Manage Personal Work Priorities and Professional Developmen

1. Describe what it means to be a model of good personal work planning and organisation. Include definitions.

Being a model of good personal work planning and organisation entails setting good examples which are consistent and visible for others to follow. Personal work planning includes documents which identify what needs to be completed, to what standard, in what order and by when, is used in conjunction with the planning cycle which involves; plan, implement, review and re-plan if required. Organisation relates to planning and prioritising, document organisation and time management. Consistency ensures the behaviour and skills being modelled are clearly identifiable within a set standard.

2. When writing SMART personal work goals why is the “R” so important?

The “R” in SMART personal work goals stands for Relevant. The relevancy ensures the goals align with the organisational goals and your own responsibilities and accountabilities.

3. Describe the concepts of efficacy and efficiency and what you can do to ensure that performance is maintained under changing circumstances.

Efficacy relates to the effectiveness of a task or action, ensuring the task adds value and assists in achieving the set goal. Efficiency relates to the quality and correctness of how a task is completed and achieving the best result with a minimum expenditure of time, effort and resources. In order to maintain performance under changing circumstances the plan should be constantly reviewed and contain built-in contingencies for high priority tasks.

4. Describe the urgent important matrix and how it can be used to prioritise tasks

The urgent important matrix is a process for prioritising and scheduling tasks based on the category they fall into. Focusing direct energy on the urgent will limit the number of ‘half done’ tasks. The four categories are:

1. Do Now – Urgent – Important
2. Plan to do – Not urgent-important
3. Reject and explain – Urgent-not important
4. Resist and cease decision making – Not urgent-not important

5. Choose TWO of the following technologies and describe what it is and how it can be used to effectively manage work commitments: a) Electronic diary
b) Social / business networking sites
c) PDA’s
d) Web conferencing

1. Electronic diaries are tools which allow the user to easily track appointments, meetings and contacts. Electronic diaries can usually be access via a number of different portable devices such as laptops and mobile phones. Often with a mobile workforce, such as NCSI, these electronic dairies are shared so that the location or availability of staff is visible within the entire company.

2. Web Conferencing allows multiple users to speak and see each other over the internet in ‘real time’. At NCSI we use this technology for weekly team meetings with staff members who are located within in different states of Australia and occasionally also overseas.

6. Describe stress and TWO techniques to reduce stress.

Stress is the body’s physical response to events that feel threatening, When a threat is perceived the nervous system responds by releasing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which prepares the body for emergency action of “fight or flight’. This can include an increased heart rate, raised blood pressure and tightening of muscles. These combined responses increase strength, stamina, reaction time and enhance focus. Taking regular short breaks and being organised are two techniques which assist in reducing stress.

7. Describe how you can assess your own skills and knowledge

A personal development plan can assist accessing my skills and knowledge by identifying professional goals, current & future competency requirements and SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & Threats) analysis including identifying any gaps and a plan of development activities.

8. Describe ways you can obtain feedback and the importance of receiving negative feedback well.

Feedback may be obtained from formal performance appraisals, compliments and complaints, meetings, surveys, work or projects being reviewed or by seeking feedback from those whose option I value.

9. Name a development opportunity that you think would suit you. Describe why it is suitable using either Kolb or Honey Mumfords learning styles theory.

I see the ERP system implementation project as a development opportunity for me to become familiar with the practical and technical aspects of the software. Having a ‘Kolb’ learning style of Converging (doing and thinking – AC/AE), this would assist me with future problem solving and support aspects of the software.

10. Describe a network (including name and /or website address) that you could join and the benefits for joining that network. The Microsoft SharePoint Developer Centre ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/aa905688.aspx ) is a network of worldwide SharePoint users and acts as an information sharing mechanism. Resources include technical information, tutorials, downloads, forums, blogs, videos and application samples for the specific purpose of SharePoint development and use. As NCSI is heavily reliant on SharePoint technology, it would be a useful site to join.

11. Complete a personal work plan, such as the one on page 9 on the participant guide (although you can use any template you like). It must show dates, actions and priorities

Personal work plan:
Short Term Goal
Date: September 2011

SMART Goal: Review NCSI’s current business processes to identify issues, causes and suggested improvements which will be considerations for determining the business rules during the scoping and design phase of the new ERP system in December 2011.