The Significance Of Personal Development Plan And Assertiveness Skill

Personal Development and Study Skills

The purpose of Personal Development Plan

Question:

Discuss the Potential Benefits and Obstacles of Writing a Personal Development Plan.

The purpose of this report is to reflect on the significance and purpose of the personal development plan.  Personal development plan (PDP) refers to the process of developing an action plan that is based on values, goal-setting, awareness, reflection and scheduling for personal development within the perspective of education, career and self-improvement.  It is also known as individual development plan (IDP) or Personal enterprise plan (PEP) that includes individual aspirations, strengths, education as well as training and the methods for indicating the realization of plan. This plan mainly includes portfolio that contains facts of skills collected over specific time frame. It also includes lifestyle priority of individuals, positioning of career, analyzing of opportunities as well as risk and other plans (Baker, Perkins and Comber 2014). An individual usually develops PDP for five year in order to sort out their personal goals and make them attainable within a specific time limit. The significance of PDP is to provide model that helps in making the individuals identify their weakness as well as strength and steer to capitalize present skills and abilities. The main purpose of PDP is to assist the workers in their career, achieve long-term goals and enhance their present performance of job. It encourages the growth of the individual throughout their lifetime (Beausaert et al. 2013). PDP has huge significance at work as it facilitates the individuals in achieving outstanding outcome of the project. It also helps the individuals in gaining competitive advantage against the rivalries. For the companies, PDP provides method for managing as well as developing individuals effectively, improving working life quality. This study also focuses on the significance of developing assertiveness skill that facilitate in achieving personal and professional goals.

It has been suggested by Cottrell (2013), each individual has an in-built requirement for personal development that occurs through the process known as self- actualization. The degree in which the people have the ability in developing mainly relies on specific requirements being met and hence these requirements form the hierarchy. As change usually occurs throughout the life of individuals, the level of requirements influencing their behavior at a particular time also changes. For this, personal development plan is necessary for meeting the needs.

PDP is usually applied to huge range of context that involves individual’s professional as well as personal spheres. From the perspective of the individuals, it aids in providing support to the company’s goals and works within framework.  The benefits that the individuals gains from PDP includes-

• Self-awareness- Self-awareness is the vital step in the PDP process. The PDP requires the individuals to be aware of their strengths, inspirations, qualities, interest, preferences and ambitions of their own weakness as well as shortcomings (McGrath 2014).
• Develops positive behavior in their work- If the job does not add to the individual’s growth and also does not allow them in learning as well as developing themselves, then it eventually starts in depressing as well as destroying the individuals motivation. However, PDP facilitates the individuals in feeling more inspired as well as motivated, thereby developing their positive behavior in work.
• Setting goals – PDP allows the individuals in setting the goals correctly and achieve them in short period of time. Therefore, effective setting of goals requires proper focus as well as energy of the individuals, which they obtains from PDP.
• Higher resilience- Sometimes, the individuals faces tough times in their life. During these tough times, the individual’s skills as well as attributes help them in dealing with it effectively. Although PDP cannot prevent occurrence of bad things, it will help in dealing with it in efficient way. Thus, they will have higher resilience, personal and interpersonal skills for coping with the eventuality.
• Increases self-confidence- PDP enhances self confidence that mainly relies on better knowledge of the individuals, opportunities and advanced planning.
• Boost motivation- Individuals becoming aware of their strengths, weaknesses and skills level helps in enhancing the level of motivation in the long run (Ross et al. 2014). If the workers are persistent in this training, then results will be shown in their personal growth. This in turn boosts their confidence as well as motivation for bigger achievements.
• Advancement of skills- PDP has been closely linked with development of skills of the individuals that are required in the present role. This helps the individuals in achieving long-term goals in their career. However, advancement of skills makes the individuals more dynamic as well as proactive to other employees and the company’s management.

Significance of PDP at work

PDP benefits the organization as well in various ways that includes-

• Improvisation of individual’s skills benefits the companies as the total productivity of the staffs increases as well as their quality of work improves. This means that better job is acquired in less time.
• PDP also increases the staff turnover and thereby absenteeism drops considerably in each organizations.
• Well-trained employees provide the organization competitive advantage against their competitors.
• From the perspective of business owners, it is vital that they have strong as well as productive team. As PDP helps in developing productive team, it facilitates the business in attaining higher revenue.
• Proper implementation of PDP satisfies both the customer as well as employees. This in turn improves the performance of employees in business:

There are various obstacles of utilizing PDP, which is illustrated below:

• The schemes of PDP present two obstacles in terms of support as well as implementation. Firstly, the PDP scheme that is usually intended in applying to all persons and also involves their managers that mainly requires huge effort of training as well as  communication for reaching intended audience. Therefore, proper implementation of PDP is required in order to avoid such obstacles.
• Secondly, the other obstacle of using PDP is self-organized learning. The workers require aids in thinking with the help of their own development requirements (Erbay and Akçay 2013). This is the reason why the people finds easier in completing PDP in the circumstances of development program. Therefore, both of these activities facilitates in offering considerable support.
• Additionally in order to support implementation, support is required in maintaining interest in scheme as well as encourages plans that are to be reviewed. In most of the organization, managers involves in action learning approach or PDP. But, using PDP often creates this obstacles in the organization.

Assertiveness skill refers to both the social as well as communication skills training. Being assertive signifies that the individuals are able to justify their own as well as other person’s rights in positive manner. This means that individuals usually express their thoughts, beliefs and thoughts in appropriate way for standing up for their own personal rights. It also enables the individuals in acting at their own interest, express their honest feelings as well as personal rights and stand up for oneself without denying others right. It also refers to as effective communication tool. It also facilitates the individuals in achieving both the professional and private goals easily and faster.

Presenting the self-image is useful as it attempts in achieving the highest position in the organization. If the individuals presents themselves with confidence might facilitate them in getting promotions and new position in the companies. It also helps the individuals in achieving the target of the organization (Borderscarerscentre.co.uk. 2017). These personal goals mainly includes establishment of new friendships with confident individuals and asserting dominance in the interactions of personal business. The individuals who are assertive thrive in the organization, especially if the circumstances in the organization are ambiguous. These individuals are actually transparent in their business dealings and clear in their communication.

There are huge benefits of assertiveness skills in the workplace as it facilitates in achieving professional goals. This is because assertiveness mainly leads to –

• Increased self-esteem as well as self – confidence
• Enhanced performance of team as well as individuals
• Improved negotiation skills
• Improved interpersonal relations
• advanced stress management
• creates safe improvement
• improvement in culture of creativity
• change in constructiveness

All these factors benefit the organization and motivate the individuals in achieving professional goals. Assertiveness skill is vital in the business, as it requires expression of individuals needs as well as wants and aware of their rights in articulating these requirements. Therefore, deficiency in assertiveness skill mainly leads to workers feeling disgruntled or being treated in unfair way. Another benefit of assertive skills of individuals is that it might help them in having more control over the difficult situations. This assertiveness skill has several other benefits. Assertiveness usually promote better relationships as it makes the individual more comfortable with other people. In addition, assertiveness highly declines fear as well as anxiety and also enables the individuals in releasing positive energy among themselves (Cottrell 2015). The biggest advantage of assertiveness skills facilitates the individuals in developing the power of making as well as having choice and learn to respect other choice.  Developing assertiveness skill helps in achieving personal goals as the individuals tries to meet their requirements without the expense of other individuals.

Obstacles of utilizing PDP

It has been opined by McGrath (2014) that, when the individuals are assertive, they suffer huge difficulties that include losing their level of confidence. Indeed, having huge confidence at satisfactory level is significant in every aspects of individual’s life for accomplishing the objectives that they require. It has been noted that, as the level of confidence decreases, it influences their self-esteem and generally leads to creation of several behavioral as well as emotional disorders.

The individuals with passive style tend in keeping the requirements of others before others. The main reason behind this is that they might not believe the individual have right in asserting themselves. Alternatively, these individuals might feel that it might be difficult in being assertive. These individual also tends in believing that they are weak or incompetent and hence have huge difficulty in making their own decisions (Mindtools.com. 2017). On the other hand, the individuals who are assertive care about other individual feelings and also remembers that they have rights. Moreover, the assertive individuals assess each circumstance and strategize in planning their action in order to achieve their goals. Lack of assertiveness influences relationships both on personal and professional level. Developing assertiveness skill helps in improving the individual’s communication and the relationship with others. This in turn leads to enhanced quality of individual’s life. Although assertiveness has been considered as vital skill that every individual should be developed. Taute (2014) reflects the fact that it requires balance between passive and aggressive behavior on the individuals part. Developing assertive skill helps the individual in managing stress. It has been stated by Tattum and Tattum (2017) that, there are certain disadvantages of developing assertiveness skill. These disadvantages includes-

• it night reflect over-confidence of the individual
• At times, it might emerge to be arrogant
• It might demonstrate to be counter productive

In today’s competitive world, the individual faces several challenges in their work arena. Moreover, it also helps the peoples in facing the challenges in their work arena. In addition, as the business requires dealing with the customers, the PDP helps the individuals in developing assertive skills. It has been highlighted by Lovell and Kosten,  (2012) that, the dramatic reform that have occurred in the job world signifies that assertive skills of individuals have become more vital for the success in organization. There are few examples of these changes , which are illustrated below:

• The companies have become less hierarchical and flatter
• The individuals are likely to take more responsibility for their personal development
• The companies are shifting from the command as well ad control culture
• Individuals now act more entrepreneurially

As assertiveness skills has huge importance in both personal and professional life of the individual, there are certain recommendations that will help the individuals to become more assertive. These includes-

• Individuals must value themselves and their rights- In order to become more assertive or develop assertiveness skill, the individuals should gain proper understanding of themselves and must have strong belief in their inherent value. This self-belief is actually the root of self- confidence as well as assertive behavior.
• Individual should voice their requirements and wants confidently- if the individuals start taking this initiative, then it will help them in achieving both the personal and professional goals.

Benefits of assertiveness skill

Conclusion

From the above assignment, it can be concluded that the PDP has been recognized as an important component of the successful business organization. However, framing the goals ad activities helps the workers enhance their performance. This in turn has direct or positive influence on the goals of the companies. In addition, PDP that provides information as well as results in real time has been significant for the success in business in highly competitive as well as economically challenging business environment. Furthermore, it provides a model that allows the people within the company to focus on their strengths as well as weaknesses and develop for optimizing on their present skills as well as capabilities. Adoption of an effectual PDP alleviates the requirement for the managers in spending lot of time observing the employees deployment. Meanwhile, the PAP(performance appraisal process) ensures that there has been standardization across the companies as it provides visibility in account of company’s goals. If PDP is aligned with SMART objectives, the organization’s objectives become clearly visible and hence the individuals can observe what influence they are receiving within the company. But it creates some obstacles in using PDP that occurs in terms of support and implementation. Moreover, assertiveness skill has huge significance as it facilitates in achieving personal and professional goals

References

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Beausaert, S., Segers, M., Fouarge, D. and Gijselaers, W., 2013. Effect of using a personal development plan on learning and development. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(3), pp.145-158.

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Cottrell, S., 2013. The study skills handbook. Palgrave Macmillan.

Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Erbay, E. and Akçay, S., 2013. Assertiveness skill of social work students: A case of Turkey. Academic Research International, 4(2), p.316.

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Lovell, C.D. and Kosten, L.A., 2012. Skills, knowledge, and personal traits necessary for success as a student affairs administrator: A meta-analysis of thirty years of research. NASPA journal, 37(4), pp.535-572.

McGrath, M., 2014. Personal development plan. Leading the Way, 11(1), p.21.

Mindtools.com. (2017). How to Be Assertive: Asking for What You Want Firmly and Fairly. [online] Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/Assertiveness.htm [Accessed 19 Nov. 2017].

Ross, J., Head, K., King, L., Perry, P.M. and Smith, S., 2014. The personal development tutor role: An exploration of student and lecturer experiences and perceptions of that relationship. Nurse education today, 34(9), pp.1207-1213.

Tattum, D. and Tattum, E., 2017. Social education and personal development. Routledge.

Taute, F., 2014. An evaluation of the impact of a life skills programme in the workplace. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 43(3).