Importance Of Personal Development Plan For Managerial Success

The Need for Change in Today’s Competitive Business Environment

Winston Churchill once observed that “To improve is to change; to perfect is to change often.”(Emery 2014). Nowhere else is this more evident than in the current competitive business environment. To remain vibrant, firms have to change with the times and seek staffs who are forward thinking, culturally seamless, well networked and globally exposed to bring about fresh ideas that can cultivate a sustainable competitive advantage (Ward 2017).

To be fully prepared to take on challenging business roles, Personal Development Plan (PDP), is the first stage in an elaborate roadmap that shows my current position, where I need to be, my goals and objectives, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities out there, the resources at my disposal, the threats I may experience and eventually the steps to help me achieve the goals (Vanden 2010).

The reflections from the questionnaire provided and attached in the appendix emphasize on the need for self-evaluation on different parameters that a manager should be conscious about. To gauge my managerial capability in lieu of the organizational requirements, the questionnaire reveals the strengths that I can harness to be an effective employee while also exposing the weaknesses that I need to improve to be better prepared for a challenging work environment (Ward 2017).

In this MBA course, I was exposed to many aspects of a business that is critically important in keeping the organization afloat and profitable. To begin with, the course reveals the importance of gauging myself to know where I fit in the organization, strategy design, the operating environment, organizational culture, lifecycle of the organization, networking, and relationships and most importantly, the decision-making process (Burton 2015).

To further expound on this, I have learnt to understand the dynamics and the nature of current day businesses, and be able to understand the volatility of today’s market and how a little delay in adjusting towards the shift in the market direction can cause serious consequences to the organization, even to the point of bankruptcy (Ripton 2016).

Murray (2008), observes that the nature of an organization’s framework, be it Mechanistic or Organic, and even its structural dimensions, as well as its contingency factors, prove to be very important in understanding the organization. While delving into this information, I am able to understand the make-up of the organization as well as its current and future plans, all instrumental information is ensuring its viability in the future.

From exposure to the course, I am able to deduce that management is the key to an incredibly successful organization or a failing one. While there are many aspects of an organization that directly dictates its success or failure, one of the most instrumental reasons for an outstanding organization lies in its management team (Scivique 2011).

The Role of Personal Development Plan (PDP) in Managerial Success

It is important to note that ‘People do not leave jobs, they leave managers’ a very powerful statement that shows the impact of improper management. Therefore, it is safe to say that managers play extremely important roles in an organization (Adamovic 2017).

With the advent of incredible organizations such as Google, Apple Inc and other market disrupting companies, a lot of emphases is placed on the type of managers that they hire, with a lot of previous research that has been undertaken by these organizations to determine what makes the best managers (Hasan 2013).

With regard to the ‘How Do You Fit The Design’ questionnaires, thirteen different areas are explored. They focus on the different aspects that define a well-rounded manager, the different ways to measure individual performance and what the measurement depicts the suitability of managers to different organizational setups. Lastly, the questionnaires highlight the different areas for improvement and growth (Daft 2015).

To begin with, the first questionnaire looks at the evolution of four different mental styles across the organizations namely, the human resource frame, the structural frame, political frame, and lastly, the symbolic frame. I scored a total of 21 points for the human resource frame as my best mental frame, followed by 17 points for symbolic frame and 11 points in both structural and political frames.

I find that the human resource frame depicts an accurate description of my mental frame as I have a strong passion and believe that an organization is as strong as its people/employees. Therefore, I believe proper management and coaching of staff, can give a company clear direction. In the same breath, this mental frame is mindful of efficiency considers results to be of extreme importance as claimed by Google during their hiring and promotion processes of managers (Haldorsen 2018).

In strategy, organization design and effectiveness on performance and strengths, the questionnaire was gauging managerial leverage on challenges and issues. In finality, only two outcomes were possible, either one emerged as strategic formulator or as a strategic implementer. I scored 3 points and 5 points for strategic formulator strategic implementer respectively. However since the difference was only  2 points, I could fit very well into either role which means I can craft strategies and approaches while ensuring the company goals are achieved efficiently and reliably (Kelly 2015).

In fundamentals of organizational structure and emphasis on teamwork, the questionnaire was assessing my ability to work as part of a team. My final score was 3 in this area. There were three gauges to measure the final score. A score of less than 2 showed one was only capable of an individual work, on the other hand, scores between three and six showed one was capable of working as individual or as a team and lastly a score of seven and above showed that one was an endemic team worker. The score of three illuminates my true picture as I can work efficiently individually or as part of a team.

The Importance of Self-Evaluation for Managerial Capability

On external environment pitting mind and environment, the scale shows that one can either fit in a stable working environment or the unstable rapidly changing business environment. A score of 5 and above meant one was ideal to work in an unstable environment while that less than 5 meant stable environment was more suitable. I managed to score 4 points which meant I was comfortable in a stable environment that is ‘organic’ or predictable with hierarchical roles (Burton 2015).

An important role in an organisation is inter-organizational relationships and personal networking. In general, organizations, where people have a close-knit relationship both inside and outside the company, tend to perform better than those where networking is limited. As a measure of networking skills, a measure of less than 3 is considered a sign of poor networking while that of 7 and above depicted very strong networking. I scored a seven which showed I have the capacity to form networks and inter-organizational partnerships that can foster business growth and continuity (Jasper 2013).

Part six of the questionnaire was on designing organizations for the international environment with a focus on cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence in this sense meant the managerial ability to work and deliver in a culturally diverse organization. It has 3 sub-categories that are cognitive, emotional and behavioral which pertain to the head, heart, and body respectively. A score of more than three in each category shows one can work seamlessly in a multicultural environment. I managed to score 2 points for cognitive CQ, 4 points for emotional CQ and 3 points for behavioral CQ. I therefore, need to work more on improving my cognitive CQ to fit well in a cultural diverse firm (Burton 2015).

On manufacturing and service technologies, the questionnaire depicts two personalities based on thinking process. On one hand, there are those who mostly use their right half of the brain which controls visual and intuition abilities and those that use the left half that manages their cognitive and analytical abilities. With this regard the questionnaire allures that manufacturing sectors utilize the left half of brain to analyze, report and measure while service sectors use the right side of the brain to serve customers where there are no physical products to relate. On this area, I managed to score a 5 for right brain process and 3 for left brain processes which show I would fit well in the service sector.

Exposure to MBA Course on Aspects Critical in Keeping an organization afloat

The findings indicate that I have the political skills necessary to influence diverse groups to work together. Marques (2015), observes that it is important for a manager to possess political skills necessary to settle conflicts at work. This is of critical importance, particularly in organizations where political patronage is necessary to quell animosity and prevail to people with different backgrounds and bearing different viewpoints to work together to achieve common organizational goals particularly when introducing change in the organization (Lindberg 2013).

In retrospect, however, it was baffling that decision making was not my strong forte. My precedent was that decision making goes hand in hand with innovation and change where I was very good given that this is an important aspect of today’s business environment (Dawson 2014).

This is a reminder that there is room for improvement in the way I arrive at decisions.

In terms of the evolution of style, whereas my overall performance was average given that I scored high marks on human resource and symbolic frames. It was noteworthy that the same could not be said about the structure and political frames which are equally crucial in achieving the organization’s goals and objectives and (Vanden 2010).

According to Leland (2015), cultural intelligence is becoming a very important aspect of companies as they seek to globalize, diversify and seek partnerships across the world. This means that the business environment is getting multicultural every passing day and organizations are looking for people who can relate well with people of different cultures (Adamovic 2017).

With regard to section eight that focused on goal setting, a nine-point scale was used to measure one’s propensity to set goals. A score of less than 4 depicted that one was not a proactive goal-setter while that greater than 4 meant that one was a natural goal setter. On this section, I managed to score a seven which truly reflects my goal-setting abilities. I am therefore well suited to work in a managerial role requiring candid goal-setting (Vanden 2010).

In part nine focusing organizational size, life-cycle and decline, the questionnaire focused on which organisation I would be suited to work. The questionnaire had nine points scale on even and odd number choice. I managed a score of 5 which showed that I fitted in the category of working for large organizations with a stable working environment with clear managerial roles and hierarchy of command as opposed to smaller organizations (Heathfield 2017).

Importance of Management and Organizational Framework

Organizational culture and ethical values are important dimensions. There are 4 four cultural preferences portrayed in this section which include clan, adaptability, mission and lastly, Bureaucracy culture. The lowest score showed the culture I would be most suited for. My scores showed that I would best fit in the clan culture, mission culture and bureaucracy culture and least in adaptability culture. I can, therefore, work best in organizations where people have similar values, those with a singular purpose like and big organization with hierarchical control (Fairholm 2015).

The eleventh questionnaire was on innovation and change. With this regard, I managed to score six points out of possible eight which showed that I was comfortable working in organizations which constantly re-invent their products and services in a rapidly changing environment or in a competitive market (Murray 2008).

On decision-making processes, I managed to score -1 point which showed I tended to use non-linear methods or feelings, emotions or intuition to make decisions. This is an aspect that can be improved to ensure that I can rely on logic to make decisions as managers do (Fairholm 2009).

Lastly, the final dimension was on the role of conflict, power, and politics in influencing the performance of people in an organization. Managing a score of 7 out of possible 8 denoted that I have strong political skills which, in many organizations, are critical to influencing people of diverse groups to work together for a common cause (Marque 2015).

From the results, as a student and employee, my experiences lean more on the human resource mental frame and symbolic frame since as a student, I have always found it easy to relate and share ideas with others just as encouraged in learning organizations. As an employee, I find it easy to inspire others to work for a common goal.

On strategy and organization design and team-work, I find that I am very articulate, neat and meticulous at work and school I set my goals at work and targets to achieve as a student. As the results show I can either formulate or implement strategies individually or collectively since I am also a seamless team-worker (Takahara et al. 2014).

The stability of the organization I work for matters a lot. I have historically been interested in working for large or established companies with laid out procedures and as a student. I prefer to stick to my viewpoints while doing my studies.

Understanding the Nature of Today’s Business and Volatility of Market

Just as the results show, I have historically been very friendly to colleagues and work-mates. I always network and keep in touch with people I have previously worked with. At work, I take time to network with others as I find it motivating. Networking also satisfies my intellectual curiosity as a student.

As per my relationship with people of other cultures, I find it easy to engage on a laid out format rather than randomly. As a student and leader, I also relate well to people from of different religions which makes for average cultural intelligence just as my results showed (Livermore 2015).

With regard to manufacturing and service technologies and the thinking process, I tend to disagree with my results that show I am more of a right half of brain oriented. This is because, I am very verbal and analytical in as well, which are aspects associated with left brain function. I believe I am well balanced on this aspect as a student and an employee. I am also quite astute in setting my own goals and achieving them as student and employee just as depicted in my results on business and big data (Scivique 2011).

On innovation and change, I have been very adaptable and always seek new ways to handle problems at work and at school which agrees with the six points in my results that show I am eligible to work in both rapidly changing environments and in a highly competitive market that appreciates innovative ways to bring fresh ideas to the market.

On decision-making process, though the results show I am non-linear and make decisions solely based on my emotions and feelings, I tend to be more logical as a student especially when finding solutions to problems. This is an aspect that can be improved upon as managers have to make decisions based on logic. Finally, I’m good at influencing others and believe I have political skills to help in this regard as the results depict on conflict, power, and politics (Livermore 2015).

On decision-making, my results show that I’m more leaning towards non-linear methods that include using emotions and feeling to make decisions as opposed to using logic. This is one area that I will need to develop upon to ensure that I make concrete and formidable managerial decisions.

Secondly, on cultural preference, and specifically on adaptability culture, there is room for improvement as this is the one area I found to have the biggest weakness. This can help in future integration in multicultural contexts especially in the context of global environments that companies are working in at the moment (Heathfield 2017).

Understanding Organizational Structure and Emphasis on Teamwork

Thirdly, my results indicate that I prefer large and established companies to work for. However, as much as large companies are hierarchical in nature, the current operating environment is rapidly changing with governments and populations banding against monopolies and the increasing cases of anti-trust regulations. I have to therefore, improve on organization size preference as both big and small organizations are working in a very competitive market (Haldorsen 2018).

On cultural intelligence, I scored very low on cognitive CQ, for this reason, this puts me at a disadvantage in the global job market. Since companies are employing their staff from the international job pool, this is an area that would require further development to increase my chances of employer appeal during recruitment (Heathfield 2017).

Regarding inter-organizational relationships and personal networking, my results though impressive in general, indicate that I do not maintain a list of friends, workmates, and colleagues who I can send holiday cards. Networking has been proven to be a very effective method of finding new opportunities and increasing productivity by maintaining symbiotic ties with other organizations through old and new contacts. Therefore, I may need to connect further with old colleagues and friends for career and personal development (MacKechnie 2014).

According to my performance, I am not very well versed in political and the structural frames in the evolution of style. Marque (2015) argues that though political style is more evident in older managers and structural frame is evident in the formal institutions and older organizations where there are specific routine tasks, political frame is important in convincing people to work together and structural frame is important in organizations that require standardized products that require routine procedure (Dandira 2011).

On strategy, organization design, and effectiveness, the results indicated that I was more of a strategy implementer as opposed to strategy formulator. Though strategy implementation is a function that I can perform excellently in, it is noteworthy to realize that as a student engaged in a strategic management class, my role is more biased towards formulating strategies that will take the organization I work with forward. To this end, I may need to focus more on the details that will make me an excellent strategy formulator than implementer (Ward 2017).

Lastly, on the evolution of organisation style, as a new manager, I am inclined to improve on political frame and structural frame to be a holistic manager capable of laying out the procedures necessary to achieve the organisation goals while at the same time having political mettle to influence diverse groups to work towards a common cause.

Importance of Networking and Relationships in an Organization

Table 1: Personal Action Plan

Name:  Reuben Devapatham Contact: Email:[email protected]
My Present Skills: 1. Analytical skills 2. Linguistic 3. Research 4. Strategy formulation/Strategy implementation
Skills to work on: 1. Presentation skills 2. Interpersonal skills 3. Time Management
My Resources: 1. Readily available reading materials 2. Un-interrupted internet 3. Funds to facilitate my studies
My Goals
Short-term Goal (8-12 months)
Action	Personal Performance Indicators(PPI)	Specific challenges	Approach to overcome challenges	Target start	Target end
To further enhance knowledge on management and related topics	-Making time to read and study management books -Watching management related videos and movies -To carry out personal research on interesting topics	-Lack of time -Lack of proper guidance from mentors -Lack of a focused target or unable to decide on which aspect of management to focus on.	-Allocate time for research and in-depth reading without any distractions and disturbances -Consult with lecturers on topics that require further explanation	Dec 2017	May 2018
Medium-term Goal (6-18 months )
Action	Personal Performance Indicators	Specific challenges	Approach to overcome challenges	Target start	Target end
-To delve into management functions at work or in another organization	-To continuously apply for various management jobs, without neglecting current responsibilities	-Lack of management jobs. -Salary not within the desired/ requested value	-Constantly looking for opportunities within the desired field. -To develop managerial skills while working for the UAE Navy.	May 2018	Nov 2019
Long-term Goal 18-36 months
Action	Personal Performance Indicators	Specific challenges	Approach to overcome challenges	Target start	Completion Date
-To become part of the management staff, either an Operations Manager, a Quality Assurance Manager or even a Logistics Manager	-I may pursue Ph.D. in Business Administration, in order to further enhance knowledge and standing within the organization – To further enhance knowledge on operations aspect of the business -To research on the current trends regarding operations of a highly successful organization	-Lack of experience/ exposure within the desired field -Lack of time especially with my intention to further my studies to Ph.D. level, as I will have to devote a considerable chunk of my free time to pursue this endeavor -Lack of Knowledge due to the excessive demands that are required to be met when pursuing Ph.D.	-Continuously seek out better work experiences/ projects/tasks to handle and manage. -Continuously looking for articles/ published studies and etc to upgrade knowledge beyond additional work experience as well as to have a sense of upcoming trends. -Constantly look out for additional business or management short courses, leadership and project management courses to continuously enhance knowledge and approach to career	Dec 2019	Dec 2022

Conclusion

In conclusion, the paper focused on personal development programs and how to develop them. The paper focuses on identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses, where one fits in an organization and ways on how to turn one’s weaknesses into strengths. This has been made possible through a series of design questionnaires that measure one’s aspects such as thinking process, cultural intelligence, strategy formulation or implementation ability, teamwork skills, ability to work in a rapidly changing environment, networking skills, ability to set goals, ethical considerations and lastly innovative as well as change management skills.

Through a set of measurements, one’s strengths and weaknesses are revealed and a match for the type of organization they fit in deduced. The paper has also presented a personal development plan complete with short-term, mid-term and long-term goals. Challenges expected in fulfilling the goals have been pointed out and ways to overcome those challenges identified.

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