Manage Personal Work Priorities And Professional Development

There are six issues discussed in this paper related to the importance of professional development and the management of the personal priorities towards work.  The six issues are: (a) Role Model; (b) Traits of an effective leader; (c) Work goals and plans reflecting the organization’s goals and objectives; (d) Measuring and maintaining personal performance; (e) Managing change; (f) Maintaining work/life balance.

The approach adopted in this paper can be adapted by any organization aiming for professional development and managing work priorities for their employees.  The corporate professional development can be improved by the guidelines provided in this report.

Role Model

The role model in the workplace must follow the model of positive modeling. The positive model is system to discipline and mentoring and focusing on the positive workplace performance and behavior. The positive modeling deals with employee training and employee improvement and success. The effect of it is on the individual employee and the ones who are included in larger team efforts (Calhoun 2010).

Traits of an Effective Leader

The leaders that have been successful are possessed with a wide range of personal characteristics such as ability in relating people individually or in groups or making public speeches.

Motivation

The most important trait is the motivation for an effective leader. Even the people considered to be shy can become a hard charger or find public voice if something close to them is threatened (Northouse 2007).

Communication Skills

The next is the communication skills. The effective communication makes an effective leader and not otherwise. However, communication is not just limited to being a good speaker. To be making effective public speaking, the writing skills are also required. The communication should be with jargon or in style of the company that the leader represents (Northouse 2007).

Patience

This is a hard attribute that should be possessed with an effective leader. The worthwhile things seize to happen quickly. One of the essential traits of effective leadership is discipline (Northouse 2007).

Perceptive

The effective leader must have sensitivity regarding the needs and wants of other people and to the changes of these needs and wants. If the leader has genuine interest in teammates, a sense of trust develops for that individual (Bass and Bass 2008).

Trustworthiness and Honesty

The followers of the leaders should have trust on them so that they will believe and follow the leader. The candor and openness is appreciated by most people (Bass and Bass 2008).

Compliments and Praise Giving

The recognition is needed and wanted by most people. The public recognition of a hard work or good performance goes a long way in increasing the performance of the team members (Bass and Bass 2008). 

Positive Orientation

The positive orientation of a leader can help solve the problems more effectively. For example, many problems have embedded opportunities in them. The effective leader can convert the problems into opportunities. Moreover, in situations that are dismal, statement of optimism helps the team or the group with required motivation to encounter the situation (Derue et al. 2011).

People Oriented

Leadership should be for, by, and of the people. Leadership should bring in benefit for the people. If the leadership is self serving, it will be in distrust from their followers (Derue et al. 2011).

Realistic

The leader has to realize that all times pleasing all their followers are impossibility. The practicality of a leader set in his/her decisions, which should be catering the majority. The effective leader, at the same time, should be strong enough to be able to stand by his/her convictions, even at the cost of accepting criticism (Derue et al. 2011).

Progressive

The effective leader’s goal should be to take the group forward. In doing so, the leader should be able to incorporate new strategies in their communications and leadership. At the same time the desires and the needs of the group should be met by the leader (Derue et al. 2011).

Work Goals and Plans Reflecting the Organization’s Goals and Objectives

Establishing work goals and plans is very important in serving as a positive role model. This is particularly true in the workplace through the organization and personal work training. One’s own accountabilities and responsibilities can be ensured by one’s personal work activities, plans, and goals reflecting the plans of the organization. The measurement and maintenance of the personal performance should be carried out in the work conditions of varying nature, contingencies and work contexts (Grant 2012).  

Measuring and Maintaining Personal Performance

The Personal Performance can be Maintained and Measured with Steps:

Punctuality

One must ensure that he/she arrives at office on time. The late coming in the office means he/she will be absent for the day. This would lead to not meeting their performance objectives (Upadhaya et al. 2014)

Quality of Work

If an individual completes the projects on time and with desired standards, he/she can measure his/her performance as satisfactory. The other measurement indicators are:

• Quality of work (outstanding or average)
• The level of efforts to the projects
• The attitude of the individuals in relation to the expectation of their supervisor
• Understanding of their objectives related to the personal performance (Upadhaya et al. 2014).

Observation of Personal Habits

An individual should ensure that he/she does not have or have been able to overcome the bad habits that distract him/her from performance. The examples of bad habits include usage of computers for online shopping, social media or other personal reasons, disruptive behavior, taking breaks that are unauthorized, and office gossip (Boris and Winkler 2013).

Reviewing Personal Presentation

The image of an individual should be upheld appropriately at workplace. For example, professional dress code should be maintained all time at work that is appropriate to the company culture (Gamble et al. 2007).

Managing Change

The managing change can be carried out with the following activities:

• Ensuring that the reasons for change are expressed clearly and providing help to the sponsor of change communicating this.
• Identification of the ‘change agents’ that should have involvement in the activities of specific change, such as, problem solving, testing, and design and the ones that can be acting as ambassadors of change.
• Assessment of all stakeholders with the provision of definition regarding the involvement and sponsorship and the required communication.
• The project activities and involvement and planning of the sponsors of change.
• Making plans regarding the when and how the communication of the changes will take place along with the delivering and/or organizing the messages of communications (Levin 2012).
• Assessment of the changes’ impact on the structure of the organization and on the people.
• Planning activities addressing the impacts with respect to the change.
• The people affected and involved because of the change must have the understanding of the process change.
• Assessment of the needs for training that change has driven and to plan regarding how and when this can be implemented (Dean 2009).
• Agreement and identification of the change’s success indicator and ensuring the regular measurement of them and be reported.

Maintaining Work/Life Balance

The work life balance in the stressful life of today’s world can be maintained in the following ways.

Pressure in the Workplace

The pressure from the managers, pressing deadlines, and periods of changes has contribution towards high level of stress at work, which one should refrain from being the norm (Matuska and Christiansen 2009).

The Act of Balancing

Each individual has different definition of work life balance that is healthy for them. The key for an individual is finding his equilibrium. An individual should try to make the energy and time he spends at his work to be fulfilling and rewarding. If he/she fails, then he/she try to find the choices available for change in his/her workplace (Matuska and Christiansen 2009).

Improvement in Work Life Balance

The improvement can come through the judicious choice of the organization to work for. There are many organizations that have clear role to ensure that their employees’ work life balance is healthy. For example, provision of flexible working hours, adjustment in work pattern, looking at the physical environment and job roles, and ensuring that breaks is taken by the employees (Kvande 2009).

Looking After Health

If the lifestyle of an individual is healthier, it provides foundations in dealing with the stressful situations better. A routine can be followed incorporating sufficient sleep, healthy eating, and regular exercise (Kvande 2009).

Asking for Help

One should try to find around him/her who willing to provide support. It will also help an individual that someone is there for covering his/her duties when he/she is off work (Kvande 2009).

Conclusion and Recommendation

One should choose an organization that follows positive modeling for his/her positive workplace performance and behavior. If a leader is found who can act as a role model to an individual with wide range of positive and effective traits, then the individual’s motivation and satisfaction from the work can be at a very high level. One must learn to align one’s personal work related goals with the organizational goals. This will sustain his personal goals as well as will satisfy the management with respect to his performance. One should also go the extra mile to understand change, so that he/she can adjust himself/herself in such way that the impact of change is positive to that individual. Finally, by all means an individual should try to maintain work life balance for being physically and mentally healthy.

References

Bass, B. M. and Bass, R. (2008). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications (4th ed.), New York: Free Press.

Boris, E. T. and Winkler, M, K. (2013). The Emergence of Performance Measurement as a Complement to Evaluation Among U.S. Foundations.  New Directions for Evaluation, 2013(137), 69-80.

Calhoun, C, J. (2010). Sociology of Science and Sociology as Science, New York: Columbia UP. 

Dean, C. (2009). RIMER Managing Successful Change, Australia: Uniforte Pty Ltd.

Derue, D, S., Nahrgang, J, D., Wellman, N. and Humphrey, S, E. (2011). Trait and behavioral theories – of leadership: An integration and :meta‐analytic test of their relative validity. Personnel Psychology, 4(1), 7-52.

Gamble, J., Strickland, A. and Thompson, A. (2007). Crafting & Executing Strategy (15th Ed.), New York, McGraw-Hill.

Grant, A, M. (2012). An integrated model of goal-focused coaching: an evidence-based framework for teaching and practice. International Coaching Psychology Review, 7 (2): 146–165 (147).

Kvande, E. (2009). Work-Life Balance for Fathers in Globalized Knowledge Work: Some Insights from the Norwegian Context. Gender, Work & Organization, 16: 58–72.

Levin, G. (2012). Embrace and Exploit Change as a Program Manager: Guidelines for Success. Project Management Institute.

Matuska, K. and Christiansen, C. (2009). Life Balance: Multidisciplinary Theories and Research, Bethesda, MD: AOTA Press/Slack Publishers.

Northouse, P, G. (2007) Leadership: theory and practice (4th Ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Upadhaya, B., Munir, R. and Blount, Y. (2014). Association between Performance Measurement Systems and Organisational Effectiveness. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 34(7), 2-2. 

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