International Business Manager Skills Development

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Table of Contents

Executive summary
Introduction
Using SOAR in developing careers
The use of MAP in the development of professional career
The continuing professional development (CPD)
Conclusion
The intended achievement and results
References

Executive summary

The personal and professional development process involves the improvement of one’s career. The improvement in one’s career is mainly pursued by individuals who are eager to grow and elevate themselves through the corporate ladder and be in a position that would enable them to take new tasks. In addition, professional development enables pursuant to complete their new tasks effectively as they take place. Similarly, development, achieving the professional and personal growth will involve answering questions concerning individual weaknesses and strengths, challenges as well as a commitment to the changes that will ensure attainment of the ambition.

Both personal and professional development requires a strategy and a plan that will ensure their achievement. In other words, individuals pursuing their professional and personal development are required to have a broader plan, confidence as well as the urge or the drive to enable them to attain their ambitions. Therefore, this paper will be examining some of the strategies that have enabled me to attain my personal and professional development. I will be applying SOAR principles and MAP guidelines to explain the strategies that have used towards this goal.

Introduction

This report identifies the steps that I have taken to develop my knowledge, skills as well as the experiences that are required to be an effective international business manager. The discussion will focus on how I have managed to achieve my personal and professional development, together with continuous professional growth for my future career choices. Moreover, it is a step by step journey in identifying and developing the knowledge, skills and experiences that are needed to become a successful and effective manager.

Using SOAR in developing careers

One of the principles that I have applied to attain my professionalism is SOAR. SOAR stands for self-awareness, opportunities, aspirations, as well as the results. Self- awareness means having knowledge of one’s personality that is different from others. Self-awareness also means having knowledge of individual weaknesses and strengths. Gaining one’s knowledge is essential for personal growth as well as professional development since it makes an individual know where to focus his efforts (Kumar 2008, p.156). Individual awareness can be gained through personal reflection as well as through the reactions of others. In addition, it is acknowledging the external forces that may have an influence on personality, such as culture, is also essential in understanding one’s personality (Meggison & Whitaker 2011, p.98). The most commonly used method of knowing one’s personality is through enquiring from other people or listening to what people say about you.

Being aware of me was the first step that I made to realize my dreams. That is, I fully identified my weaknesses, strengths, attributes, as well as my capabilities. I realized that attaining the required skills and competencies need an extra effort that must start with me. Moreover, my personal commitment will be an elevator to what I want to achieve. I assessed my personal strengths and weaknesses through feedback from what people say as well as through personal experiences. In other words, through the reflection on what people say as well as personal experiences.

In personal and professional development, reflection is the process of making sense of ideas or a process of re-ordering personal thoughts. It is a considered way through which complex and unstructured thoughts are dealt with (Cripps 2003, p.49). Reflections are normally used in situations where there is no program to be followed. Individuals make sense of unstructured situations so as to generate new knowledge. This new knowledge is essential in personal and career growth. Reflections are used when individuals are trying to make sense of how diverse ideas fit together. It is also used when the individuals relate the knowledge they already have with new ideas as well as when new ideas challenge the current knowledge (Cripps 2003, p.49). Reflections are also necessary when the materials that are available are unstructured or unorganized.

After strongly reflected on my individuality, strengths and weaknesses, I tried to find the connections with learning. Learning is one of the vital steps in any career development. Payne and Whittaker (2006, p.440) found out that there is a strong relationship between reflection and learning. According to Kolb (1984, p.69), reflection is in the second stage of the learning cycle. Those who want to develop their personality, as well as professionalism, must be ready to take in new ideas through learning.

In career development, the learning process goes through various stages (Kolb 1984, p.77). The first stage is where the individual learns through concrete experience. That is, the learning process is through doing or participation. The second stage is where learning is through reflection. The learners observe and think about whatever being observed. The third stage is abstract conceptualization, where the individual learns through speculations. The last stage is experimentation, where the learning process is through experimenting with new ideas and procedures.

According to Kolb (1984, p.81), the learner can either be dubbed converger, assimilator, diverger and accommodator depending on the attributes exhibited towards the learning process. Converger is that learner who is highly capable of conceptualizing abstract ideas as well as an active experimenter. In other words, the individual is oriented towards the practical applications of theories, concepts and ideas. In the work environment, the converger is better in decision making and problem-solving processes. Moreover, the converger has a preference technicality in dealing with people. They express their emotions less often and in most cases, base their references on sensory experience (Kolb 1984, p.81).

The diverger is one who is best in using existing experience as well as reflective observation. The learner is imaginative and feels orientated. The learner is capable of viewing the situation for several perspectives and has the meaning of values. He is also capable of putting alternative ideas together, and their interests in the organization are broad (Kolb 1984, p.81). They like group discussions and brainstorming and prefer to observe things happening rather than participating in them. These learners normally have difficulties in reaching conclusions due to lack of technical and quantitative information.

Assimilator is one who is also good in abstract conceptualization as well as reflective observation (Kolb 1984, p.81). This learner is capable of coming up with theoretical models as well as assimilating various observations into explanations that are considered to be logical. Instead of embracing people, these learners prefer abstract concepts instead of people. They also prefer logical theories as well as precision and accuracy.

Accommodators are action-oriented and like doing things. They are good implementers of planned tasks. They also act on hand experiences as they get involved in new ones. These learners are risk-takers as they seek for new opportunities (Kolb 1984, p.82). They adapt easily to the situations and get a solution to their problems through trial and error. They rely on other people for information. In as much as they like people, they are impatient and pushy.

Indeed, I applied these attribute to build on what kind of a learner I want to be. In fact, I selected the best qualities from each type of learner to build on the best as well as attainable attributes and incorporated them into my strengths. This easily enabled me to attain the required skills in order to secure my job. Moreover, these attributes increased my self-esteem as well as provide encouragement towards my personal and professional growth.

The use of MAP in the development of professional career

Often, self-awareness or the MAP has helped most global administrators to classify and fill their managing abilities cracks, and this motivates their respective expertise progresses. Besides, self-awareness assists managers in making an intuitive decision, find conditions in which they are very operative as well as motivate and aids in stress management. Based on my personal development motivations, it is necessary to assert that I have requisite qualities and unique aspects which are supposed to be developed to improve on myself. Basically, it is extremely difficult to manage poor results when their causes are hardly comprehensible. When an individual does not know the behaviours that need to be changed in order to improve on performance, he or she simply feels helpless (Goleman et al., 2002, p.78).

Thus, centred on MAP, I consider myself to be distinctive in the sense that my self-awareness has empowered to a level that it helps me divulge the performance components where there are dilemmas and consequently designate what should be carried out to help advance on the routines. Moreover, my mental requirements self responsiveness usually enhance my motivation as it helps me to comprehend as well as search for the recompenses which I actually yearn for such as supple work program, opportunities to support others, extra responsibilities and sense of accomplishment. Given that personal development motivation is deemed essential in the development and improvement of oneself, most people are bound to fail in making necessary changes in their lives since they lack motivations, or they do not have them at all. This is actually one of my strongest points (Kumar 2008, p.124). To me, it does not really matter if I want to change my behaviours, develop new skills or make other personal development changes.

To get my personal development motivation, I usually define my personal development goals. This is in line with my career trajectory since the identified career path normally requires me to know exactly the life area that needs improvement. Failure to appropriately define what I am yearning for might not realize enough since hazy aims cannot motivate me. It is also worth noting that my goals are always appealing to me given that the more I need the ultimate results, the further I get motivated to accomplish my goals (Throop & Castellucci, 2009, p.61). Conversely, my personal development motivations are held high with habitual reviewing of my goals. I always consider it insufficient to merely set my goals but fail to look at them. Such a case might fail to motivate me, given that my goals might be out of my mind and out my sight. While developing my personal development motivation plan, I usually delve into my goals in order to ensure that my subconscious mind can commence devising plans on how the goals could be realized.

My motivation similarly accrues from the fact I usually visualize my goals as already accomplished. Believing that an individual cannot accomplish his or set goals make such a person to fail to achieve the goals. To believe that you can realize the goals you desire needs visualizing them. I recurrently envisage my goals as already accomplished, and this makes me start appreciating that I can achieve them. This precept encourages and motivates to me to initiate the actions (Dulworth & Dulworth, 2008). Finally, I am motivated by the fact that I do not always give in to the inner negative voices. Whenever I get discouraged with the negative voices that say that I will never realize my set goals, I merely ignore them. In fact, I am made to believe that they are not the truth voices but rather fear voices that are based on my ego. They do not mean anything to me, and I am not bound to give up due to destructive self-talks in my mind.

Based on the MAP, I have numerous abilities which align with the identified career trajectory (Cross & Papadopoulos, 2001). The abilities mostly aid in keeping my personal development motivations high. For instance, I have the ability not to lose sight of my goals. As I often review my goals, I become very certain of what I want to achieve, my destination and the actions which ought to be taken to drive me there. This implies that never do I always lose sight of my goals because doing this might make me assume actions which lead away from what I desire. Besides, taking constant actions and focusing on a single goal at a time is part of my abilities. Keeping momentum in my personal undertaking necessitates taking consistent actions. Taking actions generate results which in turn keep me going (Grover, 2003). The moment I cease from taking action, my progress is bound to stop. Therefore, being able to focus on a single goal at a time has helped to realize my personal development motivations which bound to develop and grow with positive outcomes.

On the other hand, I have the abilities to set priorities and remove all distractions that have always assisted me in blocking negative influences which might hinder me from realizing my goals. I am able to do away with personal development distracters while setting priorities that aid in making positive progress in life (Wilkins, 1997). To realize this, I usually completely ignore the negative says and desires about my goals while remaining focused on what motivates to achieve my goals. To conclude, I believe I have unique personality traits that help me to define my goals while reviewing and taking necessary actions intended to accomplish them. Personally, I have the ability to eliminate de-motivators to swiftly realize challenging professional development goals.

The continuing professional development (CPD)

Besides SOAR, I also applied continuous professional development. This is the process through which individuals become in charge of their personal learning and development. Furthermore, CPD is the process through an individual engage in the constant practice of manifestation and accomplishment (Meggison & Whitaker 2011, p.112). This is an empowering process, and individuals that go through the experience find it exiting. CPD has been found to be essential in aiding the individuals attain their aspirations as well as move forward in achieving their personal and professional development (Payne & Whittaker 2006, p.445).

Through CPD, individuals have a wider perspective of their career progress, enabling the incorporation of all aspects that will make them succeed. Moreover, the individual will have the opportunity to review and reflect on its personal actions, goals and formulate strategies that will enable him to achieve those goals (Payne & Whittaker 2006, p.446). This will make individuals take personal responsibility for developing themselves. In addition, the CPD will make individuals be motivated to gain new knowledge and skills as well as experiences that are required to complete any assigned tasks.

CPD is essential since it ensures job security to the individual. In other words, CPD enables the individual to gain knowledge, skills and experiences that are vital for the job security. As Kumar (2008, p.196) observed, job security does not lie on the organization or the job itself, rather on the individual knowledge, skills and experiences gain during the working process. CPD works from the concept that the individual has control of what he wants. That is the individual achievement begins from self.

The attainment of the individual goals must begin from motivations that are self generated. The holistic nature of CPD enables the individual to deal with all the issues and strike a balance between them. This will allow the attainability of goals that the individual has set (Kumar 2008, p.197). However the individual must always focus on what he wants to be through reflection on his current position and working from that position towards the future. In so doing, the individual will attain the purpose of CPD and become enthusiastic about his work and learning (Megginson & Whitaker 2011, p.119). According to Kumar (2008, p.197), the purpose of CPD is to enable individuals continuously change their work environment through constant update of individual skills and knowledge. Continuous update of skills increases ones competence as well as enhancing the individual mobility (Megginson & Whitaker 2011 p.120).

Conclusion

Personal and professional development involves making critical series of choices that in effect will eventually change and shape an individual personality. People who focus on their personal and professional development understands that shaping their lives involve assessing their situation, acknowledge the need for improvement and are committed to bringing changes in their lives. There are many ways through which people can bring change to their lives. Some of these include educational advancement, career development, guidance and mentoring, experience as well as feedback. In as much these methods are considered to be effective, the most important method is that will make an individual to be his best. That is the method that will make an individual answer questions that look into his strengths and weaknesses, challenge his improvements as well as that make him commit to changes that will bring improvement to his life.

The intended achievement and results

One of my intentions is to achieve the required knowledge on the newly assigned tasks. Secondly, I intend to learn extra skills that will enable me accomplish the tasks in an effective and efficient manner. Most importantly, my aim is to constantly be informed on new business ideas, knowledge, skills and experience that will make me climb up the corporate ladder as well secure my job. With proper plan and clear strategy that I have put in place, the assurance is the better results. Better business management skills, good communication skills, interpersonal skills are some of the results that have been so far achieved. The major goals and objectives will be realized when these goals will be attained.

References

Cripps, C 2003, Personal, academic & career development in higher education, SOARing to success, Oxon, Routledge.

Cross, MC & Papadopoulos, L 2001, Becoming a therapist: a manual for personal and professional development, Psychology Press, London, UK.

Dulworth, M & Dulworth, M 2008, The connect effect: building strong personal, professional, and virtual networks, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, California.

Goleman, D, Boyatzis, R & McKee, A 2002, Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional intelligence, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.

Grover, R 2003, “Stalking a wily prey at Disney”, Business Week Online, Web.

Kolb, D 1984, Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kumar, A 2008, Personal, academic & career development in higher education, Oxon, Routledge.

Kumar, A 2008, Personal, academic and career development in higher education: soaring to success, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Oxford.

Meggison, D & Whitaker, V 2011, Continuing and professional development, Wimbledon, CIPD.

Payne, E & Whittaker, L 2006, Developing essential study skills, Harlow, Pearson Education Ltd.

Throop, RK & Castellucci, MB 2009, Reaching your potential: personal and professional development, Cengage Learning, New York, NY.

Wilkins, P 1997, Personal and professional development for counselors, SAGE, Green River, WY.

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