Professional development Planning (PDP) is a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and / or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development. The primary objective for PDP is to improve the capacity of individuals to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning. It helps to ,

Become more effective, independent and confident.

Improve their professional skills for career growth.

Articulate personal goals and evaluate progress towards their achievement.

Encourage a positive attitude towards work throughout life.

1.1.1 What is Professional development plan:

A professional development plan is a set of guidelines used to improve or redirect a career. It improves self-knowledge and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations.

PDP encourages individuals to think more deeply and more broadly about their discipline by getting them to reflect on what they’re learning and to draw deep connections between what is being taught and how they are synthesizing that knowledge.

A PDP helps you to think through, and lay out the following:

Where am I now?

Where do I want to get to?

How can I get there?

How will I know once I’ve got there?

1.1.2 Why PDP is Important?

A PDP important to highlight the goals you would like to achieve in your professional and/or personal life. It provides a format for you to plan and track your learning needs. Each PDP will be unique, as although you may have the same aims as another person, how you achieve them may be different.

It’s the best way for you to manage your own development.  Evidence shows that the more time you take to identify, prioritise and plan your development needs, the more successful you are likely to be.

It helps you to identify what you want to try, observe, get feedback on, or learn in any given situation.

It provides a clear and structured way of working with others (e.g. colleague, mentor, supervisor)

Regularly updated PDPs are excellent evidence of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for courses or programmes.

Regardless of whether you are in business for yourself, or simply work for a living, having a strategic plan covering your professional development is essential to your long term success or employability. Failure to plan is truly as we’ve heard “planning to fail!”

1.1.2 The Skills required to achieve the strategic goals:

Professional Skills are the foundation for success at every organization. As the work-place has also changed, with the result that employees are expected to have a wider range of skills. Since I am working in a Business process outsoucing (BPO) firm its imperative to have a wider range skills set to function effectively and to support to achieve organizational strategic goal. Below are the professional skills required to achieve organizational goals.

Communication skill:

Communication is the most important skill required when you are working in a BPO. In a day to day work we need to communicate with the clients for deliverables and reporting the results, this requires very effective communication to complete the work on time. Basically our work is all about risk assessment and risk management, in this case reporting those assessments plays the key role that requires a good communication skill. In my work i need to raise my concerns when there is an issue of control laps in risk mitigation. At the same time I have to communicate the concerns effectively in such a way it should be reasonably and understandable. This requires a good communication skill. On the whole it will satisfy our clients and satisfy our purpose of business and helps to achieve our organizational goals.

Interpersonal skill

Interpersonal skill helps to interact with the team members effectively and get the works done. This skill is all about how you move with others and helps to work as a team. I my work I have to work with the team and each member’s contribution is imperative to achieve the common goals. My interpersonal skill improves my productivity and my team’s performance too. Interpersonal skill that I possess helps me go up in ladder and my team and it encourage us to achieve the organizational goal.

Leadership skill

Leadership skill is very important to lead a team. In my work I hold the post of team leader, team leaders must possess the leadership skill as they have to lead the team. I have a good leadership skill that helps me to get the work done. It all about delegating the responsibilities and keep an eye on them, it makes lot positive energy to the team and that in return improves the productivity of the team and to achieve the organizational goal.

Time management skill

Time management skill is controlling time spent on various activities and managing it efficiently to increase the productive. The work I do in my process, we have to spend lot of time in assessing the controls placed to mitigate risk and I have to plan my time spent on this particular activity. If that particular acivity takes most of the time then I have to hurry on other activity. It will create error, hence I have manage my time properly to keep a balance. In that way we can csatisfy our clients and satisfy ourselves by a step towards achieving the organization goal.

I manage my time by,

Creating a task list

Prioritizing the activity

Task 1.2

There are two techniques are shown below that way can assess our personal and professional skills-

Technique 1: Manager Self Assessment

Training Instruments, Assessments, and Tools

Assessment12-1

1=Rarely

2=Infrequently

3=Sometimes

4=Often

5=Most of the Time

As a manager, I…

Communication

1. Listen more than I talk.

5

2. Ask questions to ensure others understand my instruc-

3

tions.

3. Use positive language in my communications.

5

4. Am conscious of my tone and body language when talk-

4

ing.

5. Ignore all distractions when listening to others.

4

6. Practice active listening techniques.

4

7. Am seldom misunderstood when I talk to others.

3

8. Adjust my communication style to my audience.

4

9. Am comfortable giving presentations to groups.

5

10. Use a writing style that is professional and seldom misunderstood.

4

Customer Service

11.Work to ensure that my team is meeting or exceeding

5

Customer expectations.

12. Address and resolve customer complaints quickly.

5

13. Ensure staff members understand how their work affects the customer.

4

14. Survey customers to find out how we’re doing.

4

15.Work effectively with internal customers (other depart-

5

Ments) to accomplish tasks.

Performance Management

16. Find opportunities to reward and recognize staff.

4

17. Set goals with staff members and create action plans.

3

18. Conduct formal and informal coaching sessions with staff member

2

19. Regularly observe employee performance to determine

4

Potential challenges.

20. Conduct positive and effective performance valuations.

4

Manager Skills and Training

Assessment12-1, continued

Organizational Skills

21. Use a consistent time management system.

5

22. An effective at delegating work.

5

23. Know how to use all the technology and tools that are

available to me.

4

24. Employ a standardized system for project plans.

3

25. Can quickly and easily locate any records in my office

4

Professional Development

26. Receive ongoing feedback and coaching on my position

4

27. Know the big picture and my department’s role in the organization.

5

28. Frequently participate in training and development al

opportunities.

3

29. Review my goals and action plans regularly.

3

30. Have completed an individual development plan (IDP) in the last year.

3

Legal Issues

31. Understand all employment laws.

2

32. Know all the steps to handling harassment cases.

3

33. Am comfortable with disciplining an employee.

4

34. Conduct effective and legal employment interviews

1

35. Document all employees counselling sessions.

3

Leadership

36. Monitor my employees’ assignments without microma-

4

naging.

37. Delegate assignments evenly throughout my department.

4

38. Follow up on all tasks that I have assigned to staff mem-

5

bers.

39. Solicit input from various resources before making decision

3

40. Make decisions easily and effectively.

4

Training Instruments, Assessments, and Tools

Assessment12-1, continued

Teamwork

41.Create

a positive atmosphere

in which

teams

Work

together effectively.

42. Work effectively with persons of diverse personalities and backgrounds.

5

43. Regularly solicit input from members of my department.

4

44. Ensure that my teams know their purpose and authority

5

Level on projects.

45. Create opportunities for others in my department to take

4

Leadership roles.

Problem Solving

46. Am calm and unbiased when handling office conflicts.

5

47. Am able to solve most problems that arise among workers in my department.

3

48. Solicit input from those closest to the problem.

4

49. Investigate to ensure I’m addressing the real problem, not just a symptom.

4

50. Conduct evaluations to review decisions and results.

4

Conclusion

Based on the above assessment, I can conclude that I am comparatively more effective in Communication skill, Customer service, Organizational skill and Team work.Skills like problem solving shows moderate score. At the same time, there skills like leadership skill, Legal issues, performance management and professional development shows low effectiveness and I need to put more emphasis on these skills to develop myself for professional growth and to achieve organizational goal.

Technique 2:

Belbin Team Roles – Self Perception Inventory

This questionnaire will helps you to identify the types of roles that you perform in the team. You may be tempted to think that your own preferred way of working is the `best`, and you may think much of the contributions from people whose personality is different. Belbin undertook some research which clearly demonstrated the need for a mix of people with a team, or else team performance can suffer. The performance of team can be enhanced if I learn to value the different contributions offered by the team members.

To complete questionnaire:

For each section, distribute a total of ten points among the sentences which you think best describe your behaviour. These points may be distributed among several sentences: in extreme cases they might be spread among all the sentences. Or ten points may be given to a single sentence.

Section I : What I believe I can contribute to a team:

I think I can quickly see and take advantage of new opportunities

A

I can work well with a very wide range of people

B

Producing ideas is one of my natural assets

C

My ability rests in being able to draw people out whenever I detect they have something of value to contribute to group objectives

D

My capacity to follow through has much to do with my personal effectiveness

E

I am ready to face temporary unpopularity if it leads to worthwhile results in the end

F

I am quick to sense what is likely to work in a situation with which I am familiar

G

I can offer a reasoned case for alternative courses of action without introducing bias or prejudice

H

Section II If I have a possible shortcoming relating to teamwork, it could be that:

I am not at ease unless meetings are well structured, controlled and generally well conducted

A

I am inclined to be too generous towards others who have a valid viewpoint that has not been given a proper airing

B

I have a tendency to talk a lot once the group get onto new ideas

C

My objective outlook makes it difficult for me to join in readily and enthusiastically with colleagues

D

I am sometimes forceful and authoritarian if there is a need to get something done

E

I find it difficult to lead from the front, perhaps because I am over responsive to group atmosphere

F

I am apt to get too caught up in ideas that occur to me and so lose track of what is happening

G

My colleagues tend to see me as worrying unnecessarily over detail and the possibility that things may go wrong

H

Section III When involved in a project with other people:

I have an aptitude for influencing people without pressurising them

A

My general vigilance prevents careless mistakes and omissions being made

B

I am ready to press for action to make sure that the meeting does not waste time or lose sight of the main objective

C

I can be counted on to contribute something original

D

I am always ready to back good suggestions that are in the common interest

E

I am keen to look for the latest in new ideas and developments

F

I believe my capacity for cool judgement is appreciated by others

G

I can be relied upon to see that all essential work is organised

H

Section IV My characteristic approach to group work is that:

I have a quiet interest in getting to know colleagues better

A

I am not reluctant to challenge the views of others or to hold a minority view myself

B

I can usually find a line of argument to refute unsound propositions

C

I think I have a talent for making things work once a plan has to be put into operation

D

I have a tendency to avoid the obvious and to come out with the unexpected

E

I bring a touch of perfectionism to any team job I undertake

F

I am ready to make use of contacts outside the group itself

G

While I am interested in all views, I have no hesitation in making up my mind once a decision has to be made

H

Section V I gain satisfaction in a job because:

I enjoy analysing situations and weighing up all the possible choices

A

I am interested in finding practical solutions to problems

B

I like to feel I am fostering good working relationships

C

I can have a strong influence on decisions

D

I can meet people to agree on a necessary course of action

E

I can get people to agree on a necessary course of action

F

I feel in my element when I can give a task my full attention

G

I like to find a field that stretches my imagination

H

Section VI If I am suddenly given a difficult task with limited time and unfamiliar people:

I would feel like retiring to a corner to devise a way out of the impasse before developing a line

A

I would be ready to work with the person who showed the most positive approach, however difficult he or she might be

B

I would find some way of reducing the size of the task by establishing what different individuals might best contribute

C

My natural sense of urgency would help to ensure that we did not fall behind schedule

D

I believe I would keep cool and maintain my capacity to think straight

E

I would retain a steadiness of purpose in spite of the pressures

F

I would be prepared to take a positive lead if I felt the group was making no progress

G

I would open up discussions with a view to stimulating new thoughts and getting something moving

H

Section VII With reference to the problem of working in groups:

I am apt to show my impatience with those who are obstructing progress

A

Others may criticise me for being too analytical and insufficiently intuitive

B

My desire that work is done properly can hold up proceedings

C

I tend to get bored rather easily and rely on one or two stimulating members to spark me

D

I find it difficult to get started unless the goals are clear

E

I am sometimes poor at explaining and clarifying complex points that occur to me

F

I am sometimes poor at demanding from others the things I cannot do myself

G

I hesitate to get my points across when I run up against real opposition

H

Transfer the point, allocated to each question, into the following table:

Section

IM

CO

SH

PL

RI

ME

TW

CF

I

G

8

D

7

F

7

C

7

A

7

H

7

B

9

E

II

A

7

B

6

E

7

G

7

C

6

D

5

F

8

H

III

H

7

A

8

C

7

D

7

F

9

G

8

E

6

B

IV

D

9

H

7

B

4

E

8

G

6

C

6

A

6

F

V

B

6

F

6

D

6

H

3

E

5

A

7

C

8

G

VI

F

7

C

5

G

7

A

7

H

9

E

9

B

9

D

VII

E

5

G

8

A

7

F

6

D

6

B

6

H

3

C

Total

48

47

45

45

48

48

49

54

Conclusion:

Based on the above assessment, the Team Role”Complete finisher” got the maximum score and hence that would be my primary role. Based on that I would Ensure the job is properly finished and I have the qualities like Painstaking, Conscientious, anxious, search out error and delivers on time. And also I got comparatively high score in “Team worker” and that would be the secondary role.

A description of the team role:

Key

Team Role

Team Contribution/Personal style

Allowable weakness

PL

Plant

Generates ideas, creative, imaginative, unorthodox, solves difficult problems.

Ignores details, too preoccupied of communicate effectively.

RI

Resource Investigator

Maintains awareness of resources is available outside the team. Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative, explores opportunities, develops contacts.

Overoptimistic, loses interest once the initial enthusiasm has passed.

CO

Co-ordinator

Ensures internal resources and applied to the team objective. Mature, confident a good chairperson, clarifies goals, promotes decision making, delegates well.

Can be seen as manipulative, delegate’s personal work.

SH

Shaper

Shapes the way the team operates. Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure, has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.

Can provoke others, hurts people’s feelings.

ME

Monitor Evaluator

Asses team progress against the objectives and milestones. Sober, strategic and discerning, sees all options, judges accurately.

Lacks drive and ability to inspire others, overly critical.

TW

Team Worker

Involves everyone, looks after individual needs, and seeks to gain commitment by participation. Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic, listens, builds, averts friction, and calms the waters.

Indecisive in crunch situation, can be easily influenced.

IM

Implementer

Turns the jobs into practical actions. Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient.

Somewhat inflexible, slow to respond to new possibilities.

CF

Completer Finisher

Ensures the job is properly finished. Painstaking, conscientious, anxious, searches out errors and omissions, delivers on time.

Inclined to worry unduly reluctant to delegate, can be a nit-picker.

Task 2.1:

Skills Audit:

Knowledge and skills which I consider to be important for my current voluntary activity

My Ability Rating (1-5) or strong / weak / somewhere in between

I try to view problems as challenges rather than major obstacles.

I can Communicate with the clients effectively.

I am interested in finding practical solutions to problems

I can lead the team and capable delegation and decision making.

I would like to keep on innovating new ideas for teams performance

4

4

5

5

5

Knowledge and skills which I consider to be important for my future career

My Ability Rating (1-5) or strong / weak / somewhere in between

I need to update myself with technical knowedge to function efficiently.

I need to develop a individual professional development plan and need to evaluate periodically.

I need to develop my team bonding skills and accepting ideas from others.

I need to be more professional and strictly in work place.

I need to know about legal issue in my work place.

4

4

3

3

2

Task 2.2

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS

Good Communication skills

Strong report writing skills

Strong interpersonal skills

Good rapport with clients and team members

Expert in subject matters and good knowledge of process.

Good in decision making.

WEAKNESSES

Limited knowledge in technical tools and system handling.

Lack of professional development skills

Need to develop skills in terms of managing conflict/difficult situations

Slow to respond to new possibilities.

OPPORTUNITIES

Won several awards and recognitions. Opportunity for promotion.

Huge business opportunity and opportunity to lead more people.

Opportunity to take up new roles and responsibilities.

THREATS

Lack of technical tools knowledge

Competition from peers

Lack of decision making that would lead to advantage other.

Source:

www.wisegeek.com

www.pd4me.com

www.managementconcepts.com

www.wikipedia.org