Introduction To Personal Development Plan Personal Development Essay

1. Introduction to Personal Development Plan:

Personal Development Plan (PDP) refers to activities that improve self-knowledge and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. The concept is not limited to self-development but includes formal and informal activities for developing others as well. Finally as personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems that support human development at the individual level in organizations. A personal development plan is a meticulously designed program which uses psychological tools such as the Personal Effectiveness Scale and created in order to create an understanding between a reviewer and an employee of an organization on important areas of development keeping in mind the ways in which these needs would be supported. PDP’s are usually developed in companies and it acknowledges the plan discussed between the employer and employee.

2. Purpose:

In this assignment I want to create Personal Development Plan for myself through which I would try to focus on the areas where I need to work upon in order to achieve my short, medium and long-term objectives. So to start the process of developing a PDP for myself I would like to start with my introduction and my career path till date and my future objectives. I work in an Indian government financial organization as an investment consultant at the commercial investment section and my career objective would be to become the manager of company’s zonal branch in next 3-4 years. My aim is to open my own financial invest farm for commercial investors in next 5-6 years.

3. Objectives:

Short term – To improve my performance to get better output using my strong points.

Medium term – To enhance my day to day working knowledge and to further improve my own ability to perform at a certain level consistently.

Long term – To help myself with self evaluation of my strong and weak points and build upon the ability to sustain continuous growth and keep growing.

Short term – To improve my performance to get better output using my strong points.

Target Period – 6 Months

Organisational objectives – Try to implement the plan and increase the amount of loans to the needed people and organisations.

Learning’s to suffice the above requirement – To perfect and constantly evaluate my skills.

Need to perform to achieve the above – Need to attend courses and complete reviews by the senior management people.

Support resources – I might need to join a specific and planned course and which might require some money to be invested.

What immediate success am I looking at – To raise my performance at an exceptionally good level by the end of 1st year with the help of learning’s and feedback provided on the above.

Target period to accomplish the above target – Though I am looking at a time frame of 6 months but would be pushing it to achieve as soon as possible.

Medium term – To enhance my day to day working knowledge and to further improve my own ability to perform at a certain level consistently.

Target Period – 6 months

Objectives towards achieving organizational and departmental goals – Learning and enhancing my knowledge on the subject by implementation of own PDP and bringing the knowledge on day to day performance.

Facts that I need o learn – Constantly evaluate self performance and find out new paths of improvement in anything and everything I require to perform.

What myself need to do to achieve the above – Need to attend some specific courses related to my work field and try to learn as much as possible from the experienced seniors at work and also get review on my learning’s.

Kind of resources I would require to support the above expected achievement – Might need to join a specific and planned course and which might require some money to be invested.

What will be my expected success – To have a clear self understanding of what I am doing and what is my expected outcome in near future.

Target period to accomplish the above target – Planned time frame is 6 months but expecting to achieve by end of 4-5 months.

Long term – To help myself with self evaluation of my strong and weak points and build upon the ability to sustain continuous growth and keep growing.

Time period – 1 to 4 years

Organizational and departmental objectives – Implementation of my PDP and enhance my knowledge in financial domain and increase my work experience to be able to reach the managerial level of the organization with remarkable remuneration package within 2-3 years and then to open my own investment company to help small time investors in the state.

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What would I need to learn and apply to achieve the above – To be perfect in my work keeping the process in place and keeping an eye on constant evaluation of self financial and managerial skills, work hard and climb the corporate ladder at the earliest.

What will I need to do to achieve the above – To attend available courses, Learn from experienced sources. Keep the performance level at an exceptional standard. Create a network of high and influential people both from inside and outside of organization. Create favorable environment in my organization. Completion of self reviews on a regular and timely basis.

What kind of resources and support I would need to support the above expectation – Need to be get closer with influential clients and higher management people of the organization which might involve some cost in way of entertaining them and provide them with some help in completing and meeting their demand. To create a network of powerful and influential people for myself.

Target period to accomplish the above – Planned time frame is 1 – 4 years but expecting to achieve by end of 3 years.

4. Professional Skills:

To be a successful and effective manager some skills are required, which help in performing well in the job and simultaneously grow vertically in the career ladder. I have classified the roles based on various important tasks that I would expect to perform in the organization.

Task-based skill

This skill helps a manager to properly plan to execute complex tasks, manage projects and run an efficient operation, it also helps in planning, organizing and monitoring performance on a regular basis. It is also important to be results oriented, to be someone who constantly conveys a sense of urgency and has the perseverance to get things done under tight time pressures. This also help to be able to build resilience to bounce back following setbacks and to build the power within to not to get defeated easily and sustain in crunchy situations.

Team based skill

This skill helps a manager in identifying and appointing associate or model leaders to learn and develop leadership skills and qualities. This also helps to foster team spirit and setting up benchmark for performances. This is the most important factor to groom team members. This skill facilitates the presence of necessary infrastructure supports and integrating tem members.

Team member based skills

This skill specifically helps the manager to identify the talent among team members. This helps the manager to nurture the talent of the members in sync with the organizational goals. This is also important quality to assign and balance team member’s needs and the most importantly to appreciate the performance of each individual team member as and when necessary.

My learning’s on positive managerial and leadership skills:

In my earlier employment with the Bajaj Allianz life insurance I had a chance demonstrate my managerial skill which worked in a very positive way to get my new job where I am in now. I had to suggest one of our client the best option to invest his money. To work out the best result for him, I did my research on all the available options and studied the pros and cons of all kind of investments options like investment in a market linked insurance fund, directly buying shares or debentures from stock market, investment in bonds or confirmed minimum returns on investments like fixed deposits, mutual funds etc and provided him with my suggestion which was a market linked infrastructure bond along with a health insurance. The return received by the client made him give a positive feedback about my commercial insight and which in turn helped me create goodwill for my company. This also helped me create a long term relationship with the client as well as build my network of people ensuring that I can always expect him to reach out to me for his future investments and in turn can use his contacts and influence to help me in future.

In Bajaj Allianz, I had also been allotted the responsibility of providing training to newly joined insurance agents and the field and trainee managers who were newly inducted in the company. This was vital help and knowledge gain for me to nurture and polish my people management skill as I was responsible to train people with the product knowledge as well as the rules and regulations of the company as well as the company’s position and field of operations in the market. This helped me a lot in understanding our target audience and helps them understanding the products and the company in the most efficient way as possible. This role and my performance were very instrumental to judge my leadership and management skill from the positive feedback of the trainees.

5. Personal skills:

Communication

Communication is one of the most important tool which needs to be used very effectively when it comes to being a manager or a leader. It can be formal or informal, work related or non work related, can be personal or impersonal, creative or factual. Thoughts or messages may be conveyed verbally, in writing or nonverbally, but it is always very important that whichever subject or whatever mode it is conveyed, it is clear to both the owner and the receiver. There are many instances where examples of each communication approach may have been successfully applied and at the same time things have gone wrong just due to the improper communication, be it at work, at home or at the most highest level of society including government communication.

Written

Person should be able to express himself loud and clear in written communication. Be it writing essays for school or writing an application for a job, creating his bio-data, research thesis, day to day email communications, anywhere and everywhere it is very important to be clear about what he or she is trying to convey and to be sure the person at the other end is clear about the message.

Verbal

As he word goes that speech out of mouth and arrow out of bow can never be returned back, so it is highly important that we choose words before any verbal communication is made. Be I formal or informal, person should be well efficient and double clear about conveying thoughts easily and getting engaged with other people. It is also to be kept in mind the mode by which message is conveyed, whether socially among friends or in a gathering or on telephone.

Body Language

Another most important but highly ignored way of communication is the person’s self body language. Person has to have the ability to match is own body language appropriately to what he or she is trying to convey verbally. It is the presence and display of body language which supports the verbal communication heavily in every places, be it at work or at a public gathering or be it in a social function. The eye contact, gestures and postures, movement, expressions everything is highly counted when it comes to any communication to take place and to produce the desired outcome.

6. Working in team:

It’s very important and highly noticed by the management of any organization is that how well a manager can work with the fellow team members. It’s valued at a very high level, not only in case of work but otherwise in all respect, it’s important to demands to have good skill to work with others and create a positive environment. The factors which are included in this skill set are as below.

Co-operation

A person should have the quality to be able to co-operate with all level of people in all kind of situations. It’s highly important to be able to bring into effect the co-cooperativeness in both way, from the person himself and to get the same from others, which plays a big role in accomplishing any target. Not only work but any group activity like in sports, or group discussion or for that matter preparing project report, in every cases co-operation in a positive way is very important.

Importance of sensitivity

It is this skill which makes a person close and valuable to others. Ability to understand the need and offer help and respond is very important, regardless of age and level. A person who can reach out to anyone and display his sensibility to help others to handle situation is one of the best quality one should develop.

Quality of negotiation

It’s important to reach at a logical end and desired outcome, but it does not happen always that you are in win win situation. In day to day activity also a person needs to be flexible enough to sometime negotiate and compromise to reach at a winning outcome. It is not always that the person or organization you are dealing with very understanding, rather it is highly common that people are reluctant to think the way you are thinking, especially when it comes to government organization and bureaucratic run departments.

Leadership quality

This is purely team oriented. How good a person in conveying his ideas to fellow members and provide them with a feeling that they are important for the success and most importantly motivate and encourage each individual member in all situation to give their best for the overall success is the best quality a leader can wish for.

7. Problem solving qualities

To have the skill to generate ideas to solve any kind of problems and bring an end to issues and conflicts are counted as the problem solving skill of a person.

Planning and organizing

The ability develop a well thought plan and set the required sequence of systematic process and ideas are part of a successful result in every part of day o day to life. Planning is one thing and organizing the required requirements and executing them as per plan comes under a person’s perfect organizing skill. It also comes handy when we think about simply organizing a group, party or get together or for that matter client’s demonstration, a proper planning and execution through seamless organizing skill is highly important.

Creativity

Generating new ideas or reusing existing solutions in a new way is what it matters when it comes to handling a situation or solving a problem. It’s not always that we need to come up with new approach or ideas to deal with a situation, but we should be able to use any existing methods in a better way and apply the same in a different approach depending on the kind and nature of issues.

Research and analysis

Doing a thorough research on the subject and gathering all sort of required information’s plays a vital role to derive at a successful outcome. Not only gathering information’s but then analyzing the same in respect of the situation and nature of the issue gives a chance in most of the cases that the result is expected in a positive way.

8. Self learning and improving performance

Self development

This talks about knowing self strength and weakness. It is the most important skill a human being needs to develop to grow and find out his ultimate goal in life. Understanding his own strength and weakness about his personal ability, educational capability and career goal is what makes a person to reach where he wants to. On personal front he or she needs to know which skill is better in him and which is the strong point he can bank upon to pursue his career. On educational front it’s not only the normal study what is basic, but it is the self evaluation of his progress, constant review and correction towards his targets which is very important. As per the career development, it is very important to be clear and focused towards the ultimate goal in his career. He has to be firm on his decision on what he wants to be and work constantly towards reaching that level.

Leaning

To be able to learn from all available situations and apply the same learning’s in different contexts as and when required. It’s not only books, but learning from day to day experience, from playing a game, working at home, nurturing his hobby, learning can be from anything and every situation a person come across, but what is important to find out whether we apply the same when we face any situation, that’s more important. It is the transfer of our learning experience from one situation to another situation is what we need to be good at.

Logical reasoning

Person should have to be able to use his reasoning skill and logical thinking towards defending an argument or making a statement. A planning without any logical reasoning in place can never produce positive result. He has to foresee the effects of the planning in advance and that is only possible when he can think logically and apply the proper reasoning behind the decision taken or else it can only produce an adverse result.

Self judgment

One of the most important skill is to be able to judge and question his own performance. Unless a person can reflect on his own performance and find out where he stands as per his expectation and critique his sort falls, he can never revaluate and find out the reason and also the answers for the incorrect result. It is self judgment and revaluation which can work as the corrective measure and can rebuild the situation and change the failure to success.

Study skill

To enhance knowledge on subject from finding more and more information’s from people around and relevant sources. Going through different educative materials, gathering information’s from journals, available notes, collecting ideas from reference books from library, going through thesis, finding documents available on net – there are so many ways of increase your study skill and enhance self-knowledge on the subject which will only make you stronger and firm while talking on the subject or when taking decisions.

9. Audit on self assessment:

Questionnaire

Now to find where I stand as per my target achievement and planning and evaluate my progress, I need to create a set of questionnaire and mark myself depending on the options of answers.

I need to find out what is my score on each question – there can be four options –

Answers Marks

1. Strongly Disagree 1

2. Tend to disagree 2

3. Tend to agree 3

4. Strongly agree 4

Communication – Reading skill

Questions Marks

Am I good enough in reading – both study materials and others

Am I good enough in finding information from different sources

Am I well versed with finding information’s from electronic media

Am I capable enough to go through and understand the materials after reading

Can I create documents from the above information’s when I work on assignments or projects

Am I able to read texts or documents and summarize the gist of what the author had tried to convey __________________

Total Marks Obtained – 22 (4+4+4+4+3+3)

Communication – Writing skill

Questions Marks

Am I good enough in writing – both study related or normal communication

Am I good enough in expressing my ideas and views

Do I plan and develop ideas in mind before penning it down

How good am I when it come to grammar or spelling

Am I capable enough to create documents as per specifications of department or course or the institution standard

Am I good enough to create notes from a lecture or group discussions or a presentation or any demonstration __________________

Total Marks Obtained – 21 (4+3+4+4+3+2)

Communication – Verbal

Questions Marks

Am I clear when I engage myself in any verbal communication

Am I good enough in conveying and explaining concepts or ideas to group of people

Am I good enough in giving a presentation using slides, graphs, charts, diagrams

Do I listen carefully to others and try to understand their point of views

Can I always come to a logical conclusions keeping both my own and others views

Am I good enough in getting involvement of people when I discuss or convey or present

_____________________

Total Marks Obtained – 18 (4+2+2+4+3+3)

Team Work

Questions Marks

Am I a good team member

Am I clear in understanding the target goal and achievement of the team

Do I agree and work towards achieving the team’s target

Am I sensitive enough about each fellow team member’s roles in achieving success

Am I good enough in monitoring the team’s progress and efforts and bring forward challenges faced by the team towards achieving target

Given a chance would I be able to lead a team

_____________________

Total Marks Obtained – 21 (4+4+4+4+3+2)

Problem Solving

Questions Marks

Am I skilled enough to break down a big task in small executable part

Do I look for help when I cannot get through the problem rather than wasting time

Do I enjoy the challenge in solving problems and feel happy at the end

Do I plan and do a brainstorm session involving the team members as and when necessary before getting started

Do I foresee the possible outcome before I carry the task out

Am I flexible and capable enough to look for alternate solutions depending on situations and progress rate

_____________________

Total Marks Obtained – 21 (3+4+4+3+3+4)

Self learning’s and personal effectiveness

Questions Marks

Am I organized at my work and organize my tasks in order to meet target and deadlines

Do I constantly evaluate self progress towards meeting the target

Am I clear about my strength and weakness about planning and meeting targets on time

Am I capable enough to find help and support to complete assigned tasks

Am I clear about my future targets about my career

Do I discuss my thoughts with people around

_____________________

Total Marks Obtained – 21 (4+3+4+4+4+2)

Grand Total – 124

Deriving at my strength and weakness based on the above self assessment audit:

Strengths – From above audit I can see that my strengths are good communication skill, being a good team member, inclination towards solving problem etc I would always try to use these strong points very effectively to manage work and towards achieving my objectives in career.

Weaknesses – I can see my weaknesses in the fields of creating documents, making presentation, lack of confidence in leading a team and being little introvert. I would definitely work towards fixing these issues at the earliest with the help of my strength.

10. Result Evaluation:

The result is not quite surprising to me as I knew some of my weaknesses. Though I am always a good team member and my communications are good but I am not good in making presentations and creating documents. I also lack in taking quick decisions sometime. But to me, the bigger issue seems like my lack of confidence in leading people. I am little introvert and not very vocal which might have led to me being less confident.

11. Action Plan:

Development Area: Presentation Skills / Leadership Quality / Decision Making

The plan is to conduct mock sessions and practice as much as possible. This would prevent me from any kind fear in me when presenting real-time. After all, presenting a piece of information in a compelling manner is vital to a manager and there is gets all the more necessary to get groomed on the presentation skills. Also I hope these training sessions will let me gain the confidence to present in front of crowd or a business group. I would join some short courses, attend seminars and workshops on effective leadership quality development, though I am always a good team player but I need to gain the confidence and quality of leading a team as well. I also would work with some senior level management people who are at decision making authority level to find out more on the skill and try to improve upon.

12. Conclusion:

From my self prepared PDP, I am quite confident that I am on the right path and also confident that I can overcome the weaknesses I have in some specific fields with help from internal and external sources and also would try to use my strong points to dominate over my weaknesses. I want t be on the right track and would want to see myself as a role model for people who wants to succeed in financial sector and want to reach to the managerial level and start his own entrepreneurship.