According to Lindon and Lindon, (2007), professional skills are required to be mastered by any employee or leader as professional means to be aware of how to perform well and to be aware of the basic skills needed for the profession. Professional skills can be enhanced by training and education and they should be assessed by the employee or the leader from time to time in order to realize the needed skills and the shortage in any skill that may need to be practiced more in order to enable the employee or the leader to reach better positions in his profession and to achieve the organizational goals as being set. Professional skills may include the basic skills that enable the employee and the leader to assess himself and make the correct judgment on other employees. These skills may include counseling skills that is based on having enough knowledge and education about the relevant issues as in my organization, the counseling skills should be mastered by leaders and managers who have enough amount of information about investments, financial services and advice regarding the clients' requests and employees' needs, there are also the coaching skills, the leadership skills, multi-tasking skills, mentoring skills, identifying competencies of employees, leading meetings, planning skills, motivation skills, delegating and planning skills. All these skills can be assessed and evaluated by the leaders using specific techniques such as those models initiated by Seal et al, (2015) as there is a model suggested for assessing the own professional skills, the model is a professional development program that focuses on the leaders and employees' development by reporting the weaknesses and strengths of the employee or the leader and sets plans to develop the weak points and enhance the strong ones via training courses, educational programs and visitations to other organizations; for example, in my factory, the factory managers use the model to find out the problems in the managers' and employees' professional skills and then distribute them on the training courses and send them to complete their education. The factory also tries to create a learning culture within its work environment as employees and managers try to monitor themselves as monitoring is a good technique for assessing their professional skills and the monitoring process is applied on the monotony of the work, its effectiveness, outcomes and the profit at the end as the better results the employee pushes the work towards, the more professional skills he has. SHRM,(2016) confirmed that the professional skills are necessary for leading change in business organization and they can be assessed by measuring the degree of achieving the SMART goals by the employee or the leader and how many skills are used to achieve such SMART objectives; another technique is using occupational standards to identify the employees' competencies and how far their skills are matched with such occupational standards and quality standards. Cajander et al, (2011) referred to some conceptual tools that can be used to assess the professional skills of employees as these are techniques for measuring the mastered skills level by the employees and comparing them to the results of their work and the final profits of the organization and check the weaknesses and strengths of the employees and leaders regarding the skills they master, they confirmed that the manger should use different techniques for assessment of professional skills rather than those used by employees because the manager is assessing professional skills related to leadership skills and those may include the following skills:
Coaching and Counseling
In Union Iron and Steel Factory, there are many problems that appear to bother employees and managers who are working hard to solve them through using their coaching and counseling skills that should be measured by models that focus on employees' job satisfaction and practice in order to make sure the leader is performing his job well.
Mentoring
Mentoring is very important for both employees and leaders as mentoring enables the employee to note all the weaknesses and strengths and record them for reference and then to improve the weaknesses by on the job education or applying new systems for leadership.
Leadership Skills
According to Khan and Ahemd, (2012), leadership skills should be mastered and maintained by all employees who are able to apply change within the business organization. In the Union Iron and Steel Factory, leadership skills are assessed through some techniques such as employees participation levels in decision making processes and their job satisfaction. Leadership skills are very important in applying changes and in the factory, the systems are all changing to be electronic systems and internet systems that need high efficiency leadership.
Planning skills
Planning is an important skill the leader should have as planning can help in goal setting and strategic management operations; planning is important for achieving the organizational goals, it can be evaluated by measuring the results of the work and comparing them to the set plans and the procedures involved within them to measure the success degree.
Motivation skills
Shourafa, (2016) discussed how motivation skills are important to be mastered by a leader who should be able to motivate employees to provide the best work they can and guide their employees for achieving the best work through motivating them and using the different methods for recognition and rewarding them. This skill can be assessed and evaluated by measuring the employees' job satisfaction and their job morale. The factory is always doing reports about employees' job satisfaction which show that there should be better motivation skills to be mastered by leaders.
Delegating skills
These skills include the powers and abilities that make the leader able to manage the work within the department and distribute it effectively on all employees equally and fairly and these skills can be assessed by the measuring the success of the tasks achievement and performing the different responsibilities assigned on employees. In the factory, there are many leaders who lack mastering many of the delegation skills which is reflected on the job dissatisfaction of many employees so it is important to receive special training courses for strengthening delegation skills for them.
Learning Outcome 2: Be able to conduct a skills audit to identify learning style
2.1 Carry out a skills audit toevaluate the strategic skills needed to meet current and future leadership requirements. (Assessment Criteria 2.1 - carry out a skills audit to evaluatethe strategic skills needed to meet current and future leadership requirements.
Hay, (2003) discussed many assessment frameworks that can be used for analyzing the self-abilities and skills and he referred to the Skills Analysis Tool (SAT) that consists of tests taken online by the employee or the leader about their own skills and abilities related to their job and confirmed that this framework has three parts including a part for business operations, a part for e-business and information technology part and that it is a software that contains a program that measures the employees' skills using a relevant database and relevant information and system management and it is supported with word documents, spreadsheets and figures. Noguchi, (2014) referred to another framework for analyzing self-skills and abilities which is the Business Operations Skills Analysis [BOSA] that can enable business organizations to include data about the employees' skills in specific profiles for each employee and then users can record new skills and abilities into their profiles and to be tested using the system to assess their level of skills mastering. A skills audit according to Fountain, (2015) is a review of the employees' current skills and it helps in identifying the needed extra skills for future development that can match the organization's changes such as the new technologies the Union Iron and steel is making to add new information systems to it and new online services; these skills are needed to perform the jobs related to the new changes and developments of the organization and it prepares for new future developments based on coming changes in the organization and its systems. There are some basic steps that should be accessed by me in order to identify my skills and add to them via the skills audit steps:
The steps to identify my skills
- Identifying my current knowledge level and my current skills, the existing abilities and education of me and what important requirements and qualifications the factory currently needs. All this is going to be written down and recorded by me in order to prepare future developments and improvements.
- Identifying my own future potentials and the skills that I should master for future on both short and long terms as this will be applied according to the factory's needs and new changes.
- Rating my own current abilities on a 1 to 5 scale and providing a description for the current capabilities I already possess, for example, my abilities can be 1 if it is little, it can be 2 if it is not as the enough, 3 for having some abilities that are acceptable, 4 for a high ability level and 5 for excellence and full abilities possession.
- Consulting superior leaders to judge and evaluate my abilities.
- Applying needed future development.
The following table is evaluating my current skills and needed future skills:
Current Knowledge and skills for my current role
|
My Ability Rating (1-5)
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Communication skill
Mentoring Skill
Self-development Skill
Technological skill
|
3
4
4
3
|
Future Skills
|
Rating
|
Problem Solving
Application skills
Self-learning
Technological, internet and IT skills
|
3
3
4
2
|
2.2identifyyour current learning styles and apply appropriate techniques to identify preferred learning styles which suits you the best. Assessment Criteria 2.2:apply appropriate techniques toidentify preferred learning style)
According to Hatami, (2013), learning styles can be referred to as a group of factors that can be either cognitive, emotional, physical or other factors and they all work as indicator for the perceptions of learners and the way they interact with the learning process and how they respond to the different elements found in the learning environment, these learning styles can express different views of the methods of delivering knowledge and information to the learners and encourage them to gain more information and knowledge and they can resemble in some areas or they can be completely different according to the needs of the learners, the requirements of the learning process and the nature of the learned material, knowledge and information. There are many different learning styles and according to Mobbs, (2013), there was a developed learning style initiated by Honey and Mumford and it was based upon the ideas of Kolb and that learning style referred to four main learning preferences which are the Activist, the Theorist, the Pragmatic and the Reflector and each of the four preferences differ in meaning and content so each individual prefers what suits him or her more from those four learning approaches and preference depends on many factors related either to the work itself or to the person who is learning. The learning styles are important because they help the learner identify the best methods for his learning modules and procedures for the educational process and other important features and characteristics of his learning process. There is another model that is used as a learning style which is the Neil Fleming’s VARK model which is used on a very wide range and represents very common learning styles. This model is very interesting and it contains four learning preferences which are the Visual preference, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic preferences and each one is different from the other preferences in the way the learners are receiving the information and applying them and they may have some characteristics in common. (Fleming, 2013). As for myself, I had to recall my skills, abilities and education I received till now in order to recognize the most suitable learning style for me and the revision and analysis revealed to me that the Honey and Mumford model is the most convenient to me as it has the preference of the reflector model which exactly suits me and the nature of the materials I intend to learn in the future such as communication techniques and IT and internet technology as they all depend on mind reflection largely and I prefer this method in my learning. Although I may be interested in other models and learning styles preferences, I still find that this model is the most suitable and useful to me because it can enable me get information, think of them, analyze, brainstorm and apply any new idea or programs using this learning style that can help me cope with the future changes of the factory and be ready to deal with them effectively and perform my role tasks properly currently and in the near future when the changes will be applied.
Learning Outcome3: Be able to implement a personal development plan
- Constructa personal development plan for the ensuing 6 months and beyond, that meets leadership development requirements identified in the skills audit that you had done for the answer to the AC 2.1 .(Assessment Criteria 3.1 - construct a personal development plan that meets leadership development requirements identified in the skills audit)
According to Strivens and Ward, (2010), a Personal Development Plan (PDP)is important because it helps the employee and the leaders identify their skills and experiences in the current time and it helps them plan for future skills that they need to acquire and it provides them with a schedule and a timeline for being followed in order to reach the required educational and development goals they seek. The following table refers to a personal development plan of me and it deals with the following six months as follows:
April 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 Sep 2016
Skill
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Current proficiency
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Target proficiency
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Development opportunity
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Criteria for judging success
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Evidence
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Problem solving
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Having enough planning knowledge, the ability to organize, analyze and rearrange the requirements for solving problems and quick decision making abilities.
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Reaching a better level in managing conflict, solving more difficult problems and making dare decisions.
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Sharing in the discussions of teams and groups within the factory and in my department with the help of an expert facilitator who can work as a consultant and advisor.
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The plans developed for the teams, number of problem solved and reports written about employees satisfaction and more cooperative roles.
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Indication in a template for self-assessment. Approval by the factory's general management.
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Application
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Having some quite good skills in calculation and budget management and interpretation and project presentation
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Achieving a full capacity of financial and budget issues and a 100% capability in forecast budget and being an excellent interpreter by Sep. of2016
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Being able for organizing and sharing different applications and program with the Senior Finance director of the factory.
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Being able to prepare the new budgets for the new projects.
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To show as an indicator in the self-assessment and management template of application at the Sep.of the year 2016
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Self-learning
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Having enough information about the personal and professional skills and learned new skills and the full awareness of the effective methods for future learning and education.
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Being expert in judging one's self skills and abilities and the learning needs and the skills that are still need to be gained by Sep. 2016.
|
Using different sources for getting additional and enough information such as the libraries as public libraries and the factory's library and using the internet to find researches and studies that can add to my learning level and my knowledge and increase my stored information amount.
|
Having high abilities for gaining the required information and the proper knowledge that can help in self learning.
|
To appear in the template for self-assessment.
|
Technology, IT and internet
|
A low level in dealing with net and websites and systems of information technology related to the industrial services
|
Being able to manage technological systems and programs on a moderate level.
|
Having extra skills and relevant experience in the IT filed relevant to industrial services.
|
Using these systems easily and effectively.
|
Appear in the self-assessment template.
|
3.2Based on your constructed personal development plan, use suitable method to assess the outcomes of it against personal work objectives.(Assessment Criteria 3.2 - use suitable methods to assessthe outcomes of a personal development plan against personal work objectives.)
According to Eisele et al, (2013), the personal development plan is good and effective as a tool for developing employees and leaders personally and professionally in particular as it helps them making the needed assessments and evaluations for their current situation and their current abilities and capabilities in order to enhance or add new skills or strengthen the current skills they have in order to achieve both the personal and organizational goals at last. The personal development plan can be used to help me assess my current skills and capabilities in order to have stronger ones and reach better competencies levels of the personal skills and the professional ones as the professional development plan can shed the light on my professionalism in many fields and can prepare some basic steps to be followed in order to be applied by me to reach success at the end of the set time period for success. It can also shed the light on weaknesses clearly set by me and show methods for improving those weaknesses and make use of other skills to enhance the weak ones. The plan shows that I can finish the needed tasks and enhance my skills at the end of Sep. 2016 as it is a 6 months plan since April to September 2016. This means that it is very important for me to set goals for the plan application and follow them in order to apply the plan on time and according to the timeline and schedule set for it.
Reviewing and monitoring:
It is important for making self-reviewing in order to evaluate the real level of performance of the plan set for the next six months and the reviewing for it can show that there are weakness points in the plan that makes it in need for updating or new additions or even to set a new plan that is actually and can be practically achieved. The new plan can be the same current plan with an addition of more three months or even more six months in order to look for results on the long run and to include new activities that are comprehensive and supportive for the previous activities of the first six months.
Evaluation:
Evaluation can be done by keeping continuous records and lists and tables for the plan and for each month’s program of different activities as this will help in identifying each tasks and activity separately and measure the effort and time consumed to achieve it effectively and what weaknesses appeared during making the program. Evaluation can suggest adding more months in order to learn a new skill relevant to a new industrialarea, for example or a new launched product issued by the factory.
Portfolio:
Assessing the plan itself can be made through preparing the portfolio that can include the methods used to improve the skills and time consumed, people who helped in the development plan and the relevant areas of improvement and development for each time period. This should be made via documenting everything in the portfolio.
3.3 Evaluate the impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goals(Assessment Criteria 3.3 - evaluate the impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goals)
The long term achieving of the business organizational goals is very essential in helping managers gain skills and learn more about how to achieve goals as it enables managers and employees learn new skills and understand their current skills and try hard to improve and develop them. This means that long term achievement can make individuals reach their needs and achieve their personal goals of developing their skills and increasing their knowledge, experiences and information about the field they are belonging to. There are different learning theories and frameworks that managers and employees can use in order to identify their current skills and develop them. I myself used these theories to develop my own skills and this helped me a lot in achieving my own goals and the organizational goals using the ideas and new skills and abilities in changing the work environment where I work and then I used different techniques for problem solving and I was able to end many conflicts within the work environment and help employees develop their own development plans focusing on their professional skills and advising then regarding the new skills they should learn such as IT skills and internet skills. Own learning is important because it helps individuals to meet their own needs and discover their strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of finding new solutions and suggestions for increasing the strengths and strengthening the weaknesses and this usually occurs as a result of discovering techniques and realization methods and learning frameworks. This helped me identify my strong points in communication with my team members and guiding them as I thought I was weak regarding communication but I discovered that time wasn't enough and I have to reorder things and manage time so time management needs to be strengthening in my skills. I recommend that the factory's management should be able to provide employees and leaders both with the needed training programs that can make them able to identify their weaknesses and strengths and enable them to develop their professional and personal skills effectively and the training can be inside the organization or outside it and it should be comprehensive and inclusive. There are impacts of changing the employees' behaviors as the factory's clients can increase their investments and make more business with the factoryas a result of the confidence in those members who are job satisfied and working hard for the factory's welfare and success. I myself can reach better position at work and I can be promoted easily and sooner than before. Self-learning can also leave impact on any organization's productivity and profitability because it enables employees and leaders realize the shortage in their own professional and personal skills so they discover what is needed for the business organization to be achieved by the new skills and then creative ideas appear and this can take the organization to better competitive advantage.
Summary
The current report discussed different issues related to development of skills and abilities in order to reach better achievement of the organizational strategic goals. Personal and professional skills should be self-assessed by any suitable techniques or frameworks that can show the weaknesses and strengths of the employee or the leader and this can help reach better safer work environment as employees will be able to know their duties as well as their rights and leaders will be able to motivate them and encourage them reach better skills mastering. A skill audit is important for the leaders and employees who need to develop their personal and professional skills. A professional development plan is very important in making the leader and the employees able to identify what they need to develop and how to develop their skills on a specific period of time and it has great impact on the organizational goals and strategies.
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