Effective Work-Life Balance and Professional Development Strategies

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Manage Personal Work Priorities and Professional
Development

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ASSESSMENT 1.............................................................................................................................1
PART A......................................................................................................................................1
1. Ethical behaviour of a leader for being a positive role model................................................1
2. Define personal development plan and its key elements........................................................2
3. Examples of own personal goals and method of ensuring for continued progress towards
these goals...................................................................................................................................3
4. Apply technology for managing work priorities with two examples......................................3
5. Meaning of work life balance and method of managing work priorities to achieve balance
in work........................................................................................................................................4
6. Define competency standards with five examples relevant to job..........................................5
7. Process follow to prioritise development in competency areas..............................................5
8. Three types of on-job training and how it is used in workplace.............................................6
9. Meaning of having competitive edge......................................................................................7
10. Principles and techniques involved in performance measurement.......................................7
11. Two-common personality type testing process used as a tool for identifying individual
behaviour type and personality traits..........................................................................................8
12. Explain learning style............................................................................................................8
13. Three principles of time management...................................................................................9
14. Functions of organizational policies and organizational procedures....................................9
15. Difference between formal and informal self-development opportunities...........................9
16. Three benefits of participating in business networks..........................................................10
PART B....................................................................................................................................10
17. Plan for helping employee in given scenario and key actions for benefiting employee and
organization...............................................................................................................................10
ASSESSMENT 2...........................................................................................................................12
TASK 1 Project Activity- Personal Work plan....................................................................12
a) Personal work goals, plans, activities and career objectives.................................................12
b) Own responsibilities and accountabilities.............................................................................12
c) Goals and objectives in organization’s plan.........................................................................12
d) Legislative requirements.......................................................................................................12

e) KPI for measuring performance related to above personal work goals................................13
f) Range of activities for advancing work goals and prioritise possible activities....................13
TASK 2 Project Activity- Professional Development plan..................................................14
a) List of qualifications and competency gaps identified for determining development needs14
b) Feedback from team members, client and colleagues..........................................................14
c) Analysis of feedback received and make adjustments for achieving career goals...............16
ASSESSMENT 3...........................................................................................................................16
TASK 1- PDP adjustment for personal learning styles.......................................................16
a) Development opportunities...................................................................................................16
b) New skills aiming for acquiring, achieving or maintaining a competitive edge..................17
c) Planned participation in networks or professional associations to improving professional
development..............................................................................................................................18
d) Timeframes for achieving development opportunities, skills and participation in networks
...................................................................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Measuring and maintaining performance of own work includes assessment of
competency against competency standards by acquiring feedback. In fact, managing own work
priorities is consider as core activity at workplace because it is essential for attaining professional
goals in a define time frame. Managing personal work prioritises is a term which means
maintaining an equal balance between work and activities in order to accomplish assigned task in
defined time frame. However, management is really indispensable for smooth functioning of
personal and professional work by balancing distinct work. As a result, this help in attaining
career goals by conducting all the activities in better manner (Maister, 2012).
Therefore, this assignment is going too classified into three sections for highlighting an
appropriate behaviour of a person which is required for being a best in their profession whether
he/she is playing a role of leader, supervisor or any other position. Along with this, an essential
key element of professional development plan is also explained with the help of examples for
understanding the method of ensuring future progress. Moreover, all the necessary elements
which is connected with balance of work priorities and supporting in enhancing performance of
an individual at workplace is going to outlined in proper manner. Apart from this, other sections
will also cover an effective method of developing professional knowledge by considering several
facts or figures in order to eliminate possibilities of failure. Hence, main objective of this
assignment is to understand the method of managing work priorities by understanding
significance of various job roles in order to develop a person professionally for attaining its
career objectives.
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ASSESSMENT 1
PART A
1. Ethical behaviour of a leader for being a positive role model
A person can never born with leading qualities whereas they are made by society which
means an extraordinary person comes out for encouraging others with his/her lofty performance
and overpowering intelligence. Ethical behaviour is really indispensable for a success business
that involves demonstration of key principles that includes; honestly, fairness, equality and
person rights. However, an appropriate definition of: professionalism is an activity, motive or
qualities which characterize or mark a profession or professional individual. Thus, business
owner of an organization act as an outstanding example for their employees and customers
(Campbell, Jardine and McGlynn, 2016). Therefore, some of the essential ethical behaviour of a
leader for becoming a positive role model is discussed as follows-
 Honesty- First or foremost attitude of a role model is to be honest towards own
profession for motivating others that be loyal while working and give your best while
accomplishing any job role.
 Exhibit Integrity- Positive leader is having a quality of making decision for the
development of overall business without thinking about self. In fact, subordinates also
respect those leaders who work with enterprise and perform genuinely for a firm such as;
always take responsibility for own actions.
 Fairness- Always be impartial while dealing with juniors and make decision without
playing favourite games in order to maintain equality amongst teammates.
 Stick on own rules- This means that, leader or role model needs to have confidence on
their set norms in order to follow it entire life instead of getting fluctuate as per time
changes (Weissberg and Cascarino, 2013).
2. Define personal development plan and its key elements
Personal development planning is an appropriate procedure of designing an outstanding
action plan which is based on awareness, reflection, ethical values, goal setting and formal
strategy for achieving career goals or for self enhancement. Basically, this plan is created by an
individual for attaining few set target in a defined time frame as well as to improve self-
knowledge in order to gain something bigger (Frost and Durrant, 2013). Thus, some of the
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essential key elements is highly indispensable for a person while making its own development
plan such as;
 Clear vision of where an individual want to be and why.
 Proper understanding of skills that requisite to develop for attaining vision.
 Precise idea of standard that required to achieve and how it being a different from
existing standard.
 Awareness about level of priority for distinct area.
 One step at one time.
Apart from this, there are some other elements are also present which is essential for a
career oriented person such as; focussed towards goal, clear about the method of attaining it,
having a role model, know the reason and many more. These entire things play a very crucial
role in designing an outstanding plan for enhancing self-talent (Gysbers and Henderson, 2014).
3. Examples of own personal goals and method of ensuring for continued progress towards these
goals
There are number of goals are present in any one life but foremost two target of mine is;
first one is to enhance my communication skills by removing hesitation problem and another and
second one is to build confidence level in my behaviour. These two motives are really necessary
for my future success and its progress I can measure with the help of tracking it daily, weekly
and monthly.
 Track regular targets with “i-Done-This”:- This is the technique that is used for buffer
to track my work goals. Through this method I can send a mail to myself on regular basis
for determining the regular record as it helps me in updating my own work in a whole
day and what extent I came to learn by replying on the same mail instantly. This can also
do with the help of other member any friend, teammates, colleagues, senior or many
other person. For example; leader can ask this with his/her group members for mailing
the work of entire whole day in order to judge their learning extent of single day.
 Tracking a regular target with Seinfeld method- Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has coined
this tool for maintain a consistency stage of enhancement in regular growth. As per this
technique, I have to keep an eye on a calendar through which I can check off every day
when it competed without breaking the chain.
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These two methods are really helpful for me to judge my progress towards end target by
following it with full loyalty.
4. Apply technology for managing work priorities with two examples
When I was started working in manufacturing training sector which is almost 20 years
ago, email was not come into corporate world as number of people are still using paper diary for
maintaining their work priorities. But after arrival of email and various other tools with its such
as; MS outlook my performance automatically get enhanced as well as I can easily complete my
work in efficient manner. For example; it’s really hard to interact with consumers and contacting
but after the use of email it’s really becoming too much easy for maintaining healthy connection
with end users. Moreover, email also help me in maintaining my own records instantly as well as
I can easily manage my conversation with customers for attaining set targets in a minimum time
frame.
Another example of technology is mobile phone which really plays a very crucial role in
this modern world as this tool supports me in managing my work from home also without going
at office. Sometime I can instantly inform to my colleagues about client requirement for
immediate action from our company. Thus, this helps me in attaining my set target in minimum
time frame and gets succeeded in managing my professional work in proper manner.
5. Meaning of work life balance and method of managing work priorities to achieve balance in
work
As per my opinion, Work-life balance is a term which signifies the way of classifying
individual time and energy between professional works with other significant aspects of life. In
fact, attainment of work-life balance is a regular challenge for a person. For example; if an
individual get failed in managing time for self-care that automatically destroy its output and
productivity. In simple terms, this word denote the level of prioritisation between own and
occupational activities. However, balancing is really indispensable for both life otherwise life
sucks a person in various manner and he/she get irritated or frustrated with life. Basically,
balancing between work and life is a major issue which has been increased because of
technology emergence as it plays a major role in removing difference between personal and
professional. In previous time era, it’s highly difficult or somehow impossible for taking work at
home due to which proper line was drawn between work and life. But now this has been fully
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remove because of technology advancement and people can easily take their work at home which
create problem for them (Johnson, 2018).
At the same time, in my opinion success is all about living a life by making choices that
helps in directing towards objectives. Therefore, real key is to design an objective for which I am
passionate by considering my health, appearance in my family, career and relationships. Hence,
there are some techniques which help me in managing work-life balance.
 By knowing that there is no “perfect” balance- This line means that don’t go for
perfect schedule whereas just go for realistic one because on few days there is a need to
focus on work and on some other days I get a chance to enjoy my hobbies. As a result,
this thing can automatically make a balance between my work and life.
 Prioritize health- This factor is focussing towards healthy which means that I always
concerned about my well-being because if I am not feeling well then none of the work is
going to complete neither life nor profession.
Apart from this, I also believe that I need to give time to myself also for thinking about
own growth and development instead of just working and working as this thing also help me in
making appropriate plans for self-enrichment.
6. Define competency standards with five examples relevant to job
Competency standards are a cluster of benchmarks which is used for analysing the skills
and talent which an individual is having for demonstrating at workplace for seeing as competent.
Basically, this standard is all about capability for applying to a certain job role as well as using
any set of knowledge and abilities in order to perform things successfully (Cox and Pinfield,
2014). As a HR manager I need to have all the competency standards that is required to being a
best manager in HR department. Thus, some of the necessary competencies which HR
professional must have is discussed as follows-
 Human resource knowledge
 Commitment and dedication to have continuous HR learning
 Communication skills for having a healthy interaction while hiring employees.
 Ability of critical thinking
 An ethical framework for Human resource
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7. Process follow to prioritise development in competency areas
Employees who are having a positive attitude are denoted as more competent and ability
to compete in this competitive world. However, HR manager is responsible for maximizing the
workforce productivity of an organization by hiring best and eligible candidate for an enterprise
in order to encourage them towards attainment of set goals in a define time frame. Therefore,
competency as an element in recruitment, hiring and evaluation of employee performance has
become too much famous not only HR profession but also in management as well (Barsky, 2019)
(Waddock and Lozano, 2013). For being a best manager, competencies really plays a major role
in enhancing performance of its employees as well as self also whether it’s during selection or
hiring stages. In fact, manager’s needs to aware about those competencies are requisite in every
job position for differing it from one another.
Thus, an appropriate process for developing prioritise development in various
competency areas is to; identify the need of most significant area in competency for improving it
at initial stage such as; for HR manager its really indispensable to know the meaning of HR
resources for hiring best or eligible candidate at workplace. Thus, this can accomplish through
asking question, giving examples or by showing it in order to understand the actual role of HR
practitioners. Moreover, another competency can improve by giving a target in a define time
period which helps in enhancing HR manager towards its goals as well as she can learn more
about HR profession that helps in overcoming other challenging situations (Jackson, 2015).
8. Three types of on-job training and how it is used in workplace
On-job-training is a term which states that if an employee is learning its job at actual
working site and perform at same environment then this situation is consider as on-job-training
as well as workplace training also. For example; small boys are performing as helpers while
supporting to head mechanic. There are number of on-job-training are conducted at workplace
from which three are going to explained below-
Job Rotation- As per this training method, trainee is moving from one job to another at
same workplace for learning new things about the job or he/she might get shifted into other
department. It means, trainee is going to receive job information and acquire experience from
his/her supervisor in different job projects that helps in enhancing his knowledge. Basically, this
technique plays a major role in providing best opportunity to the trainee in order to understand
the issues of other staff members by learning It (Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell, 2013).
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 For example; member of project handling team has been shifted in HR department for
hiring eligible candidate for their selected group by considering required skills.
Coaching- In this training, trainee is appointed under specific supervision who is
functioning as a coach for teaching its subordinates. Along with this, supervisor of trainee also
gives feedback to his/her junior on performance as well as gives suggestion for further
development. In fact, learner shares some of duties and obligation of coach for minimizing his
burden (Scase and Goffee, 2017).
 For instance; sports teacher are responsible for providing best training to their trainees for
any special tournament by teaching them with all the style of winning.
Job instruction- This technique is also consider as training via step-by-step because
instructor is liable for giving proper instruction to his junior about the method of performing any
assigned job in order to minimize the probabilities of mistakes. Along with this, gives review on
the performance of trainee for correcting the hidden errors.
 For example; finance head have appointed a subordinate under him for teaching about the
technique of handling business expenses by giving training step by step (Roper and
Payant, 2014).
9. Meaning of having competitive edge
According to me, competitive edge is all about having an advantage over my competitors
at workplace which sometime I feel that yes I am having an competitive edge. For example; my
way of communicating with new candidate is really beneficial for me as compared to my other
competitors because somehow they feel hesitate in doing negotiation on salary while hiring
process. But at the same time, I never get hesitated in clearing all the terms and conditions as
well as believes in maintain transparent relationship between organization and newly appointed
employee. As a result, this help in maintaining positive and long term relationship with staff
members. Hence, for me this is competitive edge against my colleagues and competitors.
10. Principles and techniques involved in performance measurement
Performance measurement is very much helpful in analysing the learning capability of an
employee at workplace and aids in directing further actions (Gatrell, 2013). Therefore, it is
essential for manager or supervisor to follow some set of principles for measuring the
performance of subordinate is discussed as follows-
 It is essential to be honest and open for maintaining positive connectivity with trainee.
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 Make the measuring criterion very simple for judging the things in better manner without
getting confused in complex process.
 Keep in touch states that always use mini feedbacks for creating best performance
review.
 Design objectives more interesting, challenging and engaging for encouraging people
towards set targets.
 Give praise on the basis of best performance of an individual.
 Be an example for others in order to promote impartial measuring policy at workplace.
 Let people come to aware about their performance by providing daily, timely feedback
either through motivation or by sharing with them (Van Bogaert and et. al., 2013).
Apart from this, number of other principles are present which might follow by several
organization while performance measurement but these above some essential one that must be
follow by everyone.
11. Two-common personality type testing process used as a tool for identifying individual
behaviour type and personality traits
Personality test is an appropriate tool for analysing personality of an individual in order
to understand its behaviour type. However, this can help in transferring towards right people and
selecting those members who are fully applicable for a specific job. Some of the methods that
might use by company for testing the personality of an individual is described as follows-
Myers Briggs- This method is known as one of the most well famous technique for
mapping behaviour of employee because Myers Briggs analysis defines the employees
tendencies towards various factors. For example various types of elements which helps in
determination of personality are; Extraversion vs. Introversion, Intuition vs. Sensing, Thinking
vs. feeling as all these tests support in placing the new candidate into one category among 16
personality types. However, type of individual personality never help in predicting the growth of
an organization whereas knowing about the behaviour of a person aids in analysing that whether
the person is fit in the culture of an enterprise or not (Eraut, 2012).
Big Five- This method covers five broad dimensions of personality which is used by
most researchers during testing of behaviour type. If employees falls under five selected traits in
an organization such as; extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness and
Neuroticism can offers major insight into that how a fresh employee can hire or existing
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communicate with co-partners, managing stress at workplace, dealing with management
decisions and many more.
Situational judgment tests- As per this method, an organization can provide a complex
situation for evaluating his/her reaction on certain circumstances in order to learn how he/she can
handle the pressure of common problematic phase (Forte and Flores, 2014).
12. Explain learning style
In my opinion, every individual is having various learning style and follow it according
to comfort zone in order to understand new things. However every individual are classified as
per their learning style and various authors have also explained distinct type of style by assessing
entire population. For example; as per the approach of David A. Kolb there are mainly four types
of learning styles such as; accommodator, Converger, Diverger and assimilator whereas Peter
Honey and Aland Mumford states that there are activist, reflector, theorist and pragmatist type of
learning styles are present. It means, every individual are different from each other in various
manner and love to learn things as per their choice. Hence, my learning style is also different
from other as I am theorist kind of learner as well as learn things by seeing it physically which
falls be in the category of Physical learner in VARK model because I believe in learning things
through physically. On the other hand, my theorist part enforce me to learn things in more deeply
by thoroughgoing various options and matters.
13. Three principles of time management
Time management is very much required in personal as well as professional life in order
to attain career goals by maintaining a balance between both life (Bush, Bell and Middlewood,
2019). Thus, some of the essential principles of time management is mentioned as follows-
 Planning is a foremost principle because it helps in describing all the things by
accumulating necessary elements at one place for further step.
 Checking is another factor that is used for assessing that a person is on right track or not.
 Organizing is a key element towards success because it helps in safeguarding the time.
14. Functions of organizational policies and organizational procedures
Main function of designing organizational policy is to govern entire organization under
one umbrella by imposing it on entire staff members. In fact, policy is design by an enterprise for
maintaining equality at workplace by enforcing each and every member towards it. Its main
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