510 management

Professional Development Plan

The Professional Development Plan (PDP) will provide you the unique opportunity to assess your strengths, weaknesses, and undeveloped capabilities in light of your vision for your professional future. Through the use of assessment instrumentation, developmental theory, and other tools, you will formulate a personal, detailed road map that will target specific competencies for future development. Competency development will typically leverage work roles, project assignments, training opportunities, and your MBA/MHA Program to meet developmental objectives. The PDP will be amended and updated in your final MBA course, MBA 690.

In your PDP you should include the following:

1. Personal Vision Statement – carefully craft the text for an article that will be written about you in 3-5 years (your choice in terms of relevant time frame). The article will appear in an industry periodical or a corporate newsletter. It will praise and summarize your work and personal accomplishments over the stated time period. It should be as detailed and comprehensive as possible. As you prepare to craft this, consider where you want to be personally and professionally at the end of the time frame. What do you want to be “doing” and how will you be making a difference? Also consider the challenges that may lie along the way. It is fair that there might be wins and losses as well as sacrifices and rewards on your path and reflected in your article. Your path need not be “stereotypical” (e.g. climbing the corporate ladder) but can be as creative and outside-the-lines as you are. Finally, in preparation of composing this make sure you consider how your journey reflects your core values.

1. Assessment Instrument Summary and Interpretation

This section will provide you an opportunity to summarize and reflect upon the results of the Assessment Instruments you have taken in the course. For each instrument you should provide (1) a clear description of the instrument taken, results, and what they are stated to mean (a chart may be a convenient way to present this data) and (2) Your reflections on those outcomes and meanings as they relate to you and your future vision. You should do this for each of the four instruments below. Finally, you should discuss patterns you observed across all instruments that you believe are important.

1. Competency Sort (Include table)

2. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

3. Clifton StrengthsFinder

4. Emotional Intelligence Appraisal

5. Presentation Skills

6. Writing Skills Assessment

1. Personal SWOT Analysis – Your SWOT analysis should contain the following sections:

1. Strengths: Identify and define specifically what you believe to be your greatest strengths (generically speaking). This should not be a set of one-word answers. Consider the unique contexts in which your strengths have developed and been used. Also consider nuances of your particular manifestation of a particular strength – be specific and offer examples. Finally, consider the scope and scale of your use of the strength. “Strong Management Skills,” for example, is simply too broad – what is the scope and scale of your successful management experience; what types of activities or projects were you managing; what was the nature of your direct reports prior education, experience, and degree of autonomy? What other contextual factors should be included that might have interacted with your successful use of Management Skills? Research suggests that managers successful in one context may not be successful in a different one. A thoughtful process here may result in you further refining your understanding of your “strengths.”

1. Weaknesses: Identify and define specifically what you believe to be your areas of greatest challenge. Describe the unique contexts in which your weaknesses have exhibited themselves and be specific with examples. For example, simply saying, “poor delegation skills” is insufficient. In what specific situations did you attempt to delegate and meet with a sense that things had not gone well? Who were you attempting to delegate to and what were you delegating? Often questions such as these will cause you to reframe and restate your “weakness.”

1. Under (or un-) developed Capabilities: In this section attempt to identify those Competencies that you believe will be important to your future, but have not, as of yet, been significantly developed. This is different than a weakness (something you have tried repeatedly and know has been a challenge). This is simply something that you have not had an opportunity to develop. For example, “Team Leadership” if you have never led a team. Again, try to be a specific as possible.

1. Possible Emerging New Opportunities – Are there possible opportunities that may or should present themselves? If so, discuss those opportunities. Are there possibilities that you plan to seek out or pursue? If so, discuss those possibilities and your plans with regard to them.

1. Trends that may be important to your future: Try to identify several external (to you) trends that you believe will be relevant to your future and then do some additional research to learn more about them. For example, if you aspire to open a coffee shop, you may want to research business trends related to coffee retail products. You may want to also understand recent changes in coffee value chain issues such as “Fair Trade Coffee.” If you are considering working toward a position in the healthcare industry, then explore trends in healthcare. The trends you identify should be ones that may be interactive with your Vision Statement and thus may end up as “actionable” on your development plan as an educational goal.

1. Threats to your Vision – Are there things that might get in the way of you achieving your vision? Discuss each of these and how you might mitigate any potential negative impact.

1. Identify 3 competencies for development: Identify 3 competencies for development and discuss why each was chosen. The selected competencies should support the achievement of your personal vision statement. You can target strengths in order to turn them into “Towering Strengths,” weaknesses that you believe might “get in the way” if not strengthened, or undeveloped competencies that you believe will need to be developed in the future if you are to achieve your vision.

1. Detailed Development Plan: For each targeted competency, your detailed development plan should include the following:

1. Detailed and specific definition of the competency – “Improve presentation skills” is not enough. Try to be as specific as possible. Not only, will it help you focus your development efforts, it will also help you evaluate your progress along the way.

2. For each competency identify at least three activities that support its development. Your activities should include at least one activity that”

1. Provides “inputs” or new information about the competency – this could be a literature review with specific targeted readings, attending a specific workshop or seminar, reading a specific book, etc.

2. Provides “practice” of the new competency – this could be assumption of a new work or committee role, or “doing” specific things differently at work or as part of a social group.

3. Provides feedback to you based on your “practice” activity above. So, if you read a book on “delegation skills,” and then take on a new committee leadership role in order to “practice” your delegation skills, then you could seek “feedback” on your progress from a committee member, peer, mentor, or boss.

1. All “inputs” and “activities” identified above should be specific and “calenderable.” That is, they should be specific activities with dates for completion or attendance. Non-specific and non-calendared development plans gather dust and lose momentum.

2. Your development plan can be built as a chart if helpful.

1. Feedback from someone other than yourself on your Competency Sort Results for your current skills.