Professional and Personal Development

Professional development involves activities that are aimed to develop comprehension, competency and professional skills needed in a professional work and environment. It also includes involvement of skill enhancement strategies that can support professionals to do their work more effectively. Methods that can be used to develop personal skills includes classroom based training, online learning, mentoring, consultations, on job training and workshops (Stewart, 2014).

Personal development involves activities that develop key skills that are necessary to accomplish personal goals or objectives and improving the skills needed both inside a workplace (professional environment) and outside it (personal environment). The skills generally developed though personal development includes leadership skills, management skills, communication skills, time management and conflict resolution (Cottrell, 2015; Tattum & Tattum, 2017).

Leadership is an act of leading, guide and motivates people or organization or the capacity to do so. Good leaders are the ones who can show abilities to not only lead people, support people to set their goals and support them to reach their goals. Moreover, an efficient leader is able to create an inspiring vision of the future, motivate people to be engaged in that vision, manage how the vision is delivered and motives/coaches/develops a team so that it is efficient to achieve the goals (Northouse, 2018; Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).

Development plan is a set of actions or strategies that can be used to ensure and support both professional and personal development and achieve the career and personal objectives. An efficient development plan is strategic, and is analyses the goals, strengths, weaknesses, challenges and future development options. The plan outlines the timeframes, activities, their results in the achievement of the desired outcomes (Titterington et al., 2015).

Different standardized models exist for development plans, such as The Whitman GROW model or Boyatzis Intentional Change Model. These models provides a structured approach towards the development plan, and therefore helps implement the plan more effectively (Bishop, 2015; Wilson et al., 2014).

The purpose of this essay is to prepare a development plan according to the GROW Model, where my Goals, Reality, Obstacles, Options and Way forward would be discussed, and how they can assist me to achieve my professional and personal objectives.

The GROW model is a simplified strategy of setting goals and solving problems and was developed to make coaching plans for professionals. GROW is the abbreviation of Goal, Reality, Obstacles and Options and Way Forward. The Goal refers to the objective or the end point identified by the learner in an achievable way. Reality refers to the current stage of development of the learner, the challenges they face and how far are they from their chosen objectives or goals. Obstacles refer to the hurdles that the learner needs to overcome in order to achieve the goals. Options refer to the actions or steps that can be taken to overcome the hurdles in order to progress. Way Forward refers to how the selected options (strategies or actions) can be incorporated by the learner in their lives in order to achieve the goals (Bishop, 2015; Baker, 2019).

Leadership

Setting up an achievable and realistic goal is the first step in the GROW process, and the first step in professional and personal development planning. This is also one of the most important processes in personal growth and development. This provides both short term motivation and long term vision for individuals, and helps to focus on the knowledge that needs to be acquired and organize the time and resources that can maximize the utilization of time and effort. Goals also help individuals to stay on the course of action, reviewing and updating the to-do list on a regular and systematic manner and analyze the progression through the plan. Furthermore setting up realistic goals is another aspect of the goal setting process, as it helps the objectives to achievable and addressable, and helps individuals to better reach the objectives within a reasonable timeframe (Baker, 2018; Newton, 2015).

I believe that setting goals that are realistic is an important aspect that should be focused first before identifying what actions can be taken for professional and personal development. I aim to develop my career trajectory towards a managerial role in an organization. This trajectory implies that I develop leadership qualities which would require both professional and personal development, and develop my carrier in such a way that I can motivate and inspire other to achieve their own objectives while keeping in focus the organizational goals and aims.

According to studies, effective goal setup can be systematized through strategies such as SMART Goals. Here, SMART is an abbreviation for Specific, Measurable/Meaningful, Attainable, Relevance/Reward and Time Bound. Using such strategy ensures that the goals that are being set are very specific and not vague, which helps to better understand the goals; that they are measurable or meaningful, which helps to ensure that the goals have practical relevance to the life and career of the individuals and the objectives can be measured; that the goals are also attainable and action oriented and thus can be achieved by the individual; that the objectives also have relevance to what the individual wants to attain through personal and professional development plan and that it is rewarding for the individuals upon achieving it and also that the goals are bound by a timeframe, helping to achieve the objectives on time and follow progression (Haughey, 2015; Sull & Sull, 2018).

In order to develop as a leader, several specific skills and competencies needs to be developed such as strategic planning, conflict management, effective communication and time management. Additionally, personal skills such as motivation, honesty, integrity, focus and cooperativeness. Each of these skills can be developed by making them individual goals towards the development of leadership skills (Champy, 2018; Huda et al., 2018). Outlining the key skills and competencies makes this goal specific to be focused on, providing a measurable method to assess if those skills have been developed, ensures that the goals are achievable and relevant, and helps to put a timeframe for the achievement of the goal (Pratt, 2018). My goal to develop leadership skill would take at least 5 years, in which I can develop all the key skills and competencies mentioned above.

Development Plan

This segment of the GROW model helps to understand the current reality in the context of my strengths and issues/challenges and help to understand how far I am from my selected objective. Understanding the reality helps to determine the hurdles/challenges that needs to be overcome before preparing a plan to overcome them and planning the way head (Baker, 2018).

During my academic journey I was able to identify 5 key strengths which can help to attain the skills and competencies as a leader using the Gallup strength test. These strengths include: Belief, Ideation, Focus, Restorative and Arranger. Belief is an important virtue of any manager and leader, which helps to develop leadership skills and competencies and become an effective leader in any organization. Having the right set of beliefs helps to develop confidence in the decisions, and convert any situation into a potential opportunity. Ideation is the ability to form concepts or ideas from abstract knowledge and information, and utilizing them in personal and professional life to develop strategies and plans. Having this skill enabled me develop concepts and ideas from domains unrelated to my profession and also from personal knowledge and experiences, thus increasing my competency on reflective practice and reflective thinking. Focus is the ability to maintain orientation to the objectives and goals for personal and professional growth (Pratt, 2018; Hadar & Brody, 2016). The ability to focus on the objectives and goals helps me to be on top of the activities that are needed to achieve them and prevents distractions and diversions from the path. Restorative skills enable the restoration of function or form by integrating the smaller components and aspects into a larger and functional unit, such as combining different skills to develop an overall competency. Also, being an arranger helped me to manage events and activities, and helps to manage them in a more efficient manner.

Associated with each of my strengths, I also was able to identify few challenges and issues towards the best utilization of those strengths. I learnt that due to my confident nature, I would easily trust others, without properly analyzing their abilities, and thus set impractical expectations from others. This eventually led to me being disappointed and the trust broken or damaged. I understood that placing too much trust on anybody was not the best Idea, and it is important to know the capabilities or capacity of people to take on a certain role or responsibility before trusting them with any responsibility. Even though I am good in inferring ideas and concepts from personal experiences and abstract knowledge, I face a challenge in the effective utilization of the ideas and concepts into real life (Aarto-Pesonen & Tynjälä, 2017). Often several ideas that I was able to develop in my mind through these personal experiences or abstractions would seem to be applicable to other professional domains than mine, and I consequently had to take significant amount of time and effort to brainstorm on how to best use those ideas in my professional domain. Similarly, I have strong focus on my work and goals, but I do face a challenge while trying to focus on many things at the same time, which is an important leadership and managerial skills, where leaders and managers often have to deal with more than one issue at a time. Even though I am good at restorative thinking and planning, I believe it is vital that I be able to identify, analyze and assess alternative strategies to understand the best one, and then use them in practice to ensure the best outcome. This aspect is also important as an arranger of activities and practices which also can support optimum results (Tattum & Tattum, 2017; Cotrell, 2015).

The GROW Model

Hence considering my personal strengths and challenges, I believe that my goal to develop as a leader can be achieved by i) Developing competencies and skills to address my personal challenges and thereby further improve those strengths and ii) Developing key skills and competencies that are needed to be an effective leader. I believe that because of my strengths, I am quite close to being a good leader, and though continuous development, I can prove my abilities as so (Cotrell, 2015).

Once the ‘reality check’ is done, it becomes easier to understand the hurdles or obstacles that lie in the way towards the achievement of the objectives or goals. Studies suggest that identification of the obstacles helps to better understand how they can be overcome them and gain a deeper understanding of those challenges or obstacles (Bishop, 2015). The significant obstacles in the path of my career objective to be a leader include:

1. Managing Trust and Expectations: Placing too much trust or confidence is an obstacle in my opinion in the development of proper expectations. Being able to manage trust on people helps in setting up realistic and practical expectations.
2. Effectively implementing the ideas and concepts into practice: Although I can develop ideas and concepts very well from what I experience and what I learn, I often struggle to understand the best ways to utilize them into practice.

• Ability to focus on multiple things: Giving focus on multiple things simultaneously can become very confusing and disorienting for me, as I am only used to focus on single tasks at a time. While trying to work on multiple tasks, I often get confused with the requirement of each tasks and end up getting distracted or diverted.

1. Analyzing the alternative strategies before implementing one: Even though I am good at arranging and restoring things, I often hurry into the process without properly analyzing every possible alternative action, to ensure that I take the best possible step. Due to this, the outcomes at some occasions can be disappointing for me, as I could not foresee the results.

1. Strategic Planning  and Decision Making Skills: I generally make on the spot decisions, which might be impulsive at times, and founded in my strong sense of confidence. However, that can interrupt the process of strategic planning and decision making which needs careful deliberation and consideration before taking a decision or making a plan (Abdel-Basset et al., 2018).
2. Conflict management Skills: I lack the ability to effectively manage conflicting situations. This is because I become emotionally involved in the situation which can increase the risks of biases and therefore prevents me to take effective decisions (Rahim, 2017).

• Effective Communication Skills: This is one of the most important skills that help in several aspects of leadership and management. Although I am in no way poor in communication skills, I believe that I need to develop the skills a lot more to be able to convey my thoughts and ideas in a more professional and systematic manner. This also includes the development of written and verbal communication skills (Silverman et al., 2016; Whetten & Cameron, 2014).

1. Time Management Skills: This is a significant challenge or hurdle in my career, as I often fail to manage my time efficiently, resulting in providing too much time to few things, and then not being able to give sufficient time to others (Silverman et al., 2016).

In this section, the strategies that can be used to address my weaknesses and skill deficits will be discussed. Comprehension of these obstacles to my career trajectory can help to understand the best method to overcome them. These strategies can be a part of an action plan, which can help to systematically identify tasks, the success criteria, time frame and resources needed to overcome these obstacles. Studies suggest that effective and strategic action plans are effective in better outcomes and ensure more success for the strategies for development (Bishop, 2015). The action plan has been discussed below:

This is the final step in the GROW process, in which strategies for further development and future growth is identified. This helps to understand the steps that need to be taken to ensure future career development to reach the desired objectives. I believe that I can develop my skills further to motivate people to achieve their own goals, draw an impressive picture of future development for the employees and utilize feedback from the employees in more effective manner. My idea towards the ‘way forward’ after developing the key leadership skills and competencies is to ensure continuous development both professionally and personally, so that I can continuously deep strengthening my abilities as a leader. Continuous Development Plans can help me to achieve such long term goals through which I can i) establish and measure my targets, ii) execute the activities to reach the targets, iii) compare the performance to the desired target, iv) take actions to improve performance. This four steps can work as a cycle to help in continuous development of the skills and competencies as a professional (Mavlyudova, 2014; Nachshon & Rom, 2015).

Goal

Conclusion:

Professional and personal development is an important strategy that helps in the growth of an individual in both professional and personal life, and helps to achieve the career and life goals. Each type of development requires specific sets of activities which can overlap each other. This strategy can be used in the development of leadership skills, which I aim to gain in my professional career. My intention is to become a good, efficient and effective leader in the organization I work for, and to do that I have to identify my strengths, analyze the weaknesses and challenges that lay in my path, identify strategies that can be used to overcome the challenges, and develop an action plan using these strategies in a way which can be easily outlines, along with strategies to measure its success and the resources and time needed to achieve them. I have used the GROW model to develop a plan for professional and personal development that can build my capacity and skills to become a competent leader. The GROW model helped me not only to set up realistic goals for my career path, but also helped me to better analyze me skills and weakness as a reality check, and helped me to find options and opportunities for further development and addressing the challenges. Such knowledge further helped me to understand how to maintain the practice of continuous development, and help me achieve my long term objectives.

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