Personal Development Plan
Undeniably, this tool is an indispensable tool that has enabled me to pursue excellence in my business management career. Whereas my reason in pursuing a career in business management is broad, the overarching reason is my interest in the vast and challenging aspects associated with managing an international company, and the desire to satisfy my enduring interest of having my own office in a prestigious company (Zenger, & Folkman, 2009). Sharpening my skills in Human Resource Management forms a part of my short-term ambitions. It is with this desire that I am compelled to provide an account of all activities and processes that have been fundamental in enabling me to grasp the knowledge and skills learnt throughout the semester. The most valuable part is keeping track of changes in my academic life in as well as identifying my weakest links that call for significant improvement.
As a gauge of my development and progress, my PDP enables me to identify the skills that will catapult me to realize my future goals (Taylor, and Edge, 1997; Floodgate, and Nixon, 1994). Simply put, my PDP serves to enable me realize two institutional objectives during my study. The first objective entails goal commitment and the second revolves around academic achievement. The former increases my motivation and commitment to achieve my degree in business management from a personalized understanding an understanding of an integrated career planning process. Similarly, the later increases my awareness of implementation of academic and career processes that stretch beyond the limits of my education (Floodgate, and Nixon, 1994).
My sense of organization and social skills has been phenomenal in enhancing my level of communication skills throughout the semester. I did understand that my language was a weakness and hence, developed the desire to communicate with my fellow students and instructors regarding my areas of weakness. Speaking too fast was a big challenge given that most individuals found it difficult to decipher meanings from the things we communicated. This meant that I took longer times my instructors to explain concepts discussed in class. To cover for this weakness, I extended the amount of hours spent on consultations with my instructor, which was aimed at ensuring I get a clear understanding of what was taught in class. Getting clarifications on unclear points discussed during lessons from my tutors was some of things that I took before commencement of the next lesson.
During the semester, I have faced different levels of challenges in my academic life. French, being my first language, doing a group presentation was one of my difficult tasks. In the two presentations I delivered, language proofed to my most difficult weaknesses. I tend to speak too fast thereby affecting the rate with which people could understand me. As mentioned earlier, my strength lies in my sense of organization and my love for communication enabled me to cushion my level of weakness (Niven, 2006.)
Time Management
Managing time is one of the most critical aspects for planning. It is true that failing to plan is planning to fail’. Efficient allocation of time to the right duties ensures that extra time is set aside for other chores. To ensure effectiveness in my daily chores, I developed weekly schedules to enable me in institutional objectives during the semester with regard to goal commitment and the second revolves around academic achievement. Whereas it was difficult to realize all my goals during the semester, my time management schedule turned out to be efficient. In spite of all the shortcomings and activity interruption, I still found time to allocate on important issues. However, I lacked enough time to allocate to other non-academic related aspects such as reading business magazines and motivational books. This provides with the desire to include this objective during my next semester’s PDP.
Social and interpersonal Skills
Speaking of my interpersonal and social skills, it came to my discovery that I did not get along with other students quite easily even though I had exceptional communication skills. My poor social skills can be in part due to my language weaknesses and as well, in part due to poor interaction skills. For this reason, I intend to improve my interaction skills and it will form a major potion in my PDP. As Aubrey (2010) argues, interpersonal skills are critical in executing roles and responsibilities associated in human resource position and management positions. This shows the essence that is needed to learn these skills. Improvement of my social and interpersonal skills can be achieved through engagement in extra-curricular activities and other social groups outside the classroom setting
Group and presentation skills
As earlier mentioned, difficulties during group presentation was among my major challenges during the semester. Students with excellent group presentation skills face few difficulties in presenting their studies. Despite being good in communication, I do exhibit weaknesses during group discussions thereby affecting my overall performance levels. An improvement of my presentation and group skills will not only increase my confidence but also enhance my overall performance levels (Harper, 2004).
Reading skills
Before implementing my PDP, I can attest that I had not so good reading skills because I faced some difficulties to connect with all the information I read. Academic life is full of information from a diverse range of sources and lacking an understanding of any form of information is an impediment to academic life (Bolton, 2010). Therefore, I commit myself to reading wide range of information on topics discussed during each lesson. This serves to expand on the ideas and concepts already acquired in class.
Performance Reflection
According to my Personal Development Plan, I aim to achieve a uniform performance in all semesters. I expect to score above 70% in all assignments and coursework handed to me during the entire semester. Achieving outstanding performance requires hard work and I will commit all my time to study. This commitment to study includes but not limited to practicing classwork, group discussions, and more time on consultations with instructors and lecturers. I cannot underestimate my high potential and I know very well that I succeed in whatever I put my hands. As mentioned earlier, I will improve my presentation skills for the sake of improving my performance. Reading wide will increase my knowledge base thereby enabling me to familiarize with new words and include them in my communication (Hess, and Bacigalupo, 2011). Education is not all about the curriculum, things taught in class, or for the sake of exams but rather it has more to do with understanding concepts to be applied later in life.
PDP for the Next 4 Semesters
During the analysis of my PDP for the first semester, I have noted a number of issues that needs improvement as far as my education and career is concerned. Since my academic performance is the most fundamental aspect in my lifelong career, all the aspects in my PDP are directly related to it (Hess, and Bacigalupo, 2011).
First, I intend to develop integration between my personal development plan and an academic development plan. This will involve concentration on only those issues revolving around my profession and dedicating more time to reading. Obtaining ideas and experience from any source related to my career path will be critical in this situation. While personal development will be a generalization of all issues associated with my college life, academic development will involve spending substantial time on improving certain aspects that enhance my academic life such spending more time researching information in the library.
Second, learning is a lifelong process and my entire time in this academic institution will be dedicated to learning. I realized the need to horn my learning skills in order to appreciate the culture of learning. Learning skills encompasses several other skills such as social skills, group skills, presentation skills, and skills in co-curricular activities. Learning all these skills will enrich my academic life and enable me to realize my lifelong goals.
Third, commitment and taking responsibilities to all assignments forms my other aim that I aim to achieve during my next four semesters. These include attending all classes, submitting all assignments, following my weekly schedule, attending group discussions, and conducting private studies. Time management skills will come in handy in this situation. Identification of challenges to my academic life also falls under this objective and upon identification of any weakness; I will not hesitate to consult my instructors (Felce, 2010). Developing personal relationships with instructors and tutors will not only overcome difficulties in academics but also open up more opportunities for transforming into an A student.
Fourth, an analysis of my social skills revealed that I needed to upgrade them in order to capitalize on my weaknesses in communication. I intend to join several extracurricular activities and social groups within the institution in order to perfect my social skills and obtain confidence during presentations. I will get to relate with my peers thereby gaining confidence. Finally yet important, assessment and evaluation is critical in my academic career and therefore, I will be conducting weekly, monthly, and end-of semester analysis to track my development changes and the progress made so far in realizing my goals and ambitions. Changes will be made wherever necessary depending on the results of the evaluation.
The field of management is developing at an increasing rate and there is an increasing demand for highly skilled and competitive management executives who are well equipped with management concepts (Janice, Richard, and Phillip, 2008). Such factors intensify my desire to pursue Business Management as a lifelong career. However, I cannot help wanting to absorb concepts in management that are critical in influencing the future of the management industry. I believe that grasping vital concepts will enable me to develop and acquire strategies for the sustainability of my career. My overarching passion and desire is to become a remarkable management guru remains the same. In light of my interest, desires, and the evolving trends in the management industry, I intend to achieve the following during my next semesters at the Greenwich School of Management.
Being a self-motivated and hard working person, I believe that I have the motivation and flair to achieve the goals outlined in my PDP.
Reference List
Aubrey, B. 2010. Managing Your Aspirations: Developing Personal Enterprise in the Global Workplace McGraw-Hill
Bolton, G, 2010, “Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development”, SAGE Publications Ltd, Hoboken, NY.
Felce, A. 2010. "Cross-university collaboration for work-place learning: a case study", Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, 1(1), pp.63-77
Floodgate, J. and Nixon, A.E, 1994. "Personal Development Plans: The Challenge of Implementation – A Case Study", Journal of European Industrial Training, 18 (11), pp.43 – 47
Harper, J. 2004 "Presentation skills,” Industrial and Commercial Training, 36(3), pp.125- 127
Hess, J. D., and Bacigalupo, A. C. 2011. "Enhancing decisions and decision-making processes through the application of emotional intelligence skills,” Management Decision, 49 (5), pp.710 – 721
Janice A. B., Richard O., J. and Phillip K. 2008, Leadership style matters: The deployment of leadership skills in developing an organizational context-for-learning capability, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.75-98
Niven, P. R., 2006. Balanced scorecard step-by-step: maximizing performance and maintaining results. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Taylor, D. and Edge, D. 1997. "Personal development plans: unlocking the future", Career Development International, 2 (1), pp.21 - 23
Zenger, J. H., & Folkman, J., 2009. The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders. New York: McGraw Hill.
