Effective Work-Life Balance Strategies for Enhanced Performance

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report explores work-life balance and personal development strategies.

MANAGE PERSONAL WORK
PRIORITIES AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

1. Explain how a manager can be a positive role model for staff within a business. Detail the qualities a
manager should possess
One of the most successive ways to attract and influence the individual and increase the workplace
performance is that every manager has to adopt the role model in mindset. Due to the several qualities of
the manager, they show the positive role model figure in the eyes of staff. They show their positiveness
through integrity, honesty and trustworthiness importantly in their job functioning in organization.
Manager role model is always on the stage; the employees, customers, vendors and other stakeholder’s
sees every move and gains learning from their behaviour (Yashkova et.al. 2016). The several qualities
that the manager should possess to be the role model of employees are hard working, trust,
accountability, respect, positivity, persistence and integrity.
To be effective role model, hard work and pitching is important whenever the staffs are in greater needs.
The manager should show that you can be trusted always through fair, consistent and honest. The
employees actions responsibility shall be taken by the managers to show accountability and do show
respect for them in every situation. Positive attitude in the stress situations and being persistence to meet
obstacles shall also be in manager to adopt the role model.
2. What information do you require to set your own personal goals in a work environment? Explain the
SMART goal setting method in your response.
To set the personal goals of the individuals in the organization, the individual should need the
information about the team structure clarity, communicate with boss to make the job easy and good,
concentrate on the things under the control and for the rest have the plan, work on the career path in long
run and lastly, move ahead for the big picture, goal achievement clarity, periodic check-ins, taking help
in need, make comparison of annual objective with the to-do-list and finally track accomplishments.
After collecting the information about the relevant points mentioned for setting the personal goals, the
use of SMART goal shall be done (Zhu et.al. 2016).
A useful of making goals stronger is to use the SMART that stands for specific, measurable, attainable,
and relevant and time bound. For example: Suppose being the employee my personal goal is to get team
leader position in the organization, instead of saying like this the use of SMART goal can be done ‘To
be the team leader in the organization by December 31, 2019. It stands like these,
 S: to be the team leader
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 M: More communication with the other employees in the next 9 months
 A: taking other employees analyses and making improvement in every month
 R: to be recognizable in the organization
 T: In the following 9 months
3. In developing a performance plan for your own work output what factors should be taken into
consideration? Outline how you could address each of these points when setting personal work goals.
There are several factors to be considered in the plan of the individual are basic duties of the individual,
knowledge individual possess, time requirements individual has and attitude and absenteeism the
individual does. The duties shall be identified first the individual has to be perform on the basis of job
description. For example: if the employee duty is to take the calls and answer it immediately and after it
determine that it meets the criteria or not. Knowledge should be there in the individual about the policies
and procedures of the organization before planning the performance. The individual needs time to
complete the particular task but in specified period only and on that basis the performance is determined
(Argyris, 2017). Lastly, attitude also impact the individual performance, the enthusiasm for the job is
taken into consideration.
In setting the personal work goals, it is important to address all the four factors. The personal goal is
same i.e. to be the team leader of the organization in the next 9 months. In this case, goals cannot be set
in words only actual implementation is also needed. Being the employee the performance will be
evaluated then higher position is assigned to the individual. On this concern, fulfilling duties on time
with applying proper knowledge and maintaining attitude in the complex situation will support in getting
the performance and personal goals objectives.
4. An important skill that a business manager must possess is to be able to multitask and prioritize
effectively to make sure all goals can be achieved. Explain this statement and how it relates to the
overall performance of a business highlighting team, organizational goals and objectives
For meeting the business objectives and higher performance of the team and business, the role of
manager of the organization is very much significant. Manager has several skills but the main skills they
have is multi-tasking and prioritizing the work. Teams perform their operations on the basis of the jobs
given by their team leaders. Team leaders perform their jobs on the basis of business manager guidance
and direction. In this team and leaders performance is achieved that ultimately supports in meeting the
business goals and objectives. Further, manager handles the entire organization people and work like
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customers, employees, seniors, juniors and other relevant stakeholders which show that they are multi-
task performer (Drucker, 2016). Works they prioritize on the basis of list they prepare and accordingly
job allocation is done so as to meet the business objectives.
The performance of the business is achieved through moving the people in correct direction which is
done by the manager as they are answerable to the top management for not achieving the task specified.
Hence, correct prioritizing and multitasking shall be done by the manager as their main skill.
5. What types of methods and business technology are available to improve your ability to effectively
manage your work priorities and achieve personal, team and organization’s goals and objectives
There are different types of technologies that can be used by the individual to increase the abilities and
supports in priorities are computer supports in carrying out work based database systems and PC at
home for personal objectives. Email technology gives staff notices or calendar appointments are fixed
on it. Internet technology supports in research, paying bills to individual and banking functions for
personal and business operations. Mobile phone technology supports in work management as it gives
contact touch, GPS, internet usage and calendar to set the time for work priorities. Laptop systems help
in internet accessing and work systems and GPS supports the individual in giving the direction for
travelling in reason for work and personal (DeCenzo et.al. 2016).
However, though technology supports in work prioritization and meeting the business objectives yet it
includes negative impact also. High dependency on internet and mobile phones and reduces
interpersonal skills of the individual’s that results into incomplete personal and professional growth.
6. What strategies could be implemented to measure your own personal work performance and maintain
this performance within a workplace environment? Include all aspects of gaining feedback on your
performance and ability to change your work practices as required when feedback is received
For managing the personal and professional work performance, the individual should implement the
work life balances strategy. It means giving proper attention to all the activities to enrich and meet the
work and career, family and relationships, health and fitness, community service, spirituality, passions
and hobbies, rest and recreation and intellectual stimulation. The implementation of this strategy can be
done through using the various steps that are tracking your time, determine priorities, set particular
objectives, schedule scrupulously, develop boundaries, taking care of health, nurturing personal and
professional relationships, take time for own, leave work at the workplace only, take options, work
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smartly not hardly, know when you want to take help (Pradhan et.al. 2016). By considering these steps
of the work life balance strategy, individual can measure both personal and professional performance.
Further, for getting the feedback the individual can consider the various aspects such as show interest
that is develop own open culture of communication, take responsibility for the mistakes, pay attention to
non-verbals reactions of the people around you, ask for feedbacks and lastly avoid defensiveness. By
getting the feedbacks through these aspects, individual can make improvements and bring the change in
own working practices to meet the objectives.
7. Outline what you feel are the biggest time wasters in your completion of your studies. How do you
manage this time wasters to ensure you can effectively manage your time and meet your study
requirements?
The biggest time wasters for the individuals in present is high use of smart phones and other digital
devices, doing multitasking and doing too much at the same time, noisy offices and chatty colleagues or
friends, unhealthy nutrition and hydration habits, absence of motivation, high use of social networking,
excessive meetings and never ending communication. For managing time waster’s activities, it is
important for the individual to make the proper schedule for their routine activities with specifying the
time (Rossman, 2015). The individual should ask the question to themselves that why they are doing this
and get someone else to do it. It is important that individual shall not waste the time on the things that
are not important and accept the quick standards.
If the individual in any case has to perform the duty they can do it easily as possible and then automate
it. On this develop and execute easy standard procedures. The last thing that the individual can also do to
manage the time is that schedule the most important work when you are at high energy. It will surely
takes less time and quick study can be done.
8. How can you maintain an approach of work life balance ensuring personal health and stress are
effectively managed?
As work life balance is the important approach or strategy to be implanted by the individual to reduce
the negative impact on health and personal stress on human body. For maintaining this approach the
individuals shall maintain a healthy work life balances that includes time management, set career goals,
prioritize work, get better at email, set personal goals, take care, healthy eating habits, take proper sleep,
proper use of technology to make the work faster, daily exercise, turn off gadgets, pace yourself, don’t
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be perfect all time and make time for passion and hobbies (Deery and Jago, 2015). These given activities
if properly managed by the individual that will reduce the human stress and brings positive impact on
the human health and individual will remain active and responsive for every task in personal and
professional life. It will also bring positive performance of the individual at the workplace and more
incentives and promotions will be resulted that will also reduce the stress of the individual.
However, by applying these tips in own life, positive changes will be resulted. The individual shall
always remember that they can be best only if they take proper care of themselves. They should not mix
work and home life and keep it separate because both are important in making the individual happy and
healthy and stress free (Kecklund and Axelsson, 2016).
9. Explain why it is important to continually develop personal knowledge and skills to enhance your
work performance. Outline ways in which you can develop and assess your skills when working as a
manager within the organization using both internal and external source networks
It is important to improve performance at work by continuous updating the work related skills and
making sure that your senior’s know about it. Continuous development is also essential to make the
aware the individual that they are not just doing the job instead they are developing their career.
Through this they can learn new things and can get good jobs in the future. To bring advance skills in
the individual is necessary in the today competitive rapidly changing environment. Skill development
will also give competitive benefit and further growth is always the important element in developing
individual personality.
The manager can develop and find their own skills through using both internal and external sources. The
internal sources networks are employees and other staff individual that gives the idea about the work
management of the manager in the organization (Katzenbach and Smith, 2015). The skills can be
developed internally through conducting the meetings, interviews, using resources in optimized, taking
class for the areas where improvements are required. Further, manager shall remain consistent,
cooperative and always coordinate with the employees and internal stakeholders to developing the
communication skills. From external source networks are social media, customers who can acknowledge
the skills of the manager. Further, developing the skills of manager, they can take external training and
development classes. Learning about the new technology managers of the organization generally goes
outside to develop the technological skills in them.
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10. Explain the different types of learning styles that an individual may have and outline your own
personal style. Include the reasons that you feel a particular learning style is appropriate for yourself.
How does being aware of this information help you identify, evaluate and select development
opportunities for yourself?
There are four types of learning styles that are visual, auditory, reading/ writing and kinesthetic. Visual
learning style means use of pictures, images and spatial understanding. Auditory learning style uses
sounds and music; verbal learning style means using words in both form oral and written and lastly
physical learning style mean using body, hands and touch sense. The most preferred own learning style
is kinesthetic i.e. physical learning style. The reason for this it is more supportive in gaining the
knowledge and learning on the subject (Entwistle and Ramsden, 2015). The use of hand, body brings the
attractiveness in the learner to understand what the person wants to explain.
The different learning styles of the individual bring the development opportunities in the individuals. It
supports the individual to meet the criteria of self managed and lifelong learning which is development
opportunities. These both benefits bring career future development in the new organization with high
salary packages. Self managed learning development opportunity supports the individual to handle the
complex tasks also in the organization. Kinesthetic learning style also helps in development
opportunities of being the recreational worker, actor, craftsperson, physical therapist, dancer and many
more.
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References
Books and Journals
 Argyris, C., 2017. Integrating the Individual and the Organization. Routledge.
 DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P. and Verhulst, S.L., 2016. Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management, Binder Ready Version. John Wiley & Sons.
 Deery, M. and Jago, L., 2015. Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention
strategies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), pp.453-472.
 Drucker, P., 2016. The effective executive. Routledge.
 Entwistle, N. and Ramsden, P., 2015. Understanding student learning (routledge revivals).
Routledge.
 Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance
organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
 Kecklund, G. and Axelsson, J., 2016. Health consequences of shift work and insufficient
sleep. Bmj, 355, p.i5210.
 Pradhan, R.K., Jena, L.K. and Kumari, I.G., 2016. Effect of work–life balance on organizational
citizenship behaviour: Role of organizational commitment. Global Business
Review, 17(3_suppl), pp.15S-29S.
 Rossman, M.H., 2015. Graduate School and Beyond: Earning and Using Your Advanced
Degree. Routledge.
 Yashkova, E.V., Sineva, N.L., Shkunova, A.A., Bystrova, N.V., Smirnova, Z.V. and Kolosova,
T.V., 2016. Development of Innovative Business Model of Modern Manager's
Qualities. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(11), pp.4650-4659.
 Zhu, Z.T., Yu, M.H. and Riezebos, P., 2016. A research framework of smart education. Smart
learning environments, 3(1), p.4.
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