Personal Work Priorities and Professional Development - Coursework Example

Name: Student number: Assessment task: Course number: There are several electronic sources that assist in time management especially for the persons in the managerial positions in companies and organizations. We have the electronic calendars that assist in time management. They remind us about activities that ought to be performed in a certain day. Project notebooks that dictate how certain activities are undertaken. Such notebooks stipulate the time when certain activities ought to be accomplished and the duration to be taken. Electronic contact information services such as the Gmail accounts and mobile phones helps managers in managing time in their organizations. Effective leaders in any particular organization must posses certain traits that are good and those that people want to emulate. These traits are; leaders should be trustworthy, they should be polite, hardworking and ready to work with minimal supervision. They should have the organizational goals and very ambitious and innovative in dynamic ideas which propel their companies to higher levels. Every sober organization should always continue to develop professional competence. By doing so, the output of the employees will rise up and the organization in particular will realize better sales which in turn realize better profits. There exist several learning styles. Every person is always interested in learning style that favors and completely cares for his or her needs. We have the auditory, visual and the kinesthetic learning styles. I prefer the auditory and the visual learning style since they are styles through which I can gain much content. I have always learned through what I have heard from other people and saw with my eyes. Through the auditory and visual learning style, I will definitely listen to the complaints of the employees and offer remedy to those problems that affect them. I would always learn the problems in my organization through seeing what is not okay; the machines that have broken down, dirty places and many more aspects. Organization goals should always be at the fore front of my own personal goals. I should always try to achieve the organizational goals followed by my own goals. Through effective time management schedules, I personally cannot fail to achieve the organizational goals. Such schedules will always stipulate what I should do at certain time and how and the overall level of success. Thereafter I can focus on my own goals such as working hard to get a promotional or an increase to my salary. A role model or a mentor in any work place is a very important person. A role model possesses certain traits that every persona is eager to emulate. Role models produce high quality results in a very short time. They are highly disciplined and trustworthy persons who hardly cheat. And finally they are persons of great dreams and ambitions. They always look into the future. An effective worker or a manger is one who always tries to establish if his or her personal work goals and plans reflect those of the organization he or she is attached. If I am attached at the managerial position, I should always implement the fair policies and work ethics deemed to be effective, sit back and tract the success of those polices and work ethics and if necessary make the necessary amendments to them. The measure of performance of a person in nay organizational is dictated by the level of hard work. Using certain key performance indicators is the solution towards measuring the level of performance. Setting certain goals or targets is the one of the ways. If you work in a production organization, you can set up a target of producing certain amount units per week or month. After the week or month elapses, you look if you met the target. If you met the target, then you are performing and you can set a higher target. As a good manager or an employee of any organization, it is my duty to ensure that my personal knowledge and skills meet the required competency standards. I would always seek refresher courses on the skills that I deemed may have been outdated. I can also use the internet to study about the new ways that are been used to booster production in the type of organization am working in. attending regular workshops and seminars is also another way of ensuring that my knowledge and skills meet the required competency levels. Members of professional networks are very vital towards increasing my knowledge and skills. They help us in acquiring better relationships at the industry. Holding regular workshops and seminars are the better ways of interacting with those professional networks. During those workshops and seminars they share with us new skills and knowledge that pertains to our field of interest Finally, ensuring that I am always to the best form in regard skills so that I remain competitive is by looking and studying what others practice in the industry I am involved in. I would always ensure that once a new technology gets into the industry, I am always at the fore front at learning how the technology works and acquire the necessary skills. The same applies to new products in the industry. Report 1 Networking is a very important aspect when it comes to business matters. A good manager is the person who establishes good relations with the people who work under him. Through such good relations, he or she will get to understand all the problems facing workers at his or her workplace. There are several opportunities through which managers can develop these good networks. Examples are during the regular meetings at workplace and during event the sports days of the company. The manager can chat with all the employees, exchange contacts and later get deep into knowing each other at the workplace. Also to establish a good network in the specific industry of practice is very important for the managers. During the annual conventions and business meetings which bring together the players in a certain industry of practice are best opportunities through which managers can create networks which really assists them in the production levels and career matters. At those specific interactions times, they can exchange contacts, chit-chat and get to know more about the interests of others. There is great need to develop internal and external networks. Such networks usually assist the parties of interest into knowing more about how they should carry on their production duties so that they realize profits through emulating the successful players. Ideas from the big players in the industry of practice trickle down to the upcoming players through the established networks. Therefore it is true to state that excellent internal and external networks in every industry of interest normally improve professional competence, usually improve work relations, maintain the industry currency at favorable levels and improve the career option due to work specialization. Report 2 There is need of work-life balance between the employee and the organization. An efficient balance will equalize the two parties of interest. The workers will feel free and will not deem the duties they perform as forced labour. They should be compensated for the time they work beyond the recommended hours so that every party is contented. Stress is a critical aspect that has been established to cause negative effects at the work place. Stress results in reduces production levels and poor quality of goods and services being rendered to the esteemed customers. Stress should therefore be managed through proper counseling so that it does not affect the performance of nay worker at work place. Poor health and high levels of stress have consequential negative effects at the work place. Less attention is paid by the worker to the prescribed duties hence low quality of goods and services is only what results. Also the production levels get down since the worker is not motivated to work. There exist several signs that actually show whether a worker is under stress at the work place. Some of the established signs are; depressive feelings, swings of mood, loneliness, aggressiveness, customer complaints and confusion. Every particular organization has set a policy regarding the health of its workers. There some organization where sickness or poor health is regarded as a major threat and those affected by poor health are normally given sick leave ill they are okay to resume their duties. Every organization in the modern day takes sickness of workers very serious and takes the health of the workers into consideration before they disembark on their duties. Project one (Part A) Personal work plan Organizational goals and objectives To produce high quality, safe and legally compliant services and goods that meets and exceeds customer’s expectations. To be the leading player in the paper printing industry Responsibilities, accountabilities As a plant manager, I am tasked at ensuring that all machines are working and producing safe and quality products in time to meet customer demands. Ensure that all plant operations are undertaken in the right manner Personal work performance goals To be self driven manager To always meet the deadlines in time To boost production levels by at least 5% every month Actions to achieve goals Ensure that the old machines are replaced with newer ones Ensure spare parts are always within reach to service breakdowns Ensure technicians are equipped with right tools every time Aspects of learning Provide training and refresher courses Learning will be provided at the companies social all Company will take care of the costs of hiring the teaching personnel (one tutor) Learning can be accessed in shifts in which I will also take in part Courses offered will take the dimensions of fire hazards, ways of product packaging, how to operate new machines All the learning will be approved by human resource head. Time frame to achieve goals A time of three (3 )months Areas requiring improvement The production unit We seek at 24 hour production unit We have day and night shifts Also continue with production during weekends but with extra compensation to workers Part B Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essentially tools that are used by organizations worldwide to actually define, then measure and monitor and finally track the performance over a certain period of time towards the attainment of the pre set goals. In my case I used five key performance indicators to track my performance. The first is the customer satisfaction. I reviewed the customer’s comments to gauge if I had met their expectations and I found that I had met and exceeded their expectations. The second indicator was the mean time to repair the broken down machines. I looked at the comments of the machine operators regard the time taken to repair machines and they all stated that less time was used to repair them. The third indicator was the time to respond to machine breakdowns and other sorts of breakdown in the plant. Shortest time possible was taken to respond to such emergencies. Quality measures was the forth indicator. Customers stated that the products were of high quality hence I met that specific critical aspect or goal. Finally the volume of production was my final key indicator of performance. The overall production rose by almost five percent every week. I was very dynamic in my work plans when some set things failed to proceed as predetermined. If some machines of certain type broke down, I focused on increasing efficiency of the rest to boost product till they were serviced to resume operations. I ensured that at night shifts there were two groups so that each worked for six hours to ensure high levels of production without workers fatigue. Part C Personal professional development plan National qualifications Bachelor degree in commerce and trade from a recognized University Access & Availability Make an arrangement with the human resource manager location Study online via the internet platform Internet offers up to date resourceful information Time requirements Three (3) hours Program to be undertaken for four (4) days in a week Personal requirements Embark on the program after the work hours and during the weekends Approximate costs The costs are the tuition fee, other costs incurred in subscription of the internet connection packages via a modem Approval process The human resource manager Month April Part D The study program that I am bound to undertake as from the month of April is the study of a degree in commerce and trade. The study of the degree will assist in managing the trade aspects of the plant. As a plant manager with both knowledge of trade and engineering then I will lead to company to higher heights of prosperity due effective and efficient management of resources. The study program will take at least one and half years and will be undertaken online. The exams will be sat online making the mode of examination efficient. Studies will be undertaken four times a week with each session lasting for three hours. The study program will cost US $ 1200 for period of one and half years. The acquisition of the degree will assist me as the plant manager in keeping the records of the inventories, the stores assets and running of the operations of the plant with minimal stress. I will be able to carry out trade transactions with great know how avoid the prior need of seeking third party services. Also to note is that I will be very competitive in the market and therefore the company that I am currently working will increase my salary to retain me in that position. Project 2 (part A and B) Time management log for effectiveness (a) Most time was spent on activities under the category of priority A rather than on activities on category priority A* because activities Such as repair of machines were in category A regular machines servicing also was in category A. (b) In every day, I spent at least three (14) hours on important activities. In the period of 5 days, a total of 120 hours, I spent 70 hours on important activities which is 58.3 percent (c) In every day, I spent at least three (6) hours on important activities. In the period of 5 days, a total of 120 hours, I spent 30 hours on important activities which is 25 percent. (d) In every day, I spent at least three (4) hours on important activities. In the period of 5 days, a total of 120 hours, I spent 20 hours on important activities which is 16.7 percent. (e) As per the statistics of my time log schedule, I am not spending too much time on unimportant or too little time on little things. (f) None (g) There some common distracters to my day such as getting some minutes late to work place. I will move out of home early enough to avoid the traffic jams. (h) I do not procrastinate between my important activities at the work place. (i) Production activities at the plant form the high energy areas. Production activities are very important and that is the reason I always embarks on them to increase my technical knowledge and experience. References RAUSCH, E., & WASHBUSH, J. B. (1998). High quality leadership: practical guidelines to becoming a more effective manager. Milwaukee, Wis, ASQ Quality Press. DRUCKER, P. F. (1954). The practice of management. New York, Harper & Row. Read More