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Table of Contents 1. TITLE 2. INTRODUCTION 1. PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING SKILL 2. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILLS (ICT) 3. COMMUNICATION SKILLS 4. TIME MANAGEMENT 3 CONCLUSIONS 4 LIST OF REFERENCES 5 APPENDICES 5.1 LEARNING JOURNAL 5.2 CORE SKILLS SELF ASSESSMENT AND SWOT 5.3 LEARNING STYLES 5.4 TIME MANAGEMENT ASSESMENT 5.5 ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS 1 TITLE |Personal Development Plan | |Name: | | | |BINU AUGUSTINE | |Covering the period from: | | | | | |06-10-2010 |To |16-09-2011 | | | |My Goals: To be a MBA graduate in Oil & Gas Management with all the qualities required for a successful manager. | |What do I want/need to learn' |What will I do to achieve this' |What resources or support will I need' |What will my success criteria be' |Target dates for review and completion.| | | | | | | | | | | |How have I chosen these dates' | | |I will fix agendas, set goals and |Books like” Kluge: The Haphazard | |July 2011 | |Problem solving and decision |design proper actions to solve the |Construction of the human mind” by Gary |When I receive good feedback from my |3 months before the course ends and by | |making skills. |problems |Marcus can help me improve my decision |lecturers and friends and they |the time of my internship. | | |I will also use brainstorming |making skill. |appreciate me on my decisions ie if I |It is still an area of continuous | | |technique that I am sure to help me a|Being with friend or persons who are good|am able to give good recommendations in|improvement. | | |lot |problem solvers and decision makers. |my assignment. | | | | |Watch interviewing political leaders. | | | | |I will spend more time with friends |Friends. |When I start applying the latest | December 2010 | |Information and communications |or persons who are good at |Learning resource centre |technologies in completing my course |This helps a lot in an effective | |technology skills. |technologies. | |works and the improvement in the marks |preparation of assignments. | | |Consult the learning and resource |Internet and all type of communication |I receive. |It is still an area of continuous | | |centre. |medias. | |improvement. | | | |Newspapers, |When I get better marks in the coming |December 2010 | | |I will be an active listener; I |Friends, |assignments compared to my first |This skill should be achieved at the | |Communication skills |believe that’s the best way to learn |lecturers, |assignments and presentations. |earliest for it is very essential for | |Oral and written. |from others. |Talking in front of mirror, | |my presentations and assignments. | | |I will make sure the communication |All communication medias. | |It is still an area of continuous | | |language is always English. | | |improvement. | | |Maintain an effective timetable for | |The time I managed to study and work on|December 2010 | | |all the daily activities. |Personal planners. |my assignments will be reflected on the|The month that I am asked to submit my| |Time management |Making notes for things to be done. | |marks I score in coming assignments. |university assignments. | | | | | |It is still an area of continuous | | | | | |improvement.. | 2. INTRODUCTION Learning is a lifelong process in which the learner gains knowledge, attitude, skills and values. As an MBA student it is my responsibility to develop myself as a strategic learner where I can use my own learning styles and thoughts throughout my university works. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has set up a benchmark for the international business students. The benchmark has been developed to improve the quality and standard of both education and students who acquire their Masters Degrees. After analysing the skills specified by the QAA for all masters programme with my present skills, I found four areas where I need to improve a lot in order to reach the benchmark. I will be explaining on the importance of these skills and the different ways that I will work on for the development of these skills throughout the programme of my studies. The four key core skills that I need to develop during the period of my studies are: • Problem solving and decision making • Information and communication technology skills • Communication skills • Time management 1. PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING SKILL This skill is very important to me as a business administration student more over in my own life. There were many occasions in our life when we stand still confused not knowing what to do or even make wrong decision and regret over that later on. There will be followers for leaders who are good decision makers because the followers believe on their leader’s ability. In order to improve my problem solving skill I will fix the agendas, set the goals and design my action accordingly. From the ‘VAK learning style’ questionnaire I realised I am a Visual learner and learn things usually by seeing. So I watch programmes on television like ‘The future decision makers’ in ‘Asianet’ a local television channel of India. I also watch interviewing political leaders because they are the one who takes the decision for the whole nation and I believe these approaches are helping me a lot. Brainstorming techniques involving a group of people can also help a lot in problem solving because we get motivated, new ideas arise and decision making becomes easier. Although this is a skill that cannot be achieved in a single day and it is a lifelong process, I will try to develop a lot during my university study terms and I have a set a target of July 2011 because this is the time I get into internship and I need to be more confident on my ability of problem solving and decision making skills. According to Dr. Charles Foster, The Chestnut Hill Institute, “good decision comes from disciplined thinking and they are habit forming”. These words have really motivated me. 2. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILLS (ICT) In the modern world where science and technology rules ICT skill is inevitable for many reasons. The business world is shrinking by means of formal virtual meetings coming up as the world progresses. Employability is proved to be more open to the candidate possessing ICT skills than compared to a graduate with a better merit certificate. Employers always ask for more from a candidate so the ICT skill is always an added and must have skill to be possessed. Information technology (IT) moved its way to Information and communication skill (ICT) due to the explosive growth of electronic communication. Coventry University London Campus going ‘paper less’ is an example of how the technology influences modern education. The online studies, IT resources, moodle, e-library, blogs, wikis, online assignment submission etc.....are some of the few examples that can be pointed out. I need to make sure that I do ‘maximum utilisation of the available resources’. I am working on it to improve my ICT skill by consulting the learning resource centre at the university and asking help to friends whom I find are better at new technologies. I have not got much time to make it a lifelong process so I have tried my maximum to learn at the earliest and I am doing on my assignment with my ICT skill. I have put the target date on December 2010 because it is the time of submission of my assignments for all the four modules. I am sure this skill to reflect on my marks I receive on my assignments. 3. COMMUNICATION SKILLS Communication is a process of successful transferring of messages between the sender and the receiver. If a person who has got all the qualities to become a manager but he lacks only in his communication skill, he is a failure. Communication is only successful if the message is clearly transferred. Having idea alone is never enough. This is a much talked about skill even it is told as one of the main quality that is to be possessed by all leaders and managers. Communication skill is found to be the decisive factor in selecting managers. A survey conducted by pittsburgh’s Katz Business School found that communication skills, both written and oral presentation and the group work ability were the major job success factors. In my first assignment I could not convey my ideas and thoughts properly due to nervousness and lack of verbal communication skill. I am a pragmatist and so if I get coaching to improve my communication skill I am sure to achieve at the earliest and I am going for English speaking class to do so. I believe being a good listener can improve the language knowledge and I always make sure that the medium I use to communicate with my friends is always English. To be more professional I read newspapers and articles which can be a great source for improving my communication skill. I have put my target date on December 2010 because my communication skill has to be reflected in my assignments. It is a continuous learning process there can be only progress by improving this skill. 4. TIME MANAGEMENT In business time is money, time is everything, if we are willing to make some change to our daily routine and strictly follow a time table, and time management is never so far. As a strategic learner we should try to manage our time properly. Time once gone can never be taken back that’s why time is called priceless. As a learner when an assessment was made on how we utilise the time, I found 80% of the time I wasted for useless purposes so now I prepare a list of things that has to be done according to the priority. We have to be the managers of time and do not let the time to manage us because we are sure to run out of time if that is the situation. If we can manage time effectively we will be able to get rid of un-necessary tensions. I always used to keep all my assignments to the last moment and that always gave me a lot of tensions. I do start a lot of work at one time thinking I could finish all of them at a time which always proved to be wrong approach. I decided to stick on to one work and unless I finish that, new works are not started. So now I work on with my planners, to-do list and priority lists. I am a better person to manage the time now. If I study for only 5 minutes I will study with full concentration and that is called as effective study. My target is set on December 2010 because by this time if I do not manage my time, I will not be able to submit all my assignments at the right time. 3 CONCLUSIONS My goal is to become an MBA graduate specialised in Oil and Gas Management, It is essential that by the time I leave the university I should have acquired all the qualities required for a manager. The skills that I have to acquire are discussed and I am sure I will be able to develop the skills by the target date set and I believe I am in the right track to reach my destination. My learning skill will help me develop these core skills. Due to any reason if I fail to do so within the target mentioned I am sure to carry out trying throughout my study terms and I am sure to achieve them with my own determination and with the help of my friends and lecturers. Once I feel I have developed my skills of problem solving and decision making, Information and communication technology skill, Communication skill and Time management reflecting on my assignment marks I would be more confident in facing the challenging world. I am sure more doors of opportunities are awaiting me once I am done with my MBA successfully with all the qualities required. 4 LIST OF REFERENCES. • Jeff Cobb (2009) Mission To Learn [online] available from [18 December 2010] • Charles Foster (2010) Seven Rules for Making Great Decisions [online] available from [18 December 2010] • Northedge, A. (2005) The Good Study Guide . 2nd Edition .The Open University Oxford: Alden Group • Mind Tools Ltd (2010) Introduction to Communication Skills [online] available from [17 December 2010] • Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2002) Masters awards in business and management [online] available from [18 December 2010] • david kolb (2010) kolb learning styles [online] available from [18 December 2010] • Mind Tools Ltd (2010) Personal SWOT Analysis [online] available from [19 December 2010] • Cleveland Clinic (2008) Example of a Personal Leadership SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis [online] available from [18 December 2010]