Professional

Development
For Strategic Managers

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Contents
1. Methods to improve personal and professional skills required to achieve strategic goals ...... 3
1.1. Skills required for effective strategic management .......................................................... 3
1.1.1. Personal skills ........................................................................................................... 3
1.1.2. Professional skills ..................................................................................................... 4
1.1.3. Contribution of Personal and Professional Skills towards organization ................... 5
1.2. Importance of time management for the strategic managers ........................................... 6
1.2.1. Time management brings more productivity ............................................................ 6
2. Personal Skills Audit............................................................................................................... 7
2.1. Stages of Personal Audit .................................................................................................. 7
2.1.1. Personal Audit developing skills for effective management and leadership ............ 8
2.2. Benefits for identifying Learning Styles .......................................................................... 8
2.2.1. My Learning style and its effectiveness.................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Impact of Learning Styles on Personal development ............................................... 9
3. Personal Development Plan and CPD................................................................................... 10
3.1. Benefits of Personal Development Plan ......................................................................... 10
3.2. My Personal Development Plan for next year ............................................................... 10
3.3. Value of Continuous Professional Development for organization and individuals ....... 12
4. Personal Development Portfolio ........................................................................................... 13


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1. Methods to improve personal and professional skills required to achieve
strategic goals
1.1. Skills required for effective strategic management
In order to develop vision, mission and long term objectives for the company and make the entire
organization aligned with these goals and objectives, there is a need for an effective strategic
manager who is able to carry on all the functions successfully. In order to achieve long term
objectives of the firm, the strategic manager acts like a leader, who lead the subordinates to the
right direction and facilitate the people in overcoming the hurdles and obstacles that might arise
from time to time. In addition to this, the manager also integrates the organization and makes the
people work effectively, to achieve short term goals consistently, in order to meet the long term
objectives of the firm. Thus there is a need for effective skill set for the strategic managers so
that they can handle all the tasks in a successful way.
Some of the skills which are important for the effective strategic management are basic
management skills, time management skills, problem solving skills, stress management skills,
motivational and inspirational skills, decision making skills, leadership skills, openness to
change and effective communication skills. There are various other skills which are important for
the effective strategic management. It is recommended that the people must continuously
monitor themselves and try to establish these skill sets in order to manage the firm in an effective
manner. In order to understand these skills in a detailed manner, the skills are broadly subdivided
into Personal skills and Professional skills. After understanding these skills, individuals can
easily carry on the day to day operations in an effective manner and can understand and apply
the strategic concepts in more detail.
1.1.1. Personal skills
Personal skills are the important requirement as strategic managers. This is because of the fact
that the personality of the manager is a role model for the subordinates. For this reason, presence
of personal skills is very important for the managers. Some of the personal skills are:
Time management skills: Time management is very important for the organizational members.
Organizational goals and objectives are time bound. For this reason it is necessary that the
manager must be able to manage its subordinates in a manner that the right work must be done at
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right time. If the people within organization are able to manage the time in an effective manner,
they will be able to achieve long term objectives and goals. Manager must be able to deal with
the time wasters in an organization appropriately. In the history of management, there are various
examples dealing with time management. The effective strategic managers have minimized those
activities which might waste the time of the employee and directed them to concentrate on their
work. By using their time management skills, managers can increase the productivity of
employees.
Stress management skills: There are various uncertain events in an organization which can be
stressful for the employees as well as for the managers. For example disastrous situations may
arise; organization can be subjected to sudden loss. In addition to this crisis situations are also
related with the business environment which can create stress among the people within or outside
organizational environment. For effective strategic manager, it is important to have stress
management skills. This involves emotional stability of the manager, Problem solving skills and
decision making skills of the managers. Manager must be able to make the right decision at right
time in order to overcome stress among its employees and various other stakeholders.
Communication skills: Effective communication is very important for the managers. The role
of the managers involves and demands effective communication skills because goals, objectives,
roles, responsibilities, decisions are most of the time communicated within an organization. The
individuals must be able to communicate effectively so that the right content is delivered to
various levels of organization. Conflict handling skills, listening skills are some of the examples
of effective communication skills.
1.1.2. Professional skills
Some of the professional skills that are necessary for the strategic managers are stated as follows:
Coaching and counseling Skills: At workplace, there are many situations in which the
subordinates are facing certain issues and for this reason, the productivity of overall organization
can be affected. For this reason, there is a need for the counseling, mentoring and coaching skills
of the managers which can help the employees by suggesting them the way out of the situation.
In this manner, the productivity and other concerns for organization can be solved. Paternalistic
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advice can not only help the employee but the employee will be motivated and inspired to work
in the long run.
Leadership skills: Change is the demand for most of the organization. This is because of the
various situational factors that demands change in the structure, functions and direction of an
organization. For this reason, leadership skills are required so that in such situations, manager
could act as a leader and lead the organizational towards adoption of new strategic dimension. As
leading is one of the important functions of management, for this reason these skills are
necessary for the strategic managers.
Presentation skills: There are various situations when the manager has to represent the
organization in the outside environment. In these cases he/she has to perform the role of
spokesperson or a liaison. In order to perform these roles appropriately, there is a need for
effective presentation skills. By using these skills the strategic managers can communicate their
point of view and organizational motives in a better way. Presentation skills can also be used
within an organization when the managers have to present the ideas or proposal in front of Board
of Directors and other stakeholders.
1.1.3. Contribution of Personal and Professional Skills towards organization
The personal and professional skills described earlier are very important in order to achieve
organizational goals. Managers must use these skills in an appropriate manner in order to align
the people within an organization towards specific directions. Combinations of skills can be used
simultaneously. In some conditions, manager can use effective communication skills along with
the leadership skills in order to motivate the followers to do certain task. In the same way,
various other skill sets might be used. But it is observable that the purpose of usage of these
skills is always contributing and facilitating towards achieving long term organizational
objectives. If the objective of the management is concern for people within an organization,
managers can use counseling and problem solving skills. Similarly organizations demand
productivity of employees in order to achieve goals and attain profitability, managers has to use
their time management skills and other skills. Thus it can be monitored from the above
discussion that the personal and professional skills contribute for attaining long term business
objectives of an organization. If a person has certain vision in his or her life, for example my
vision is to become a successful event manager. Various skill sets will be required to me in order
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to accomplish this. Time management skills, effective communication skills in order to
communicate the event plans to the suppliers and other business partners and various other skills
will be required in order to achieve my personal goals. Same is the case with business
organizations.
1.2. Importance of time management for the strategic managers
Managing time is of considerable importance in the current business environment. This is
because of the fact that organizations are striving to achieve competitive advantage and are
continuously improving their functions and operations. This trend for gaining competitive
advantage demands the workforce to work in an effective manner and achieve the short term
business objectives on time. This paves the way for achieving long term business objectives.
Strategic managers must develop effective time management skills so that they can achieve their
objectives and can perform the roles effectively. They must be able to develop capabilities
among their employees to realize the importance of time and perform the task assigned to them
on timely basis.
1.2.1. Time management brings more productivity
There are various companies which provide time management training to their employees which
increase the productivity of the employees. By managing time in an effective manager, strategic
thinkers can motivate their employees to limit the unnecessary activities in the job environment.
When these extra activities are limited, people can concentrate on their task and can accomplish
these tasks on time. Usually milestones and other timescales are introduced in the work setting
which specifies the time required to complete certain task. The actual performance of employee
is gauged against these time standards. Productivity of the employees is dependent upon the
assigned level of task. If the employees are lazy and are busy in the additional activities, they
require more time. On the other hand if the employees manage their time and do not waste the
time assigned to them, they will be more productive. In this manner, time management brings
productivity in an organization.



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2. Personal Skills Audit
Individuals must be able to identify the skills and various learning styles within ones' self in
order to develop potential for learning. Skill audit not only facilitate the individuals and
organizations to evaluate their current skills but are helpful in improving their existing skills and
paves the way for the development of additional skills.
2.1. Stages of Personal Audit
There are five stages of personal audit. These stages facilitate the individuals in identifying
various skills, and support the individuals in defining the required skills necessary for effective
management and leadership practices within or outside the organizations.
Stage 1: Identification of Existing Skills and Information level
In the bullet points, individual can jolt down the current or existing knowledge about certain
field. If a person is a manager, he/she can write down various management skills which
according to him/her are currently present. The job description page can be reviewed and the
individual can identify which of the skills are present and which of them are not present.
Stage 2: Identification of Potential skills and Information level
Stage 2 of the personal skill audit involves the list of the skills and information requirements
which are important in terms of career and job requirements. There might be fifteen to twenty
points which can be included in this list.
Stage 3: Rating abilities
The next step is to rate both the lists on the scale of 1 to 5 describing your current capabilities, 1
symbolizing little competency and 5 symbolizing high competency. 3 in this scale describe
moderate level of competency.
Stage 4: Review of the rating score
In stage 4, the individual might ask the peers and instructors to evaluate and review the rating
score. In this stage it is important that the person, selected for the review, must be highly just and
should not be biased while giving their suggestions.
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Stage 5: Future prospects for developing skills
In the final stage, individual can analyze the entire information available to him/her and can
focus on the areas which are important for the career of a person.
2.1.1. Personal Audit developing skills for effective management and leadership
The above mentioned stages of the personal skills audit are very fruitful for the strategic
managers. By following these stages, they can not only identify which of the fields within ones
self are effective and which are the areas which requires the attention of individuals. The skills
which got less scores from the individual and peers is highlighted and the individual can easily
inform the ways which can be used in order to overcome the weaknesses. In this manner
effective leadership and management skills can be developed.
2.2. Benefits for identifying Learning Styles
Learning process is necessary in order to process the information provided to a person from the
external environment. By identifying the learning styles, individuals can avoid various
problematic situations by making smart choices. In addition to this, individual will be successful
on job. They can identify the environment which is suitable for the team building and individual
will be better able to work with peers and other team members. There are various models which
are developed by the practitioners indicating the ways, people learn things. David Kolbs model
defines experience as a source of learning. It is important for the people to identify their learning
style in order to improve their information handling and processing skills. Learning is the
continuous phenomenon and individual learn things which gradually shape the behavior and
personality. Thus people must pay attention on identifying their learning styles.
2.2.1. My Learning style and its effectiveness
In most of the cases, I follow Flemings VAK and VARK model for learning. I believe that
individual learn most of the things via senses. Visual, Auditory and Tactile senses is most of the
time facilitating the people for learning things. Being a student and part time worker, most of the
things are learned during the class room environment and at the workplace. The managers or
supervisors communicate things with the help of written or verbal communication. In addition to
this, most of the materials which are taught to us during the class room environment are written
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or verbal. For this reason, my mind processes this information and recognizes the thing which is
important for me to learn and facilitate me for learning.
2.2.2. Impact of Learning Styles on Personal development
Recent studies have proved that the learning helps in improving self confidence which further
contributes for fulfilling self esteem needs in the Maslow hierarchy. It is important for the people
to identify the learning styles because they have positive impact on the personal and professional
development of an individual. People can easily process the information and learn things in an
effective manner. Thus it can be said that the learning styles contribute for the personal
development of an individual. This can be explained with the help of an example. When there is
an infant, there are only limited things to do in that situation but when the infant gradually
transform into toddler, child and adult, there are variety of things he/she learns. These learned
things are either because of experience or deductive or inductive reasoning. But they facilitate
the individual to learn things and then apply these things in the personal and professional life. In
order to broaden the scope of learning, it is important for the people to identify the learning
styles.








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3. Personal Development Plan and CPD
Personal development plan is the structured approach which involves listing the goals and
objectives and facilitates the individuals in determining the ways to achieve these objectives.
3.1. Benefits of Personal Development Plan
Personal development plan is one of the important tools of professional development that helps
the people to access their skills and abilities. With the help of this plan, they can easily access
what are their capabilities and core competencies. The weaknesses are also highlighted with the
help of this plan and the individual can easily identify the areas in which more effort is required.
Personal development plan is of great use to the strategic managers and they can easily avail the
career opportunities by working on this plan. There is variety of options available with the
people in order to work on these plans. They can use several worksheets that track the routine
activities of the people. Thus it can be said that by recording the detailed routine activities,
individual can monitor how much time is spent on each activity and by keen analysis, he/she can
work out which of the activities can be added or eliminated from the routine in order to get more
fruitful results.
Personal development plan clarifies the ways and choices to the individual which are source of
benefit or threat for accomplishing certain task. The plan should show continuous improvement
in the personality of individuals. This is because of the fact that if the development plan is
showing progress then the overall objective of developing various skills would be achieved.
Otherwise, it would be of no use.
3.2. My Personal Development Plan for next year
The following chart shows my personal development plan for next year. In the skills and
attributes, the skills which are already present or not present are listed down. In the next two
columns, the status of these skills is represented which depicts whether these skills are present,
needs to be improved or to be learned. In these columns, the status has been written and the score
from 1 to 4 is given to these skills depicting the level of particular skill and its relative
importance in the next year. In this manner, the score represents what is the degree of the skill
present in me and how much effort is required in order to improve this skill.

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Sr.
No.
Skills and Attributes Already learned To be learned next year
Status Score Status Importance
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
1 Business report writing Yes 3 Yes 1
2 Creative skills for marketing No 1 Yes 3
3 Effective Communication
Skills
Yes 3 Yes 4
4 Working with databases No 1 Yes 4
5 Working with Information
Systems
Yes 1 Yes 3
6 Technical writing Yes 4 No 1
7 Listening skills Yes 4 No 1
8 Presentation skills Yes 2 Yes 3
9 Information searching skills Yes 4 No 1
10 Basic mathematic calculations Yes 3 No 1
11 Dealing with scientific
equipment
No 1 No 1
12 Analytical reasoning skills Yes 3 Yes 2
13 Working in teams Yes 1 Yes 4
14 Decision making skills Yes 1 Yes 4
15 Logical reasoning skills Yes 2 Yes 3

My strengths:
Writing skills are one of my strengths. This includes business report writing, technical writing,
computer knowledge, listening skills, information skills, analytical reasoning skills and various
other writing and communication skills.
My weaknesses:
Marketing, being my area of interest involves various creative skills of the marketers. For this
reason, there is a need for the understanding of creative software which not only facilitates in
developing various branding elements, but enhances the creative skills of the person. Thus
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creative skills are not currently present in me and there is a need for development of these skills.
Resources needed: Access to the institutes developing creative skills among the people and
teaching the use of creative software. Same is the case with databases and scientific tool handling
skills.
Decision making skills are also lacking in me. This could be enhanced by playing various
business management games which are tend to improve decision making skills among the
business professionals.
Opportunities:
Access to various institutes is one of the opportunities available to me. In addition to this,
internet is one of the most appropriate opportunities available currently which help the people to
access information and the ways to develop various skills.
Threat:
Limited budget available to me is one of the threats that are posed in order to develop the
effective skill set within me.
3.3. Value of Continuous Professional Development for organization and
individuals
Continuous professional development or CPD is important for both the organizations, as well as
for the individuals. This is because of the fact that change is the continuous process that has been
occurring in the job environment as well as in businesses. Trained and skillful workforce is the
requirement of every organization and the companies appreciates those employees which are
dedicated towards achieving organizational goals. For this reason, it is important for the people
who want to work in well reputed organizations to focus on continuous professional
development plans, which not only facilitate them for achieving their personal objectives of self
esteem, but will facilitate the organizations as well.

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4. Personal Development Portfolio
In order to evaluate the professional profile in strategic perspectives, personal development
portfolio plays very important role. This portfolio not only describes evidence of individuals
skills and expertise, but facilitates in developing effective strategies, which are required in
improvement of these skills. It can be said that it is a form of working document which helps the
individual throughout the career. Learning log is one of the important tools that determine the
details of what the individual has learned, what the skills which are developed are and how the
skill can be improved further.
Skill: Creative skills for marketing
Date Activity
Performed
Reason Outcome of
Activity
Application of
Activity
Required
improvements
13-09-2011 Installed Corel
software
Corel includes
various
elements which
improves
creativity
Access to the
software
Improvement
of creative
skills helpful in
Marketing
Needs to be
learned

14-09-2011 Read and
Applied
tutorials
Got basic
information
about the
software
Facilitates
working on the
software
First step of
learning
Still needs to
be learned

15-09-2011 Created logo
and applied it
on business
card and letter
head
Fundamental
learning
Got basic idea
about the
software
Familiarizing
the concepts
Required
practice in
order to get
perfection in
logo
16-09-2011 Practiced same
logo
Improvement Improvement Got the idea
about working
of software and
improved
Improvement
was evident

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