Professional and Academic Skills Development - Assignment Example

 Developmental needs assessment Introduction A personal development plan involves the creation of an action plan that is founded on knowledge, principles, thinking, and setting of goals as well as planning for personal development in the context of education, relationships or careers among others (Gallagher, 2013, p. 34). A personal development plan typically comprises of a statements of the goals a person wants to achieve, their strengths or abilities, education along with steps that provide an indication on how this plan can be achieved (Wadhwa, 2008. P. 181). These plans may also include statements concerning an individual’s priorities in their lifestyles and careers, their career positioning, assessment of opportunities and risks as well as alternative plans and a CV (Fry, Ketteridge and Marshall, 2003). Regarding higher education, personal development planning usually comprises involves the creation of a portfolio that contains evidence of the skills attained over a specific period. It is assumed in education that personal development planning can greatly assist in the creation of self-motivated independent learner who has a higher likelihood to move to a higher degree of academic achievement (Lee, 2009, p. 31). Personal development plans are in most cases a requirement in the CVs of employees and the employees who take part in business training are regularly asked to create their personal development plans. Personal development planning that covers five years can be done by an individual with the aim of organizing personal goals and making the attainable within a particular period (Masters, Wallace and Harwood, 2011, p. 24). Background In the determination of my personal developmental goals, I have a belief that personal objectives are essential to achieving and maintaining professional success. Apart from professional success, I also have an objective to maintain a healthy environment for my siblings and my colleagues to achieve success in their careers. My goal is to become a role model for the people in my family as well as my colleagues. My goal is to show them a good example in terms of perseverance and diligence in maintaining individual success in their lives. I have a particular determination to achieve a sequence of objectives that will lead to the ultimate goal of owning a company of my own. From a professional point of view, I have insight of where my interests lie, in building my career and motivating the people around me to become better in what they do. In the contemporary work place, maintaining professional success is a vital component and the capacity to execute and present skills to the work place will be important I ensuring my job stability and I believe that this has been my main inspiration in the last six years. Being part of a multinational company has always been my dream and my professional success will be informed by an ability to make a considerable difference within this company. Together with professional success, it is imperative to set goals especially as far as professional career development concerned. I aim at learning self-restraint since I consider it to be important aspect of that affects professional growth in a work and educational setting. I also perceive the management of time is also a key element of my personal success as the creation of a healthy working and academic setting starts from managing time appropriately. Time management is one of the areas that will be most challenging to me, as I have previously had the weakness of waiting up to the last minute to finish some tasks or assignments. I am doing my best to make sure that I change this attribute so that I can be able develop my personal goals in a prioritized manner. I plan to develop further the skills that I have and my ingenuity to make sure that is become successful. If I can achieve this fete, then it would allow me to set a foundation as a role model for my family members as well as mu colleagues so that they can be self-reliant in their professional and academic lives. Strategic learner As a strategic learner, I will aim at reshaping my character so that I can be better prepared for the job market. I will do this through choosing individual traits like independence and intelligence among others to aim for every month while concentrating on how I can develop this trait in myself. For instance, concentrating on intellectual humility will involve admitting in the instances when am wrong, recognized when I do not admit I am wrong. This will assist me acknowledge when am in the wrong and become defensive when another person points out my flaws and consequently try to correct this by making the right adjustments. This will also assist me to better listen and understand to the opinions of other people both academically and professionally. Personal development is a process that continues for the entire since it is a way for people to make an assessment their skills and abilities, consider the objectives in their lives, and develop goals that will assist them maximization of their potential. There are many surroundings notions that inform personal development and one of them is the Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy process that leads to self-actualization (Murray, 1997, p. 6). According to Maslow, people have an inherent need for personal development that takes place through a process that is referred to as self-actualization (Drury, 2010, p. 12). The degree to which people get the ability to develop is reliant of particular requirements being met and these needs created a form of hierarchy. In this hierarchy, only when one strata of need has been achieved can the next one be developed but as changes take place in life the amounts of need that motivate a person’s behavior at any instance will experience changes (Power, 2008, p. 260). The bottom of the hierarchy contains the fundamental physiological requirements such as food, drinks sex and sleep, which are needed in order for a person to survive (Coward, 2008, p. 24). This is followed by the needs for being safe and protected in the physical and economic setting and then progress can be made towards the satisfaction of the requirements to be loved and developing a sense of belonging (Cooper, 2001, p. 138). The fourth level entails the needs to develop awareness and understand the environment while having notions that are abstract like curiosity and seeking for meaning and purpose. The sixth is associated with artistic requirements such as beauty as well as symmetry and order and upon reaching this point in development, a person is considered to have achieved self-actualization (Mills, 2007, p. 217: Kunstler and Daly, 2010, p. 88). According to Maslow, people develop the need to perceive themselves as proficient and independent and everybody has an opportunity to grow. Self-actualization, therefore, entails the desire that everyone has to become all they are capable of becoming and involves being self-fulfilled and the needs to achieve total potential as a unique human being (Maslow, 1970). In Maslow’s view, the road to self-actualization demands getting in touch with ones feelings and facing life completely with the utmost concentration. Therefore, I will try my best in the process of being a strategic learner to approach my development according the hierarchy that Maslow came up with (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, 2007). Skills analysis I have managed to develop my academic as well as personal skills as an independent learner and also as part of formal and informal groups and doing tasks such as literature reviews and other essays that involve oral or written communication, I have used various skills that include critical thinking, team work as well as time management. Besides assessing one’s ability and understanding of assigned tasks, analysis assists an individual to progress on the things that they are good at and work on any weaknesses. Evaluation takes different forms and a person can assess himself through judging his work in a subjective way or through being assessed by other people. However, self-assessment has disadvantages as one can be accused of bias and thus the acknowledgement of feedback that is received in my work has been integral in the development of my skills. It assisted me to make better identifications of my strengths and weakness while at the same time providing me with self-assurance and interest which are important in continued improvements. Writing reports has had an impact on the development of my critical analysis skills while also assisting me to improve my capacity to draw conclusions for evidence after constructing arguments and interpreting them. Verbal communication skills also greatly assisted me during group debates, as well as giving formal presentations of the outputs of work. Feedbacks that I got from past tasks have assisted me to avoid making similar mistakes in regard to academic writing. Conclusion Developmental needs are supposed to be universal and have to be applicable to many or all the members of a team that a person works with (Null, 2013, P. 165). Nonetheless, each member of a team is unique, with varying degrees of understanding and other responsibilities and goals. This means that the personal development approach of one person may not necessarily be the same as that of another person. Rather, a person is supposed to take time to appreciate the form of development that every person needs so that they can get the appropriate training in the right manner. Bibliography Cooper, T. 2001, Handbook of administrative ethics, Marcel Dekker, New York. Coward, H. 2008, The perfectibility of human nature in eastern and western thought, State University of New York Press, Albany. Drury, N. 2010, Wisdom seekers, O-Books, Winchester. Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, S. 2003, A handbook for teaching & learning in higher education, Kogan Page, London. Gallagher, K. 2013, Skills development for business and management students, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Kunstler, R. and Daly, F. 2010, Therapeutic recreation leadership and programming, Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL. Lee, N. 2009, Achieving your professional doctorate, Open University Press, Maidenhead, England. Maslow, A. 1970, Motivation and personality, Harper & Row, New York. Masters, L., Wallace, H. and Harwood, L. 2011, Personal development for life and work, South-Western Cengage Learning, Australia. Mills, A. 2007, Organizational behaviour in a global context, Broadview Press, Peterborough, Ont. Murray, P. 1997, Bites on personal development, Perfect Words and Music, [Felbridge?]. Null, R. 2013, Universal design, Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press. Power, F. 2008, Moral education, Praeger, Westport, Conn. Wadhwa, S. 2008, A handbook of teaching and learning, Sarup & Sons, New Delhi. Zastrow, C. and Kirst-Ashman, K. 2007, Understanding human behavior and the social environment, Thomson Brooks/Cole, Australia. Read More