Personal development as

a manager and leader

CMI LEVEL 5 COACHING AND MENTORING

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Contents Assess and plan for personal professional development ............................................................................. 2

The importance of continual self – development in achieving organizational objectives ....................... 2

Develop opportunities to meet current and future defined needs .......................................................... 5

Build a personal development plan with achievable but challenging goals ............................................. 6

Plan the resources required for personal professional development ........................................................ 10

Resources required to support the personal development plan ............................................................ 10

Implement and evaluate the personal development plan ......................................................................... 11

The process required to implement the personal development plan .................................................... 11

The impact of the personal development plan on the achievement of defined role requirements and

organizational objectives ........................................................................................................................ 13

Review and update a personal development plan ................................................................................. 21

Support and promote staff welfare ............................................................................................................ 23

The relationship between staff welfare and organizational objectives ................................................. 23

How to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to the team...................................................... 24

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Assess and plan for personal professional development

The importance of continual self – development in achieving organizational objectives One of the approaches to leadership is the traits approach as identified by Mullins, 1999 where the

assumption is that leaders are born and not created based on the theory of the so-called Great Person

theory of leadership. However most of the major existing theories provide the basis that leadership skills

can be developed such as the contingency model analyses the leadership styles which can be identified

and learned to develop leadership skills.

Although leadership and management are seen similar but it has some distinction such as; leaders may

not have a hierarchical position but the manager has which was identified by (Mullins, 1999); “Leadership

does not necessarily take place within the hierarchical structure of the organisation.” To be an effective

manager it is necessary to exercise the role of leadership (Mullins, 1999). The focus of my work will be on

the personal development of managerial leadership where the manager is a leader within a formal

hierarchical structure and the word manager and leader has been used interchangeably.

For developing leadership and managerial skills the primary initiatives must come from the individual

where the opportunities are provided by an organisation.

Current skills and competencies against defined role requirements and organizational objectives.

Continuous self-development is the continuous process of developing oneself by building his/her

competencies and realizing his/her potential (Rothwell, 2010). Since leaders get others to follow (Mullins,

1999) a leader cannot build talent in others if the leader cannot do it her/him-self (Rothwell, 2010). A

leader should realise the importance of continual self-development.

The basic concept of continuous self-development has been derived from the concept of continuous

development and its objective is to achieve organisational objectives through the recognition of the links

between learning and performance (Martin, 2005). An organisation is a group of individuals and as

individuals develop, so do the organisations that employ them (Martin, 2005). The performance of

employees is directly linked to organisational performance hence the achievement of organisational

objectives and the performance of employees can be improved through continuous self-development

process.

We all develop and change as we grow older. By choosing to take charge of our development, we are

able to reach our full potential and move forward to achieve what we want.

Personal development is a continuous process, an upward spiral. This is most understood by most

organizations. The diagram below shows the process of developing skills.

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This model was developed by W.S Howell in 1982 in his book “The empathic communicator” (University

of Minnesota: Wadsworth Publishing Company). He describes the four stages as follows:

• “Unconscious incompetence – this is the stage where you are not even aware that you do not have

a particular competence.

• Conscious incompetence – this is when you know that you want to learn how to do something but

you are incompetent at doing it.

• Conscious competence – this is when you can achieve this particular task but you are very

conscious about everything you do.

• Unconscious competence – this is when you finally master it and you do not even think about what

you have such as when you have learned to ride a bike very successfully”

Whatever the level of ability, there is always another level to achieve.

I would like to go on with a citation from the book “A Manager’s Guide to self-development” (Pedler,

Burgoyne and Boydell, 2007):

"Self Development is personal development, with the person taking primary responsibility for their own

learning and for choosing the means to achieve this.Ultimately, it is about increasing your capacity and

willingness to take control over and be responsible for events."

Self-development means many things in different contexts of our life, our goals and our ambitions. For

most people personal development is about:

• developing specific qualities and skills,

• improving performance in job,

• advancing career,

• achieving full potential as a person.

One of the key aspects of self-development in "Working With Emotional Intelligence" (Daniel Goleman,

1997) is developing self-awareness. Self-awareness is described as the foundation for outstanding

performance at work. In this book, self awareness and other aspect of emotional competence is indeed

directly linked to outstanding performance.

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This book shows that we all have the potential to improve our emotional intelligence, at any stage in our

careers, as individuals or as team members in an organization. Developing greater self-awareness

involves:

• Recognising our emotions and feelings in order to understand the way we behave, but also

understand other people’s behaviour,

• Being able to assess our strengths and weaknesses. We will be able to build on our strengths and

abilities.

• Having self-confidence which gives us the feeling that we can accept challenges, take risks and be

successful.

“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” (Stephen R. Covey, 2004), embodies many of

the “fundamental principles of human effectiveness. These habits are basic, primary”. This book shows

first for instance that is it important “to understand our own paradigms” and how to make a shift

first before trying to understand these “Habits” to effectiveness.

“The way we see things is the source of the way we think and we act. The more aware we are of our

paradigms, maps or assumptions and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the

more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to

others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.”

Effectiveness is also about potential. We are embryonic and we can develop and release more and more

potential, develop more and more talents.

During all life, there are sequential stages for growth and development. Self-development is a continuous

process. Any effective system must increase people’s capacity and willingness to development,

particularly for themselves and their own learning.

Encouraging continuous self-development is critical in achieving an organization’s objectives. Productivity

is more than just the quantity of work done. It is also the quality. “People who feel good about

themselves produce good results”(The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson,

2004). People and results go hand in hand.

On a very personal point of view, I would like to end this part with a last citation from The Seven Habits of

Highly Effective People (Stephen R. Covey, 2004), highlighting another citation from David Starr

Jordan: “There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living”.

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Develop opportunities to meet current and future defined needs While considering the personal and professional development plan are based on the individual’s

requirements. There is a kind of needs necessity for the personal and development plan such as

1. The personal and the professional development helps to display and encourage reflective

training and the development needs documented in evaluation should be attended through the

processes. Therefore identifying the training is the need of the personal and the professional

development plan too

2. The number of needs does not fundamentally associate with the effort mandatory by the learner.

Therefore the duty is to identify through the professional and the personal development plan

3. Defining the factors that evaluates has an important positive and negative inspiration on

motivation. This is a significant part of easing the suitable commitment to personal

and professional progress.

Personal and professional developments are identified through the individual’s requirement, as per the

different needs of the person.

This hierarchy clarifies the human needs as per the different aspects. This is important to understand the

actual need of the people to motivate them significantly. • Current needs: At the current stage, I can do whatever I want to develop opportunities tomeet

current as well as future goals. I observed that I’ve to develop my skills in some

other sectors such as strategic planning, leading people, personal development, participative ma

nagement. As I’m a quick learner, I can gain knowledge regarding the subjects.

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• Future needs) Opportunities are the chances of developing a person promote in another level of

understanding. Every skill that a person obtained is important to be succeed in life. In future, I

need to renovate my current skills and knowledge and have to develop my level of thinking

regarding personal and professional life.

Build a personal development plan with achievable but challenging goals There are a variety of theories that exist with regard to leaders and more saliently, how they develop the

traits and characteristics required of leaders. Some refer to leaders being born, and that there is little

scope for development, in the so-called Great Person theory of leadership (Mullins, 1999), which defines

an individual as being destined for greatness, an implied assumption that it is mapped for us. This view is

considered somewhat niche in its scope of modern-day thinking; most theories lean towards development

of skills, and that this is the crux of the modern leader. Theories such as Contingency model can highlight

traits and styles that can be used for growth and development, and it is this that forms the bedrock for

self-development and help to demonstrate its importance for the leader and those involved in their

development and progression.

It is also important to distinguish between managers and leaders at this point, because although the two

are taken as similar, this is not the case; leaders do not always hold a position of hierarchical authority,

whereas the manager does. (Mullins, 1999) It is true, however, that a manager must be a leader, or at

least have semblance of leadership, in order to be effective and have a positive influence and impact

(Mullins, 1999). Thus, my focus will be upon how a manager can develop their leadership abilities in this

essay, and I will formulate a personal development plan in line with this, as in order to learn and improve

these skills, the initial emphasis must come from the individual, with the opportunities provided

accordingly through organisations.

Continuous self-development is the process of perpetual development, or at least the perpetual attempt

of fostering development, through strengthening skills and one’s knowledge base in order to achieve that

which one is capable of (Rothwell, 2010), this is borne by the belief from those being managed that leader

must be able to personally perform what they are asking others to do (Rothwell, 2010). This creates an

environment of belief and will inspire others to achieve and strive like the leader (Mullins, 1999) and thus

allows the leader to see the necessity of self-development for effective leadership.

The process of self-development has strong ties, and indeed its roots, in continuous improvement; the

corresponding strategy used by businesses that falls within the wider stratosphere of business self-

improvement. Both approaches seek to identify the relationship between learning and performance

(Martin, 2005). The two approaches hold a symbiotic relationship; as individuals develop and grow, so too

do the business that they work for (Martin, 2005), providing that the organisation allows the individual

the scope and breadth to implement the growth that they identify through self-improvement. To further

develop this symbiotic relationship, as the success of the business corresponds directly with the

performance of the employees (Martin, 2005), it is a vested interest of the employee to improve

themselves, and thus this boosts the business, which then allows for perpetual growth and development.

IESA has various leadership roles, I have assessed those roles below and highlighted some of the skills and

competencies needed in line with the role of LIFT candidate (Leader In IESA fast-Track) and related

company objectives skills and Competencies Requirements along with the specifications of a Department

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Manager/CRM.

Company Objectives Related to the roles above:

• Leadership skills; Leadership skills are required for the specified role since the department manager

needs to lead a group of people in the department and the manager is responsible for them.

• Knowledge of health and safety requirements are important for the role as the manager will have to

ensure safe and secure environment for others (if on-site)

• Provide a stable platform to be the future leaders of IESA, delivering a platform of knowledge and

efficiency to the company.

1.3. Identifying Development Opportunities to Meet Current and Future Defined Needs

Here the development opportunities have been identified to meet the current and future needs of the

role of a department manager at IESA:

The current skills that are required for a department manager are:

• Extensive leadership skills

• Customer/client knowledge

• operational knowledge

In order to achieve this vision, IESA need leaders with different skills and competencies, such as individuals

with outstanding intellect, business acumen and ambition. The development opportunities that will be

provided to meet the skills and competencies needs of a department manager under the leadership

programme will be in two phases:

• First phase: The first phase will involve an introduction to various operational areas such as

stores and logistics and then move to a CRE role, where the manager will be trained on a

wider range of issues than those in a single department.

• The second phase: involves developing the management skills for the role of CRM,

departmental manager or supply manager. Supply chain management skills, exceptional

customer service and tact are all needed.

A personal development plan details the steps an individual will take to grow and develop (Armstrong,

2003), this is undertaken by the individual and the concurrent support required is provided by the

organisation, in order to give a platform of independent and self-sustained learning for the leader

(Armstrong, 2003). I have tailored the personal development plan through the criteria set out by

Armstrong (Armstrong, 2003).

Here, a personal development plan as a departmental manager within IESA has been constructed below:

Current situation and development needs: a new graduate joined as a LIFT candidate; relative paucity of

previous work experience.

Development needs: to obtain operational knowledge; develop leadership skills; focus on the client and

their relationship with IESA and to target skills which will help grow IESA.

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Set goals: goals are set to the areas of development needs and they are SMART.

Specific: the goals should not be vague.

Measurable: the goals needs to be recognised when achieved.

Achievable: setting realistic goals.

Relevant: have a connection with the development needs.

Time bound: there is a time period for achieving the goals.

Here are the SMART and challenging goals for the development needs identified in step one: focus on the

training tools available within the first month and gain technical knowledge of the business and processes

required. To develop a greater knowledge of leadership traits through the use of available resources and

current staff within IESA, and finally to engage with the Client Relationship team to learn more about

engaging with clients.

Prepare action plans: the action plan for developing technical knowledge could be a conversation with

colleagues and relevant departments on how this could be implemented for others and thus gain

knowledge through trying to teach and inform others. This would then be followed up with a discussion

with senior management concerning our findings and suggestions for improvement, fostering a positive

relationship and environment.

Whilst the plan has been developed in the previous section, here I will discuss the resources I think are

required in order to fulfil the plan and corresponding objectives. In order to learn technical applications

and usage, colleagues’ time will be required for training and shadowing, along with a training document

that is stored on the intranet, which should hopefully allow rapid learning and in-depth understanding of

the systems. There is, however, the risk that through shadowing, bad habits will be developed, or skills

missed through poor teaching and knowledge from the tutor. This could be potentially avoided through

standardisation of training, as well as training days or skills clinics run by the Continuous Improvement

(CI) team, along with ICT and senior management. The traits required could be combined with learning

about effective client stewardship through CRM shadowing, again, those who spearhead the department

or perform consistently well could be hand-picked in order to work with the LIFT candidate, boosting their

morale and allowing the LIFT candidate the chance to learn business-leading techniques and leadership.

A business case is a justification of pursuing a course of action in an organisational context to meet stated

organisational objectives or goals (Remenyi, 1999). The business case will look at how investment on

resources required to support the personal development plan will help achieving various objectives of an

organisation; investment on the resources as identified earlier will ensure that not only a departmental

manager but also other employees will be benefitted to improve their skills. Skilled employees will make

organisational operations efficient and effective and organisational objectives will be achieved such as

minimising costs by improving the efficiency of the organisation.

IESA requires highly-skilled employees with good knowledge of customer services & technical ability.

Investment on personal development resources will help the employees of IESA to improve these skills

and knowledge, through self-initiatives and in a self-managed learning environment. Employees will

improve their efficiency and will reduce the wastage level and minimise the costs, hence improve

profitability.

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Due to its significant importance in achieving organisational objectives, the implementation of personal

development plan should be taken very strictly since it is not merely filling up a performance review form,

or a guidance note of what employees should do to improve their importance. The introduction of

personal development plan requires the employees to be informed; if the employees do not know about

the PDP clearly, it will be impossible to implement such plans. Hence managers, team leaders and all

individuals need to learn about personal development planning (Armstrong, 2009).

Employees should be involved in deciding how the planning process will work and what their roles will be

(Armstrong, 2009). Developing a culture of self-learning responsibilities and allowing time and

opportunities: It has to be recognised that everyone will need time and support to adjust to a culture in

which they have to take much more responsibilities for their own learning (Armstrong, 2009). Guidance

should be given to all concerned regarding how to identify learning needs, the means of satisfying the

needs identified and how they should use the available facilities.

We have already considered the role requirements and departmental objectives of IESA in previous

sections, which are to lead IESA through learning and developing, gaining a better knowledge of the

systems and processes in order to be a candidate for future leadership and growth of the company. If the

LIFT candidate prepares a personal development plan such as to develop his/her leadership skills it will

help him/her to fulfil role requirements and achieve the departmental objectives. For example, there will

be responsibility for leading a group of people; leadership skills will help him/her in this regard to help

motivate the working group under them, to work hard, and improve performance of the department,

hence achieving the objectives.

Personal development is a continuous process. Personal development plan is a systematic approach and

follows sequential steps in a continuous way. The Scottish Qualifications Authority has identified seven

steps process of PDP where the last step is the review and evaluation of the PDP. Review and evaluation

of PDP assures that the concerned people have learned something from the PDP process and they can

apply the process in the future personal development planning. In the case of IESA, the manager can

review after frequent interval that the objectives relating to the needs from the PDP are met and take

corrective actions and make new and revised plans.

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Plan the resources required for personal professional development

Resources required to support the personal development plan No matter how old, experienced, wise you are, or even what stage of your career you are at, to achieve

all that that wish for both on a personal and professional level, planning for your future is central to your

success. As Anatole France, the famous French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature back in

1921 once quoted “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but

also believe.”

Those who are successful whether in business, sport or for personal aspirations all identify what they wish

to achieve, believe they can realise their goals and formulate a plan so they know how they are going to

achieve them and by when.

Whilst you may already have a few goals, desires, or aspirations, they can often be a bit woolly, lacking

definition or a strategy on how to go about moving forward. So, you may be asking “How do I translate

my ideas into a clear plan of action?” This is when your own individual ‘Personal Development Plan’ (PDP)

is ideal.

A PDP is a structured process that reflects on your current learning and performance which is then

developed into a plan for your future personal, educational and career development. By undertaking your

own PDP, you will naturally consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and enable

you to create a plan that identifies how best to meet your development needs through planned formal

and informal activities.

Once you have gone through the process you will probably find that the PDP benefits you in more ways

than you may expect both in your professional life and your personal life such as having clearer ideas

about the kind of life and work you want, greater confidence and a more positive attitude in the skills,

qualities and attributes you bring to your position and the choices you make and be in a better position

to compete for jobs.

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Implement and evaluate the personal development plan

The process required to implement the personal development plan The first step in creating a personal development plan is to create goals.

What's most important to you? What skills do you want to develop? What achievements would make you

feel successful?

Figure out which goals are most important to you. Your goals can be financial or career-based. You can

also have goals that are educational or physical.

The key to this phase is to set goals that will enrich and improve your life.

Maybe you want to lose weight and eat healthier. Or maybe you want to learn a new language so you can

fulfill a career as a translator.

For each of your goals, set a priority. Short-term goals should be listed first. Keep long-term goals towards

the bottom of your list.

Goal setting is the first step towards keeping your life on track.

2. Create a Timeline

Having goals is only part of the solution. With each goal, you also need to implement a deadline. Without

a deadline, your goals are unlikely to happen.

Deadlines put weight behind your goals.

When creating a timeline and deadlines for your goals, be realistic. Setting unrealistic timelines will only

set you up for failure.

It's okay if a goal takes months or years to achieve. The important part is that you have a plan and you

stick to it.

With deadlines in place, make sure you stick to them. You have to take your self-development plan

seriously. If you don't, no one will!

3. Know Your Strengths

We're all good at some things, and really bad at others. Some people are great listeners while others are

extremely talented performers.

When building your personal development plan, highlight your key strengths.

By identifying your strengths, you're able to:

• Feel confident in yourself

• Find ways to help achieve your goals

• Determine areas of improvement

Having issues coming up with ideas?

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Ask friends and family members. Your coworkers may be able to help you as well.

When you hit a rough patch on your journey, you can look at this list and pull strength from it.

4. Pinpoint Your Weaknesses

Knowing your weaknesses is another part of a quality self-development plan.

Do you have any behaviors or habits that may keep you from achieving your goal? Are there areas in your

life that you want to improve?

One of the most common weaknesses is not believing in yourself!

If your goal is to lose weight, eating out often and not exercising are habits that you need to break.

With every weakness you find, write down new actions you can take. For example, if your goal is to save

money, you can focus on building a budget and spending less.

5. Determine New Skills You Want to Learn

The purpose of a self-development plan is to get you from where you are to where you want to be. Being

successful in life is a game of giving and getting.

If your goal is to advance your career, you'll need to be willing to learn new skills. You may need to take

on a new position to advance your standing in the company.

Achieving something you've never done before requires skills you've never had.

Figure out which skills you need to learn to ensure your success.

6. Take Action and Measure Your Progress

The above steps will allow you to create a thorough personal development plan. With a plan in tow, you're

now ready to take action.

Throughout the process, be sure you are meeting your deadlines. If you're achieving goals quicker than

you projected, give yourself kudos!

To keep yourself motivated, measure your progress. Think about questions like:

• How quickly am I achieving my goals?

• Which goals have I accomplished already?

• Are there new threats that I need to address?

• What changes can I make to keep myself on track?

Take time to digest where you started and where you are. You'll be amazed what you can achieve in a

short amount of time!

7. Build a Support System

It's much easier to achieve your goals when there are people in your corner. To ensure you make the most

of your self-development plan, surround yourself with positive supportive people.

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Friends and family members are always more than willing to be your sideline cheerleaders.

Your support system should also include an authoritative voice.

Want to lose weight? Work with a fitness expert. Looking to get yourself on stable financial ground?

Consult a financial advisor.

The impact of the personal development plan on the achievement of defined role

requirements and organizational objectives Continuous Professional Development is not a new idea instead it is an encapsulation of what have always

been measured as a good professional development. Apparently changing values in the existing business

environment are due to the following factors, such as:

Guarantee of Quality:

In 21st century, the latest and significant issue is adequately trained employees who are performing a

significant role in an organization growth. So, based on the customer requirements and demands a good

training quality must be maintain and regularly up date. (Rumbles, 2009)

Continuous Change in Behaviors of people and Business Structures:

No limitations for Changes for instance previously university education is most valid but got decreased

and presently many companies are looking for learning agilities of an employee.

Be more efficient and productive by reflecting on your learning abilities and highlighting the gaps in your

experience and knowledge.

Cope up positively with all the change by constantly upgrading your skill set.

Achieve your career goals by concentrating more on your development and training.

Build more credibility and confidence by looking at your progression and by tracking your learning.

Earn more income by your successful achievements and it is a handy tool for appraisals.

CPD organization benefits

As organizations are reverting back the responsibility of personal development to the individual.

Continuous development Professional and maintenance has become a key strength.

Connecting to appraisals- it is a good tool for employees to concentrate more on their achievements

throughout the year.

Promoting staff development- It leads to better staff morale and motivated workforce supports to give a

positive image to organizations.

Adding-values- By reflecting it helps the staff to consciously apply learning to their role and the

organization’s development.

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Helping HR professionals- To set SMART i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound

objectives, for training activity and to become more close to the e connected to business needs.

By supporting the maximize staff potential by means of learning connecting actions and theory to practice.

(Anon, 2012)

Oppurtunities of Development To meet Needs

By reflecting back at previous experiences, one can easily plan for future developments and effectively

measure the results for instance development review with an employer.

Management Development

The leadership and management process are flexible and continuous by linking at the individual's

development and organization goals. In campus, it provides you an opportunity to develop a broad base

of skills and knowledge which is applicable to face many jobs on campus. (Rumbles, 2009)

How to Support Management Development

Create and discuss a development plan during the performance planning cycle.

Give opportunities for your employees to develop through cross-training, campus staff organizations,

committee, task force assignments, campus staff organizations, mentoring, internships, professional

associations, skill assessment programs and university degree extension programs.

Support employees attending activities and classes that support development goals and plans.

Model the behavior you are encouraging; don't neglect your own development.

Provide timely behavioral feedback on performance and discuss ways to improve and develop further

Talk about what the employee learned in classes and support integrating new ideas/methods. (Anon,

2012)

Identification of Process

Resource to Support Personal Development Plan

An encouraging and guiding person is required for taking the responsibility of an organization for their

own development and to deal with stakeholders. Self assessment is not a right option for a company

management to give up the responsibility of developing people instead it acts a partnership between staff

and manager. It also which requires regular group discussion to maintain effective relationship and to

avoid breaking process. (Thompson, 2009)

First process is conducting job analysis in which satisfaction, knowledge, skills, abilities are required.Some

other requirements:

Qualification: Holder of PDP

Every employee must be a holder of PDP as junior employees get benefited out of it and to develop their

roles in business development plan. Even managers and other employers are profitable by means of

creating self motivation and to stay attached with their success.

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Manager’s responsibility on PDP employee’s

• Managers require appropriate training for maintain effective PDP’s.

It helps the manager to create manager his own PDP. The relevant Courses will help the authorities to

develop the relevant skills of coaching, counseling and mentoring for widely available.

• Most senior employees whose performance is impacting more on the business may also get

benefited from an external mentor.

Encouraging Learning Habits

Senior and other employees involved in this mentoring process for supporting and training the new

employees of an organization.

• Develop a business case secure the resources to support development plan

• An ideal plan has three components:

• Objectives,

• Proposed actions,

• Schedule of progress review.

Development plan split the preparation of personal development plan into two categories. First one is

setting up the objectives and tasks for an individual by an organization, in order to stay with them for next

six months. Second part is setting up the personal development plan that comes from the objectives of

work. It supports to assume future plans as medium term organizational objectives require development

plan before the initiation of work. Since the staff member has to plan for internal audits like quality

assurance scheme must complete training before it get start. (Buckler, 2009)

It is done correctly then ensures the following things with each staff member:

Accurate working objectives,

Must look at how their jobs are likely to develop,

Must understand what a development work is required to support for achieving their working objectives.

Must undertake the relevant training to suit their job and avoid participating in programming just for the

sake of it.

Therefore, Organization objectives must reflect the personal objectives of each member of staff.

Second stage of a development plan should determine the appropriate actions to attain their

development objectives.

For most of the people, the personal development plan comes from the following:

• Informal activities- Reading of relevant books, professional journals Etc,

• Development may comes by own.

• Work or job based observations and work experience.

• Participating in formal training courses.

• Implementation of Personal Development Plan

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• Process for Personal Development Plan

Assessment: Get to know about your skills, knowledge, interests, and abilities. Self-assessment is a skill

which needs to be developed, applied and integrated like any other skill.

Goal: Individuals should recognize their new skills, knowledge, and experiences in particular field. They

need to decide their paths for their career and make a decision on whether these goals match the personal

as well as career interests or not. Also have a look on organization goals, mission and vision are matching

with personal goals. (Rumbles, 2009)

Learning purpose: Get clear view on identifying the gap between the present scenario and the desired

result. It would guide in the way to develop and improve the skills, knowledge and abilities according to

organizational objectives. It really helps the individuals to learn something that they wish to acquire.

Learning objectives: Individuals need to decide on what skills, knowledge, and abilities are required to be

attained and improved. It should be noted that this is just a plan and not a rigid promise. Plans and learning

objectives can be changed as the goals change and as learning is in progress. (Thompson, 2009)

For each objective, identify the following:

Target date: It is required to identify the completion time of work when initiating the learning plan. As far

as learning strategies is concern, it could guide on how you plan to do it, and what process you need to

follow in order to achieve your objectives. For instance, learning strategies could include reading and

study, classroom study, literature review, mill trials, synthesizing and writing, networking and

communication, reflecting on your own experiences, interviews and discussions with appropriate people.

(Anon, 2012)

Learning resource: Decide on what resources need to be used for the learning process. Learning resources

could include the following: literature, mentors, vendors or suppliers, production workers, supervisors,

teachers and instructors, co- workers, other professionals for networking, classes, professional association

involvement, equipment manuals, technical conferences, laboratory trials, field experience, and a variety

of learning technologies including computers, the Internet, and perhaps even your mill’s digital control

system (DCS).

This essay has been submitted to us by a student in order to help you with your studies. This is not an

example of the work written by our professional essay writers.

Outcomes and product: check with the list of evidences that you will develop to show the success of your

objectives. What are the deliverables produced through this process? What objects can be utilized to

certify your learning experience. These could include the following: a log or journal of your studies or

observations, written and oral reports, lists of questions, a literature review and bibliography, obtaining

specific career objectives, and more. (Rumbles, 2009)

Evaluation plan: In order to appraise the success rate of your learning project, express the method which

could help you to validate your deliverables. One more question is that what criteria and way will you

prefer to determine whether you were successfully reaching your learning goals or not?

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Initial feedback and revision: At the start of proceeding to your individual development plan, try to have

a consultation with your supervisors like instructor, mentor, or HRD manager for getting initial feedback,

suggestions, and for your learning needs and strategies. This would give an impression that your leanings

are not just helping for your personal needs and it also make you to lend a hand to organizational goals,

results, and profitability. Further, you can get additional feedback from your co-workers, colleagues,

family and friends when you use more independent sources.

Summary of results: To evaluate the success rate of activities once completing the projects in your

individual plan. The evaluation of success could include the following questions: What insights have you

gained? What new skills, abilities and knowledge have you acquired? What new understandings do you

have? What experiences did you have, and what did you learn from them? How do you feel about this

process?

Evaluation and Risk Management

Achieving better Organizational Objective

Staff development is having major impacts on assisting performance management at organization, faculty

or central department, unit and individual levels. So, it is considered to be important and the transfer of

learning into the workplace is assessed using a process of review and evaluation. Overall organizational

success is depended based on the personal development plan on achievement of organizational objective.

(L, 2000)

Evaluation helps to identify the impact of development or training process among the individuals, teams,

and the organization. The advantages of evaluating development and training process could include the

following:

• Promote business efficiency by means of linking efforts to train and develop staff on

operational priorities, goals and targets.

• Identify cost effective and valuable training events or programmes, leading to better focused

learning and development.

• Make sure the transfer of learning into the workplace.

• Use and reinforce techniques learned to help improve the quality and customer service within

the organization.

• Assist in defining future development objectives.

Stages of Evaluation

Training and development process can be evaluated through four the following four stages:

Reaction: This stage could provide the information concerning on the attitudes and opinions of

participants. They also need to be provided with evaluation forms and comment sheets for the evaluation

process. This method would really help to identify the required modification in curriculum or training

programme. (P, 2003)

Learning attained: This evaluation stage is more concern about the extent to which learning objectives

have been accomplished. Evaluation of learning can take place through the activity using interactive

responsibility for evaluation of staff development rests at the following levels.

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Individual: According to the University’s staff Development Application Form and Record is concerned,

individuals need to identify their objectives linked with strategic development and training priorities. The

various responsibilities that development section handles are mainly responsible for the employment

aspects of industry. The learning concept should be enabled as an assessment of learning objectives for

discussion between the individual and managers. Both manager and individual should have a discussion

on assessment and will decide whether the individuals can be able to transfer the learning concepts to

the job within a particular time period. (Rumbles, 2009)

Manager: it is the duty of the manager to check with the staffs whether they are aware of the objectives

required for starting any development activity and ensuring that the staffs agree on the methods used to

assess learning.

Approach of Health and Safety Working Practices

The management should have a responsibility to make decisions regarding to safety in a working

environment and make sure the health and safety of workers in site and need to visit site to control of

those factors.

The following are the procedures to achieve this:

• Need to recognize difficulties and control those in a systematic manner.

• It needs to manage those difficulties by dividing, eliminating, and reducing them, based on

priorities order.

• By supplying of appropriate protecting clothes and equipment to workers.

• Management must take sessions about safety information to the workers.

• Need to monitor to the training or administrations regularly to check that work is done safely

or not.

• Monitor the health status of employees to check those employees will be affect detrimentally

on other employees or not.

• Finally, management should create the environment that the workers to take part in all of the

above procedures.

All employees of an organization either paid or voluntaries should have to think about the safety of new

employees and ability to protect them from various aspects like physical and emotional hazards. It is very

helpful to develop respectful, caring, and increase professional relationship between senior employees,

young employees, and performances of employees which can show reliability, maturity, and effective

outcomes. (P, 2003)

The management also needs to involve and assist their workers. If management wants to show to their

workers that they are very severe about health and safety, then management should follow the following

steps, such:

1. They need to get involve in issues of health and safety,

2. Organization should invest time and money in health and safety sectors,

3. Management should understand about responsibilities of health and safety.

A step-by-step process

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Organizations must recognize that safety and health workplace will not happen by chance/ estimation.

Management has to monitor the things that what are the issues are occurring in working environment

and what are the results of those. According to those consequences, management should take prevention

like eliminate or reducing of those hazards which are affecting to the organization. (Agency, 2005)

The following figure 1 is represents that the process of risk management and the four steps to eliminate

safety and health hazards.

• Identify hazards – This is an initial step that to recognize the hazards which are the cause to

harm.

• Assess risks (if necessary) – in this step, the management should understand the difficulty of

the harm that could be reason by the hazard and recognize the severe of that harm.

• Control risks – the management must implement the most effective procedures to control

the circumstances and to avoid those.

• Review control measures- it can monitor whether work is happening according to the

strategies of an organization or not. (Rumbles, 2009)

The main objective of consultation is to share the information, to acquire the expresses of workers

perceptions about health and safety issues. Management should provide an opportunity to the workers

to express their ideas on health and safety hazards because to avoid those hazards before it happening.

If organization has a committee for health and safety, they should keep the committee to employ for risk

management as well.

Responsibility of Communication for Health and Safety

Here, organization should acquire the information about hazards which are placed in workplace. Once,

organization can identify that particular hazard which is already management being dealt with then it

make sure that the management is working efficiently on health and safety. This information helps to find

hazards and make note easily.

Consult your workers

In many organizations, they are reporting to the workers opinions about health and safety hazards that

they are recognized in work places, near misses or incidents. But, this information may also be carrying

out to get the information about issues such as work place harassments, muscular aches and pains which

have more possibilities to occur. (Thompson, 2009)

Review available information

The information about the hazards which are cited in particular industries is available from various

managers, communities, industry associations, technical specialists, and safety department. Additionally,

manufactures and respective suppliers can also giving information about the issues and safety precautions

such safety information sheets and instruction manuals while purchasing those particulars.

Monitoring Risk’s and Determing Health and Safety Practices

Implementing controls

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The organization must need to change the way of the work while management put new control

equipments, new or special chemical or new into their operation. So, to avoid these conditions

organizations required to follow the control measures with:

Work procedures

Management need to develop a safe work process and recognize the issues and noted the procedures

that performed to minimize those issues.

Training, instruction and information

Management should concentrate on the work process to which procedure that can execute safely and

should conduct some trainings sessions to demonstrate about the tools and machineries that how to

handle those safely. Of course, it is not enough to minimize the hazards, but workers should know the

procedures and need to understand about those equipments. This training session also helpful to others

who are visit that particular work place, like customers and visitors. (Anon, 2009)

Supervision

The level of supervision required will depend on the level of risk and the experience of the workers

involved. High levels of supervision are necessary where inexperienced workers are expected to follow

new procedures or carry out difficult and critical tasks.

The supervision is always depending on the priority of that particular issue and knowledge of workers who

are involved in that particular work place. But, it always requires a high quality of supervision where

inexperienced workers are involved. In this case, management needs to make new decisions or perform

difficult and critical jobs. (Anon, 2012)

Up-to-date training and competency and hazard information

The information about issues in plant and equipments are needed to be update by manufacturer and

suppliers to ensure that controls are yet to be relevant or not. However, new technology will work more

efficient than previously available.

Acquiring the information of the risk management process has the following advantages, such:

• It facilitates to demonstrate how decisions about controlling risks were made in that the

organization and helps to provide expected training at major issues,

• It can prepare and develop safe work procedures in work place,

• It can create the conditions that allows organization to review risks easily with respect to any

changes to legislation or business performances. (Anon, 2012)

• It can exhibits to all involved staff like regulators, investors, shareholders, customers that who

are managing health and safety issues in the work place. As we discussed before, the acquired

information and amount of data is always depends on the size of potentiality for key health

and safety hazards.

To store this information is very helpful to the following purposes, such:

• To identify the issues, review issues, and to select appropriate measures.

• To evaluate that how and when the control measures were implemented, examine.

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• To monitor that to whom organization consulted with relevant training records and its

procedures to make changes in work place. (P, 2003)

Review and update a personal development plan Our page on Planning Personal Development explains why it can be helpful to document your goals and

plans for personal development, especially if you want to develop particular skills. Once you have planned

your development, you can then go on to develop the skills that you have identified.

But even that is not the end of the process, because it is important to review and evaluate your

development.

This reflective process has two main purposes:

• To check that you have actually followed your development plan; and

• To ensure that your planned development has helped you towards your goals.

You may also find that your goals are no longer valid, and you want to update them.

A regular review process can therefore lead to you revising both your goals, and your planned

development activities, to ensure that they take you where you want to go.

Evaluating Your Personal Development

It is worth taking time to review your activities against your plans on a regular basis, probably every

quarter or so. Less often, and you may find that you are not placing a high enough priority on your

development activities, and letting progress slip. More often, and you are likely to find that you have

not made enough progress, or that you are tempted to put the review off, because the last one was so

recent.

Regular review will ensure that you keep tabs on your activity, and are not tempted to make personal

development a lower priority.

It is easy to forget about personal development, especially if you have just started a new job or course of

study. But a regular review of your development plan keeps the process on track.

A Possible Review Process

1. Set aside time for your review. It is no good trying to reflect meaningfully in just five minutes.

Make sure you are in no rush, and also that your environment is conducive to quiet reflection.

2. Find your original plan, with your goals and planned activities. You need to know what you said

you were going to do.

3. For each planned activity, assess how far what you have done by way of activity was in line with

your plan.

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Health

Health promotion is another major objective of most employee welfare programs. Prior to the rise of labor

unions in the United States, most employees did not have health insurance or any type of programs to

promote preventative health measures. However, the health of an employee is integral to the success of

a company. Employees who are happy and healthy show up to work every day and do their jobs correctly,

whereas those that are in poor health and have no means to change the situation will miss work and slow

production.

How to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to the team How to ensure effective communication with employees and volunteers.

At each major or significant organisational stage or proposal, assess whether you need to communicate

information to groups of staff or individuals (or a wider audience). Both can be critical in making sure that

you have communicated effectively.

Planning communication

When planning communication, remember to:

• build in opportunities for employees and volunteers to feed in their views

• ensure that all employees and volunteers can access information: if your only communication

method is by email, check whether everyone has regular access to a computer or a personal email

account

• deliver information via a variety of methods but consistently, so that people know what to expect

and where to obtain or access information

• maintain communication by regular and timely flows of information: try to avoid the last minute

‘news scoop’

• review your communication methods regularly and assess their effectiveness to ensure that your

messages are getting through.

Communication methods

When your message is really important, deliver it using more than one method. For example, you could

follow up a general staff meeting with an email, then confirm the information in a personalised letter to

ensure that it has been received and understood. Possible communication methods include:

• noticeboards

• newsletters/in-house magazines/e-magazines

• letters to staff/volunteers

• press releases

• annual reports

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• emails and intranets

• phone conversations

• presentations

• team briefings/group meetings

• focus groups

• face-to-face formal or informal meetings between managers and employees

• consultation groups or staff forums.

Communicating through staff meetings

If you decide to hold a meeting (individual or collective), be clear about what you want to achieve from

each agenda item. The goal could be to:

• exchange information (report, update, inform or find out)

• solve a problem or find a solution

• make a decision

• plan

• evaluate

• supervise

• consult

• review performance.

Challenge yourself when planning a meeting to check which is the best way to achieve your overall

purpose. Could another method be more effective? There are a wide range of potential communications:

Reviewing the meeting process

At the end of a meeting, it is useful to have a ten-minute ‘process review’ either as a self review or with

the group. If you undertake a self review, questions you might ask yourself could include:

• Did I get my message across effectively?

• How well did I listen to what was being said?

• What did I learn that I didn’t know before?

• How could the meeting have gone better?

• What do I need to do now?

• What will I do next time?

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Appraisal meetings

One of the building blocks of communication and consultation with staff is the annual or biannual

employee appraisal or development review – providing it is set in the context of regular supervision

meetings.

Information and consultation of employees regulations

The Information & Consultation of Employees (ICE) Act 2004 applies to organisations with 50 or more

staff. It requires employers to inform and consult employees in certain circumstances. The Acas

website has further information about the ICE regulations.

Source: Published with permission from Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness. This material is taken

from "Tools for Success: doing the right things and doing them right", published in October 2008.

Download or buy your copy from Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness.