MODULE 2 – Personal Development Plan

 Introduction
o Personal development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to assess their skills
and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realize and maximize
their potential.
o Personal development planning is the process of creating an action plan based on
awareness, values, reflection, goal-setting and planning for personal development
within the context of a career, education, relationship or for self-improvement.
o To enable personal empowerment, you have to plan to make relevant, positive and
effective life choices and decisions for your future.
o The early formative experiences within the family, at school, and others can help shape
us as adults. Personal development should not stop later in life.

 Four (4) Steps to a Successful Personal Development Plan Jenny Blake (June 6, 2018)
o We always think of our careers and are very much concerned of our future. We have to
pay attention to our personal development as an ongoing process, like a river flowing
constantly. But if you are swimming you cannot avoid to stop to take a breath. Taking
a moment to create a personal development plan is like taking a very deep breath.
o In everything that we do, it is very essential to plan. A plan serves as a blueprint. When
you are a teacher, you prepare a lesson plan. When you construct a house, you also
need a plan.
o Most of the time we harbor aspirations and dream dreams, yet we rarely stop and think
about our future in detail. A personal development plan helps you know where you are
headed and how to get there, with specifics. First, this will bring clarity to your thinking
and you will know exactly where you want to be. What is more, it will give you peace
of mind that you're going to the right direction on a daily basis. Efforts will feel more
deliberate and decisions will be easier, as you will have a clearer benchmark.
o Personal development expert Jim Rohn said: "When you look at successful people, you
will almost always discover a plan behind their success. It is the foundation for
success."
 How to Build Your Personal Development Plan?
o The process of building your plan can take considerable time. This is completely
normal and you shouldn't rush things. However, it's a good idea to set a deadline in
your mind. After all, tasks are a kind of fluid- they take as much space as you give
them.
o Step 1: Clear out your vision.
 You have to start with the end in mind. To build your personal development
plan, look at what is on the other side. Think about your future life. Choose a
time frame that makes sense for you-if you are still in your 20's, a look at 3 or
5 years from now is enough. The older you get, the longer the planning period
you can have.
o Step 2: Outline your strengths and areas for improvement.
 You have put down a pin on where you want to go-now let us see what the
means of going forward are.
 Make a list of skills you need to develop and projects you can start working on
to move you closer to your goals. Think about the people you can contact and
who can help you along the way.
 After you have created a long list, look at the different points and group them
together to form clusters. You can use a format that's well known by most
business students the SWOT chart. Although we are used to thinking about it
as a tool to assess organizations, it is just as handy for assessing your
personality. You just have to draw a four-quadrant map and use each part for
your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. If this sounds too
abstract, check out the questions for building a personal SWOT chart here.
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1. What you are good at? 1. What do you still need to learn?
2. What will help you move forward? 2. What do you have to get better at?
3. Do you have any qualifications that you can 3. What areas of your job do you least enjoy?
make more of?
 OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
1. What projects may you take up in the future? 1. What are the main skills needed that you are
not working on?
2. What contacts can you employ in your 2. Is there something new in your field that you
industry? will not be able to learn?
3. What new skills can you learn?

 SWOT Analysis is a useful technique for understanding your Strengths and

Weaknesses, and for identifying both the Opportunities open to you and the
Threats you face.
o Step 3: Build your personal development plan.
 Go into detail after you have a clear direction. The key here is to get down to
specific actions for the future.
 After building your personal development plan, you will now have a clear idea
of what needs to get done and how to do it. Now, continue doing your
development plan and you can even tie your plan to your annual goals
o Step 4: Review and adapt.
 "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable" according to President
Eisenhower. The importance of a personal development plan is in getting the
clarity that comes with answering questions about your future. But it is not set
in stone because life changes fast and we need to change with it. That is why it
is important to review and adapt.

 Why is Personal Development Important?

Abraham Maslow's process of self-actualization is one of the many ideas surrounding
personal development.
o Self-Actualization
 All individuals have an in-built need for personal development which occurs
through a process called self-actualization according to Maslow (1970).
 The extent to which people are able to develop depends on certain needs being
met and these needs for a hierarchy. Only when one level of need is satisfied
 can a higher one be developed. As change occurs throughout life, however, the
level of need motivating someone's behavior at any one time will also change.
 At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic physiological needs for food, drink,
sex and sleep, i.e., the basics for survival.
 Second are the needs for safety and security in both the physical and economic
sense.
 Thirdly, progression can be made to satisfying the need for love and belonging.
 The fourth level refers to meeting the need for self-esteem and self-worth. This
is the level most closely related to 'self-empowerment.
 The fifth level relates to the need to understand. This level includes more
abstract ideas such as curiosity and, the search for meaning or purpose and a
deeper understanding.
 The sixth relates to aesthetic needs of beauty, symmetry and order.
 Finally, at the top of Maslow's hierarchy is the need for self-actualization. Self-
actualization refers to the desire that everybody has 'to become everything that
they are capable of becoming. In other words, it refers to self-fulfillment and
the need to reach full potential as a unique human being.

 Managing Your Personal Development

There are a number of steps to take in managing your personal development.
1. Developing a Personal Vision
It is very important to have a vision for your future in order to become successful.
A vision means a picture of what and where you want to be in life. You might think of this
as identifying what success looks like for you in work, in your personal life, or perhaps in
sport and hobbies.
2. Planning Your Personal Development
You can start planning how to get there once you are clear about where you want
to be. Drawing up a personal development plan is not essential, but it does make the
planning process more realistic.
Nine (9) steps that can help you to create a good personal development plan:
a. Define your goals.
 b. Prioritize.
c. Set a deadline.
d. Understand your strengths.
e. Recognize opportunities and threats.
f. Develop new skills.
g. Take action.
h. Get support.
i. Measure progress
3. Starting the Improvement Process
A successful process improvement initiative is the key to a company's ability to
maintain an edge over the competition. Unfortunately, many company executives are so
fixated on rapid growth and profits that they overlook the importance of evaluating the
processes that they implemented when the business was launched.
Participation of all employees is very important for a successful process
improvement initiative, including managers and front-line workers. Company training
programs and tools should exhibit consistency and accuracy, and employees should be
rewarded for adopting work behaviors that reflect their commitment to process
improvement
4. Recording Your Personal Development
Keeping a record of your personal development is often a good idea. By writing
down key developments in your learning when they occur, you will be able to reflect on
your successes at a later date.
5. Reviewing and Revising Personal Development Plans
Learning Styles used by Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle show that learning is
a cycle.
Learn how to set yourself effective personal goals and find the motivation you need
to achieve them. This is the essence of personal development, a set of skills designed to
help you reach your potential, at work, in study and in your personal life.
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