Personal and professional development - Essay Example

?PERSONAL EVALUATION REPORT By: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 0 Introduction 3 1 Methodology 3 2: Critical review of the progress towards my PDP Goals 5 1.3: Evaluation of the impacts of implementing PDP on learning 6 1.4: Changes on the plan 7 2.0 Conclusion 7 References 8 Appendices 9 1.0 Introduction Personal and professional development is influenced by many factors and different individuals have different strategies for professional development. According to Cottrell (2003, p. 123), taking a self assessment inventory is a tedious work; individuals should strive to do this annually. An individual self assessment of personal and professional development calls for coming up with a personal development plan and logos. One also needs to carry out an assessment of the learning outcomes. My preferred learning styles as discussed earlier in assignment one includes; social, physical and solitary. Social learning involves learning in with other people such as when in seminars and workshops. On the other hand, solitary learning involves the use of self-study while physical learning implies learning through use of indulgence in a physical activity. Sprenger (2003, p. 126) explains that the other learning styles include logical, visual, verbal and aural. Logical learning style is based on the use of reasoning while verbal learning is implemented through the use of words both written and spoken. Sprenger (2003, p. 112) further explains that aural learning makes use of sound and music whereas visual prefer use of images and pictures in learning. My ultimate personal development goal is to improve the quality of life. To achieve this, I strive to build my personal identity, uphold my values, attain high professional qualifications and inspire others. I also aim at improving my knowledge, awareness and potential at workplace. It is also my goal to execute my personal development plans. 1.1 Methodology According to Bob (2010, p. 9), personal development involves improving self-awareness, developing strengths and talents and enhancing self knowledge. In addition, personal development involves implementing the personal development and improving the social abilities. To enhance personal development, I have participated in various seminars, workshops, team building activities and registered as a member of a professional body. I have also employed several strategies to improve both my oral and written communication. Moreover in time management I have devised several strategies that will ensure that I achieve my personal development goals. One of my preferred learning styles is social. Consequently I participate in seminars and workshops where I learn various aspects of hospitality management from other professionals. I attended a seminar organized by the Institute of Hospitality where I had a chance to interact with people from the hospitality profession. Furthermore, I attended a short course on leadership as one of the methods to personal development. I believe that we are all leaders in different aspects and as such, it is critical that we are equipped with leadership skills. Leadership helps me achieve one of my personal goals of inspiring others and this can only be achieved through use of effective leadership to influence others. Given the ever changing industry, I participated in a refresher course on event planning. This was aimed to help me adapt to the changes in the market and offer the best services to the clients. I have registered as a member of the British Hospitality Association which gives its members discounted services and goods. The services include advice on different aspects of hospitality management while one can procure goods through the association at discounted prices to venture into business. As a strong believer of solitary learning style, I take some of my free time to learn new knowledge. To improve my communication skills both oral and written, I read novels and motivational books continuously. These materials help to improve my written and spoken vocabulary. In addition, they help me develop skills on how to articulate myself. I read the book, The Seven Challenges Workbook, A guide to Cooperative Communication skills for success at Home and at Work. The book deals with good listening skills, ways to articulate ones ideas well and how to effectively use facial expressions in communication. I employ physical learning skills by participating in activities to get hand on experience. I participated in team building session which is a social event organized to bring together all the staff to learn from each other and bond. At the event, we were engaged I different activities that help one to learn from others. These activities include group assignments such as games and individual tasks which mostly involved presenting a speech on a particular topic. This session was critical in learning from others. According to Palande (2011), implementation of a personal development plans calls for the application of some strategies to ensure the success of my development plan. Consequently, I came up with various strategies to help me in time management. This is after the realization of the crucial role that time plays in helping one implement all the planned. I therefore schedule all my days activities so that am aware of what I should have accomplished by the end of the day. Scheduling helps me avoid wasting time since I identify the time of the day that I will not be engaged and can slot in time to read. In addition, I prioritize all my activities given that some activities are more urgent than others. I set some short term goals to help me focus my efforts on accomplishing them fast. I employ various strategies to monitor the progress towards achieving my personal development plans. One of these strategies is the use of personal development log where I record all the activities I participate in during a specific period. From the personal development log I evaluate the importance of each of the activities towards helping me achieve my goals. Moreover, I evaluate my schedule to identify any planned activity that I do not achieve. 1.2: Critical review of the progress towards my PDP Goals One of my personal development plan goal is that of attaining high professional qualifications. I am making great strides towards achieving this goal by attending various seminars and workshops which are organized by professionals in the hospitality industry. This helps me to remain keep learning new knowledge on the profession. I also hope to go back to school and acquire another degree. I have also registered with British Hospitality Association which helps me to continuously learn from others. In order to influence others, I strive to portray effective leadership skills. In addition, I have attended a workshop to enhance my leadership skills. To inspire others, I influence them the way I conduct myself in and out of my workplace. To create my personal identity, I have registered myself as a member of hospitality association and am currently working towards establishing a business venture. All these goals are aimed at achieving my ultimate goal of improving the quality of life. In the quest to uphold my values, I am always committed to sticking to my plans and principles. When I stick to my plans, I cannot be swayed by others to engage in anything that I had not planned. 1.3: Evaluation of the impacts of implementing PDP on learning The implementation of PDP has had positive impacts on my learning and development in general. To ensure that I implement my PDP, I have had to attend seminars and workshops. These have been productive learning avenues where I am continuously learning. I have also learnt the value of learning from others at team building sessions. Moreover, as a move to implement PDP, I read widely and therefore each day I acquire new knowledge. The other impact of implementing PDP is that it has taught me to remain focused to my plans. Additionally, PDP implementation has enhanced my social and professional development. Currently, I interact freely with everyone and network with other professionals to gain more knowledge. 1.4: Changes on the plan Given the personal evaluation and feedback, I intend to make some few changes to my plan. One of my plans was to go back to school and acquire a master degree in hospitality management in the next two years. However, I have decided to adopt a change in plan where I have decided to first concentrate in a business venture over the two years where I will specialize in events organizing and management. To effectively manage this I have decided to register for evening classes in a certificate in events management. In addition, I have also decided to study French as a second language to help support my communication which is critical in hospitality management. The changes in plan are informed by the current changes in the market where events management has become a key component in hospitality industry. 2.0 Conclusion In conclusion, from my personal assessment I have learnt that different people have different preferred learning styles. Learning styles are critical in helping achieve personal development since diverse styles lead to varying outcomes. Some of the learning styles includes social, visual, verbal, aural, physical, logical and solitary. Moreover, different individuals have different development goals and the achievement of this goals call for the use of different strategies. There are also different methodologies for implementing personal development plan such as attending seminars, workshops and coming up with plans. After a, personal development strategy has been developed, one should go further and review the success towards achieving the desired goals. Thereafter, using the data acquired in the evaluation of the PDP, an individual may adopt a change of plan. References Bob, A., 2010, ‘Managing Your Aspirations: Developing Personal Enterprise in the Global Workplace’. McGraw-Hill: Pp. 9 Cottrell, S 2003, ‘Skills for Success: The Personal Development Planning Handbook’. Palgrave Macmillan.: Pp 123 Palande, L., 2011, ‘Personal Development Goals Examples’. Accessed on 28th January, 2012 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/personal-development-goals-examples.html Sprenger, M. 2003, ‘Differentiation through learning styles and memory’. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Appendices Task One PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT LOG TO REACH SHORT TERM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (P3.2) Name…………………………………….. Date……………………………………………… Name of Activity Dates Hours Description Attended a seminar on leadership 12th and 13th January, 2012 16 Attended a seminar on effective leadership organized by the youth group. Learnt the various qualities of a leader. Attended a workshop on hospitality management 17th to 19th January, 2012 24 Participated in a short course organized by the Institute of Hospitality. The workshop dwelt on the various aspects of hospitality management and the process of registering as a member Registered as a member of the British Hospitality Association 29th January, 2012 1 To benefit from discounted prices of goods and services. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT LOG FOR WORKED BASED SOLUTIONS (P4.1) Name…………………………………….. Date……………………………………………… Name of Activity Dates Hours Description Working overtime 25th Dec, 2011 to 3rd January, 2012 3hours daily There was a lot of work given that it was at the peak of the festive season and our restaurant was fully booked and therefore there required extra staff. Attended a refresher course on event planning 12th and 13th Dec, 2011 16 Following an expected influx in the number of booking to host events during the festive season, the management organized for a refresher course for its staff on events planning to ensure customer satisfaction. Participated in a team building session 18th Dec, 2011 8 The human resource department organized a team building and bonding session to enhance teamwork at the work place PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT LOG (P4.2) Activities to improve oral and communication skills Name…………………………………….. Date……………………………………………… Name of Activity Dates Hours Description Read novels One per week starting 5th, December, 2011 N/A I read one novel per week improve my general vocabulary Read Dennis Rivers Book 15th to 17th December, 2011 16 hours Read the book, The Seven Challenges Workbook, A guide to Cooperative Communication skills for success at Home and at Work. The book deals with good listening skills, ways to articulate ones ideas well and how to effectively use facial expressions in communication. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT LOG (P4.3) strategies to help in time management Name…………………………………….. Date……………………………………………… Name of Activity Dates Hours Description Scheduling Each day N/A I plan all the activities that I am supposed to accomplish before I sleep Goal setting Each day N/A I set goals for the things I intend to achieve within a specific period prioritizing Every day N/A I apply these strategy to plan for the activity that are most urgent Read More