation and personal and professional development plan
(Agafonova and Kaigorodov, 2015).
TASK 1
Skills audit in the context of personal role, responsibilities and performance objectives
Skills audit: These are the ability of person to perform a particular set of job. Some
people are specialised to work in an efficient way because they are born with certain attributes
which makes it easier for them to do those tasks that might be difficult for somebody else. Even
though it not compulsory that these skills are inherent, if a person consistently works to improve
those areas where they lack such abilities can be acquired (Albion and et.al., 2015).
A British institution named Harrods is well known and respected retail store in the world,
in order to maintain its position the company requires those employees that can face challenges
and able to maintain standards. Though it provides effective training to enhance the skills of
employees, which benefits both the organisation as well as workers. Working at Harrods as a
salesman it was required to prepare a progress report that shows if the personal and professional
objectives are achieved or not. Skills audit is as follows:
skills Very good good average bad
Negotiation ✓
Communication ✓
Customer service ✓
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Team working ✓
leadership ✓
Initiatives ✓
Use of these skills in the context of role, responsibilities and performance objectives:
Representation- The main role of salesman is to present the goods and services to the
customers in an effective manner. In order to do this, it is important that employee has good
communication skills so that presentation can look attractive. Gaining the attention of customers
is vital responsibility of salesman, bad communication skills will put a spot on the image of
organisation. As Harrods is looking for employees that can effectively retain it's reputation, thus
the first and foremost requirement is to hire those individual who can communicate properly
(Brody and Hadar, 2015).
Increasing sales- Another role of salesmen is to achieve the targets, this is done by
effectively negotiating and convincing the buyers to agree to buy the products. Good negotiation
skills is required to maintain the profitability of the business. Salesman is responsible for
increasing the customer traffic that leads to the achievement of higher sales. After working under
this post it can be said that persuading customer to buy the product is very difficult task.
Customer relationship- Salesman plays major role in maintaining healthy relationship
with customers. Inviting and inducing people to try and buy the product is not the only
responsibility of salesman instead it is also important to retain the customers and achieve
customer loyalty. This benefits the organisation by improving it's image in the society. While
recruiting people for this post Harrods should hire those candidates who possess good
interpersonal skills.
Dealing with uncertain situations- Uncertainties are part of business, salesman alone
not solve the problem instead it is the team work that helps in increasing the productivity of the
organisation. Working in a team is another skill which many lacks, organisation should
understand that a competent team is good for growth of the organisation. Salesman can
overcome the team dynamics with the help of Team working skills.
Guiding the organisation- This role of salesman is concerned with the ability to lead
people in a right direction. It includes both buyers as well as co workers. An individual should
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have good leadership skills to lead people as well motivating them to achieve targets. These
skills are helpful in developing the personality of salesman (Carpenter and Krutka, 2015).
Reporting- Like many other roles another crucial one is report top management about
the daily working such as new information which has been gathered after interacting with the
customers or issues incurring regarding operations. Salesman should possess initiatives skill to
deliver important information and systematically manage the working of business. In retail
business day to day challenges can be met if employee has ability to think forward and take
actions accordingly.
TASK 2
(a)Identification of interpersonal and transferable skills
Interpersonal skills: These are the skills which includes person's ability to communicate
and understand others effectively. In the organisational context managers are required to
understand the state of mind of employees and determine what measures should be taken to
motivate them.
Communication skills: These skills are associated with the person's ability to
communicate properly. Its main purpose is to convey the message from one place to another.
Developing these skills provides great help in improving one's career, at workplace employees
should be able communicate on various aspects. Clarity in talking is the fundamental feature of
this skill, if a person itself is not sure about what should be said then there is no way that other
person could understand the meaning behind it. From professional perceptive this can help an
individual attaining promotions and lucrative job offers while on personal front, it is beneficial in
establishing and improving relationship (Wald and et.al., 2015).
Empathy- Being empathic is concerned with person's ability to understand the
perceptions and feeling of others. This is important both for the personal and professional
development of people. For example at workplace problems in the personal life of employees
can negatively affect their performance, if managers are empathic they can put themselves into
the shoes of workers and motivate them to work hard. Understanding others helps in widening
the horizons of an individual and developing personality (Coventry, Maslin‐Prothero and Smith,
2015).
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Workplace etiquette- People who themselves professionally are often considered as true
role model. Way of speaking, body language, dressing sense are all part of this skill. Employees
can make impression by incorporating this ability.
Time management - This skills are associated with the person's ability to manage time.
In order to achieve this skill person have to allot time to various activities. In this way focus can
be made on important tasks, it helps in achieving the productivity and efficiency. It is often seen
that many people suffer from problems like stress, anxiety and depression due to the workload
thus mental heath of individual is also improved if time is managed appropriately (Macià and
García, 2016).
Leadership- This skill is linked to the power to influence others and guide them in a
particular way. A good leadership requires ability to communicate as well as listening the
problems of people. At workplace mangers should have such capability as organisation with
directionless employees is not considered worthy. Having this trait is also important for the
personal growth as this helps in acquiring respectful position amongst people. People look up to
leaders to solve their problems (Davis, 2015).
Problem solving- Life throws many challenges and obstacles, it depends on the
capability of individual to overcome these situations. Adopting this skills helps both personally
and professionally. Employees at workplace had to make choices to solve a problem like affect
of changing trends on sales while in real life people deal with financial and emotional problems.
Tools and techniques to enhance these skills:
Multitasking tool- This tool is often used at workplace to make employees habitual of
dealing with different and complex tasks. As employees once they start facing the problems that
occurs in different areas and figure out their solutions this helps in enhancing the problem
solving skill of individual.
Training- This is common techniques which helps in improving the leadership and
communication skills of employees. People gets trained by participating in activities which are
being conducted under this technique like asking employees in program to speak on various
issues and engaging audience through discussion. Appropriate feedback is given to them after
training session which helps in improving their ability (Frich and et.al., 2015).
Continuous Development- Organisation conduct various development programme
which are used to identify the hidden competencies of employees. Using this techniques skills
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like leadership and work etiquette can be improved, as individual is required to go through
various different situations where their ability are tested at the end of the program leaning is
acquired on subject matter.
(b)Personal SWOT analysis:
Using SWOT techniques an analysis is made on my own person personal skills, this will
help in understanding those areas where I needed to focus on along with identifying those which
can help in improving my career.
Strengths: These are the areas where person excels at and using this ability he can
achieve the higher growth. My personal strength is good communication skill through this
characteristics I can easily make contacts with people and establish relationships. Apart from
these I am also good at negotiating with people this helps me during my interaction with the
customers as I can easily have pursued them to buy products and services (Lightfoot and Frost,
2015).
Weakness- Person's inability to work effectively work in certain areas is considered as
weakness. These are the areas where need to put more focus and take actions to improve them,
my personal weakness are the initiatives and leadership qualities. I often hesitate to take first
move at workplace and suggest new ideas, this act as roadblock in my personal growth.
Learning- There are different ways through which skills like leadership and initiatives
can be learned. At workplace I need to indulge myself in performing different tasks so that
objectives can be achieved. Learning these skills will provide great help in developing my
personality (Hodges, Lowenthal and Grant, 2016).
Development opportunities- These are the potential prospects that are needed to be
identified, finding right opportunities at time is very important. Nature of these prospects in such
way acquiring and using them can lead to the personal development. I need to develop ability to
systematically organise and prioritize work and participate in various activities for achieving a
sense of self confidence.
c) Individual appraisal
Using Proforma for Individual Appraisal:
A wide array of methods are used for the purpose of individual appraisal in order to
ascertain where one stands on a scale with set criteria at a particular point of time. In the context
of given case scenario, the individual appraisal has been done using a Proforma that helps in the
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analysis of one's abilities and performance for a given set of factors which may be either
qualitative or quantitative in nature. Usually Qualitative Factors include those variables that are
related to emotions or mental health of an individual such as stress managing ability, happiness
and other similar personality traits. On the other hand, the Quantitative factors are those that can
be easily measured using a mathematical or numerical unit such as ratings given for
There are type of guidelines are required to consider while conducting performance
appraisal Performa. Some of guidelines are defined as follows;
 Validate the legal performance review
 Frame a standard form for performance appraisal
 Evaluating first six months performance
 Initiating the performance reviewing process in upcoming meetings
 Collecting reviews and suggestions form employees regarding the appraisals and provide
inputs with written documents
 Provide required references and the job description with correct inputs.
 Aging the meeting as per the performance appraisal format
 Update the corrections in the performance appraisal form
 Circulate the appraisal form with in employees after correcting the last changes and
upgradation.
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TASK 3
Personal and professional development plan
Personal and professional development plan will help in overcoming my weakness which
were discovered through my persona audit. This is action to respond to the issues that are lately
affecting my personal and professional growth (Markham, Gentile and Graham, 2017).
Development
Area
Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely
Leadership I want to
develop my
leadership
qualities as it
will help me in
gaining
In order to
ascertain the
whether I have
achieved this
ability or not
comparison
This ability is
attainable. It
can be
achieved by
participating
in various
Being
salesman these
skills are
relevant to
guide buyers,
also from
This skill can
be achieved in
the time
period of 3 to
4 years.
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respectful
position at
workplace
can be made
between my
present and
previous
performance
leadership
development
programmes.
career
perceptive
these are
important
(Kroll and
Dussias,
2017).
Initiatives lack of
initiatives are
the causes
hindrance in
the personal as
well as
professional
development.
My main
objective is to
improve these
skills (Miltner
and et.al.,
2015).
Based on the
view points of
superiors it
can be
determined
whether I have
acquired these
skills or not.
By Indulging
myself in
different
cultural
activities and
multitasking I
can overcome
my lack of
initiatives.
Relevancy of
these skills
can be seen
from the fact
that they are
useful for the
welfare of the
organisation.
New ideas and
suggestions
leads to the
improvement
in the
productivity of
the business.
It will take 3
to 4 years to
develop these
ability.
Communicatio
n
Though my
communicatio
n skills are
good but
improvement
is always good
for the overall
development.
These skills
can be
measured by
asking peers
that how
effectively I
convey my
messages to
Attaining
these skills
requires ones
listening
others (Pool
and et.al.,
2015).
Various issues
can be solved
by establishing
an effective
channel of
communicatio
n.
To achieve
these abilities
minimum 1
year is
required (Lee
and Choi,
2015).
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Thus
enhancing my
communicatio
n skill is also
one of my
personal goal.
them.
Assessment B
Personal and professional development is an action plan which was prepared by me in
order to understand various aspects of my personality. As I was struggling to attain my
objectives this plan provided my great help in looking into those areas where focus is required.
As I often faced issues about my career and growth and asked myself questions like why is it
happening, what are the reasons which are causing roadblock in my development. My mentor in
my office suggested to make personal and professional development plan. Even though it was an
effective option but the main problem was my ignorance about how to prepare this plan. After
researching on different platforms I able to gather information on how this plan is created and
what are its key elements which needed to be addressed. It was the only mean that could help me
in understanding the difficulties. The process of preparing this action plan involves first
determining the areas where I lack. Initially I was not aware about my weaknesses and did not
find it important to discover them. It is only after I understood these are the reasons of my
problems I decided to acknowledge them. One of my main weakness was the inability to lead
and influence people.
At workplace achieving a respectful position requires one to possess strong leadership
qualities. These abilities are well celebrated in the organisation as people who this trait are
considered as powerful. To become strong leader one is required to be fearless and empathetic at
the same time. Through the development plan it was ascertained that these abilities can be
acquired by participating in various activities like seminars and events organised by the
company. After analysing this aspect, I put forward my name to the seniors to become part of
different projects and events. I learned from my peers that to become good leader one should be
able to communicate with others and take decisions on various matters. During the process of
project, I listened to the problem of others which helped in covering the gaps between me and
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