Personal Development Plan

As I come to the end of my journey of investigating the theories of training and development, I am left with reflecting upon what types of development I will advocate that my future employer provides and/or that I will pursue on my own. Stolovitch (2012) contends that “development is a long range goal to make one more fluent and accurate in one’s professional knowledge and skills over time” (p. 1). In order for one to accomplish this, one has to be committed to being a life-long learner, enhance job experiences, build interpersonal relationships, and frequently reflect upon self-assessments.   

Pace (2010) shares with us a profound quote from Mahatma Ghandi: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”, which for me means that one must be open to continuing one’s formal and informal education to strengthen one’s leadership ability and/or become a valuable asset for the business/organization one would be representing. Hence, knowledge is power and generally when one knows better, one does better. Moreover, for one to participate in the social and global change movement, one must be current with the available technologies, information, and strategies to assist with whatever one’s quest requires being an effective change agent in the business/organization one is representing.

Consequently, in today’s job market professionals are required to be flexible, be able to multitask, and possibly rotate jobs upon request to build their job experiences. Therefore, to enhance one’s job experiences, one can volunteer for organizations that are similar or that complement the professional that one plans to pursue. Noe (2013) advocates that “volunteering can be used for development; it gives employees an opportunity to manage change, teach others, have a high level of responsibility, and be exposed to other job demands. Another way to enhance one’s job experiences is to be open to temporary job assignments. Noe (2013) posits that temporary job assignments are good for exploring, to test the waters and see if one is in pursuit of the right profession (p.392). Most importantly in accordance to Noe (2013), both “volunteering and temporary assignments are great opportunities to improve team relationships and develop leadership and strategic thinking skills” (p. 393).

Nevertheless, one can possess all the knowledge and skills of a specific professional, but unless one knows how to build interpersonal relationships, then all the knowledge and skills one possesses are useless. Organizations and businesses are realizing the importance of an employee or manager possessing interpersonal skills to their bottom line. Therefore, they are offering mentoring and coaching programs to assist their employees and managers with developing their interpersonal skills, which enables them to interact positively and work effectively with others. It is imperative that my future employer have this type of development program to offer because I am a woman and a minority. Noe (2013) contends that “mentoring programs can help encourage women and minorities who tend to be under represented in leadership positions to develop management skills” (p. 397) In concert with Noe (2013), Pace (2010) argues that “high performing organizations have three times more positive energizers (positive individuals) that leave others feeling inspired, motivated, and full of vitality, than an average organization” (p. 44). Hence, mentoring and coaching programs within an organization can develop positive energizers throughout the organization.

However, sometimes when one has accomplished the short term development goals, one has the tendency to lose sight of the long term goals unless one has implemented a self-assessment element in his or her development strategy. For the reason that I am not currently employed, I must stay focused on both short and long-term goals. I have been fortunate enough to volunteer and except temporary assignments and with each opportunity I always solicit honest feedback. Conversely, Pace (2010) posits that the best strategy for self-reflection is “not to focus on developing one’s weaknesses, instead focus on developing one’s strengths” (p.43). Nonetheless, one can see how being a life-long learner can enhance one’s job experience and provide a foundation for one to build interpersonal relations while staying focus on the initial short and long-term goals through self-reflection.  

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) Stolovitch, Harold. (2012). Employee Development. Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee Training and Development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Pace, A. (2010, January). Unleashing Positivity In The Workplace. Training and Development (T+D), pp. 40-44.