Professional Development PD Plan - Assignment Example

Professional Development PD Plan Part 1 I chose the career of a project manager where my professional development plan proved out to be very helpful. Project manager is the person whom organization assigns the work of managing the projects. The role of the project manager is different from a functional manager. It is not effective only to apply best practices, skills and knowledge to project management. Rather, project manager requires having certain managerial and interpersonal abilities to pursue a project successfully[Pro]. Having positive attitude towards others and mutual respect for each other are essential features of professionalism. Being project manager, being professional is very important. I am given a specified time and amount to spend on a project. At a time, there are a number of projects to be dealt with. Professionalism requires careful handling and management of all the projects taking care of the cost and time. I have to make a list of all the tasks at hand. Make sure that every project is going on schedule. When I have to procure resources or delegate responsibly, I do it in an authoritative and professional way keeping my emotional self away from the self at job. In meetings, I have to reach before time and if in some cases I have to reach late, I inform the attendants beforehand to avoid inconvenience. I believe the sense of responsibility and timeliness of project manager is very important because all the people working under me will copy me and become irresponsible if the boss is irresponsible. Sometimes I have to ask for more time or budget for few projects because of some uncontrollable factors. In those cases, there is a proper procedure to be followed, I write a formal application and provide proof of extra funding needed. Also the record keeping comes under my part as I organize more than one project at a time and coordinate the flow of activities. I make sure that activities are started at time and work environment t is friendly but professional. The essential requirements of project managers are that they should have knowledge, show performance and personally helpful and supporting. The attitude of professionalism is very important in this job. There were times when I had to face shortage of resources, work with uncompromising or incompetent workers. I had to work for longer than working hours, keep track of all the activities of workers and I had to be patient in handling them. Sometimes the work needed to be done from scratch again; it required my lot of stamina and patience. Being a successful project manager not only requires the depth of skills of project management, but also managerial capabilities and people management skills. I had to assign different projects to different workers; I had to keep this thing in mind that which worker is good at what? I did not assign projects randomly, rather I had to keep this thing in mind that efficiency can be maximized in a team if members’ strengths and weaknesses are complemented by each other. If a worker is good at recordkeeping, I will assign the transactional work to him rather than giving the actual construction work and ending up with a faulty structure. Working professionally requires to be good at communication skills, to manage time effectively and to take notes of the critical points. Part 2 My PD plan was very useful in my self-analysis and I got a chance to explore my strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses identified through PD plans were very critical and needed to be improved to become successful project manager. I tried my best to improve my skills and be a responsible project manager by utilizing my potential and capitalizing on my strengths. It was not an easy task I had to work really hard for improvement. As a result of my PD plan, I found out that my communication skills were not effective. I needed to increase my listening capability and make myself able to convince others by explaining my ideas. It was my week area which I got to know as a result of my PD plan. I chose the career of project manager because I thought my weak communication skills can only survive in such job and I thought this job is more concerned with operational work and there is less need of communicating with others. But my perception proved out to be wrong; this job required a lot of communication skills because at times workers were unaware of the importance of a project and the specific customer. As a result there were late projects and faulty products which could result in negative image of the company. So I decided to change myself and be more communicative. It was hard for me in the beginning but then I tried to improve by sitting more with workers, asking them about their requirements and progress, noting down their complaints and having tea or coffee discussions with them. This made me more committed to the organization and more communicative. My supervisor acted as a mentor to me and he helped me increase my communication skills. He made me familiar about the norms of the organization and their expectations from me. As a result I became confident and enthusiastic. Monetary as well as non monetary rewards of the organization and self analysis through PD plans were the factors which motivated me to improve my communication skills. I also improved my critical reading and note taking skills as a result of my PD plans. I had a tendency to note as much information as I could and in doing this, I mostly was lost on the useful information. After my PD plan, I got to know that noting down only relevant information and then consolidating the information with the already existing knowledge really helps. My supervisor also pointed out this mistake and he made me practice by giving many tasks and giving me short time for grasping. Gradually I improved my note taking and listening skills Time management was also my gray area before my PD plan. But the job of project manager needs to be excessively time conscious because time is one of the triple constraints of a project. My supervisor told me at the beginning, that following deadlines of the projects is one of the most critical tasks of a project manager. I had problem in time management in the beginning, but gradually I improved by completing work earlier than needed. I had to work extremely hard and I learnt to prioritize the tasks, which helped me work more hard on the urgent projects and delegating work to others but keep track of the progress from time to time. Having more than one project at a time with multiple constraints and different kinds of people helped me to manage time more efficiently. My supervisor really appreciated my efforts. In this way my PD plans were actually translated to a successful implementation with the help of practical corporate exposure. I also acquired professionalism because of the challenging job, was given tasks with tight deadlines and more responsibility. Part 3 The three areas on which I have focused this year, as told earlier, are communication skills, time management skills and reading and note taking skills. Following is the theoretical explanation of these concepts and examples of practical application are given in appendix. Communication skills Communication is a complex phenomenon which requires the specific knowledge, skills and competencies (Clark & Delia, 1979)[Bra06]. First is the linguistic competence that enables a person to understand and comprehend the language[Bra06]. Then there is sociolinguistic competence which governs the communicators about the social rules that govern the use of language for different situation and different groups of people [Bra06]. Third is functional competence which includes generating and processing messages in such a way which inspires and convinces others [Bra06]. Most important is the functional communication skills which help you succeed in professional and personal life [Bra06]. The study of the concept of communication began in 1949, when theory of communication came. At that time it was proposed that communication is purely mathematical [CES49]. After that communication concept became multi disciplinary and kept on coming in other concepts. Schramm says that communication is an art which makes human societies existence possible and differentiates human being from other creatures of the universe [Pat]. In the field of project management communication is very important. If the workers do not know what their tasks are, they are going to ruin the project [Bue09]. If they are not aware of the constraints and limitations of project, they are not going to accomplish the project goals and waste the budget of the project [Bue09]. If I, being a project manager, am unaware of customer expectations and requirements, the project will turn out to be a failure totally [Bue09]. Another very important factor is that a project manager should know what kind of audience he is dealing with and he needs to tailor the information according to the audience [Lis]. Giving complex information to project workers may complicate things for them and reduce their confidence. Time Management Time management is another very important skill required by project managers. This concept was initially used in business related area but later on its implications were considered for every aspect of life [Tib12]. People started the need of being more organized and productive [Tib12]. There are a lot misunderstandings and mismanagement which takes place because of ineffective time management skills. Some important tips for time management in project managers are given by Duncan Haughey. First is that project managers should focus on 80/20 rule. [Dun12]. Most of the problems are caused by few causes, so project manager needs to focus on them [Dun12]. Other important tips are that project manager should avoid micro managing and doing the work by himself, avoid the mere status update of employees rather focus on opportunities and risks of the project and create a to do list [Dun12]. Also there are lots of times when things go against what was planned and expected [Jos05]. Time just flows faster for some people as compared to others [Jos05]. It is just that people waste a lot of time. Project managers should know the triple constraints of a project i.e. time, cost and scope. Project managers should make sure that all activities are happening on time [Jos05]. In any job or any organization, time management is very important. Keeping too much information without organizing it in a proper way results in a total mess for the project managers [Tim10]. So, a project manager needs to be accurate and specific in information keeping his time managed successfully. To be effective at time management, one needs to be clear about his goals in life [Mar06]. One should determine what his goals of life are and he should keep in mind what are his preferences of life. In this way he will know what needs preference and he will be able to prioritize the tasks and work with more dedication [Mar06]. In this way time management skills trickle down into awareness and commitment of an individual [Mar06]. Critical Reading and Note Taking Skills Critical reading is a very important precursor and it leads to critical writing [Wha12]. The main features of critical reading are examining the evidences and checking whether there are any influences on those evidences [Wha12]. Critical reading also involves assimilating the previous knowledge about the subject to the content got and then driving out conclusions [Rea12]. Effective note taking and reading form the basis of research work [Rea12]. For effective note taking, one should record the key information and to gain fuller understanding, consolidate the information after the lecture [Rea12] Considering oneself to be a lecturer while listening is a good idea to become effective listener [Cri12]. Critical reading means that a reader analyses a lecture with respect to his knowledge and that results in greater clarity and comprehension [Cri12]. Use appropriate reference works and if it is hard to comprehend a word or a phrase, it is doubly important to see the meaning of that word to understand the meaning of the whole lecture [Cri12]. One can also take notes and highlight important text, in this way it is easier to remember [Cri12]. Taking notes is another way of increasing your attention span and avoiding your mind to wander off from the subject [Sam01]. We learn more when we involve in multitasking and use multiple senses at a time. So taking notes help us remember what we hear [Sam01]. In any organization, listening to the officials, their lectures and their plans is very important because it helps in pursuing the organizational objectives and gives clarity of the idea what is required of an employee. During meetings, employees have to listen to their jobs and tasks to do and perform them effectively. If a person does not know how to focus on the relevant information he gets confused and does not know about his own job. Effective listening and note taking skills help in every field of life. From a student to a professional, there is much attention given to the knowledge of a person and knowledge only comes through effective listening and reading skills. I applied all the acquired skills in my job as a project manager. I have given examples in appendix which show how I improved with the help of my PD plan. Bibliography Pro: , (A GUIDE TO THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE), Bra06: , (Burleson), CES49: , (SHANNON), Pat: , (Pathways to Higher Education), Bue09: , (Buehring), Lis: , (Drake), Tib12: , (Ghioca), Dun12: , (Haughey), Jos05: , (Phillips), Tim10: , (Time management tips: 5 beliefs that limit productivity), Mar06: , (Mark Dombeck), Wha12: , (What is critical reading), Rea12: , (Reading and Note-taking), Cri12: , (Critical Reading: What is Critical Reading, and why do I need to do it?), Sam01: , (Dhann), Appendix The reason why I was appointed at this job was that the previous project manager did not communicate clearly to the workers about requirement of a project. As a result projects were becoming failure resulting in lot of customer complaints. When I was appointed, I was told that all the communication to workers as well as to the higher ups, is necessary and failure to communicate properly may result in loss of customers and financial losses. When I started my work I was weak at it. With the help of supervisor I tried to improve and I was successful to some extent. My work showed gradual improvement. I used to arrange meetings where all the workers would come and I explained about the projects and its importance. To motivate workers, I also mentioned about the bonuses to be given to workers in case of efficient performance. This boosted up their confidence and they were better able to accomplish tasks which they did not do previously. I also made sure that top managers know about the situation of project management overall in the organization. However, I was conscious enough to tailor the information to the audience to which I was communicating. I made sure that I give overall picture to the top managers rather than engaging them in day to day activities and confusing them. My performance was appreciated by my supervisor which motivated me further. The information given orally to me was very critical to my performance as my supervisor used to drop in any time to my cabin and explain the tasks at hand quickly. I had to make sure that I understand each and everything and ask if something needed clarification. All my performance was judged on my tasks which I did. I received positive feedback always, which means that I have good note taking skills. I was also praised about being time conscious. I tried my best to be in advance of completion of deadlines. Initially I was weak at managing it but I tried very hard to be competitive and time conscious simultaneously. Mostly I made sure that the project is complete one day before deadline, and then I went for the inspection of final project to find out flaws if any. My efforts were recognized by my supervisor and he gave recommendation for my promotion keeping in view my dedication and hard work. Read More