Professional Development for Strategic Managers - Skills Audit Report

This report, created by a student, focuses on a professional development plan (PDP) for strategic managers, specifically within the context of Marks and Spencer (M&S). It begins with an introduction to personal development plans and their importance in career enhancement. The report then presents a skills audit using SWOT analysis to identify strengths (communication, self-motivation, adaptability, and creativity) and weaknesses (decision-making, language skills, and conflict resolution). The report explores various learning styles, including Kolb's learning cycle and Honey and Mumford's styles, emphasizing their purpose in improving skills and knowledge. A detailed personal development plan is constructed, outlining objectives, current and target competencies, methods for improvement, and timelines for enhancing skills like decision-making, language proficiency, and conflict resolution. The PDP includes specific actions, such as training and language classes, to achieve these goals. The report highlights the impact of these improvements on achieving strategic goals, such as M&S's expansion and profit targets. Finally, the report concludes by summarizing the key findings and the significance of the PDP in achieving strategic objectives and personal growth.

Professional
Development for
Strategic Managers -
Part B

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Carry out a skills audit to evaluate the strategic skills needed to meet current and future leadership
requirements......................................................................................................................................3
2.2 Apply appropriate techniques to identify preferred learning style...............................................4
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Construct a personal development plan that meets leadership development requirements identified
in the skills audit................................................................................................................................5
3.2 Use suitable methods to assess the outcomes of a personal development plan against personal work
objectives...........................................................................................................................................7
3.3 Evaluate the impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goal...........................8
CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................................................9
REFRENCES ...........................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Personal development plan refers to a procedure which is develop an action plan that will be
based on goal setting, reflection, awareness, planning and so on which will leads to enhancement in
career, education and self improvement (HittIreland and Hoskisson2012). Personal development plan is
also known as individual development plan or personal enterprise plan. This will include statements
related to lifestyle priorities, evaluation of risk and opportunities and so on. Organization which is taken
for respective assignment is Marks and Spencer which is founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer
in year 1884. Its headquarter is in London, United Kingdom and they are operating in retail industry.
Topic which are included in this report are related to personal skill audit, techniques help in learning style
and PDP plan. Along with this it will include outcome of developing PDP and its impact on learning and
attaining goal.
TASK 2
2.1 Carry out a skills audit to evaluate the strategic skills needed to meet current and future
leadership requirements
Skill audit is define as a procedure which is used in order to measure and analysis skills of a
person or a group. The main aim of conducting skills audit is to evaluate skills as well as abilities which
are required by a company for attaining goal and skills and abilities which they have in current time
(Mone and London, 2018). The SMART objective of Marks and Spencer is launch its offline store in
Nigeria and enhance their profit by 40% in 1 year. For this I am conduct my skills audit through SWOT
analysis:-
Strength Weakness
 Communication skills: Through this skills
I am able to interact with other peoples in
effective manner.
 Self motivated: I am self motivated which
encourage me to take risk and conduct
work in effective manner.
 Adaptability: I am a quick learner which
help me in adapting new things quickly and
in effective manner.
 Work under pressure: I have ability to
work under pressure and take risk. Through
 Decision making skill: It is my weakness
that I am not good decision maker because
I am not able to take decision properly and
quickly.
 Knowledge of other language: It is one of
the major weakness for me that I didn't
know local language of Nigeria which
seems as hurdle in order to communicate
with local customers.
 Conflict resolution: Due to this weakness
I am not able to resolve conflict within the

this I work in effective and calmly manner
for attaining may and company goal
properly.
 Creative: I am creative which means that I
can come up with new as well as attractive
innovation that will attract customers of
new location and enhance target.
workplace which hamper productivity of
company.
Opportunities Threat
 It is opportunities for me that I can
overcome my weakness so that I can also
contribute in more effective manner in
order to attaining goal.
 Along with this I can also work on my
skills and improve it more so that I will be
more effective for my company.
 For me it is threat that in market or
company there is huge competition which
may impact on my position.
2.2 Apply appropriate techniques to identify preferred learning style
There are various learning style which can be used by Marks and Spencer so that they can
evaluate the time duration in which they can gain their SMART objective. some major method which they
can adopt are given below:-
Kolb learning cycle:
This learning style is consist of four learning cycle and a learner touches or consider all the stage
(KramarandParry2014). which explanation is given below:-

 Concrete experience- It refers to those experience which a person learn from its its work or
home. Through experience help them in finding opportunities to start their learning cycle.
 Reflective observation- It refers to stage at which a person evaluate or think what they done or
experienced in past (Swart and et.al., 2012). Some of peoples are naturally best in this whereas
come peoples need to take training.
 Abstract conceptualisation- At this stage an individual will conceptualise all the experience
which they gain in past and try to identify its need and importance.
 Active Experimentation- It is a last stage and at this stage person generate plans and evaluate
the hypotheses which they adopt for a new experience so that their attain their objective.
Honey and Mumford learning styles:
The respective model or learning style is describe about four learning style which help a person in
learning new things in effective manner, explanation of which are explain below:-
 Activist: It refers to learning style in which peoples learn new things by doing or acting work. In
this they generally conduct any work and then learn from its experience.
 Theorist:In this peoples are more attracted to learn from theories, they basically enjoy to learning
form models as well as reading. There theories are related to stories and quotes.
 Pragmatist: It is a learning style in which individual use all its learning in real world. These type
of peoples generally experiment with ideas, theories, techniques and so on.
 Reflector: It refers to learning style in which a person learn from observing others peoples and
by thinking what will happening in particular situation (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015). They
generally collect data and watch others for learning new things.
By adopting both the learning technique Marks and Spencer able to identify proper ways to
enhance their employees thinking so that they attain their SMART goal in effective manner.
Purpose of learning style:-
Learning style is define as a method or technique which is adopted by an individual in order to
improve their skills and knowledge. It will also include range of contested as well as competing theory
which aim is to report about the differences in an individual's learning. There are several purpose of
learning style which are mentioned below:-
 This will help in identifying difference among the instruction and learning style which a person
can adopt for enhance learning.
 This will also help an individual in identifying appropriate method which they can adopt for
learning or enhancing knowledge.
 Through this an individual able to know its strength and weakness that help in grabbing
opportunities.

TASK 3
3.1 Construct a personal development plan that meets leadership development requirements
identified in the skills audit
Personal development plan refers to tool which is develop by a person in order to analysis
methods and time duration which they can acquired in order to improve their weakness so that they can
attain their goal properly (Kinnie and Swart, 2012). In order to this for attaining goal or SMART
objective of Marks and Spencer I create personal development plan, which is mentioned below:-
Personal Development Plan:-
Objective Current
Competence
Target
Competence
Method Development
opportunities
Time Period
To improve
Decision
making skill
8 10 For improving
this skill
method used are
taking training
and attaining
classes.
By developing
decision making
skills I will able
to understand
each and every
situation in
effective
manner which
help in
developing
decision which
help me and my
company in
attaining their
goal in effective
manner. This
will also help in
taking those
decision which
help in gaining
huge profit.
Within 30 Days
I want to
improve my
decision making
skill which is
started from 1st
September 2019
to 30th
September
2019.
To enhance 5 10 Method used By developing Within 2

Knowledge of
other language
for this are
taking
languages
classes.
this skills I will
able to
effectively
communicate
with local
peoples or
customers.
Through which
I am able to
understand their
requirement as
well as need
that help in
product
designing and
development.
Months I want
to enhance my
knowledge of
other language
which is started
from 1st
September 2019
to 30th
November
2019.
To improve
Conflict
resolution
skills
6 10 Method used
for improving
this skill are
taking guidance
under
professional and
attaining
classes.
By improving
this skills I will
able to maintain
effective
working
condition in
respective
company. This
will also help
me in
understanding
requirement and
issues of
employees
through which I
can resolve
conflict in
Within 30 Days
I want to
enhance my
conflict
resolution skill
which is started
from 1st
November 2019
to 30th
November
2019.

proper way.
This will
directly as well
as indirectly
help in
enhancing
quality of its
employee's
work.
By this Marks and Spencer able to know my weakness and the ways as well as time which I
required to improve it so that I can effectively take part in attaining SMART goal or objective.
3.2 Use suitable methods to assess the outcomes of a personal development plan against personal
work objectives
Personal development plan help a company or an individual to attain their objective in effective
manner (Ensmenger, 2012). For analysing the effectiveness of personal development plan a company or a
person may adopt various methods. In order to enhance my skill I can adopt various method which will
also leads me in gaining my company objective, from which some major methods are given below:-
 Analysis personal develop: According to this method I can compare my past skills to new level
after executing personal development plan. Through this I will able to analysis my skills as well
as abilities that I have enhance by adopting PDP methods (Neill and Moody, 2015). Through this
strategy or method I will also contribute in attaining of SMART objective i.e. opening offline
store in Nigeria and earning 40% more profit in upcoming 1 year of my company Marks and
Spencer. Along with this, through it I can know about my accurate strength as well as weakness
and on which I have to work on so that me and my company able to attain their goal.
 Reviewing goal: It refers to stage or strategy which is adopted by me for review my personal
development goal and skills requirement according to it. In process I will generally review my
activities and goal then accordingly I will set time in which I have to attain my goal. This will
also leads to attainment of my goal along with my company's objective i.e. opening offline store
in Nigeria and earning 40% more profit in upcoming 1 year (Saunders, 2012). It is consider as
one of the effective method because it will force an employee or an individual to articulate their
reasoning. Moreover through it I will able to develop effective plan which help me in attaining
my goal along with objective of my company.

 Moving forward reflective practices: According to this method or strategy I have to develop
plan in which I will conduct evaluation of what skills and abilities I can learn by developing or
following person development plan. In this I will mainly analysis and ensure that what ever I am
retain with me for a long time duration in effectual manner. This is so because it will help me and
my company's in attaining their goal or objective impressively and effectively.
By these strategies I and Marks and Spencer able to evaluate the outcome of personal develop
plan which are developed by employees in order to enhance my skills and abilities for attaining SMART
objective of company.
3.3 Evaluate the impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goal
Strategic goal of Marks and Spencer is that they are planning to launch offline store in Nigeria
and enhance their profit by 40 % in upcoming 1 year. For this they adopt two learning strategies i.e. Kolb
learning cycle as well as Honey and Mumford learning styles. These are effective for them because
through it they able to analysis and improve skills as well as abilities of their employees (Harrison, 2012).
There are various impact which of these learning theory, some of them are explain below:-
 Through these learning theory respective company able to develop effective strategies in every
situation or flexible situation.
 Through this company able to develop effective goal which help employees in exploring new
situation which help them in attaining their objective and goal.
 Through this respective company able to develop decision which are technique oriented and this
will also help in understanding problems of employees.
 Along with this both Kolb learning cycle as well as Honey and Mumford learning styles help
respective company in enhancing skills and abilities of their employees by analysing their
strength as well as weakness (McManus, 2012).
Through Kolb learning cycle as well as Honey and Mumford learning styles Marks and Spencer
able to develop strategies which by enhancing their employees strength and improving their weakness. So
that they can attain their SMART objective i.e. launching offline store in Nigeria and expand their profit
by 40 % in upcoming 1 year.
Along with this, through evaluation I also able to know various things such as there are some
factors which can be done much better but it is not possible due to lack of time and money such as taking
class or internship for long time duration. As analysing my development plan, I get to know that what
experiences I have gain will help me in developing my future in effective manner. This is so because it
will work effective, that enhance skills my skills and ability for long time duration. I think if I get more
time I can gain more from these activities because through these practices I learn new things daily which

help me in my future career development. I also want to do these activities or practice again because it is
very effective and helpful.
CONCLUSION
By evaluating above mentioned points it can be summarised that it is essential for a firm or an
individual to conduct personal development plan so that they able to enhance their skills, ability and
knowledge for conducting a work in effective manner. In order to conduct thing they can conduct skill
audit through personal SWOT analysis. By this they able to know about their strength as well as
weakness which help them in develop strategies which help in accomplishing work properly. Along with
this a person can also develop its personal development plans which help them in improving their skills as
well as abilities.

REFRENCES
Books and journals
Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E., 2012. Strategic management cases: competitiveness and
globalization. Cengage Learning.
Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance management:
A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Kramar, R. and Parry, E., 2014. Strategic human resource management in the A sia P acific region:
similarities and differences?. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources. 52(4). pp.400-419.
Swart, J., and et.al., 2012. Human Resource Development. Routledge.
Ramazani, J. and Jergeas, G., 2015. Project managers and the journey from good to great: The benefits of
investment in project management training and education. International Journal of Project
Management. 33(1). pp.41-52.
Kinnie, N. and Swart, J., 2012. Committed to whom? Professional knowledge worker commitment in
cross‐boundary organisations. Human Resource Management Journal. 22(1). pp.21-38.
Ensmenger, N.L., 2012. The computer boys take over: Computers, programmers, and the politics of
technical expertise. Mit Press.
Saunders, R., 2012. Assessment of professional development for teachers in the vocational education and
training sector: An examination of the concerns based adoption model. Australian Journal of
Education. 56(2). pp.182-204.
Harrison, R., 2012. Employee development. Universities Press.
McManus, J., 2012. Risk management in software development projects. Routledge.
Neill, M.S. and Moody, M., 2015. Who is responsible for what? Examining strategic roles in social media
management. Public Relations Review. 41(1). pp.109-118.
Online
Reviewing and Revising Personal Development Plans. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/reviewing-personal-development.html>.