Personal and Professional Development - Assignment Example

John Q. A Personal and Professional Development 5 Mar Task Self-management learning, it can be broadly defined as the idealized adult action learning as per Ian Cunningham who coined this term in late 1970s. With continuous and fast research and development in many fields, it is imperative for me to develop my own customized mindmap for self-evaluation as well as setting up goals of my life in art. For setting up personal goals, I consider making mindmap an indispensable part of the process. As I am an artist, my ambition is to create art in my chosen medium which will effectively transcend time in social commentary which will remain true till eternity. So, I need to create a mindmap regarding self-management of my learning and career in art. After setting my ultimate goal in life, I have set up short-term goal at various levels such as personal, educational, artistic, financial and so on with a definite time limit, which will enable to achieve big target of my life. After that, I always keep updating a to-do-list on daily basis to achieve my short-term goals (Academia.edu). I continue to reflect on my work with SWOT analysis of personality at regular intervals. This is best way to analyze the situation in hand and plan for next day. The regular SWOT analysis enables me to remind myself about my goal in life and remove any distraction which is impeding my progress towards the goal. I use most of the mediums for study of art which are available today such as regular lectures and mentoring in collage, visit galleries during exhibitions, interview artists when they are available and read miscellaneous art books in my spare time. I also browse art sites on internet and keep in touch with various artists on social networking sites and attend art workshops (Academia.edu). For staying on track, I need to review my goals and my achievement from time to time in an honest manner. For self-assessment, I am objective, honest, a relaxed manner and quiet environment among other things to assess strength and weakness. This is required for increasing commitment to set goals develop competencies in weak areas. Task 2 There are many self-assessment tools in market which are easy to access and thorough but, I like to do my self-appraisal with a very well-known assessment tool which is used all over the world by companies regardless of their size and structure. This self-assessment tool is known as SWOT analysis. Normally, this self- assessment tools is used mostly in business, but I can easily use it as the first part of management process. When I need to reflect upon my work, the first thing I do is the SWOT analysis of my personality. This is the best way to understand my strengths, weakness, and opportunities in pursuant of my ultimate goal and threats which can impede my progress in life (Attrill et al). I do SWOT analysis on regular intervals to remind myself about my goals and to curb any distraction which is taking my focus away from the goals of my life (Academia.edu). It enables me to assess my progress as well as setbacks towards my goals. The in-depth study which I do after SWOT analysis gives me reasons behind any success or failure. This analysis helps to understand my mistakes so I am able to learn from them and move on further towards my goals. My Development Plan Skill Area Skill level Skill gap Action Plan Written communication My written communication is good. For working in company, I need to learn business style communication I will do the required courses online at my own pace. Verbal and presentation skills My verbal skill and presentation style is good. Need to work upon business presentation Will continue practice. Time Management My time management skill is good. No gap as yet Problem resolution I am able to think out of box for any resolution Will continue to work on it. Team work I am a complete team player Leadership skills I believe in working through consensus. Information skills I am very good with finding the required information including online research. IT Skills My IT skills are adequate. I require constant practice with latest technology Will continue to learn on job Independent learning I have the ability to complete work with minimum supervising. Task: 3 The topic for my FMP or final major project is mood is colors. In this project I am going to study the relationship of various colors with mood of people. It is said that images and colors can convey the moods and does not require words. Today, color psychology of colors is one of the major fields of study, which is also determines of behavior of people. This study is utilized in most of the industries for marketing, advertising, designing company logos, products and their packages. I am also utilizing various principles of color psychology for a series of photographs which is known as mood in colors. This is because colors carry some specific meanings. It is based in its biologically innate meaning or learned meaning. The perception of any color is evaluated by the person who is doing the evaluation. The color exerts the influence of the mood in viewers automatically. The meaning and effect of the color largely depends upon its context (Whitfield & Wiltshire). The mood changes when the context of the color changes. Take an example, when you view brown in one context it conveys dependability and trust, but when the context changes it conveys boring and dull sentiments. Different colors convey different moods in people and images (Bottomley & Doyle). Take an example; the tones of blue convey the feelings of relaxation or the depression and red tones convey various feelings such as lust, excitement and danger. It is also color of love between a man and woman. When I see white color in any image or photograph, my mood lightens even if there are my issues in my mind. For me, this FMP is an important part of my portfolio, which will help me considerably in my future growth as the artist. It will enable me to do in-depth study regarding the effect of various colors in changing the mood of people. Task 5 There are many learning styles and strategies which are included in self-management for education in arts. Alan and Mumford have theorized about four learning styles which are based upon Kolb’s work in this field (Honey & Mumford). They are as follows – 1. Activists: The activists are open-minded who learn any topic with action. They immerse themselves in education and love to get new experiences. 2. Pragmatists: They are continuously experimenting things in real life situations and try to implement new techniques and ideas and learn with trial and error. 3. Reflector: This type of learning includes observation and learning from other people’s experiences. They take their time to reach any result. 4. Theorists: They always look for concepts behind any action. For learning any process, they always look for the theories which are behind any process (Honey & Mumford). Among all the above learning styles and strategies, I prefer activist style of learning. This is because I am an open-minded person who likes to learn any topic by doing it myself. I prefer to immerse in in-depth studies and like to get new experiences As I use SWOT analysis on regular intervals, to keep my complete focus on my goal. In addition to that, depending upon my success or failure in any short term goal, I get opportunity to analysis in-depth and modify my timeline as per the situation at that particular time. Task 6 When I assess my transferable skills for the market which I have to use after the completion of my art education, I find that I am fairly equipped with various skills which are required for that time. After completion of my education , there are two options, one is I can work for any organization in art related role such as advertising, designing products, logos, and packaging or any other role in any organization. Otherwise, I can work freelance or independently as any kind of artist. In both roles, I need to have several qualities to work in harmony with other people and succeed in my career (Academia.edu). I believe that I am completely professional in my dealing with officials as well as other in any workplace. I am completely independent and have always show lot of initiative in my personal life. As I am working for my degree in arts, I need to have lot of self-discipline, resourceful in resolving any issue, and completely reliable as per my friends. As per my colleagues in workplace, my verbal and non-verbal communication is fair. As I live with a roommate far from my family for education, I have developed several skills such as assertive, presentation and negotiation which I need to utilize for living a quiet life (Academia.edu). As I use a laptop for work and study, I have good IT skills which are a necessity. I am from a big family, where the decisions were taken after a big discussion. So, yes I am a good team player Also, I live a hectic lifestyle with my collage, part-time job and studies, so I manage to juggle them easily and can handle time management like an expert. Yes I can prioritize my workload and set word load as per requirement in workplace and outside. Task 7 The main topic of this paper is my self-management learning during my art education. Self-management can be essentially described as the idealized adult action and learning. My first task was to develop my own mindmap for self-analysis and further development in education and life. The first part of the process was to set up my life goal. After that, I completed my SWOT analysis to check the current situation and develop future plans. The second task was to do in-depth SWOT analysis and understand my personality. In addition to that, I need to think about various qualities which are required when working for any organization and playing a role related to my artistic nature. The presence of these qualities are also required if I decide to work free-lance or independently. I had to complete self-assessment during this task and development an action plan for a good future. The next task was my FMP or Final Major Project where I chose “Moods In colors” topic as the photograph series. In this series, I connected the colors with various moods of people and their significance. The main ideas behind this were to illustrate the sentence that an image conveys mood without the words. The fifth task was to describe various learning styles and strategies which are included in self-management for art. There are 4 learning styles from which the students choose any style and strategy per their taste and which suits their personality. I chose activist style and strategy as it suited personality (Honey & Mumford). In addition to that, it complements the SWOT analysis, which I do for myself at the regular intervals. Both of them enables me to stay on course and help me to focus on my life goals. The sixth and last task for this paper is to analyze my transferable skills, which are required to work as a professional in a workplace or independently in artistic field. Only when I have or acquire these skills, I can work in a professional manner and get a successful career and realizes my dream goal in my lifetime. References Academia.edu. Developing Personal and Professional Skills | Faint Apogee - Developing Personal and Professional Skills | Faint Apogee - Academia.edu. Web. https://www.academia.edu/6443111/Developing_Personal_and_Professional_Skills. [Accessed 02 March 2015]. 2015. Attrill, M.; Gresty, K.; Hill, R.; Barton, R. "Red shirt colour is associated with long-term team success in English football". Journal of sports sciences 26 (6): 577–582. 2008. Bottomley, P.A.; Doyle, J.R. "The interactive effects of colors and products on perceptions of brand logo appropriateness". Marketing Theory 6 (1): 63–83. 2006. Honey, P. and Mumford, A. The manual of learning styles: Revised version. 1992. MindTools.com. Personal Goal Setting - Time Management Tools from. Personal Goal Setting - Time Management Tools from MindTools.com. Web. http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html. [Accessed 02 March 2015]. 2015. Whitfield, T. W. A., & Wiltshire, T. J. Color psychology: A critical review. Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs, 116(4), 387. 1990. Read More