Personal And Professional Development

Evaluate approaches to self-managed learning

Self-managed learning is process in which an individual considers different tools and tactics to enhance personal skills and knowledge to attain career goals. As a student of marketing, I would like to become a Marketing Manager in a reputable retail organisation such as Tesco, Wal-Mart etc. In this regard, I have to learn several different concepts of marketing and need to acquire different skills to accomplish professional goals. As a Marketing Manager, I have to gain knowledge of latest trends and tactics of marketing such as social media, creative marketing etc. (Barrett, Todahl and Christensen, 2011).

On the basis of these objectives, I need to improve my communication, technical skills, presentation skills etc. as per the requirement of the role of Marketing Manager in the retail sector of the economy. Therefore, it can be stated that I have to consider different approaches and strategies in developing new skills and acquire professional knowledge as per the requirement of job position of marketing so that I can confidently manage activities in my post as a Marketing Manager in the retail organisation. In developing different skills along with professional expertise, I have to consider different learning tools as per the requirements of my personal and professional development, in order to adapt to the nature and pace of change in my role in a dynamic environment. In this regard, Kolb's learning cycle (1984) has been considered as an important approach which works on two levels and four stages cycle associated with self-managed learning.

According to this approach, I can examine my behaviour and ability in different situations for handling crucial tasks. This process plays important role in assessing my strengths and weaknesses as per the current market conditions.  (McLeod, 2013). It highlights four elements such as concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and last active experimentation. The first stage of this approach is concrete experience in which an individual develops experience from new situations that have been encountered by different factors in the social environment such as education, employment, etc. With reference to this stage, I can enhance my learning by applying different skills and knowledge as per the requirements in a given situation.

In the second stage of reflective observation, an individual interprets the situation as per the current personal and professional skills as well as analysing several facts and elements. This stage enhances my knowledge and understanding of a particular experience that would assist me in making further decisions as per the job roles and responsibilities. In the third stage, a learner carries out abstract conceptualization in which an individual determines new idea and conclusion from a particular situation and experience. By considering the elements of this stage, I develop diverse plans and new ideas in order to resolve the job issues associated with my performance along with handling of difficult situations.

The last stage of this theory is active experimentation in which a learner implements new learning in day to day personal and professional task to attain career goals and objectives. As per the principles of this stage, I can improve my personal traits by applying innovative ideas in different tasks and activities that would have direct impact on my personal and professional advancement.

In a similar way, reflexive modernization theory mainly deals with different changes influenced by the realisation of modernity's ideals such as change in education level and lifestyle of society which are creating huge impact on the process of self-managed learning (Rose, 2008). With reference to both theories, I can learn new things associated with marketing in retail organisation, through different situations and implementation of several ideas which have been adopted to resolve personal and professional issues. Therefore, self-managed learning is termed as the most effective tool to improve overall efficiency and skills.

Proposing The Ways In Which Lifelong Learning In Personal And Professional

There are several techniques available which can be used in lifelong learning for personal and professional development. In this process, learning through coaching centres and educational institutions has been found as the most common and effective medium in improving my technical education such as accounting, management process and various approaches of marketing (Wilde-Larsson and Larsson, 2012). This process also provides significant benefits in improving my skills; communication, time management, use of social media and ICT in general, etc. which are essential in promoting products and services to target customers in a competitive business environment. By mentoring, I can learn approaches in undertaking oral presentation; improve my quality of job and leadership skills. This methods, potentially, will enable me broaden my skills, particularly in the use of computers in undertaking internet research, word processing my assignments and other relevant materials, effective use of power point slides, excel or spreadsheet and confidence  in integrating documents, accordingly.

In addition, attending managerial conferences plays vital role in my personal and professional development process. Conference is defined as a prearranged meeting for consultation or exchange of information on particular agenda or topic. By participating in different conferences, I can improve my communication skills and increase my knowledge on different topics and management practices.   
There are several conferences scheduled for applying latest technology in promoting different goods or services and use of creativity in the workplace. These conferences are considered as great techniques to assess the personal experience of top managers that would help me in achieving different personal and professional goals.

Currently, internet is identified as vast source of information. It provides a range of valuable types of information on latest marketing strategies, communication approaches and new techniques in presentation. By conducting internet surfing, I can assess different kinds of news related to changes in political situations, perception of top business men along with changes in organisational system (Rose, 2008). Internet also facilitates the information on emergence of new companies, new products as well as creative marketing approaches used to promote different products and services.
Apart from that, participation in different meetings and seminars provides an opportunity to an individual to update themselves. Seminar is defined as formal presentation by one or more experts in which attendees are encouraged to carry out a detail discussion on particular subject matter. These seminars are termed as gold mine of information. It plays vital role in self-managed learning process. So every citizen either student or employee has to take part in these meeting. An individual can assess views of experts on various topics and current business scenario. This is a very important element of self-managed learning.

Observation is identified as an important and simple strategy to improve one’s knowledge. In this process, an individual needs to observe changes in global market, political situation, latest technologies and new practices of management (Sullivan, 2012). It can be done by using books, newspaper, magazines and electronic media that has the tendency to enable me to improve my overall personal and professional development.

Evaluating the benefits of self-managed learning

Self-managed learning provides significant benefits to the individual and organisation. In this context, some benefits are explained below:

Assessment of personal traits and achieve career objectives: Self-managed learning has been identified as a great tool to improve my personal traits such as communication and tactical skills etc. which are playing important role in meeting different career objectives. This approach helps me to attain my career objectives through continuous professional development. With reference to this approach, I can also carry out personal assessment planning to identify different deviation in my personal and professional skills as per the current business standard.  By promoting self-managed learning, I will be able to link my academic knowledge to the requirement of industry in becoming a successful Marketing Manager in a leading retail company.  On the basis of this assessment, I can select different approaches and methods of learning through which I will learn different concepts of marketing and can improve my professional expertise (Cassidy, 2006).

Increase in individual's morale: By promoting learning through different situations, an organisation can boost the morale of employees to accept the organisational changes based on the requirements of current market trends. This is because learning to learn independently increases confidence, and creates conditions where people are much more likely to engage in learning activities throughout their lives. It fosters flexibility and resilience, which in turn leads to greater capacity to deal with uncertainty and change.

Improvement in efficiency and productivity: In addition to that self-managed is also beneficial for organization. By promoting self-managed learning among staff members of different departments, a business is able to improve efficiency and productivity of workers which would provide significant benefit on overall effectiveness of the business. Apart from that, a business can also consider self-managed learning as important elements in planning and promoting products and services. It plays important role in order to reduce expenditures of company on training and development activities that would save overall human resource management expenditures (Self-Directed Learning, 2015).

On the basis of above assessment, it can be stated that the Self-managed learning plays important roles in personal and professional development of employees or individual. To become a Marketing Manager in a leading retail organization, I need to improve my skills and knowledge as per the current market trends. In this context, I have found Kolb's learning cycle and reflexive modernization as best self-managed learning tools through which I have managed my learning as per my career goals. In addition to that I have significant improvement in my personal and professional skills by attending conference, seminars and other events. Furthermore, education centers and personal counseling have identified as most effective tools to improve my technical skills, level of confidence as well as communication.

Therefore, it can be concluded that self-managed learning is a broad concept that have a combination of multiple sub-categories and skills development strategies as per the specific interest and personal goals of an individual. In addition, I have applied different tools and strategies in my personal and professional development and I have found that coaching institutions have played important roles enhancing my understanding on the latest marketing strategies in the current market. Furthermore, improve in confidence with the help of personal counselling which has equally have improved my communications skills. Thus, it can be concluded that self-managed learning is crucial and very effective in personal and professional development of an individual[1.3 Criteria not yet achieved. Please refer to the assignment brief.

Be Able To Responsibility For Own Personal

The evaluation of my current skills and competencies against professional standards and organizational objectives is playing important role for assessment of current proficiency level and improvement required to attain particular career goal. The communication skills are termed as most important element for the job in a marketing field. As per the requirement of industry, I have good communication skills in both written and verbal so as I can easily manage negotiation and sustain healthy conversation with clients, periodically in achieving set targets. The interpersonal skills assist me in presenting a range of organization projects and objectives. On the contrary, lack of confidence has negative impact on conversations with top managers and officials (Benefield and Joseph, 2010). Therefore, it can be stated that my communication skills have attained the professional standards and objectives of the organization.

As a Marketing Manager, I am expected to maintain efficient analytical skills at all times in order to ensure appropriateness of data for different business situation. In this context, I have good knowledge on different elements of financial planning and management so as I can keep systematic record of different job operations and business expenditures with an appropriate manner. This knowledge provides me assistance in developing small budgets as per the requirements of several management activities applied in marketing planning process.

In marketing, analytical skills are important in determining the nature and scope of a range of data in achieving business objectives. In this regard, I have relevant skills that are used in identifying customer’s needs and wants and ultimately formulate appropriate strategies in ensuring that customers derive satisfaction in their relationship with our business organization and encouraging customers to buy our products rather than that of our competitors. All these practices enable me to achieve different objectives (Rose, 2008). But, lack of efficient knowledge on current promotional strategies leads to negative impact on my overall efficiency.

In addition, leadership skills are significant for success of an individual and the organization in question. In this regard, I have impressive knowledge of leadership which has been instrumental in motivating, organizing, leading and coordinating others in completing set tasks to the require standard in achieving set aims and objectives. This approach leads to positive impact on the productivity of others in minimizing or perhaps overcoming work related stress which has the potential to impact on the their performance. My leadership qualities are in line with professional norms of business through which I can easily handle different tasks and management practices as per the business requirements. I can easily motivate my team whilst performing different tasks and activities.

Furthermore, I am aware that other skills; time management, problem solving, etc. have significant impact on my career development hence I remain committed in managing my activities in compliance with predetermined schedule. Thereby, offers me the opportunity to allocate time to other tasks that needs to be addressed within a specified time period. This feature helps me to meet all requirements which are determined as per the current industrial norms.

Description Of Activity Undertaken

It has adopted various strategies in order to improve my self-confidence level that would help me for improving communication skills. I am also actively participating in group tasks and learning of different leadership theories to enhance my leadership skills. Learning of different calculation and data analysis tools helps me to enhance analytically skills. Preparation of sample power points presentation and application of creativity is increasing my understanding about different approaches of presentation.

Conclusion

Therefore, I have developed a personal development plan to improve my personal traits and professional expertise in the field of marketing. In this context, I am trying to increase effectiveness of communication. I have considered the use of personal counselor to boost my confidence. However, the improvement in communication skills is directly correlated with my listening so as I should have to improve my listening skills. In marketing, presentation skills play an important role in my career development therefore I am using different online videos to learn latest approach on presentation. However, consideration of expert advice is essential to increase the attractiveness of my presentation. Furthermore, there has been significant changes addressed in marketing and promotions process in retail organization. Therefore, I am trying to improve my professional knowledge about current marketing trends. But, the basic learning of marketing tools is not sufficient for the current job position hence I have to carry out advance learning on digital marketing tools and their implications on business plan of an organization in promotion of different products and services.

Reference

• Cassidy, S., (2006).Learning style and student self-assessment skill.Education + Training.
• Cunningham, I.,(2010). Learning to lead – self managed learning and how academics resist understanding the process. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal .
• McLeod,S.,(2013).Kolb-Learning Styles.
• Rose, C., (2008). The Personal Development Group: The Students' Guide. Karnac Books.
• Benefield, N. and Joseph, N. (2010).The development of an offender personality disorder strategy.Mental Health Review Journal

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