Professional Development For Strategic Managers
Professional Development For Strategic Managers
Table of Contents
1|Page
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1.
1.2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
2.
Evaluation of the strategic skills needed to meet current and future leadership
requirements............................................................................................................................7
2.2
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................10
3.
requirements..........................................................................................................................10
3.2
objectives...............................................................................................................................11
3.3
Evaluation of the impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goals11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
Executive Summary
In the process of management the manager usually requires a well set of combination of both
personal and professional skills. These skills include technical competencies, human resource
2|Page
management skills and also conceptual abilities and contribute to the achievement of strategic
goals. A successful manager possesses these qualities and contributes to the welfare of the
organization which is very crucial. It is important to conduct skill audit and a manager must
know how to coordinate with all the employees in a company. . It supports a person in
recognizing the current skills that the person have and also recognizes the skills that the person
can require in future. Skill audit helps in understanding the future needs and identifying learning
style. Personal development plan is a process which supports the work experience and by going
through this plan one can build and reflect his personal and professional development. It
provides a structured approach to decisions about what is needed to be done and also how to plan
to learn it. Constructing a personal development plan is necessary to achieve the strategic goals.
Introduction
In order to manage and execute the workload the manager need to have both personal skill and
professional skill. To achieve the strategic goals it is necessary to evaluate the personal skills and
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also to apply techniques to assess the professional skills. In this report the various learning style
will be discussed and the needed skills of a leader will be evaluated (Tovey, 2014). A personal
development plan will be implemented here with suitable methods. The impact of the own
learning against the achievement of the strategic goals will also be evaluated.
Task 1
1. Assessing personal and professional skills required to
achieve strategic goals:
In the process of management the manager usually requires a well set of combination of both
personal and professional skills. These skills include technical competencies, human resource
management skills and also conceptual abilities and contribute to the achievement of strategic
goals (Williams, 2009). Less importance should be given on technical competencies as the
organizations hierarchy progresses and more should be given on conceptual ability to achieve
the strategic goals. A successful manager possesses these qualities and contributes to the welfare
of the organization. The personal skills and the professional skills of the manager are assessed
below.
1.1
Appropriate
methods
to
evaluate
personal
skills
to
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staff with their own learning and development requirements which eventually results in better
outcome.
Coaching: Coaching is a skill that is a must have quality in any professional. As the world has
become competitive, it is very important for a manager to coach and lead his team. But a person
must have communication skill to accomplish coaching (Ansoff, 2010). A manager having the
coaching skill develops the efforts and transforms their team into the best one.
Leadership: Leadership skill is considered as a backbone for any professional. If a person has
leadership skill he/she can guarantee the success of the organization. It generally influences the
people to achieve the strategic gaol but the manager should have communication as well as time
management skill to effectively lead the people.
Multi tasking: A person should have multi-tasking skills as it is very important for professional
life. Performing different task in a limited time with efficiencies leads the company towards
success and time management skill plays an important role in this regard. The manager should
use occupational standards to identify competencies, continue self development for professional
bodies, deliver effective presentations etc (Sadler, 2013).
To achieve strategic goals it is important to ensure that the employees perform their job
effectively and also opportunities should be provided to meet the individual needs. While
responding to change or managing the stress the manager must ensure and improve flexibility
and adaptability (Brody and Davidson, 2008). It becomes necessary to use conceptual tools to
identify limitations and also strengths. The various networks, development programmes such as
CPD should be developed by the organization to achieve the strategic goals.
Task 2
2. Conducting a skills audit to identify learning style
It is important to conduct skill audit and a manager must know how to coordinate with all the
employees in a company. Basically it is an analysis of the employees current skills compared to
the previous that is both required in the current and future environment. It supports a person in
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recognizing the current skills that the person have and also recognizes the skills that the person
can require in future (Schermerhorn, 2010). Skill audit helps in understanding the future needs
and identifying learning style.
2.1
Psychometric Tests
Various occupations require various abilities, competencies but the individuals differ from
those abilities (Brody and Davidson, 2008). There are several tests of intelligence that has
emerged in the psychological business. Those psychometric tests are described below:
Test of typical performance: Individuals typical performances are assessed in order to give
scenarios and individual choices and strength of feelings are indicated through answers
which identifies preferences such as personality assessment and interest inventories etc.
Test of maximum performance: Individual maximum performance is assessed in this test
and it includes ability and aptitude tests and judged either as right or wrong.
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis of a leader lists the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (Jeffs,
2013). The strengths are- time management, multi tasking, stress management, counselling
etc. weaknesses are- low quality education, effective delegation, negotiating, financial
resources etc. Opportunities are getting further education, career advancement, knowing
cross culture etc. Threats are competitors, panel of observers, changing laws etc.
2.2
learning
It is important for the managers to understand the learning process and to identify preferred
learning style. Various methods have been introduced in this regard such as Kolbs learning
cycle, Honey and Mumford learning style questionnaires, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI))
etc.
Honey and Mumford introduced a questionnaire that categorizes peoples preferred learning
styles into four categories such as activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists (Rhoton and
Shane, 2011). Activists are open minded and non-sceptic whereas reflectors are sceptic and
prefer to think thoroughly. Theorists are adaptive and well observers who thinks problem step by
step and pragmatists try out new ideas, theories and techniques. Pragmatists learning style is best
suited for a manager as it makes the learning more effective and efficient. Another style which is
Kolbs learning cycle is widely used in the organizations. In this cycle it is reflected that learning
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is endless and also identifies the significance of internalisation and reflection (David, 2011). It
helps to recognize problems and learners actively explore test the environment. The VARK
model is used for learning information and it includes four preferences. The visual preferences
include the depiction of information and the auditory mode describes the preference for
information. The read and write preference is information displayed for words and kinaesthetic
preference refers to the use of practical experience. The Myers Briggs type indicators also assess
the psychological preferences of people.
Though the VARK model is widely used in the organizations but it does not always make sense
of the world. The Kolbs learning style recognized four stages but these are assimilated and
distilled into abstract concept. Honey and Mumford learning style is also widely used in the
organizations and sometimes it is questioned that why a particular method is so successful.
Task 3
3. Implementing a personal development plan
Personal development plan is a process which supports the work experience and by going
through this plan one can build and reflect his personal and professional development (David,
2011). It provides a structured approach to decisions about what is needed to be done and also
how to plan to learn it. Constructing a personal development plan is necessary to achieve the
strategic goals.
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3.1
Objectives
Actions
Resource
Time
critical of
shadow
or
audience.
Do some relevant
training
Do
12 weeks
with
different
training
centre.
relevant
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courses
Making
employees
5 weeks
appraisals
complete
Registered
with Filling
professional body
professional
body
website.
Telephone
communication
Emailing them
Select
24 weeks
Generally a leader uses the principles of leadership development for implementing personal
learning. Further step in this process is to develop a plan and after that deciding on the strategies
to exclude from the plan to achieve the strategic goal.
3.2
take detours if something does not work properly. There should be acknowledgement for
successes as acknowledgment encourages the workforce to perform better and motivates towards
goals. It is necessary to write down the successes throughout the day. The personal development
plan results in better personal work objectives.
3.3
Conclusion
In this report the various skills- both personal and professional of a manager has been discussed
along with appropriate techniques and methods. The different learning styles such as Flemmings
VARK model, Honey and Mumford learning style, Kolbs learning cycle ,MBTI etc. have been
described and also been criticized here. Finally a personal development plan has been
implemented with suitable methods and the impacts of own learning against the achievement of
strategic goals have been evaluated.
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References
Ansoff, H. (2010). Strategic management. New York: Wiley.
Brody, C. and Davidson, N. (2008). Professional development for cooperative learning. Albany:
State University of New York Press.
David, F. (2011). Strategic management. New York: Macmillan.
Dess, G. and Miller, A. (2011). Strategic management. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jeffs, C. (2013). Strategic management. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Jeyarathnam, M. (2012). Strategic management. Mumbai: Himalaya Pub. House.
Rhoton, J. and Shane, P. (2011). Professional development. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
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