Professional Development Plan in Doctoral Degree Program - Personal Statement Example

Harrison (2009) noted that the SWOT analytical tool is usually helpful in identifying areas of competencies and areas of weakness. Therefore, in the table below I will list factors that make up my strengths, weaknesses, the opportunities that I have and threats that I face, which might hinder me from exploiting the opportunities that I have identified and eliminating my weaknesses. StrengthsProven leadership skillsWide experience in diverse sectorsAbility to work without any supervisionSelf-driven and ambitiousWeaknessesPoor skills in employee engagementLack of skills in empowering others through trainingLack of knowledge on managing employees from different cultures OpportunitiesLeadership opportunities in bigger firmsThreatsLack of proper time management to focus on achieving my goalsLack of incentives that could encourage me to pursue the opportunities identified.

Goal 1: Developing skills in employee engagementIn my work experience, I have noted that I am poor in engaging employees mainly because I prefer doing things for myself and therefore, I fail to adequately delegate work to employees. According to Chalofsky (1998), poor engagement of employees will demoralize them, as they will feel they do not play a critical role in the organization and many of them will easily opt-out of the organization if they get another opportunity elsewhere.In order to be an effective human resource manager, I will need to work on this weakness by fast mastering to trust others and then ensure that I take up a supervisory role after delegating work.

The resources that I will use include guidebooks and video tutorials on achieving employee engagement and proper delegation of work. I can easily achieve this goal within a period of three months and practice at home by ensuring I delegate house chores and keep everyone engaged in managing the household.Goal 2: Develop skills in empowering others through trainingZull (2002) would argue that I am individualistic since I am not able to transfer my skills and knowledge to others. However, for me to be a good leader I must ensure that I can train others and empower them with skills and knowledge for them to become better employees.

The resources that I will use to achieve this goal also include guidebooks and video tutorials on how to empower employees through training.Achieving this goal would take approximately 8 to 12 months since it will involve training on how to teach effectively.Goal 3: Acquire knowledge in managing employees from different culturesWith continued globalization, every major organization is shaping up to be a multicultural organization, and therefore, future leaders must have the ability to manage a workforce that is made up of employees from diverse cultures.

In order to acquire knowledge in managing employees from different cultures, I will first need to understand different cultures and I can easily do this by reading books concerning other cultures. Additionally, I will have to interact with many people from different cultures in order to understand perfectly how to manage a diverse workforce. Therefore, I can only be able to achieve this goal after the completion of my doctoral degree because it is something I will work on a continual process.