Report on Managing Work Priorities and Professional Development

This report addresses key aspects of managing work priorities and professional development. It begins by outlining ten strategies for effective time, performance, and behavior management in the workplace, emphasizing techniques like minimizing distractions and prioritizing tasks. The report then explores essential management development activities, including workshops and simulations, to enhance leadership skills. It also provides ten actionable steps for achieving a good work-life balance, such as prioritizing time and incorporating personal time. The importance of organizational policies and procedures is examined, highlighting their role in setting expectations and ensuring legal compliance. Additionally, the report defines learning style preferences and offers five strategies for maximizing time and performance, such as setting targets and being organized. The report incorporates relevant academic references to support the findings.

MANAGE PERSONAL WORK PRIORITIES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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Contents
Question 1........................................................................................................................................2
Question 2........................................................................................................................................4
Question 3........................................................................................................................................5
Question 4........................................................................................................................................6
Question 5........................................................................................................................................7
Question 6........................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Question 1
According to Elorus, 2018,
 Minimizing distractions wherever possible within my immediate work environment can
contribute in managing my time, performance and behaviour.
 Preparing a to-do list of routinely tasks, planning my week ahead by prioritizing of tasks
given, reviewing and updating them regularly by setting goals and getting them
completed within a specified timeline.1
 Getting my workspace organized by filing documents, having a good system to manage
meeting deadlines, special events, appointments etc. for saving time.
 Getting started with tasks most time-consuming for avoiding procrastination.
 Focusing on high-value activities, positively affecting my work, team or client.
 Limiting doing multiple tasks together by planning my day in blocks and setting aside
specific time, returning calls and to detail plan and analyze the work at my desk.
 Tracking my time that time spent on projects and their relevant tasks for
appropriately planning the work hours.
 Having the courage of saying ‘No’ while being allotted tasks far off my capacity or limit
to avoid being overloaded with work and getting the tasks in hand completed on time.
 Delegating some of my tasks to subordinates for efficiently completing the tasks targeted.
 Reviewing daily progress and performance.
Question 2
According to Becker and Bish, (2017),
1 Elorus, “Top 10 Effective Time Management Strategies and Tips for your Work,” Elorus, April 12, 2020
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Workshops on dealing with resistance- manager often has to deal with resistance from
employees and clients hence, learning dealing with such challenging conversations
constructively is important.
Simulation to bring or implement key changes- change is inevitable; hence, knowing
effective implementation of changes sans needless waves is a must.2
Immersive team experiences – for learning working in a team and leading them, team
building exercises are tool useful for managers.
Implementation of varied thought process - according to Andriotos 2018, working with others
by utilizing their approach is necessary for managers hence, learning adapting their ways to think
with certain leadership development activities actually focusing to alter own behaviours is
important.3
Meeting and conference simulations – learning conducting oneself in a meeting is a valuable
skill for a manager.
Keep works flowing - participate in management and leadership events with focus on work flow
are important to ensure businesses do not struggle due to inadequate staff training.
Question 3
Playing to own strengths- focus on the strengths and getting others outsourced sans wasting
time.
2 Becker, K. and Bish, A, “Management development experiences and expectations: Informal vs formal
learning,” Education & Training, 59, no.6, (2017): 565-578.
3 Andriotos, N, “Leadership Training For Managers: 8 Activities And Ideas That Work” E-learning industry, April
12, 2020
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Prioritising time – preparing to-do list with all tasks on it for prioritizing them into based on
urgency and significance.
Knowing own peaks and troughs- assign complicated, time consuming and more focus tasks
that are for mornings to avert procrastination.
Plotting some personal time- according to Dong-Jin and Sirgy, 2018, ensure giving time to
personal life - family and on health to remain stress free.4
Setting working hours and sticking to it – set work hours for self and sticking to them by
doing all under own control.
Managing time in long term- design a timeline of own activities by putting dates across the top
and activities down the side; breaking every task into parts; incorporate family commitments.
Tapping into technology – utilize application or conferencing technologies like Skype and
GoToMeeting over a physical meeting.
Taking time to make time- invest in time-tracking tools for tracking everything to understand
time taken by tasks.
Doing what you love- taking out time for doing things you love will be energizing and
refreshing.
Being realistic – self-analyse at the end of each working day for knowing what worked and what
did not, and how fixing it.
Question 4
According to Neideck 2016, having policies and procedures are necessary for organizations to
set expectations in terms of employees’ behaviour, conduct and performance aligning with that
of their values and mission; enabling the workforces in having a clear comprehension about
4 Dong-Jin, L. and Sirgy, M. J, “What do people do to achieve Work–Life balance? A formative conceptualization
to help develop a metric for large-scale quality-of-life surveys,” Social Indicators Research, 138, no.2, (2018): 771-
791.
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individual and team responsibilities hence, save time and resources; keeping management liable
by setting standards for business managers thus, guiding their conduct and standards besides
providing transparency to others; ensuring adherence with law by regular reviewing and updating
of policies and procedures; defending against legal claims of employees such as workplace
bullying; keeping employees aware whom to contact whenever they need help besides setting out
the process and options for addressing grievances in the workplace, if there are any.5 According
to Bhateliya, S. 2017, employees should be aware of the organization’s policies and procedures
for improving interaction with intent of resolving problems and building workflow in
organizations; clarity about legal compliance inbounds them in working accordingly thus,
ensuring smooth functioning of organizational operations; maintaining equality amidst their
authorities and responsibilities for clearly setting their roles and comprehending acceptable and
unacceptable actions within an organization;6 for brining organizational wellness by increasing
employees productivity through dynamism; maintaining of consistency within a system, which
always goes parallel with employees productivity; to ensure dissatisfaction does not rises
amongst employees in the absence of unawareness about the policies and procedures of an
organization, minimizing of gaps amidst the employers and employees with intent of cultivating
organizational peace and achieving proficiency within the capabilities of workforces by
optimally managing the talents.
Question 5
According to Kerns 2019, Learning style preferences is way information is taken in and
processed by people and can be comprehended as set of cognitive features, affective and
5 Neideck, S, “5 Key Reasons Why It's Important To Have Policies and Procedure,” HR Daily, April 12, 2020
6 Bhateliya, S, “Explaining HR policies and procedures to employee is crucial to improve employee productivity,”
YourStory, April 12, 2020
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physiological factors stabilizing the attitude, interests and response of the learner.7 It is an
instructive condition most likely in learning by the learners besides referring their preferences to
learn. Most people are not aware of their learning style preferences hence, taste failure in
learning something. Visual, auditory, read and write, and kinaesthetic are common learning
styles.
Question 6
According to Realbuzz.com 2020,
Setting targets- identify things that are important followed by setting goals for knowing where
to give in the efforts.
Getting the priorities right - precisely prioritising things is key to a good to-do list for averting
the impulse of getting the easier task done first.
Multitasking- wisely choose getting more than one task done at a time for maximizing own time
and performance.
Being organised- arrange the workspace by filing papers or placing things in a permanent place
for finding them easily to avoid wastage of time in finding something, say a file or note, and
getting clear from unwanted things. 8
Saying No – deciding on non-essential tasks and drawing the line on things that one can commit
to finish successfully.
References
7 Kerns, C. D, “Managing leader learning preferences at work: A practice-oriented approach,” Journal of
Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 16, no. 5, (2019) :10-27.
8 Realbuzz.com, “Top 12 Ways To Maximise Your Time” RealBuzz, April 12, 2020
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Andriotos, Nikos. 2018. Leadership Training For Managers: 8 Activities And Ideas That Work.
E-Learning Industry
Becker, Karen. and Bish, Adelle. 2017. Management development experiences and expectations:
Informal vs formal learning. Education & Training, 59, no.6, 565-578.
Bhateliya, Shivangi 2017. Explaining HR policies and procedures to employee is crucial to
improve employee productivity. YourStory.
Dong-Jin, Lee. and eSirgy, M. Joseph. 2018. What do people do to achieve Work–Life balance?
A formative conceptualization to help develop a metric for large-scale quality-of-life
surveys. Social Indicators Research, 138, no.2, 771-791.
Elorus. 2018. Top 10 Effective Time Management Strategies and Tips for your Work. Elorus
Kerns, Charles. D. 2019. Managing leader learning preferences at work: A practice-oriented
approach. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 16, no.5, 10-27.
Neideck, Sarah. 2016. 5 Key Reasons Why It's Important To Have Policies and Procedures. HR
Daily
Realbuzz.com. 2020. Top 12 Ways To Maximise Your Time. RealBuzz
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