Assessment Task 1

Answer to question one

Two of the following principles are extremely effective for a leader to become aware of its skills, learning requirement and many more:

• Strengths finder test– It helps in assessing a normal individual based on set of questions of Positive Psychology. It is one of the first instruments of this kind, which is developed only for the online purpose.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)– Another set of questions that calculates the psychology of a people for the surrounding world and the decision-making skills.

Answer to question two

 Following two techniques are helpful in managing the personal behaviour, self-awareness and many more:

Realizing the own reaction – It is one of the most effective factors in managing the personal behaviour. It does so by giving a realization of self-reaction and its probable consequence on the listener. It encourages for the respectful behaviour, which is very important to become a professional.

Attentiveness – When people feel ignored, they often are depressed. It then becomes necessary for the individual to be attentive, so that, it could validate the feeling of others. It is required to make them realize that they are an integral part of the group.

Answer to question three

Two types of learning styles are as follows:

Physical – It includes all the physical exercises that an individual can opt for the learning such as drawing, relating to the physical objects.

Verbal – This is such form of a learning, which the learner uses to learn by doing verbal activities such as reading contents louder, getting used to speeches and many more.

Answer to question four

Two most effective principles for managing goal settings in personal development plan is as follows:

Challenge – Setting up challenging goals do encourage for an unexpected movement towards achieving the goal. It creates the spirit for a challenging move towards the goal by narrowing the gaps between confusion and confidence.

Commitment – It is one of the most powerful weapons for every aspect of an individual life as it encourages for a committed work towards the destination. A tough work can become easy and possible if it is handled with pure commitment of efforts.

Answer to question five

Principle 1 – It needs to be tied with the organizational vision, as this would help in analysing the subsequent growth of the personal and professional skills.

Principle 2 – It needs to be based on operational definitions, as this is one of the best moves to judge the personal achievement of an individual. Operational requirement of an organization sets a benchmark to achieve for an individual.

Answer to question six

Principle 1 – Having a clear vision about the job requirement and the needed relevant skills would be helpful in managing the time. A clear vision about the requirement and the existing capabilities makes things calculated which is good for an organization and an individual.

Principle 2 – Defining the limit for a particular task is another important principle in managing the time. It helps in allocating different time phase for different tasks.

Answer to question seven

By enabling, the leadership in employees and by promising the incentives payment for the achievement of goal are two effective ways in initiating the competitive trend in organization. An individual can feel passionate towards a goal if it has zeal for the same or has some desire for the consequent monetary benefits.

Answer to question one

Answer to question eight

Use of tablets and Smartphones may enhance the work efficiencies in employees. It can allow them working while being outside of the office premise. It would also allow the connectivity of employees with the management, which is very helpful for a connective progress of project.

Answer to question nine

A leader is an institution for its employees if it presents a good part of leadership; its followers are encouraged for the same. Encouragement in employees comes through different ways such as verbal, physical, psychological and many more. The ideal leadership skills do affect the psychological aspect of employees, which is very helpful for their motivation.

Answer to question ten

Communication and creativity are two of the most effective ways to improve personal performance and competency level. Communication establishes relationships with the leaders whereas it also breaks the barrier in between the workers and the leaders, which is very important for a progressive career move. Creativity is something that varies from men to men, as it can never be taught with perfection. The best way to be creative is the realization of the innovative level of an individual.

Answer to question eleven

Coaching and strategy making are two of the most important options that provide development opportunities to a leader.

Answer to question twelve

Some of the organizational protocol is important to abide by before implementing the career development program in organizations, which are as follows:

• Communicating with the management and the higher authorities on the subject matter
• Seeking approval from the council
• Identifying the needed worker for the change
• Highlighting the scope of the program

Answer to question thirteen

Three types of organizational plans are there that underpins an organizational operation such as follows:

• Strategic planning
• Contingency planning
• Performance planning

Answer to question fourteen

It becomes necessary for any organization to keep into consideration for some policies that are necessary prior to the professional development program. These policies are checking the financial capability of the organization, training & development resources and human resource capabilities.

Answer to question fifteen

In all the professional development program, four factors & steps are mandatorily involved, which drives the action towards the goal. Such steps are as follows:

• Planning
• Implementing
• Observing
• Taking remedial actions

Prioritizing the competing demands on Monday morning

The competing demand for the Monday morning was prioritized in the following ways:

• At 9am in the morning, the draft is scheduled to read for the improvement of customer service charter. Changes would be highlighted for a meeting with senior executive on Thursday at around 3pm
• Just after half an hour, the research would be conducted on existing policies for the customer service and the management, which is scheduled to be discussed in the staff meeting in the next week
• From 10am to 10:30am, the interview would take place with Craig Bullen for enquiring about sales position
• At 11am, the call would be made to a customer Mrs. Janice Smithers for the complaint, which she has raised for long wait time before the product was delivered to her. The customer would be explained on BizOps process and would be assured for the next delivery for free of cost
• At 11:15am, team meeting would take place for having discussions on new communication method with on the road sales reps, updating the attached feedbacks, improving the feedback of online form
• At 12:00noon, meeting with Liz would take place for discussing on the coordination  of promotion of sales/marketing
• At 12:30pm, it would be time for having lunch

Area of Competencies	Comments and suggestions for improvement
Responsibilities: Completes task in the assigned time limit with full accuracy; Shows concern for the organizational goals and respect to the team members and the management; manages multitasking effectively in assigned time limit.
Customer Focus: Has desire for the requirements of customer; acts to attain the maximum customer trust; surpasses every limit for meeting with the customer expectations.
Problem Solving/Creativity:  Has the identification skills for the problems; creative solution maker.
Collaboration/Teamwork:  Promotes and encourages the teamwork.
Communication/Interpersonal Skills:  Is capable of communicating and has necessary interpersonal skills.

Table 1: Feedback Form

Source: (Created by Author)

Career Objectives:	· To provide high quality service to the customers · Meeting with the changing demand · Delivering quick service · Developing in to professional · Sustainable work practices · Continuous improvement process
Personal Goals:	· To be involved in continuous development program · To become a graduate professional · To take every challenge as an opportunity
Personal Skills and Knowledge:	To be multi skilled that has capabilities to take care of multiple domains of the organization.
Continuous Improvement:	Need to be engaged in continuous improvement program based on feedbacks that has been received from all the stakeholders. It helps in developing the personal skills.
Managing Quality Customer Service:	Need to maintain quality customer service and improve the standard of service by taking hints from the feedbacks generated on customer views of staff working.
Development of New Skills:	Feedbacks would help in guiding towards the necessity of developing new skills to be innovative and supportive for the organizational operational objectives such as proficiencies in MS Office applications and CRM systems.
Opportunities for training & Development:	· Need to give chances for undergoing some necessary courses for the development of skills such as short courses and tertiary courses · Need to abide by all the terms and policies of the organization for the study leave
Networking Plans to Help New Skills Development:	· Short term courses such as tertiary courses and study leave for the completion of development program if it takes more than 2 hours in any week · Seeking approval from the managers on the development program
Action Plan:	· To participate in the development program · To go through necessary courses · To seek feedbacks on the progress from the managers · To implement the feedbacks to attain the maximum success
Plan for Healthy Work-Life Balance:	· To be flexible with the available resources to the work-life balance schemes in the organization · To give utmost effort to attain the organizational goal · Working in flexible hours · Part-time work · Work from home

Table 2: Personal Development Program

Source: (Created by Author)

 Personal Development Plan & Observation

Targeted Goals	1. Identifying the personal capabilities 2. Seeking for feedbacks on the performance 3. Implementing the changes derived from the feedbacks 4. Measuring the progress 5. Identifying the existing policies for customer service 6. Having discussions with various stakeholders such as customers, executives 7. Seeking for feedbacks on the customer service from all the staffs 8. Identifying the flaws in the operation 9. Finding out the solution for the identified problems 10. Implementing the solutions to mitigate the rising threat 11. Measuring the action after every deadline assigned for a separate action plan
Work Priorities	Out of all the goals that has been planned to achieve, personal development is the most important of all those. It is necessary for a Customer Service Manager to inspire its colleagues with its leadership skills. Due to the current cases of customer complaints in the North Melbourne College, the service standard of the centre is dropping down. It is very important to take some suitable actions to mitigate the rising theat.
Tasks Deadline	It is not that easy to implement the action plan at just one go. It is rather a long process, which goes through different processing of plans followed by its observation. The first of the action plan would be to identify the actual problem, which indeed is dependent on various listening and questioning skills with all the stakeholders. Based on the analysis done on the length of the process and its urgency for the organization, it would be right to say that a span of one month would be sufficient for identifying the problems.
Existing Strengths	Listening and communication skills
Identifying the possible threats & opportunities	Opportunities: Listening and communication skills are the two existing strengths that make it possible to find out the possible causes for the customer service related issues. Possible opportunities can be as follows: 1. Learning to new skills 2. Availing the required training and courses for the skills development 3. Improving the communication with all the stakeholders 4. Understanding the problem more accurately Threats: Lack of knowledge on some of the technologies such as CRM and MS Office are a threat for the execution of the desired action plan. Possible threats can be as follows: 1. Might face difficulties in understanding the new skills 2. Might not concentrate on the assigned organizational responsibilities 3. Might fail in competing the required courses
New Skills Development	For the execution of the action plan and deriving the success as per the expectations, it is necessary to help in developing some new skills such as CRM and MS Office. The development is required up to the proficiency level. MS Office would help in various tasks such as maintaining the work progress.
Action Plan	1. To attain a sound knowledge in CRM management and MS Office operation 2. To have improved communication and listening skills while being in groups or discussing with the management 3. To find out the root cause behind the existing problem 4. To find out the mitigating solutions 5. To implement the solutions to achieve the desired goal 6. To measure the proceedings 7. To discuss with executives in case of any failure 8. To encourage executives for the implementation of the changes 9. To attain the required goal within the assigned deadlines for the tasks
Support	1. Managers can help in improving and developing the required skills such as CRM and MS Office 2. Asking for feedbacks from all the stakeholders on the progress 3. Implementing the required changes to implement a continuous improvement program
Measuring the Implemented Action	This is one of the vital segments of the complete personal development plan, which allows having some ideas on the proceedings. The measurement can be divided into two segments such as accomplished tasks and yet to improve.

Table 3: Personal Development Plan

Source: (Created by Author)

Conclusion

Personal development program and planning an action for the same is the utmost requirement for an employee to become a professional. The participation of an employee in an organization requires having a continuous improvement program. Some of the reasons are responsible for such process such as inception of new skills, lacking of basic skills and many more. However, the learning program in an organization is something different from that of the school life, which virtually needs no approval from any of the school officials. In an organization, before going for the development program, it is necessary to seek approval from the higher management. This is for the reasons that it needs to undergo certain processing that might also take more than few months. Once the approval is granted, it is achieved by undergoing some kinds of courses along with that the necessary supports from al the stakeholders of the organization. Development program is a continuous process that needs to be a part of the organizational practices for the betterment of workforces and the organizational operations.