Personal, Professional & Career Development
Introduction
The primary assignment of this assignment is to develop and understand career aspirations and purpose. The personal and professional and career development paper is divided in four sections. The first part is a description of personal and career purpose in terms of what needs to happen to allow the achievement of personal career goals. The second part provides a personal reflection of most recent career decision based on learning from six exercises. The third part provides assess the extent to which I have achieved learning goals and defines my career development agenda and processes of achieving specific goals. The last part provides insights resulting from working with my colleagues.
Part 1: Personal and Career Purpose
For the last 20 years, Ihave held different positions especially in the managerial here it has given me opportunity to learn how to manage staff, mentor them whenever necessary or on job training such as costing, budgeting, inventory management, report generating, ERP software operation. I also chair the biyearly management meeting for the group to review the respective strategic business unit (SBU) performance and identify the best possible solution for any problem encounter by respective SBU. However, I believe it is the high time I changed my career position and move forward my career development to next level and therefore need to enhance my management and leadership skill and have much greater networking opportunity globally. For this reason, there are some study skills I require to achieve my personal development plan. As such I plan to undertake MBA degree in leadership and business management and probably a postgraduate diploma to improve personal skills and knowledge. This will be very helpful in achieving my goal as well as improving and developing my skills required to achieve my career and personal goals.
I believe that my MBA course and project will give me the necessary practical and theoretical skills. For example, the MBA course will enable me learn how to effectively manage information and time to be an effective manager. In addition, it will assist me in becoming more self-confident when faced with networking opportunities. It will also provide me with necessary practical techniques to help my raise your profile and help in developing my networking skills to meet key people, which in turn, will help develop business relationships which willassistin career progression. One of the major advantages of MBA courses and seminars is that I will make me aware of my strengths, weaknesses, as well as my achievements and the ability effectively to communicate. Notably, effective communication in managerial position is absolutely vital. For this reason, this is one is the most significant aspects of career planning because it will help in my development throughout my studies, and eventually increases personal capacity to contest in the global marketplace.
The Personal and Professional Development module majorly focuses on personal career and professional development and for this reason, it is very important. This will assist in developing my future career plan as well as assist other in the workplace with plans to make personal and professional development.
Part 2: Refection on Career Decision
My most significant career mover has been to being a chief financial officer (CFO), in a public listed company. It has not been easy to become what I am today. My career has been propelled by constant education. Using the 6 Exercises for your Development by Fennah (2013) the top 1-3 career anchors are general managerial competence, technical/functional competence and internationalism. For example, under managerial competence and technical/functional competence, I have undertaken part-time studies in Bachelor of Science in Business Finance and follow by professional accounting, ACCA. During my employment period, I have worked in a service-oriented company, building material manufacturing and manufacturing plus retailing of furniture which give me good opportunity to understand the accounting and finance aspect of various sectors. I have help to lead the management in my current company to get prepared and listed in local Stock Exchange. A few challenges have been experienced especially when communicating with fellow workers and making critical decisions in line of work.
With regard to internationalism, my current position as a CFO has given me an opportunity of exposure internationally such as Malaysia, China, Australia and Taiwan. My primarily responsible is to undertake group accounting and financial operations, overseeing its financial reporting requirements and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, ensure the company internal control are in place, overseeing the China operations and also responsible for the Information Technology infrastructure. Currently, I am leader in the IT department to implement Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) software for the entire group which covered Singapore, Malaysia, China and Taiwan. Beside the existing portfolio, i am also looking into any business opportunity for merger and acquisition as to enhance the shareholders' value. The challenge is to balance between career, health, friends, family and learning.
The career move aligns with my personal strengths and capabilities. Some of my strengths are hardworking, professionalism, motivation and integrity, critical thinking and decision making and problem solving. I can say that I have depended on these strengths to achieve the current career results. The value to life is success, and so far I have been successful in my career and have acquired the positions I dreamt of in life. However, I believe there is still a room for development and advancement. The most important things of work are communication, leadership, delegation, people and team focus, negotiations, coaching, handling conflicts, project management and achievement (Fennah, 2013). It has not been easy achieving these important things in my career.
Though I am highly motivated it need slight improvement so that I can have the passion to undertake tasks at free will without any form of supervision. With regard to communications, I communicate excellently bother verbally and non-verbally. However, there is need for improvement in nonverbal communications because different cultures communicate differently verbally. Have a good relation with other people but am not perfect. I need to horn my interpersonal skills which can be achieved through undertaking communication classes in my MBA course. It is necessary to point out that leadership, delegation; people and team focus, negotiations, coaching, handling conflicts, project management and achievement do not require much improvement although my MBA course will help me sharpen these skills more than ever (Fennah, 2013).
Part 3: Assess the extent to which you have achieved your learning goals
I can confidently state that I have achieved my learning goals though not all have been achieved. For example, I have improved my personality, idea generation, motivation, and confidence. For instance, I can effectively generate ideas through brainstorming and listening techniques. In addition, I can share ideas from teammates and thus improves my knowledge.
As a creative thinker, I have improved my skills as I can focus and prioritize on what needs to be done first. This has made me more productive. Time management is one of the tools I have acquired to effectively prioritize urgent and important tasks so as to maximize the most precious asset and time. Time management is all about learning techniques that can make an individual exploit most of his time (Cook (1998). I have developed personal drive to undertake personal and work-related activities, which is a form of motivation. I have become an intrinsically motivated and strongly prepared to be competitive to ensure ideas are explored. Through motivation, I am now able to be creative and work promptly without the need for supervision or being reminded. I have also learned that the consequences of time mismanagement are always piled stress and work backlog that may lead to job dismissal. Managing time effectively, therefore ensures, that a person has utilised his time effectively to do the necessary things.
Define your career development agenda and the process for achieving specific success
In spite of having a very rewarding career for the last 20 years, I still feel there is a lot that should be done to improve my skills and abilities. To effectively satisfy my desire for success, I believe that I should improve my skills so that I can have a competitive advantage in the global job market. For this reason, I will continue with my quest for skills and additional knowledge, hence the reason why I plan to pursue my MBA degree. Thus, going back to college is m next logical step.
After earning an MBA, I expect to hold managerial position in one of the leading companies in the world. I believe that management education willassist me in developing other necessary skills essential to my standing as a professional. For instance, I will benefit from the opportunity to further polish my approach of undertaking merger and acquisition. In addition, this will improve my skills in decision making. Although I have travelled and worked in different countries, I still believe that by overseas experience are limited. Therefore, an international education will equip me with the skills essential to deal with overseas suppliers and customers. In addition to this, I shall also get to explore more avenues by an access to the most prestigious alumni. Notably, I am very confident that my investment of time, energy, and money will be well rewarded in the long term. I also plan to undertake organizational behavior course as part of my MBA course to assist me become a more effective and better manager in the unforeseen future.
Reflective assignments and coaching and leadership challenges encountered while undertaking MBA course will equip me with the practical experience required to develop personal critical thinking required in problem solving and decision making as well as enhance leadership capability (Oxford Brookes University 2013). At MBA Community events, the MBA Summer School and industry visits I will have the opportunities to acquired significant knowledge from industry experts as well as network with executives. To improve networking, LinkedIn will be helpful, because it helps in job searching, networking capabilities, and career research, which makes it special and important in personal career and professional development (Brown, Poissant, Lockard&Mallison 2010).
Part 4: Evidence of Action Learning
Action learning according to Leonarda and Marquardt (2010) plays a very significant role in professional development of an individual because it builds basic leadership skills in a safe environment, reinforces the development of basic leadership skills, helps people to understand themselves, and it reinforces transformational, managerial leadership and professional aspects. While working with colleague, I was able to acquire the mentioned aspects. In addition, I have learned to how to work in team and share information across with others. I have improved my communication skills. Through effective communication in the work place is vital as it encourages employees, and it motivates them, encourages cooperation, and improves interpersonal skills and communication (Barbuto, 2000). Moreover, communication necessitates operational efficiency, in addition to facilitating teamwork. While working as a ream, I and my college mutually contributed and shared skills and knowledge. The positive team environment created in the workplace ensured a productive atmosphere for its employees (Root 2013). Therefore, teamwork has been helpful in the professional and career development aspect.
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My Values and Strong beliefs |
What motivates me to Adapt |
My Strengths |
What De-motivates Me |
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Conclusion
In conclusion, my development agenda is to develop my career professionally. My career development agenda is to hold managerial position in one of the leading companies in the world. This is to be achieved after undertaking an MBA degree course. This is to be achieved through education achieved through an MBA course. I plan to undertake organizational behavior course as part of my MBA course to assist me become a more effective and better manager in the unforeseen future. In teamwork with a college, I have builtbasic leadership skills in a safe environment, reinforced the development of basic leadership skills, helped people to understand themselves, and it reinforced transformational, managerial leadership and professional aspects.
References List
Brown, M, Poissant, P, Lockard, C &Mallison, A 2010, SMEAL MBA Career Management andCorporate Relations Team, viewed 7 December 2014,<http://mbastudents.smeal.psu.edu/career-services/documents/personal_career_strategy>
Cockman, P, Evans B & Reynolds P 1992, Client-Centred Consulting – a practical guide for internal advisers and trainers, McGraw-Hill, London.
Fennah, P 2013, 6 Exercises for your development, PPCD Career Workbook
Leonarda, SH &. Marquardr MJ 2010, The evidence for the effectiveness of action learning, Action Learning: Research and Practice, Vol. 7, No.2, pp. 121 - 136
Oxford Brooked University 2013, Careers and Personal Development, viewed 7 December 2014,<http://business.brookes.ac.uk/mba/career/>
Root, G N 2013, Elements of Teamwork in the Workplace, viewed 7 December 2014, < http://smallbusiness.chron.com/elements-teamwork-workplace-692.html
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