Introduction
The purpose of this document is to reflect on personal and professional sides of my life up to date. While the analysis is rounded on the intention to analyse and close the gaps, between the "current me" and "expected future me" in terms of business environment, it is critical to understand that management and leadership, whether it is the leadership of self, leadership of others or leadership of entire organizations is based upon the combination of personal and professional qualities of an individual. With that in mind, the GAP analysis, which will be used as a structure for this assessment will focus on a multifaceted view of "self", where I will define the future goals and development plan for the medium and the long-term.
Current Situation Analysis
Where am I Now?
I am a Chinese student, 24years old,who join a cohort of the individuals, who decided to pursue their academic career on the international scale. Currently, I am majoring in finance, which was a decision, based on an accurate analysis of the future goals as well as personal passion, coming from belief in social justice as well as personal ambition to become financially independent and strong to contribute towards my life endeavors as well as help other people, who were not as fortunate in life. My personality and figure today is based upon the beliefs and values, grounded in the education in the family as well as my closest social environment. My family gave me confidence and opportunity to develop harmoniously in personal and professional areas. My social environment outlined the gaps between the good and bad and between the poor and rich, building on my values and goals for the future. The truth is, career development and professional success are the results of the personal path and life story, which identify the uniqueness of human beings. My personal story is different from my colleagues and as a foreign student, I am going through a challenge of continuous learning and enhancement of my communication, emotional intelligence and diversity management skills. The tradition of the society in which I was brought up along with strive for innovation and modernity in my professional life define me as a person and, surely, impact the career plans and approach to taking this path.
One of the important turning points in my life was the involvement in an entrepreneurial effort of selling childhood toys back at high school when I set a goal to help my parents' friends, who found themselves without a house and in severe financial difficulties. To make a contribution to the funds raised to assist the family in need, I started a sales campaign for my toys. These items made part of my collection and I felt difficult to let them go, but the objective was more important. I realized that negotiation and price setting strategies can be extremely interesting and challenging and soon started to enjoy the process and not only the outcome. As a result, I contributed towards the funds and made my parents and myself proud of the effort. My strive to make this business endeavor work at that point in time was more philanthropic, rather than commercial, but I surely touched upon the business world, which impressed me with the variety of opportunities and wide landscape of innovation, which an individual with entrepreneurial acumen could benefit from and build on. Since then I was involved in various small and medium size business initiatives, which attracted me not only by the size of the potential reward but by the purpose of helping other people. My experience and conviction with regards to the future career prospects became more solid along with growing experience in business and financial deals.
With the above in mind, I was wondering what are the specific characteristics and qualities, which define me today? I am many things, but my personality grounds on the following values:
Humbleness;
Ability to learn from others;
Ambitiousness;
Long-term orientation
Passion;
Willingness to be part of a group;
Diversity.
I find the above-outlined values important for any individual as well as professional in a business context. At the same time, I realize that the stage, where I am currently at also demonstrates some of the weaknesses and areas for improvement. Some of the qualities, which I could focus on are the following:
The lack of life experience;
The lack of professional exposure;
Impatience;
Accessive passion;
Romantic view on professional career;
The above does not compile the GAP analysis but allows understanding the type of individual I am and draw further on where I would like to be in a medium and the long-term future.
Employers Expectations
The contemporary business environment is defined by globalization, internationalization of the business and growing individual mobility. These factors drive diversity and make organizational structures more hierarchical and horizontally advanced. This outlines the complexity of internal and external relationships, which organizations and individuals, working for them develop with the stakeholders (Sadler, 2003). That said, modern companies are becoming more specific and demanding, when it comes to the competencies, skills, profiles and personal qualities, which they seek to build sustainable competitive advantage.
Skills and Experience
Leadership skills;
Diversity management skills;
Teamwork capacity;
International mobility;
Specific industry-relevant skills;
Innovation drive;
When it comes specifically to the finance management and accounting, this function is the backbone of the business in terms of tools to support the strategy. Given that, financial departments in the companies have to meet the following expectations:
Good knowledge of commercial and operational sides of the business;
Flexibility and responsiveness to the changes in international and local legislation;
Strong knowledge of internal and external audit and control mechanisms;
Good people management skills.
Personal Qualities
On the personal side, companies look for individuals, who are able to demonstrate forward-thinking attitude, loyalty and intrinsic motivation, which will allow creating strong bonds with the company. While the professional and work-related qualities outlined above are easier to generalize, the profile of individuals in terms of personal qualities depends on the organizational culture and strategy and, thus, varies a lot across the industries and organizations. The vast majority of contemporary companies seek for individuals, who are self-starters and can work independently as well as part of the group. International exposure and understanding of cultural diversity are also important for most of the companies. Additionally, humbleness and ambition constitute a critical element of personal profiles, mostly demanded by the organizations. Tailor (2015) outlines several general personality traits, which make individuals more "desirable" by the companies: hardworking, dependability, effective communicator, time-oriented and flexible. The above qualities are essential for the financial management roles, where precision and detail-orientation as well as working under pressure constitute a large part of the daily routine.
Performance and Competency Gaps
GAP Overview
Based on the self-evaluation and the insight into my current position relative to where I would like to be, it is possible to outline several major gaps. First of all, it is evident that the companies are looking for individuals with strong leadership acumen and international cross-functional experience. These characteristics and personal achievements can help building successful and sustainable career in the industry. At the moment, I lack both, due to my age and the lack of professional experience in the field. Secondly, the companies are becoming more complex with the multifaceted profile of business models and activities in their portfolio. This means that finance professionals, which are and will continue being in high demand on the market are those, who possess a very specific industry-related knowledge and can contribute towards closing the competency and performance gaps on collective organizational levels. Finally, human capital due to diversified markets and growing opportunities for individuals to be hired internationally is becoming more competitive and more expensive. Recruitment and selection strategies today are focused on a reduction of turnover and high retention, which shifts focus to the personal qualities, such as self-motivation and self-drive, loyalty and dependability. I have no experience working in large international corporations or even local structured companies, which makes it difficult for me to enhance my self-awareness in terms of exact motivations and bonds, which I would like to create with the company I work for to ensure that I am a long-term asset for this organization.
Development Areas
The above gap overview gives an insight into what the companies are looking for and where I will have to further develop. To be more specific with regards to my career development plan, it is important to outline the actual professional goals before presenting the GAP analysis and development plan. I always wanted to some extend remain a "dreamer", where my profession is my passion. With that in mind, my medium term goal is to work for the organization with strong social justice and human rights focus. I am not necessarily looking to work in the specific location or relocate back to China. I am looking to connect with an organization where my contribution as an individual makes the difference for the communities in need. At the same time, I would like to ensure that the professional path, which I pursue in the company, will in a medium term give me financial stability and outline the potential for increasing my wealth. One of the potential opportunities, I am interested in at this stage is private sector jobs, involved in cooperative projects with non-for-profit (NFP) sector and public segments, such as World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
With the above in mind, my critical development areas include:
Gaining experience in the industry;
Building on cross-functional knowledge;
International work exposure;
Development of leadership skills;
Building on specific and rare knowledge in public and NFP sector.
Development Strategy
The table below outlines the core strategies closing the gaps and reaching my career goals.
Conclusion
Based on the analysis of the GAPs in my personal career path and expectations, I believe that the focus on the five GAPs will allow building an effective middle term strategy to support professional growth and personal development. It is important, however, to recognize that personal and professional development plan is a dynamic task, which should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the strategy is aligned with the reality and the external environment. With that in mind, I decided that the GAP analysis is a continuous exercise which makes part of the self-awareness and self-development strategy and should be done on a biannual or annual basis.
References
Sadler Ph (2003). Strategic Management. 2nd Edition. London: Kogan Page Limited
Tailor N.F. (2015). The Personality Traits That Will Get You Hired.Business News Daily [Online]. Retrieved 28 June 2016, http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7950-personality-traits-hired.html
