Personal Development - Specific Skills, Attitudes and Behaviors - Coursework Example

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Students’ Name Code & Course Professors Name University City Date Word Count: 2329 Introduction Attuning personal objectives to the organization’s objectives is an imperative aspect since it directs the personal goals to the success of the organization. Evidently, goal alignment plays an important role in the effective goal management. An individual’s development goals to that of the organization should be linked to the organization’s overall strategy; in this way an individuals can rationalize conflicting priorities, with respect to a higher common goal. Without linking these two development plans, individuals will manage their own personal goals in a discrete manner. Whereas an individual may be successful in meeting the entire personal goal, their work may not contribute to the organization’s success; it might work against it. Hence, aligning the goals will focus my contribution towards the organization’s development plan. It is evident that an individual’s personal development goals are important in affecting ones approach to organizational development goals. Ones desire to achieve personal goals may influence his motivation in attaining the organization’s goals. When organizational and personal development goals are not aligned, it may be detrimental to the organization and the individual. Enhancing self awareness is conceptualized is intrinsic for any first line manager. Arguably, it presents important aspects pertaining self esteem. In order to enhance my self-awareness, I undertook a number of activities. Firstly, whenever I communicated with individuals I actively sought for feedback. Getting such feedback was important since it enabled me to learn about personal attributes that were likeable to those that were unattractive. Evidently, I was able to criticize some unwarranted aspects when undertaking personal interactions. Secondly, I took various personality tests. These included the classic Myers Briggs and Princeton Review Career Quiz. Thirdly, I discovered my physical limits. These activities were instrumental in realizing self-awareness. Personal development plan The effectiveness of every organization depends on the quality of the management and the administrative procedures they have in place. Organizational performance depends on how well everyone in the managerial tree performs their job. The role of the first line manager is perhaps one of the most important ones in the administrative structure. The first line manager, foreman or team leader in some organizations is the first management level to whom the ordinary employees answer. Their roles and responsibilities vary. They may manage one person, or a large number of employees. Their roles include the management of budgets, people, work quotas, customer service and the quality of operational performance (ACAS 2015). Regardless of the organization’s size, the managers have to be consistent and fair in how they treat their staff. Every organization has its own unique processes and culture, which in turn affect the way the organization handles its projects (Larson and Gray 2011). The upper levels of management often set and facilitate this culture. One of the most important roles of the first line manager is to maintain lines of communication between the lower level employees and higher management. This is why values and skills the first line manager has must be linked to those of the organization for which they work. Specific skills, attitudes and behaviors Line managers must be good planners. Many companies have visions and missions, which have to be internalized and implemented into how they operate. It is at the first line manager level that visions and missions turn into project management procedure. The first line manager has the best information about how the organization works, and so should be able to not only plan but include the organization’s goals, vision, mission and culture into the job structures. They view firsthand the results of company initiatives and policy, and are therefore in a unique position to influence them positively. Line managers must have a voice in the company. They are the first line of the information chain between management and the employees. This means they must have a standing among the upper management in order to be able to convey results and concerns of employees. The aspect of voice goes both ways. They must be able to communicate messages to the employees from upper management, and have the authority to make and enforce decisions that affect line activities like production and sales. Achieving development goals The job of the first line manager is to achieve the objectives of the organization through planning, control and motivation. Some of the most important roles include knowing and understanding individual team members and their needs, setting and reaching agreeable targets and providing leadership throughout projects. All these revolve around communication skills. The line manager must be willing to translate the overall objectives of the upper management into actionable information to the lower level employees. They must strike the balance between being firm and authoritative and approachability. They must also be able to protect employees from unfair work policies and regulations. They must be able to lobby for their employees just as much as they do for the organization. First line manager must also be results oriented. Every line procedure they go through should have the bigger picture in mind and aim at improving the organization’s bottom line. When companies try to improve their operational processes, first line managers will be the most ideal source of information on the problems and workable solutions (Adler-Milstein, Singer and Toffel, 2011). Effective communication is required to maintain a voice both among the employees and the higher management for the line manager. Communication skills are essential to this aspect of line management, and must be acquired and fostered continuously over time. A proper communication culture enables employees to bring problems to the attention of managers, and sometimes go a step further to find constructive solutions (Adler-Milstein, Singer and Toffel, 2011). Methods and processes available to determine work plan priorities Prioritization is an essential part of any work plan as it helps one to focus mainly on the duties and tasks that have the highest priority before one can attend to those deemed to have less priority. Prioritization is important in effective time management as it ensures that one is more productive in stressful times when faced with work overload by casting aside the time intensive but unimportant kind of tasks. Numerous methods and processes available that will help set work plan priorities range from the simple ABC prioritization analysis that gives an overview of the tasks with their importance and urgency, the ‘1-10’ prioritization scale that scale the importance of task from 1-10, to the harder precise techniques that include the PARETO analysis (the idea is to accomplish 80% of the tasks in 20% of the available time and allow 20% of the tasks to contribute to 80% of the outcome) and the POSEC method that prioritizes by organizing, streamlining, economizing and contributing. Time management to achieve work plan objectives Time management refers to techniques and skills that help to make use of the available time in the most effective way so as to accomplish set goals, tasks, and projects within the predetermined period. Time management enables managers to improve their productivity by use of the time management skills as one gets more work done within a short amount of time. The time management skills used can vary from but are not limited to, organization, planning, scheduling, and setting priorities and delegation of functions to managers. Additionally, analyzing time spent on various activities and close monitoring allows one to improve the management skills and achieve work plan objectives. Reasons for incorporating flexibility into a work plan Being flexible and adaptable is imperative to meeting the performance. Through incorporating flexible practices that an organization can improve its non-financial and financial performance. The need to incorporate flexibility into how we work is a reality that managers need to accept and embrace as it offers many benefits to both the organisation and the employee such as job satisfaction, reduced employees absenteeism, greater commitment and reduced turnover. Additionally, incorporating flexibility into a work plan gives a person the ability to schedule work during quiet times so as to accomplish more and create time for any emergencies that are not part of the work plan. Styles and approaches to leadership that would be used in different situations to encourage productive working relations Managers are facilitators of their team’s success as they ensure that all members have all they require to be productive and successful. Conversely, leaders can be anyone of the team with a particular talent that can be useful to the manager and team as a whole. The leadership styles include among others: The authoritarian or autocratic leadership style is used when the leaders instruct their employees on what to done and how they want it done to accomplish the target without asking for advice from their delegates. Although many leaders tend to take advantage of this style, it is appropriate when the leader has all the information on how to solve the problem, when on a short deadline and when all the employees are well motivated. The participative or democratic kind of leadership involves the leader involving one or more employees in the decision-making process. In this style, however, the leader is still the final decision maker. For a productive working relationship, this style is applicable when the leader has part of the information while the rest of the information is with the employees. The advantage of this style is that it allows the employees to be part of the team therefore allowing the leader to make better decisions as the diversity of opinions lead to greater creativity. The delegation or laissez-faire leadership style is where the leader allows the employees to make decisions with the leaders still responsible for the decisions made. This style is used where the delegates can critically analyze the situation and be able to make sound decisions on the solution. This style can be exploited when the leader has full trust and confidence of the delegates. Managing good working relationships Managers can create positive working relationships through the management of teams in a transparent and the equitable approach, recognizing positive contribution and promoting a culture of consultation and involvement. Whereas a degree of the challenge is eminent, unresolved conflict can the negative behaviours can impact the health and well-being of employees. Arguably, managers should adapt to their leadership with respect to the demand of the situation, by maintaining ethical, personal and professional standards. They should, therefore, inspire employees, by maintaining calm and controlled style across divergent situations, presenting a calming influence among employees when encountering demanding situations. Conflict management is inherent; hence line managers should possess the knowledge, skills and confidence in understanding disagreement and complaints about the working environment. Thus, they need to have preferred people management skills in ensuring that their management approach does not affect the health and well-being of other teams. Nevertheless, a level of healthy conflict- such as fair competition among employees to excel in tasks- can help create innovation. Working in a team Teamwork builds relationship among a group of people who share a common interest of purpose as it allows employees of different origin with different roles to work together on an issue of interest. To maintain standards of work and behavior that achieves objectives, all the team members should be clear about the objectives and have a clear sense of their collective task. Team leaders should, therefore, encourage all the members to participate and focus on learning by creating new knowledge through working and learning with others. Open communication between the members of the team with democratic processes involved is also some important in any teamwork. Health and welfare Responsibilities of front line managers. The quality of management and administrative procedures an organization has in place will affect its effectiveness. Frontline managers are the first level of management, and they have the responsibility of managing an employee or large number of employees. The responsibilities of the managers among others include planning the objectives, aims and the priorities of the work area through effective communication, and managing finances and deploying of resources that are within their control, in the aim of achieving the set plans. Additionally, it is the role of managers to promote equality and diversity in the organization by treating all members fairly and giving them equal opportunities to develop them to full potential. Consequently, managers should provide excellent leadership to the members of that department that will in turn help the people perform at their best, through motivation that will develop the staff to achieve high performance. This can be achieved by, providing structure, direction, and purpose to the team, enabling good performance by setting the standards and parameters and managing poor performance through annual reviews, training, and development. It is also the responsibility of line managers to recruit and induct new staff, end the employment of employees and also have a personal development. Risk management Risk planning is not important without a clear picture of the situation and its development into reality. In any organization, it is important to keep track of the existing identified risks, monitoring the effectiveness of the risks responses and identification of new developing risks. Risk identification involves the creation of the right conditions in the organization for openness and transparency in the project. This can be achieved through brainstorming and reviewing of all possible risk sources such as the team's experience and knowledge, all the potential risks will be identified. Managers should communicate the risks to the stakeholders and be ready for the risks. Risks timelines and deadlines should be set to ensure that all risks are managed and treated on time with the most urgent risks being dealt with first. Consequently, investigation and record keeping of any accidents and near-misses is important as it provides the organization with a documented trail in the case that justification of the companies actions s needed and also to avoid repetition of similar incidents. An organization can also produce a resource for all members. The risk management guide should be able to attract feedback from the members or the workability of the risk management strategy, through good communication channels. Reference List Adler-Milstein, J., Singer S.J., Toffel M.W. (2011) Managerial Practices that Voice and Taking Charge among Frontline Workers Working paper: Harvard Business School Read More