Personal and Professional Development Plan Essay

Executive SummaryI am Saung Thet Zune Soe. I am attending MBA at Myanmar Imperial College and performing as a general manager at La Yeik Wah General Co.ltd. In my MBA program, I have studied personal and professional development subject and that subject gives me abundant of knowledge about how to align and develop myself with my personal and professional objectives. So after accomplishing that subject, I have decided to conduct my personal and professional development plan. Company ProfileLa Yeik Wah General Co.ltd was founded in 2004 by the founder U Win Nay Soe and Daw  Cheery. It was started with small family business like agriculture and landscaping. It has its agriculture branches in Taunggyi. Then it was developed into mining company in 2010. It has some gold mine in Shwe Kyin and other mineral mines like gypsum in Mout Mal, Shan state and Granite mine in Tha Tone, Kayin State. In 2012, it exported minerals like gypsum and granite to the Korea. In 2013, it co-operated with Hanbaek International Trade Company from Korea and started doing export, import and entertainment. It exports; sweet potato starch and other agriculture raw products to Korea and import back healthy juice and herbal medicine, cosmetic, cigarette and juywi cookie from Korea. It is now develop into a large company form the small business company. There are various department under La Yeik Wah, they are Marketing Department Operation Department Finance and accounting Department Human resource Department Research and Development Vision Our vision is to become one of the successful business operations in the country. Mission Our mission is to provide the best service and product to the customers with reasonable price. Objectives To get 10% profit within a year. To be the very successful entertainment company in the end of 2014. To penetrate the local market in a year with entertainment sector. As a general manager and a key member of the company management level, I am responsible for managing the whole organization’s operation and direction. I need to make sure that company goals are met in a timely manner with effectively and efficiently managing personnel and resources. Together with role of General Manager, my duties include managing overall operation of various departments with direct dealing with the department head, motivating and coaching team leader with frequent one-on-one focused discussion, reviewing financial statement and reports to measure productivity and margins and profits of the business with determining areas of cost reduction and cost improvement. Underneath is the job description of general manager of La Yeik  Wah General Co.ltd. Job Description of General ManagerJob Title: General Manager Report to: Managing D irector Location: Yangon Job Purpose: Obtains profit contribution by managing staffs; establishing and accomplishing business objectives Min roles and responsibilities Increases management effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies and objectives; assigning accountabilities, planning, monitoring and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information or opinions; providing educational opportunities. Board of directors, including arranging meetings and agendas, attending and minting meetings. Provide recommendation regarding investment and cash strategies. Provide vision regarding overall financial health of the company. Insure accurate documentation of production and quality control data and records. Ensure good housekeeping at all sites at all time. Assist in development of forms and tools to increase company efficiency and risk management. Builds company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations and employees; enforcing ethical business practice. Understanding of law and business law of Myanmar. Contributes to team efforts by accomplishing related results as needed. Required skills and ability College Graduate or Equivalent experiences Proven skills of business and financial management Ability to work in proactively diverse and inclusive organization Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills Ability to manage and supervise a staff team Effective problem solving and mediation skills Ability to share skills and knowledge with others Ability to multi tasks and work in a fast paced office settings To adept change easily in a short period Proficiency with office computers equipment and software Ability to cope with stress, conflict and crises. Proficiency in international language like English and if possible Chinese. Ability of good decision making skills. Experiences of working with board of directors and committees. Time management skills Effective leadership skill After I have reviewed the requirements of the general manager, I found out that skills could be differentiated into personal and professional skills. Professional skills are skill acquired by individual that is necessary in the specific professional and job-related fields, which include strategic leadership skills, analytical skills, change management, coaching and training skills. Personal skills are attitudes that attribute for successful interacting with superiors, colleagues, customers and suppliers, government and community organizations, which include interpersonal skills, decision-making skills, stress management and time management and communication skills. Personal skillsInterpersonal skillsInterpersonal skills are relationship-building skills that we use to interact with others in reinforcing organization goals and objectives. People with strong interpersonal skills are more likely to success in both personal and professional lives with optimistic, confident and appealing c haracteristics. Therefore, interpersonal skills are one of the critical factors that will convince success and happiness of individual with verbal and non- verbal communications. We can determine strong personality skills by situational judgment tests and 360-degree feedback from the others. Direct observation with team interactions and performance based assessment which mostly involved collaboration with team works will also help to reveal interpersonal skills. Decision making skillsDecision making is the act of choosing one to reduce more complicated decisions to simpler within available choices by using either intuition or reasoning approach. For effective decision making skills, various methods from simple rules to complex procedures has been developed varying on the nature of action and its complexity. To have right decision making skill, keeping a record of all-important decisions and its consequences will highlight for improving decision making in the future. Poor choice will lead to bad deci sion and affect the organization financial statement and improvement. For assessment methods of decision making skills, decision matrix analysis and paired comparison analysis can be used. Management questionnaire will also provide  for reviewing of necessary skills to make firmed decision. Role-play assessment method can also be used for measuring decision-making skills. Stress ManagementStress management is coping with the stress response when we face overwhelming burden and demands. Stress is a common problem we found in today’s complex environment resulted from obstacles of personal and workloads. Being prolonged to long-term stress will affect physical, emotional and mental health of human beings. To determine the efficiency on stress management, we can assess with observation method on psychological and physiological symptoms from the consequence of pressure. Regular heath check-up also can assess in determining to overcome pressure and handle stress management. Time managementTime management is effective use of our time to harmonize the conflicting demands of time for personal, professional life and in many other aspects of life. Effective time will help to stress out and to do everything in a limited time-bound. Procrastinating and laziness are resulted from ineffective use of time management and we can face failure in life. Once we can identify strategies to improve time management, we can adjust our routines and pattern of behaviors to reduce time-related stress in our lives. To assess time management control method, we can figure out with self- assessment method. Moreover, we can set up deadlines and review whether the deadline is meeting on time or not. Feedback from co-workers and friends will also give assessment to managing our time. Communication skillsCommunication skill is the key to build up strong quality relationship with others by speaking out clearly and concisely to get easy to understand that the message we sent is clearly understood by other receiver. Respect other concerns, listen attentively and determining how to support others from others viewpoint will help communication skills improved. Review from the clients will help to improve the communication process and working relationship for future opportunities. We can evaluate communication skills with presentation and participating in -group discussion. Writing test and language proficiency test will provide a clear view of communication skills. Language proficiencyThe proficiency in language becomes one of the most important personal skills in today business environment. As Myanmar has opened trade policy and most of the censorship had stopped, there are a lot of foreign companies that enter into Myanmar business market. English becomes one of the required skills. Every  GM should proficient in at least English. The favourable opportunity comes to the number of language that person could use. The proficient in English, Chinese, Japan, Korea and Thai has become popular requirement skills during 2013 and 2014 in Myanmar. Professional skillsStrategic leadership skillsLeadership is influencing people towards goals accomplishments building personality beyond their normal limitation. Leaders inspired others to follow the same path as them with making even greater things happen and motivating fellows to work willingly towards achievement of organization objectives. Lack of leadership skills in the organization will affect dramat ic impact in the organization by moving too slowly, and direction lost with losing in decision-making. To assess the leadership skills, we can verify in-group seminars; workshops and team building exercise and find out his leadership quality. Judgment on employee feedback questionnaire to subordinates and superiors will claim leadership skills as well. Strategic change managementChange management transforms organization to desired future state aligning the business with modified environment for better alternative strategies. Change management implies when there has resistance to make a change and to improve the dissatisfaction of current strategies with better opportunities. Work transparency ethnic and the ability to influence others simplify and ease when applying change management to the organization. We can assess change management skills by the negotiating abilities and change management knowledge test. The extent of quality of relationships on building of mutual trust and understanding and influencing on the followers and upward will determine change management skills. Analytical skillsAnalytical skill is the ability to visualize, articulate, and foresee the concepts with logic thinking and figuring out the solution s to both complex and uncomplicated problems. A systematic business analysis is the key to organizational planning to get sustainable competitive advantage in challenging economy and complex global business environment. Analytical skill will have great impact on reasoning of situational analysis and problem-solving skills as well. To testify the analytical skill, reporting on the future business trend with possible change and solutions will determine individual analysis skills. Examining on business case studies and frame questions will verify analytical skills. Coaching and training skillsCoaching and training is a process that enables continuous learning  and improvement with more sufficient and effective in accomplishing success in organization. These programs will help to develop valuable new skills, tools and behaviours with focusing on organizational needs. With on-going training and coaching programs, it offers unique opportunities for both trainer and trainee with development in authentic and powerful coaching and lead ership integrating performance for organizational development. Coaching and training skills can be assessed by performance improvement of trainee and feedback from trainee. Understanding of lawNowadays, being understands in law becomes one of the most important facts for the upper management level managers. As working in a export and import company the manager need to understand at least company act, investment law, foreign investment law, labour law and export and import license. Understanding of this can help in dealing with different foreign companies or local companies. Analysis on skill sets of general manager For the stress management, we need the nearest gym from home for the everyday convenience. I need quiet place for the having rest and meditation. I need strong support from the family and to friends to open my feeling and listen what I will say. For the time management, we need an alarm clock or the clock that we could see clearly when I am at office. I need to know the peek hour to avoid going out to unimportant places. I need to know the heavy traffic places to make sure extra or advance time before going out for appointments. For the language skills, I need a good tutor to monitor my improvement and to train me more proficient in language skills. Co-operation from the colleague and staffs are the most important essential things for me to improve strategic change management. I need financial support and other additional help from the upper level management. For the better understanding of accounting, I need course books and internet for the self-study and also a good tutor to asses s my improvement. Outcome According to following above procedures, my stress tension has been fallen and I can finish almost every test in timely manner. The proficiency of my Korea language skill has been improved according to frequent self-learning like watching movie and listening songs. In addition, my scope of knowledge on change management has inclined alongside with people skills and good communication. By studying LCCI, I have improved not even in financial and accounting but also with office software like Microsoft Excel. Review and control Check physical and mental test with consultant every month for the level of stress I could handle and reduce every month. Check the checklist every week for time management and consider how far I could stick with the schedules and daily or weekly plan. Keep practising with native speakers can improve my level of language. The period of time that an employee could adapt the change can prove how far I could influence and lead them for change. The increase in efficiency and output during change also proof the success of my strategy on change management. Successful management on company monthly or annually financial management can prove my increase in financial skills. If one or more of my performances have been fallen in certain week or month, I will recheck the reason and take serious plan to implement and train my weakness. We can improve our personal and professional development plan by using various assessment methods. For me I will take feedbacks and recommendation from my colleagu es, friends and family for both personal and professional skills. I will use self-appraisal and 360 appraisal methods to improve personal and professional skills. Appropriate methods for preferred learning styleEveryone has different learning styles and a person can adept more than one learning styles. Learning styles differ for personality types and the subjects they are studying. David Kolb’s Learning StyleKolb learning style is firstly published in 1984 based on work by Dewey and Lewin. Kolb learning style is currently widely accepted by academic world both by teachers and learners as fundamental concept of learning behaviour based on human nature. The training cycle also known as four distinct learning styles examine the way people generate from the concepts that guides their behaviour in new situation and improves their effectiveness. This self-description test measures learner’s strength and weakness relying on  four-stage cycle: concrete experience (feeling), reflective observation (watching), abstract conceptualization (thin king) and active experimentation (doing). Concrete learning style leads to observation and reflection. With the reflection, it then assimilated into abstract concepts and swing into active experimentation. The outcome which is resulted from combination of two preferred styles with two-by-two matrix of the four stage cycle is known as four-type definition of learning styles: Diverging (CE/RO), Assimilating (AC/RO), Converging (AC/AE), Accommodating (CE/AE). Diverging (CE/RO): These learners perform better in ideas-generation by viewing from different perspectives in gathering information and imagination to solve the problems than applying to action. They tend to work in groups with attentively listen with open-minded and assume based on the information received. Assimilating (AC/RO): These learners emphasis more on concise and logical approach on abstract concepts with preference on readings, lectures and analytical methods. They determine with clear understanding on wide-range information and organizing in logical format before practical opportunity. Converging (AC/AE): These learners are skilful at problem solving and decision making with anticipating in technical tasks and less concerned with people and interpersonal aspects. They observe new ideas, stimulate and work with practical application by finding solutions to questions and answers. Accommodating (CE/AE): These learners examine the situation with analysing on others people work and take with experiential approach attaching to new experiences and challenges. They prefer to work on team with different ways to achieve and carry out their own plans. Figure : 1 Kolb’s Learning Style Honey and Mumford’s learning cycle and learning styleHoney and Mumford’s learning style was developed based on the work of Kolb with identifying four distinct learning styles as activist, theorists, pragmatist and reflector. Honey and Mumford specify the nature of the people with their choices on own learning style as below. Activists are people who enjoy learning with the perspective of immediate experience. They have enthusiasm and inspiration of adventurous and try to do at least once. The consequences of action will be considered only after the action has been tested. They are interactive learners seeking all center activities around themselves by  involving other affairs as well as with preference on new challenging environment and bored at longer term consolidation. Theorists observe models, concept and facts with vertical – step by step logical way before engaging with the process. They analyze and draw basic assum ptions with identifying pros and cons before taking action as opposed to activists who loathe subjective judgments and lateral thinking. Pragmatist relate to the new ideas before seeking out new opportunities for practice. With interactive learning and problem based learning before practical application, they are fast and confident on their assumption with considering problems and opportunities as challenges. Reflectors learn and observe from initiative works and experience with watching from the side-lines and relate to own application. They gather information and thoroughly analyse with all possible angles and draw conclusion with others observation as well as their own. VAK/VARK ModelVAK/VARK Model is one of the popular models amongst learning style theories developed in 1987 by Neil Fleming in accomplishing of individual learning preference. In this model, identifying learner’s preference on visual learning, auditory learning, reading and writing and kinaesthetic learning differentiates four different types of learning styles. Visual learners capture and see information more with graphic display (e.g. chart s, diagrams, illustrations, hand-outs, and videos) rather than the other aspects of learning. Aural also known as auditory learners tend to receive most of their lectures and information with the hearing method (music, discussion, lectures). Impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goalsAccording to the Kolb’s model, I am the diverging and accommodating learner. I like challenge and prefer working in-group. I like to gather information from different perspectives and generate idea from the practical situation and make decision and solve problem with experience and information I have. I am the 3 kinds of learners out of four when considering with Honey and Mumford’s learning style. I am the activist, pragmatist and reflectors. I am very enthusiasm when learning, I like challenges and I am very practical. I also learn from problems and experiences. I try not to make the same mistake twice. I also learn from the books and other people experiences but I m totally not a theorist, I hate theory. I rarely follow the theory from book. I want to create and generate new ideas and new formula for my business. I  prefer self-studying. I wish all those learning style would help me improving my perso nal and professional development plan. Reference Cohan, P.S. (15th Oct 2013). Always be ready to adapt your business change. Available: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229417. Last accessed 14t Sept2014. Corelli, C. (11 Jan 2009). Ten ways to help employee adapt to change.Available: http://www.cedmag.com/article-detail.cfm?id=10925388. Last accessed 14t Sept2014. no author. (no date ). Kolb’s learning style. Available: http://www.mcgill.ca/files/scsd/Kolb_Theory_of_Learning_Styles.pdf. Last accessed 14t Sept2014.