Personal development Plan Essay

Capital is generally referred by the people to the financial assets and resources, however besides the money; personal capital is also a part of capital. Capital is basically the ability to do something and it allows a person to make his own selections and if it is not available, it is very hard or almost impossible for one to make selections. To evaluate the performance of an individual, capital is an important concept. However, personal performance is not normally termed as capital but it does function in the same way as the financial resources but as for the financial resources, we must build up these resources if we want to accomplish something but the personal capital of an individual is his skills, intelligence, his network of contacts, education, or relationships, etc. (Productivity 501, 2007). We have certain options from where we can choose and these options are interdependent on the amount of capital we have actually acquired. For instance, let’s consider the skill capital. This can further be explained by an example of the skill to perform a particular task to accomplish a particular goal. This can also be to sail all around the world. However, this can only be made possible if the person knows how to sail. If this person does not even know how to sail in a lake along with strong winds, he would never be able to sail around the world. Same applies to the other skills that come under personal capital. Personal capital is something that an individual need to develop personally and is not present in a person from the start. This is basically about polishing the skills you already have in you and is all about increasing our skills as well as the level of intelligence that can be done by various activities such as by reading, studying, taking courses, etc. As for the relationships, they can be improved by investing some more time in them. In order to build up a relationship, giving time, taking care of the person and showing love is very essential and without all these factors it would be hard to maintain any relationship as these are the core factors that are required to make up and then to handle a relationship. To increase our network of contacts, it is a must that we reach out people after which we must stay in contact with them because just reaching them out won’t work effectively. Therefore, we must also remember our past acquaintances and should keep in touch with them as well. The activities mentioned above helps to increase our personal capital and so it also increases the opportunities that we might get.   According to Tom Peters, â€Å"everyone lives by selling something.†Ã‚   (Peters, 1999). People normally retreat when they hear about the word sales as it sounds devious. However, when you convince the other person and you sell, it develops more pleasure and satisfaction and it is all about moving your resources to the ones who need them. Personal capital is basically an ability in a person to make a difference and it can be either processing ability or leverage. The processing ability is basically the extent to which a person achieves a desired result with the resources available to him. It is all about achieving a task based on the thinking skills, energy, character of a person, the level of knowledge and know-how about an activity, thus it is all about achieving the targets within the given resources. This furthermore increases the value of a person as when an individual is different from the others and is able to do tasks effectively, it gives him an edge over others and this can even be his core competency. For instance, let us consider an example of a person who has stared with a new job and as the job is new, the person would need some guidance in order to achieve the targets. Therefore, as assistance is needed by the employee, the results would not be totally based on his skills but later after the employee develops understanding and know-how; he would be able to do the same task without getting help from any other person and can work independently. This shows that his processing ability has been increased. The second part of personal capital is leverage, it raises the productivity of others by using your expertise and further explaining it, we can say that it amplifies your processing ability through others and this can either be done by coaching an employee who is new or by guiding him with the way in which the task is to be performed. Leverage can be measured in a way as our ability to transfer our knowledge to the other party, for example leverage of an economics teacher who teaches the course at a university can be judged in way how he teaches the student and does that really benefit the student or not i.e. does it increase the knowledge of the student or not. Furthermore it is also about using your own previous experience to teach the new employees and help them out to reduce chances of errors or mistakes and when this is achieved, a person achieves leverage. Personal capital can only be built only by learning and trying, it is about the way in which an individual is supposed to take a process and further turn it into a better work process and it is also about adding value to the ideas proposed by the others. People can take courses that could help them to increase knowledge and their processing ability and the way they can share their knowledge that in turn increases their leverage. The reason why personal capital should be built is because of the value we place in making a difference in the tasks we are assigned and the better personal capital an individual has, the better can he perform and achieve he desired goal. Moreover, people have better personal capital will also be able to accomplish tasks that are more complex and challenging.   This is not just the only requirement; however a person should keep on improving his personal capital so that they can benefit from it and fulfill his responsibilities as a team member. Being creative is to turn the ideas that erupt into your mind into a reality and for consists of two aspects that have to be considered. The first one is the ability to think that a person has and the other is to actually create that particular idea. For creative thinking, innovation is a must. This basically means to implement the idea that has been though of. However, if some one has ideas but he does not implement them, he would be considered imaginative and not creative. Therefore, the crux of this paragraph is that there is no use of thinking if you are not doing what you have thought about. (Linda, n.d.) Moreover, creativity can also be defined as something that is new and it therefore requires both zeal as well as dedication. People usually determine certain symbols and myths from creativity that further reveals the hidden points of life. (Rollo May, The Courage to Create) According to another author, a product is only creative when it is novel and appropriate. Moreover, he states that a new product shows its originality, however it cannot be predicted. Creativity of a product basically depends on the concept. The bigger it is, more the ideas are generated and so creativity increases. (Sternberg & Lubart, Defying the Crowd) Creativity can be used for the purpose of economic development, at work and everywhere. The resources available to us in the world are limited but the demands of the people are unlimited. Creative ideas only come in such case when our resources are restricted and as a popular saying of an economist and a social philosopher says that â€Å"Invention is the mother of necessity.† (Thorstein Veblen, 1857 – 1929). However, time and budget can limit creativity. In today’s world creativity is taken as something more than just an artistic expression as it was perceived to be in the previous centuries. However, now it is also essential in many other areas as well. It can be used just anywhere, in a very small thing such as to make a loft or a professional canvas painter. However, creativity can be taken differently by different people who are engaged in different tasks. Constant learning enhances the creativity in a person. Moreover, we should explore different techniques that can help us in improving our creativity. We should brainstorm ideas, do mind-mapping and meditation, etc. I would also say that creativity is basically a mental process that is all about creating new ideas but its originality and appropriateness should not be affected in any way. Creativity is also referred as a divergent thought from the scientific point of view and can be studied from various point of views such as in some of the aspects such as – behavioral psychology, social psychology, psychometrics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, history, economics, design research, business, management, etc. (Linda, n.d.) There are certain questions that one must ask oneself for personal development.  · What’s the history of a person and repercussions for contributions in the past.  · Where we are and what have we gained? (Instead of, â€Å"What have we lost?†)  · What needs to be changed, such as structures to encourage and support learning and innovation?  · What needs to change in my leadership style to foster more of a learning culture? When and where should I practice being a learner? Once we ask those questions to you, one must also consider some of the things mentioned below.  · Hierarchy is not inherently a problem.  · Technical hierarchy not social hierarchy.  · Acknowledge power & power dynamics. The more open this is, the less it will be a subtext of interaction.  · Be in the role of teacher, when the authority in a particular skill or situation, and of learner when not.  · Trust, trust, trust. Trying to control everything accomplishes the opposite.  · Communication – Interaction must be encouraged as it is essential for personal development.  · Documentation – Document learning in one area or project such that it can be shared with other areas and projects. The personal vision of a person is very important as this further develops goal awareness and social orientation. The personal vision of an individual helps them to guide their lives and also provides the direction that is essential to make a choice about the career. It thus, helps to show a way to a person and so it is important for us to identify our personal visions. A personal vision is basically written focusing on the life of person i.e. the joys and the sadness’s filled in their life, what they have achieved and how they have achieved, their contribution, what makes them, their brilliance as well as heritage. Personal vision in turn develops goal awareness as once you identify the personal vision is it easier for a person to focus more on his goals and what he wants to do in life. Moreover, it also develops social orientation in a way that a person cares more about the well being of the society and so he makes sure that their needs are being taken care of and they are satisfied. Other than that, an individual should also have the capacity to working together with other individuals and for this it is necessary that he develops communication, interactive skills and development orientation. The skills and performance of an individual must be upgraded continually and meeting this requirement involves training and development activities and appraising performance for the purposes of giving feedback and motivating people to perform at their best. Training usually refers to teaching lower level employees how to perform their present jobs, while development involves teaching managers and professional employees broader skills needed for their present and future jobs. Individuals must take training to enhance their individual performance that would then increase their productivity. It should focus on developing management skills/development and supervisory skills, technical skills and communication skills. Orientation training programs should be designed for individuals because they are typically used to familiarize them with certain things such as the general policies, procedures, culture and the like. All this results in reputed benefits such as increased morale of an individual; he becomes more productive, lower costs and the like. Team training is also important because it recognizes to facilitate individuals working together. It teaches the people, the skills they to work together and also facilitates their interaction that further focuses on technical, interpersonal and team interaction skills. Communication is very important because it is the only mode through which there can be an exchange of ideas between people but for this they need to interact with other people. They need to form their social groups, talk to their mates and develop orientation that helps to familiarize them with other people. Moreover, concreteness is important too. In this comes openness to change, operational effectiveness and responsiveness challenge. To be concrete basically means to be specific. While making a personal development plan it is also essential to be concrete. An individual cannot do each and everything. Some might be good as some tasks and some might be good at some tasks and so it is not necessary that all people can do the same work well. This in turn develops core competency. In the world today, changes are being made like in every second. However, it does take time for people to adjust to change and people are usually resistant to change but in the end they do have to accept the change. Therefore, it is necessary that one must be flexible and be able to adjust to change well.