03/06/2014
Personal development is the study and practice of deliberately and conscientiously investing in one’s life with the intent to improve the overall well being. It is about improving yourself mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
It covers a broad spectrum to improve which include career, education, relationships, health, productivity, spirituality, and other personal goals. Formal education is an important part of personal development. Still, it is just one part of our personal development. Our personal development, needs to be continuous beyond formal education
WHY PDP?
0Having a Personal development plan, will help unlock the future. The worst thing in life, is meeting opportunities, unprepared.
0A realistic philosophy on career growth is that if you are not actively learning, you will undoubtedly stagnant. Therefore to succeed in life and career, it is imperative to take an active role in self investment for self improvement, which ultimately leads to professional development and fulfilment.
PDP - Quadrants
0THE UNCONSIOUS INCOMPETENCE: The individual does not know how to do something, but does not necessarily recognise the deficit. They might deny the usefulness of the skill. For an individual to move ahead, he must recognize his own deficit and value the new skill. The length of time an individual stays in this phase depends on the extent of the stimulus to learn.
0THE CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE: The individual may not know how to do something, but he does recognise the deficit he has. He also knows the value of the new skill.
0THE CONSIOUS COMPETENCE: The individual knows and understands how to perform a particular task , but in carrying out, he requires a lot of concentration and focus.
0THE UNCONSIOUS COMPETENCE: The individual has had so much practice in carrying out the function that it has become a second nature. He now does it without thinking much and can even perform it while handling another task. At this stage, he can actually teach it to others.
How to build a personal development strategy and Personal development guidelines
0First step : assessment of your personal qualities and personal development needs.
Who you are? (Your personality traits) and what you are? (your profession and responsibilities) What do you have? (Your present skills, strengths, passions& abilities) and what do you need (knowledge, skill, social contacts, finances)? What others think about you? (school assessment, assessment from past and present employers) These are some of the questions that need to be answered in order to have an accurate assessment of your personal development needs.
0Second step :
After understanding the importance of personal development and assessing your personal development needs ( PD needs), it is time to build your Personal Development Plan ( PDP ).
0A plan that contains success chart with time frames for attainment. The framework should also contain goals or benchmarks that define the end-points of each achievement, strategies or plans for reaching goals, measurement and assessment of progress, levels or stages that define milestones along the development path. To develop a good plan requires mediation, deep thought, and assessment.
0Third step : create an assessment plan/ measurement scale
Assessment tools provide a means of collecting the evidence that you use in making judgments about whether you have achieved competency, are making progress or not. It is a well known fact that we cannot manage things that are not measured because; it would be difficult to track progress. It is necessary to find a way to determine the difference between where we were some time ago and where we are now. The same measure will also help us determine our progress level in the future. In other words, you must have a means of measuring success or failure to achieve set goals. When developing assessment tools, you must ensure that the assessment indices are benchmarked against the relevant unit or units of present day competency.
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