Personal Development Portfolio - Assignment Example

Personal Development Portfolio In today’s fast-paced world, everyone is involved in a race to be better than the other. People compete with each other to make themselves more competent and apt at their craft than their counterparts. In fact, the world today requires that people develop a range of skills. As the famous proverb goes, Jack of all trades, master of none. Many people believe that the key to a successful career is admission into a good university (Chowdhury 2007). The top institutes of the world like Harvard, Stanford and Oxford set criteria for selection of students that have a range of talents and skills. The simple student with an average academic background does not rank high on the selection test that these high-class institutes set. Students are required to be excellent at the field of study that they choose to pursue. Moreover, they are expected to be engaged in a range of extracurricular such as debates, sports and community help. If a student possesses the aforementioned characteristics, he is still not guaranteed a pass into the university. A large portion of the selection criteria depends on the individual personality of the student. In fact, for many big institutes and companies of the world, a lot of weightage is given to the individual’s personal demeanor and attitude. People who may not have a very outstanding background in academics are at times able to pull off the most rigorous of interviews and selection processes due to their attitude, experience and hands-on success (Taylor, Parish & Fiden 2007). Therefore in my opinion, an ideal transition from the life of academics to the practical world requires the perfect juxtaposition of knowledge, attitude, skills and experience. This, I believe, is the killer combination that a business manager needs to have in order to be successful. In the world today, the biggest asset an individual could possess is education and the more education a person has, the greater the probability of his or her success (Carpenter & Fulton 2007). Education can be an instrumental tool in transcending to the higher echelons of professional success. An academic institution, irrespective of how famous or poorly-ranked, can provide students with a treasure trove of knowledge and skills if the student endeavors to make the most out of the resources that he or she has. One way of harnessing the potential of the education that a person receives in academic institutions is through the process of personal development planning. Personal development planning is defined as a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan their personal, educational and career development. In order to undertake the task of analyzing one’s performance, it is incumbent that some structured approach is taken. There can be two ways of such a structured approach: a plan or a portfolio. A plan can be a mere charting out of the goals and aims of a person, whereas a portfolio can be more holistic and encompasses the collection of skills that the person has, and how they can be applied for his or her professional success. My personal development plan would include the traits of both a typical plan and a portfolio. The plan would explore my achievements and personal attributes. It is essential to evaluate one’s strength and weaknesses because the personal development plan is for life, and when later on in life I look back, the PDP would remind me of the strengths that I posses and the weaknesses that I have overcome over the years. If I was to define myself in one word, I would call myself social. I love being with people. I can warm up to people in no time and can be the life of a party. I can sense when my friends are unhappy, and I try my best to cheer them up. I can celebrate the success of my friends with a smile on my face, even though I am gravely disturbed by problems on the inside. These characteristics can be of immense use to be in my professional life. Firstly, I can manage a group of people effectively through pleasant words. In tight times, I can motivate my employees to work harder and to improve the situation. I can infuse optimism into them in the darkest of times, and be a sport in better times. A light and jolly work environment would also contribute to lower stress levels, thus increasing the job satisfaction of the employees. Interacting with people from various backgrounds have also equipped me with the skill to identify the factors that can make them happy; in short, I have learnt how to get along with people regardless of their temperament or personality- another skill that could help me collaborate with my employees and colleagues in order to achieve the goals of the organization. I have also been involves in a range of extracurricular activities which has provided me with an assortment of skills. Debates have chiseled my argumentative skills and have made me a good orator; I have learnt to use the art of conversation to be convincing and to communicate myself effectively. The most important quality that sports have equipped me with is teamwork. I have not only learnt that consistent practice can make me better at what I do, but working in teams has also taught me to collaborate with other people in the achievement of a collective objective. As Stephanie Morris observes, “If you build the field, every individual’s piece is so much better” (IDEA Health & Fitness & IDEA Health & Fitness Association 2006). Heading basketball teams have instilled me with leadership skills as well. Besides the qualities that I have picked up during my time at the College, I believe that there are certain traits intrinsic to my personality that will contribute greatly to my professional practice. I believe in honesty, be it honesty in work, studies or relationships. Bunking a class for the purpose of having fun when the student is required to study, in my opinion, is a heinous form of dishonesty. Similarly, when one is required to work, skipping that work for recreational purposes constitutes the worse type of dishonesty. In the coming years, I expect myself to be honest in my work and dealings, and I would also emphasize upon the importance of honesty to my employees. Coming to my interests, I enjoy playing sports such as basketball and soccer. Watching the television and surfing on the internet is my favorite pastime. I also engage in reading classic literature when I am free. The PDP should also require that there is a balance between the professional and personal aspects of a person’s life. Workaholics do not do justice to themselves, as all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. On the other hand, a person who is not serious about his life cannot progress much. One of my weaknesses is procrastination. I sometimes delay my work unnecessarily and have to finish it in a rush later on. Therefore one of the aspects that I am going to improve as part of my PDP is my weakness to procrastinate stuff. Assessing one’s personality through standard tests can also help me align myself to my professional aspirations better and to work on those aspects that can prove to be a hurdle in the attainment of my objectives. I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory in order to find out the type of personality that I had. My type came out to ENTJ- that is, extraverted, intuitive, thinking and judging. There are also several academic theories that can be drawn upon for linking the learning of a person with his motivational manifestations and behavior. One such theory is the Acquired Needs Theory. The theory tells that most of the people fall into three main divisions of needs, i.e. achievement, affiliation and power. Power seekers are defined as people who look for power for the purpose of controlling other people, for the achievement of their own goals, or for achieving higher goals with the intent if doing good. Affiliation seekers are those who try to foster harmonious relationships, whereas achievers seekers concentrate their energy in excelling at the task that they aim to do (Acquired Needs Theory 2011). In my view, I fall into the category of power seekers. I work for being good at what I do, and in organizing people for a certain task, but my intent is to achieve loftier goals. Throughout my academic career, I have worked for the achievement of knowledge for helping me later in professional life. I set goals for myself, and aim to achieve them and to improve myself in the process. Besides the Acquired Needs Theory, I believe that I can also relate my life and practices with the Intrinsic Motivation Theory. According to this theory, it is the internal factors in the person that motivate them. For instance people may do things just for the fun of it. The hobbies of people can be considered the result of internal factors that drive them (Intrinsic Motivation 2011). Looking at my studies and extracurricular, I have found out that there are certain factors that drive me to perform better. Apart from the fact that I am an achiever according to the Acquired Needs Theory, I interact with people and work for the attainment of greater knowledge- factors that are intrinsic to me and are responsible for motivating me. One of the things that we were taught during the lecture was regarding changing the world of work through diversity and equality. Equality pertains to the “connotations of approximate equivalence” and encompasses reciprocity of actions (Spierenburg & Wels 2006). The lecture highlighted the issues that are surface in the world of work and how a manager can turn the situation to his or her advantage through the process of effective communication and peoples’ management. Although the rhetoric of diversity and equality has been integrated into Western companies, the daily news still blares headlines of instances of ambiguity regarding the meaning of these terms (Cox, LeTrent-Jones & Voronov 2009). For instance equality issues emerge frequently in an organization. Harassment, victimization, polices that disadvantage a person who possesses a “protected characteristic” (Acas 2010). The take-home message from the lecture with respect to equality was that no matter what position in the hierarchy that you possess, you need to treat everyone with equality and not to discriminate against people based on their protected characteristics. Moreover, it implies more than just treating people equally regardless of their age, gender, financial status etc. Managers are also required to treat their employees equally with respect to the workload that they levy on them. They should not require designate certain employees to do most of the workload, while others are being paid the same salary for performing lesser amounts of work. Diversity of the workforce is also important and managers should be able to realize the consequences of not giving due importance to the matter. Where a lot of talk is done regarding diversity management, many organizations still function with the goal of profit margin, giving little importance to diversity (Pollitt 2006). However, for organizations to ameliorate the lives of their employees, diversity and equality must be made instilled in the functioning essence of the organization. Moreover, studying how to deliver change in an organization also has deep ramifications in the real world. Change for certain people can mean the difference between food and no food. The dilemma is very acute in developing countries, where people on the lowest levels of the hierarchy are coming from very poor backgrounds; the minimal income that they are making is hardly adequate to sustain the basic needs of their families. In most of the cases, the change is not that drastic. Typically, when implementing change, managers are required to take all factors which resist change into consideration and to implement change in a way that not only integrates together the views and perceptions of the employees but is also representative of innovation and learning. From this one can draw the conclusion that the skills of the managers is of very important to the implementation of the change. In fact this was another aspect discussed in the lectures. There are different types of management; management can be authoritative, participative, consultative etc (Naidu 2005). But no matter what type of management exists, there are certain guidelines that have been drafted from experience and serve to be instrumental tools to the managers. These guidelines include respect and recognition of the employees, along with an emphasis on the goals of the organization. Moreover, staff and customer satisfaction is also considered integral to basic management philosophy. One of the ways to provide further substance to a PDP is through the development of a SMART action plan. For my development as a professional, my SMART action plan would look into the next five years and would help me to identify the priorities in my life (Gorrow, Muller & Pi 2008). I assume that in the next five years, I would have completed my education and would have acquired a job. My goal would be to not only perform well at my job, integrating the knowledge and experience that I have gained over the past years, as well as to constantly upgrade my skills and to keep my knowledge bank up-to-date. For a SMART action plan, the goal set must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (Durstine 2006). Only a plan which is well-oriented and organized can enable a person to achieve his or her goals (Hoeger & Hoeger 2008). By the end of five years, I aim to be a manager in a good company. Moreover, I also aim to have achieved some training to upgrade my skills at least once after I graduate. For the achievement of the ACTION plan, better results can be obtained if the goal is aligned with one’s values. Smart ACTION plans also require that individuals choose certain tools for achieving their goals (Kinicki & Kreitner 2009); for me, these tools are consistent hard work and commitment to my work. The importance of my action plan is that taking action is much easier if I know what is important to me and what my priorities in life are (Purdie 2010). In my opinion, being a good professional is the best culmination of one’s academic as well as personal aspirations. Keeping this view in mind, I aim to reduce possible challenges that come in the way of the attainment of my goal and to reward myself when I make progress. Purposeful reflection is also needed to make the action plan more effective and comprehensive over the period of time (Wilson, Jan & Curriculum Corporation 2008). Some people argue that destiny is a one-track course and what we are supposed to do in life is not in our hands. However I refute this perspective. Destiny can be shaped by our struggles and endeavors and there is no proof that says that our lives are preordained (Sabir 2010). Through commitment and hard work, one can climb the highest mountain and subjugate the biggest impediment. Each one of us are choosing and making their own destiny at each instant (McColl & Walsch 2008). As someone once wisely said, Each a different path unfolds Each a different life to live Myriad worlds await thy choice Thus you hold thy destiny (Montrose 2009). Reference List Acas 2010, The Equality Act – What’s new for employers? ACAS, viewed on 9 January, 2011, Acquired Needs Theory 2011, Changingminds.org, viewed on 9 January, 2011, Carpenter, MJ & Fulton, R 2007, A Practical Career Guide for Criminal Justice Professionals, Looseleaf Law Publications. Chowdhury, A 2007, Handbook on the Northeast and Southeast Asian economies, Edward Elgar Publishing. Cox, JW, LeTrent-Jones, TG & Voronov, M 2009, Critical management studies at work: negotiating tensions between theory and practice, Edward Elgar Publishing. Durstine, JL 2006, Action plan for high cholesterol, Human Kinetics. Gorrow, TR, Muller, SM & Pi, KD 2008, The ABC's of Wellness for Teachers: An A-Z Guide to Improving Your Well-Being in the Classroom and Out, Kappa Delta Pi. Hoeger, WWK & Hoeger, SA 2008, Lifetime Physical Fitness and Wellness: A Personalized Program, 10th edn, Cengage Learning. IDEA Health & Fitness & IDEA Health & Fitness Association 2006, Successful Career Development for the Fitness Professional, IDEA Health & Fitness Association. Intrinsic Motivation 2011, Changingminds.org, viewed on 9 January, 2011, Kinicki, A & Kreitner, R 2009, Organizational Behavior 3E, Tata Mc-Graw Hill. McColl, P & Walsch, ND 2008, Your Destiny Switch: Master Your Key Emotions, and Attract the Life of Your Dreams! , Hay House, Inc. Montrose, G 2009, Choices Pave Life's Path, Booksie, viewed on 9 January, 2011, Naidu, SP 2005, Public Administration: Concepts And Theories, New Age International. Pollitt, D 2006, Diversity in the workforce, Emerald Group Publishing. Purdie, J 2010, Life Coaching For Dummies, 2nd edn, For Dummies. Sabir, N 2010, Heaven Hell Or? Xlibris Corporation. Spierenburg, M & Wels, H 2006, Culture, organization, and management in South Africa, Nova Publishers. Taylor, TA, Parish, JR & Fiden, D 2007, Career opportunities in the Internet, video games, and multimedia, Infobase Publishing. Wilson, J, Jan, LW & Curriculum Corporation 2008, Smart thinking: developing reflection and metacognition, Curriculum Press. Appendix: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Result: ENTJ My intuitive and extraverted aspects were rated the most high, 75% and 100% respectively (Humanmetrics). People having ENTJs personalities are frank, decisive and they assume leadership easily. They are quick to cite illogical and inefficient procedures and policies and are apt at developing comprehensive systems to find solutions to the problems of an organization. Moreover these people are characteristic of performing long-term planning and goal-setting and are usually well-informed, engage in reading and increasing their knowledge. They are also skilled in enforcing their ideas (MBTI Basics 2010). Test taken on website: Humanmetrics 2010, Jung Typology Test, Humanmetrics, viewed on 9 January, 2011, Analysis of test from website: MBTI Basics 2010, The Myers & Briggs Foundation, viewed on 9 January, 2011, Read More