Developing yourself and others

Developing yourself and others

Personal development can be seen as a project in which one is interested in investing in themselves. Developing others comes in when one is selfless enough or is required by circumstances to spend on other people’s progression. Personal development may happen as a reward for developing others. It does not mean that one cannot develop individually without developing others, but it is better and appreciated if it involves developing others. Investing in one’s life comprises giving attention to things that are important to an individual. In this case, career is an essential part of an individual’s life and cannot be ignored during self-development. Key to the success of any project is proper planning. A successful career, therefore, requires proper planning and management. This paper discusses development in the aspect of career at an individual level as well as the event of others. Job description and relevance to one’s curriculum vitae is discussed in detail as well as one’s strength and weakness analysis. It also highlights the process of identifying potential development opportunities and ways of revising development plans.

1. Job description

             In most cases, this is used as a hiring tool by several companies. It is expected that a job description is as flexible as possible. If this is not the case, it is an individual’s effort to adjust their curriculum vitae to fit in. Serious companies provide generic job descriptions that help employees to focus on results rather than job duties. Generic descriptions refer to the ones that emphasize accountability and expectations rather than job tasks. To get a good career development, an individual should focus on these types of job descriptions. Success in life always depends on one’s ability to exploit their talent to the full potential and ability to realize and perfect weaknesses.

1.1    Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis.

SWOT is a powerful tool in that one only needs to employ a little thought, and the realize opportunities they would otherwise not see. It helps one understand his or her weaknesses and thus easily eliminate threats that would otherwise be faced. Some of the strengths could be, being creative and able to communicate well with clients and team members. Weaknesses could include working faster to clear one’s to-do list affecting the quality of work as a result. Opportunities, in this case, could include the ability to take advantage of a competitor’s weakness. A threat that could face an individual, for example, is competition from a fellow worker for a higher office.

1.2    Organization’s objectives and significance to own development.

An organization that is interested in a successful employee training and career development will provide much detail in their job description. Some of the features include the abilities, skills, and knowledge required to do a job successfully. A good job description aids in the recruitment process as well as well as serving as an outline for reporting relationships and working conditions. With this in mind, an individual can consider this to develop their career. For example, an analysis of job descriptions from several companies can help one build a flexible profile.

1.3    Feedback from line managers and colleagues.

In an institution with a properly set chain of command, one can quickly get feedback on their progression from their managers.  Feedback could be based on tasks completed and the time is taken, or maybe personal contact during work. Managers can be trusted to give honest feedback about an individual since they are probably not exposed to any pressure. Colleagues spend a lot of time together and could be a reliable source of feedback. However, feedback should only be taken from trustworthy colleagues.

1.4    Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal (PESTLE) analysis.

The strengths and weaknesses discussed in section 1.1 are obtained after an analysis referred as PESTLE. It is a tool used by marketers to monitor the external market environmental factors affecting an organization. Each of the factors affects how an organization grows or makes a profit.

2. Personal development.

            After doing all the analysis above, an individual is well aware of where they are regarding development. It is possible to work out on the areas which require to be worked on to improve skills and abilities. The first step in addressing weaknesses is identifying them, and this is discussed above.

2.1    Personal development plan

            A successful career relies entirely on planning and management. The belief that the right person will find the right job at the right time is based on opportunism. There exists a lot of uncertainty and thus planning is required to create opportunities for development. It is therefore vital for an individual to shape their career rather than rely on events based on uncertainty.

2.2    Learning logs and records of activities.

Sometimes it is not everything that is learned counts. In a learning activity, an individual will waste a lot of time doing irrelevant things. Learning logs play a significant role in making one responsible and accountable for everything they learn in the process. The record of activities that one is involved in helps to track one’s development at regular intervals.  Here, matters of importance are time, the specific activity, feeling and the duration taken for each event.

2.3    Methods to plan and monitor learning.

In the aspect of a project, information is systematically gathered and analyzed in a process referred to as monitoring.  Monitoring should be included in the planning stage of a project although it is not an evaluation process. In the event where an individual is on the development process, they should always monitor their activities with keenness. It is after this that evaluation is done. Evaluation means reflecting what has already been done and learned.

2.4    Revising a development plan.

The main aim of the whole process being self-development and developing others; it should be revised to check the outcomes achieved. A successful process should include achieved goals, and new knowledge acquired. An individual should take time to see whether after the whole process they have met their targets and whether there have been any failures.

Conclusion

    The determination to develop oneself should always be motivated by the desire to develop others. The idea of SWOT and PESTLE should be clear in the mind of every individual willing to start the process of career development. The concept of developing others should also be accepted as it is critical in self-development.