BSBWOR501 Manage Personal Priorities and professional development

Assessment 2: Personal Work Goals

Ritika Singh

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TAFE Queensland

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Identify a positive role model that aspires you (be sure to name the role model) analyse how
the actions or reputation of that person can influence your personal development or
learning.

A positive role model that aspires me is my husband, Robert McGeorge. He is an entrepreneur

now and running his air-conditioning company. It is worthy to note that a role model is not a
person with the best job title or being wealthy, rather anyone can inspire someone to achieve
potential in life through his/her unique abilities and qualities (Price-Mitchell, 2010). Some most
important qualities which my husband possess and that ultimately influence my personal
development and learning includes his passion and ability to inspire, a clear set of values,
acceptance and selflessness of others, commitment to the community, and the ability to
overcome obstacles. A research was conducted by Kahne and Sporte (2008) in which the authors
found that these set of abilities have the potential of influencing the personal development of
another person in a positive manner. The authors also focused on other abilities including
compassion, listening skills and fearlessness but the aforementioned skills were the highly
appraised ones. Lockwood, Jordan and Kunda (2002) in their study found that significant amount
of academic scholars have advocated that the learning of human is through modelling others. The
authors argued that such experiences tend to accumulate through adolescence and the individual
then decides what is deemed appropriate for social behaviour. Individuals also learn various
strategies which help them in achieving their future goals (Dweck, 2006). My motivation is also
boosted by my husband through modelling a guide for achieving personal goals that work as an
enhancer for my personal development and learning. This guide is developed through the
comprehension of aforementioned skills and their applicability in ones personal life (Bush,
Martin and Clark, 2001). Lastly, I would like to present the quote of Denzel Washington about
role model and learning who said, I think a role model is a mentor someone you see on a daily
basis, and you learn from them.

Discuss why personal work goals and professional development should reflect
organisational or work goals?

Individuals working within organisations are motivated to work towards such organisational
goals which result in promotion, increased compensation and peer recognition. An organisation
and it's various should share the same means of achievements, targets and goals in order for them

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to be successful in this dynamic and competitive environment. If that is not the case, an
organisations effectiveness can decrease significantly and the ability to achieve its targets will
be seriously affected. The Business School of Harvard University invested their 30 years in
research regarding alignment and found that in order for an organisation to be effective, the
different parts must be in harmony and this is also considered to be a competitive advantage
for an organisation (Ivancevich, et al. 2013). The number of academic scholars has placed
increased emphasis on the necessity of aligning personal work goals and organisational goals in
the literature of management. The idea of alignment between these two factors is evident in
almost all theories of management in which the theorists and scholars believe that the success of
an organisation is highly dependent upon the coordination of these two factors personal work
goals should reflect organisational work goals. Simply, it can be said that the more reflection of
personal work goals in the organisational goals, the organisation can gain more competence to
attain success in this dynamic environment (Harsey, Blanchard and Johnson, 2012). On the other
hand, professional development is regarded as the ongoing provision of various opportunities for
improving knowledge, competencies and skills (Skinner, et al. 2005). Professional development
of individuals should be carried out in a way that can help in the achievement of organisational
work goals as a number of studies have advocated that if professional development is targeted
towards the achievement of organisations vision and mission, the performance of the individuals
(employees) is increased along with the increase in the reputation and success of the organisation
(Phillips, et al. 2016).

Discuss how you prioritise and facilitate competing for demands to achieve personal, team and
organisational goals (at least 2 methods must be discussed).

The prioritisation and achievement of goals, whether it be personal, team or organisational, is

highly dependent upon the way through which the goals are defined. In other words, it can be
said that the methods of achieving goals are the effective and evidence-based method of setting
goals (Williams, 2012). This philosophy of achieving goals is argued since the ancient times and
date back to Aristotle and Plato who suggested that purpose can incite action (Lawlor and
Hornyak, 2012). One of such methods is setting SMART goals. SMART goals are developed
following a specific guidelines: 1 Specific: the individual should exactly define what is to be
pursued, 2 Measurable: the goal must contain a number for tracking its completion, 3

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Attainable: the goal should be achievable, 4 Realistic: the goal should be doable from the
perspective of a business, and 5 Timely: there must be a reasonable amount of time for the
completion of the task (Williams, 2012). Williams (2012) further argue that this method of
setting goals significantly assists in the achievement of goals while enhancing the performance
of the business/individual. The other method is to develop an effective action plan which
entails the precise steps one has formulated for the achievement of SMART goals. The action
plan method helps in setting a schedule for each goal that also assists in the prioritisation of the
goal. Successful and effective action plans also contain the potential barriers that may cause
hindrance in achieving the goals identified along with the steps necessary to be taken in order to
overcome the barriers. Other than that, the resources required for the achievement of goals are
also highlighted under this method (Team FME, 2013).

Research and discuss how you use technology to manage your priorities and commitments (at least
2 methods must be discussed).

Any technologically based tool/technique/method which has the potential of improving the
performance of an individual for achieving the organisational goals is included the category of
technology. For an individual to be efficient with the job responsibilities, adequate technology
should be used for meeting commitments, prioritisation and managing the tasks. Out of the two
technological methods, one is the use of project management tools. For professional
development and managing work priorities, project management tools are considered to be an
effective way for the achievement of objectives and goals. Various programs are now developed,
including MS Project and Visio which helps in the development of tools for project management.
The primary argument behind using such tools for managing priorities and commitments is the
fact that visual diagrams are considered to be more appropriate for the process of decision-
making. Visual content includes flow charts, diagrams, mind maps and concept maps which
provide the individual with an ability to use both sides of the brain. The other method for using
technology to manage work priorities and commitment is the use of mobile technology and
electronic diaries. These technological devices are increasingly used so that the businesses or the
roles of individuals within the organisations can run effectively and efficiently. Various records
including phone calls, appointments, meetings, contacts and emails are recorded in these devices
for managing commitments and priorities. The major advantages of using these devices include:
data can be viewed as required, information can be edited easily, information can be searched
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easily and reminders can be used for appointments. All of these advantages are crucial when an
individual is willing to manage his/her business commitments and set priorities accordingly.
However, the individual using these devices should make a consistent and regular back-up of
data to avoid any loss of important information (Cole, 2010; Robbins et al. 2008).

Research and discuss work-life balance and stress, apply your research to your own life identifying
stressors (at least 3) and what work-life balance would be effective for you.

Due to the fact that the right work-life balance for every person can differ a lot, a consensus
definition of work-life balance is under debate for a very long time and scientists, theorists and
academic scholars are unable to achieve a unified definition of this term yet. The ways of
achieving balance are different for every individual, some may engage in various exercises and
some may engage in leisure activities. However, it is important to note that when an individual
controls the levels of stress and achieves an adequate work-life balance, his/her efficiency and
effectiveness is significantly increased (Cole, 2010). Managing ones efficiency and energy is
dependent upon the ways through which the individual reduces stress, whereas, the productivity
can be increased if the stress is lowered and concentration is increased. Nevertheless, work-life
balance can be broadly defined as a satisfactory level of involvement or fit between the
multiple roles in a persons life (Beauregard and Henry, 2009, p. 10). On the other hand, stress
is widely known as the emotional, psychological and harmful physical response that take places
when an individual is exposed to perceived environmental pressures. The three stressors that I
have identified for myself are work overload (psychological stressors at work), problems with
children (personal stressor) and concerned about investments (personal stressor). In order to
reduce the stress of work overload, the activity of cutting/decreasing out my work tasks and
keeping only those which are important I believe will be the most beneficial in this regards. For
both the personal stressors, I will prefer exercise as a number of psychologists and healthcare
professionals believe that getting regular exercise can significantly help in the management of
stress. Under stress, certain chemicals are released in the body and by exercise, these chemicals
are released by the fight or flight response so that they are unable to lower the immune
response. However, it should also be noted that excessive exercise can also contribute towards
stress, therefore, moderation is a necessary component here (Robbins, et al. 2008).

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References

Beauregard, T.A. and Henry, L.C. (2009) Making the link between work-life balance practices
and organizational performance, Human Resource Management Review, 19(1), pp. 922.

Bush, A.J., Martin, C.A. and Clark, P.W. (2001) The effect of role model influence on
adolescents materialism and marketplace knowledge, Journal of Marketing Theory and
Practice, 9(4), pp. 2736.

Cole, G.A. (2010) Management theory and practice. 4th edn. London: Int. Cengage Business
Press.

Dweck, C.S. (2006) Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House
Publishing Group.

Hersey, P.H., Blanchard, K.H. and Johnson, D.E. (2012) Management of organizational
behaviour: Leading human resources. 10th edn. Boston: Prentice Hall.

Ivancevich, J.M., Roy, H., Chair, L.C.C., Konopaske, R. and Matteson, M.T. (2013)
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Kahne, J.E. and Sporte, S.E. (2008) Developing citizens: The impact of civic learning
opportunities on students commitment to civic participation, American Educational
Research Journal, 45(3), pp. 738766.

Lawlor, K.B. and Hornyak, M.J. (2012) SMART Goals: How the application of SMART Goals
can contribute to achievement of student learning outcomes, Developments in Business
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Lockwood, P., Jordan, C.H. and Kunda, Z. (2002) Motivation by positive or negative role
models: Regulatory focus determines who will best inspire us, Journal of Personality
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Phillips, J., Gully, S., Griffin, R. and Ivonne, P. (2016) Organizational behavior: Managing
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Price-Mitchell, M. (2010) Civic learning at the edge: Transformative stories of highly engaged
youth. PhD thesis. Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA.

Robbins, S.P., Millett, B., Caccioppe, R. and Waters-Marsh, T. (2008) Organisational behaviour:
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Skinner, N., Roche, A.M., OConnor, J., Pollard, Y. and Todd, C. (2005) Workforce development
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Team FME (2013) Effective Goal Setting: Productivity Skills. FME.

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