Management and Learning

Personal Development Planning

Personal development planning is a structured process that helps create an action for self-improvement, growth and development. Similar to the professional development plan that we saw in earlier chapters, a personal development plan is also based on various goals. However, these goals are more personal in nature – fulfilling the needs of self-esteem and self-actualisation.

The goals could be based on self-awareness, introspection, individual values and beliefs, learning, etc. The goals are for career growth, personal development (new skills, better personality, better human being, more knowledge, etc.), educational development (different courses, certifications, research, etc.) or relationship development (personal or professional by developing people skills, leadership skills, empathy, etc.)

It is like building your own vision statement, creating strategies to achieve that vision, defining SMART goals to achieve strategies and creating acting plans to achieve those goals. Personal Development Plans (PDP) can be for short-term and long-term.

PDP is also called an Individual Development Plan (IDP). PDP/IDP starts with internal brainstorming, where one starts with a blank sheet and writes down what one wants from life and career, in the short-term and in the long run. One identifies and writes down individual strengths and weaknesses and also the opportunities and threats (called SWOT analysis).

One may use many personality assessments (like MBTI) and other tools like life cycle and mind mapping to identify what one really wants and how one’s personality will positively or negatively impact that goal achievement.

Truthfulness while answering above mentioned questions is important. Only if one is honest, one can get a list of what is available and what is not available – competencies and behaviours that must be modified, changed or newly developed.

Refer to earlier chapters on how to set goals and the next section from this chapter to create an action plan for each goal.

Action Planning

Action planning is important to execute your vision, mission, strategy and goals. Action planning is an important process (and action plan is an important tool) as it helps identify various actions one must take to reach the final goal.

Merely defining SMART goals is not enough to achieve those goals. You need to take timely and appropriate actions to ensure the achievement of those SMART goals.

Action planning provides clarity by answering following two questions:

• What actions one needs to take to achieve defined goals?
• What actions one needs to stop to achieve defined goals?

Following are the standard steps in action planning:

We will consider each step with one example of a SMART goal.

Increase sales by 5% for the western region (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states) by end of quarter 3 i.e., by 30th September 2022.

• Identify activities for each SMART goal: One needs to broadly list down various activities that one needs to undertake to achieve each defined goal.
  
  Activity Example: Create a sales plan, Hire sales people, etc.
  
  
• Identify tasks for each activity: One needs to now identify more detailed tasks required to complete each activity.
  
  
  Example: To hire sales people:
  
  
  • Get approval from sales department head (write names, budget amounts, date by when you need this position filled, etc.)
    
    
  • Write an email to HR recruitment team, share the job description and in detail the requirement of the position like grade, location. (again, write names to whom you will write, specify the date by when you need this position filled, inform about your availability for interview, etc.)
    
    
• Identify people who will execute each action: Each task will be executed by ‘people’ at the end of the day and therefore it is important to identify and give responsibility to each of those individuals to complete defined tasks. It helps while following up, checking the progress status of that task/activity. This also helps distribute the work more efficiently and not burden only one or few individuals with all the work.
  
  
  Example: Write an email to department head as well as HR recruitment team – to be done by the sales manager. In this example, even identify one individual from HR recruitment team who will be responsible for this particular hiring.
  
  
• Agree timelines for each goal, activity and task: The actions can’t go on forever, there has to be a time limit by when each task and activity will be completed. Only this will help achieve the final defined goals.
  
  
  Example: Write an email to department head by end of today (mention a date and time).
  
  
• Identify risks and define strategies to mitigate risks: Make a list of things that may not transpire as expected. Have a plan in place to mitigate such risks.
  
  
  Example: Appropriate candidate is not hired on time. Plan B could be to distribute the responsibilities amongst existing team members, give them stretched goals to ensure sales grow by 5% by end of quarter 3. OR, by anticipating hiring delay, have a pool of candidates ready well in advance. OR, devise unique selling ideas to penetrate such markets where salesperson is not physically available.
  
  
• Review actions against agreed timelines: One needs to review the action plan from time to time. Check if each task is completed by the responsible person and by the time agreed. This helps one keep the track the progress of the goal achievement. Document the review feedback for each goal, activity and task during such reviews. Mention reasons if the task is not completed or half completed. Check proofs for the same and mention the same objectively.
  
  
  Example: Email to department head is written by Mr. X by xx- xx-xxx (date) at 4.30 pm. However, no response is received and Mr. X did not follow up with the department head after one reminder email sent on xx-xx-xxxx (date) at 11.30 am.
  
  
• Reassess, revise and repeat: At the end of the agreed timeline, reassess the progress, revise the actions or even the goals, if needed and then repeat the entire process of action planning.
  
  
  Example: In case, the department head has not reverted to approval email, one may arrange a face-to-face meeting to discuss and get approval. If approval is not received on time, revise the actions of dividing the goal amongst existing team members, if that doesn’t work out either, say due to attrition in the team, then revise the goal and reduce it to 2% increase in sales or increase the timeline to achieve 5% by end of year i.e., 31st December 2022. And then write down the action plan for this new goal and repeat all the steps mentioned above.

Action planning thus helps to break down large goals into actionable items that can be completed one by one and not get overwhelmed by the actual goal. It also helps identify resources and use them effectively within the available time frame. Thus, it is safe to say, without an action, goals ca not be achieved.

Coaching

Coaching can be defined in many ways. It is a collaborative process where one individual, called ‘coach’, helps another individual, to unlock his/her potential and facilitates high performance, learning and development. In an organisation the manager is required to coach his/ her team members and therefore must be trained in ‘coaching skill’. It can be learned and developed with practice. There are professional ‘coaches’ available outside the organisations as well, who are trained in ‘coaching skills’ and who can handle clients of all age groups, ethnicities, professions and hierarchies.

It is said that the first time the word ‘coach’ was used in connection with an instructor or trainer who carried his/her student through an exam. The word ‘coaching’ thus identified a process used to transport people from where they are to where they want to be.*

Historically the development of coaching has been influenced by many fields of activity, including adult education, the Human Potential Movement in the 1960s, Large-group Awareness Training (LGAT) groups (such as Erhard Seminars Training, founded in 1971), leadership studies, personal development, and various subfields of psychology. Currently, International Coaching Federation (ICF), USA is considered a prime body developing coaches across the globe.

The manager/leader in an organisation must develop coaching skills. Some of the key skills required to be an effective coach are:

• Empathy
• Listening skills
• Rapport building
• Communication skills (paraphrasing, non-verbal, eye contact, etc.)
• Relationship building skills People skills (connect, respect, trust)
• Concentration
• Self-awareness
• Asking questions (asking appropriate questions at the right time helps the employee to introspect and find answers – listening intently helps to ask right questions at the right time!)
• Emotional detachment (this is very important else the coach (manager/leader in this case) may feel burnt out soon)
• Follow up and reviewing skills
• Critical feedback sharing skills
• Positive attitude
• Persistence
• Creativity (to help the employee identify various solutions, coach needs to use creative techniques of asking questions or visualisation?
• Observation skills (helps identify stressors and motivators of an individual
• Curiosity (be curious to know the person and also learn from the person

A leader as a coach must also follow certain ethical guidelines:

• Confidentiality (what is discussed between the coach leader and the employee remains between the two of them)
  
  
• Avoid documentation (to maintain confidentiality)
  
  
• Integrity (be truthful with the employee otherwise it won’t help him/her identify his/her potential and grow)
  
  
• Non-judgmental (don’t judge the employee based on past experience, be open)
  
  
• Mutual trust and respect (just because the employee is seeking/ needs help doesn’t mean his/her capabilities are to be demeaned. Respect the fact that he/she wants to improve and is seeking help. At the same time, trust the genuine interest the person has shown to grow)

The leader may use following standard coaching framework to help an employee identify his/her potential and develop:

• Why: What is the purpose behind coaching? Why the employee is seeking coaching? First identify answer to this question. This helps identify some hidden human need that is not fulfilled.
  
  
• What: Create awareness. What is it that the employee wants to achieve through coaching? Help the employee bring ‘self-awareness’ by using some visualisation technique to identify current and new self-images.
  
  
• Who: Identify responsibility of individuals in one’s growth.
  
  
  • Acceptance: Help the employee accept current situation.
  • Transformation: Help the employee build new vision that will help him/her transform to new him/hr.
    
    
• How: Ensure reflection. Help the employee develop an action plan to answer questions like how I will achieve this new vision, what steps will I take, what will be my winning speech, etc.

The coach leader must provide the employee with various tools and techniques that he/she can use later and be able to coach oneself on an ongoing basis. This is real empowerment. It not only reduced the leader coach’s burden of providing continuous support and investing so much time but also made an employee independent to take critical decisions and solve problems.