The Key Parts of Planning for Personal Development

Personal Development Planning

Introduction

Personal development planning is basically the process of establishing an action plan based on values, awareness, goal-setting, reflection and personal development planning within the context of education, career, self-improvement or relationship. It can also be defined as a supported and structured process undertaken by a person to reflect upon their personal learning, achievement and or performance and to plan for their individual educational and development of career (Gosling & Association, 2010). The process of personal development learning for students involves reflecting upon learning achievement and experiences, obtaining information for these particular records and establishing action plans and reviewing the progress towards achievement of goals and objectives that have been set.

Universities and other learning institutions are supposed to offer support for students and most of them have embedded PDP securely within their individual tutorial system. Personal development learning is intended to assist students become independent, more confident and effective self-directed learners.

Communication Skills

In personal development planning, it is vital for one to have good communication skills. This helps one to set out with clearness his, the course of action he needs to initiate while endeavoring to achieve those goals, delivering one’s needs to people who can assist him with the goals and making better use of the available resources.

When one realizes his goals, he may share it with the rest of the people, or use it in his company, good communication skills do play a very significant role. When one needs to enhance his confidence, he needs to work out to be able to more efficient and effective in dealing with colleagues, classmates, customers, supervisors and subordinates. One also needs to realize his desires in his own terms enhance performance and feel better about himself. He also needs to clearly communicate and handle issues more efficaciously (Force. & Education, 2014). The essence of communication is basically to understand and be understood openly. The varying backgrounds and personalities as well as varying points of view may bring challenges in understanding people and things. If one improves his communication skills he stands to receive wide benefits. Excellent communication skills possess the following capabilities:

One is able to get successful response from the surrounding and people, have effective decision-making and problem solving skills, good productivity level, enhanced personal and professional image, comprehensive work flow and compelling advocacy.

Good personal skills in communication are important personal growth. This needs to be among areas that one needs to give consideration when having personal development plan. Even when one has good communication skills, he still needs to include some exercises that may enhance his skills. When one has complexities in his communication, it needs to be among top priorities in his development plan (Cottrell, 2003). He needs to express his concept in various approaches..

Group Work

In the event you have been set a valuation that entails group work, you just like the rest of the students have encountered a version of group work. The tutors have an idea as to why you dislike it and goes ahead to ask you to do it since they believe that your involvement in the group activity is beneficial to your personal development plan (Adair & Allen, 2006). Personal development planning can help understand why this particular task is worthwhile not simply for supporting one another to attain a good mark but can assist you in understanding what individual employability skills you will be establishing along the way. While working in a group one is able to not only to learn interpersonal skills, but also time management, collaborating and communicating on a joint project and operating and working towards a common goal as well as offering one an opportunity to develop these particular skills (Cox & Keady, 2008).

Personal development planning allows an individual to reflect on and mark experience to mention to when applying for a job. Majority of employers are interested in knowing whether you were team player. If taking the activity of the group work shows that you assisted in managing the group and you had a definite impact on the dynamics of the group, it is value recording as evidence and it could offer an unforgettable example of team work should you be asked the question during a job interview (Centre. & Achievement, 2014). Otherwise, your reflection on the group activity may highlight some weaknesses in team functioning skills which can be a target as something to work on while still at the university (Barcham, 2011). So Personal development planning is all about offering you an opportunity to make more sense about the learning you have at the university and assist you gauge its relevance as an essential extra experience.

Leadership Skills

Sharpening personal skills can assist one to become an effective leader. A successful leader needs to be always open to change & willing to grow as both an individual and authority figure. It is vital to continuously work to enhance the leadership skills so as to keep the skills set appropriately aligned with the continuously changing priorities and goals of the modern professional workforce (Bob Smale & Fowlie, 2009).

An efficient and effective leader must bear good people skills. His colleagues and employees should feel comfortable presenting you with problems they encounter and should not be afraid or feel intimidated from your actions (Adair & Allen, 2007). Taking time to ask for your colleagues’ opinion and carefully listening to the viewpoint of every person demonstrates that you actually respect them. Colleagues also appreciate the little things, like paying them a commendation for perfectly done (Sangste, 2012).

Performing periodic assessment of your individual skills can assist one in ensuring that competencies are actually at the level they should be. If the profession necessitate knowledge that does not change too often and quickly, performing this particular assessment annually is adequate. In the field that is rapidly changing and where skills are continuously required to keep up with these changes in technology, one needs to accomplish this evaluation every few weeks or months so as to keep up-to-date.

A good leader will never stop learning and will always want to enhance his set of skills. Making a list of specific areas that one needs to enhance, like acquiring a particular set of skills or enhancing the existing abilities can assist one become more well-rounded and valuable leader (Grit, Guit, & Sijde, 2008). After identifying the areas for improvement, one needs to go ahead and come up with ways of attaining this knowledge.

Conclusion

Personal development plan extends beyond academic fulfillment and is more significantly a plan that explains something about the entire person, not just how perfect you were confining yourself in a quite library corner and writing essays (Webb & Grimwood-Jones, 2003). The effectiveness of personal development planning depends on the kind of tools to use. Having good personal skills in communication is important in personal growth and career development. There is need to pay keen interest on how to record evidence, thoughts and achievements of your activities and also the conversation with your tutors together with your action plans. Inspiring and encouraging and team members to achieve their own individual goals and attain their potential can assist one become a better leader. Including every person in planning goals of the team for the future basically makes them feel valued group members and assist in getting them excited for new upcoming projects (Rughani, 2001).