The professional field means a career that accommodates changes in the employment. The improvement of skills helps create foundation for success. People have goals as well as skills that differ in relation to the skills acquired through education. In addition, there are skills that help achieve the set objectives and do not depend on the career (Sangster, 2000).
To attain some aim, there is a need to perfect the areas that are not competent. Analysis is important to define the weak points to be improved. The weakness of a person can be determined through listening to the criticism of his or her boss, consulting fellow colleagues in areas where the weak point is observed and then working to improve the skills.
The individual can also use online questions to gauge his/her skills and the type of career that is desirable. Networking, therefore, can help in the development of required experience and knowledge through interaction (Powell, 2004).
To occupy a high position in the workplace, the relevant information and ideas how to perform one’s task more effectively are very important. This will, therefore, require further education to attain the desired skills. To get the required knowledge, a detailed research is important in relation to the job by either attending conferences, learning from the competitive companies or through consultations.
Consulting those holding the senior posts can help acquire the necessary skills though in most cases, it is difficult to get the information using such a method. This is because it is not easy to share the experience during board meetings, but through socialization, one can gather a lot of information (Honey, 2007).
When improving the skills, there should be consistency in performing the particular task. Presentation skills are necessary, and every employee should work on since they are applied in all the sections of the working environment. Presentation can be in form of the mode of dressing as well as the presentation of assignments. These skills can, therefore, be improved throughout the entire life of an individual (Sangster, 2000).
Another fact that one has to consider after joining the job as a professional is to be always aware of what the organization is about as well as its practices. It is important to know the competitors of the company and those that work together with the organization.
Performing your work, try as much as possible to share ideas with other people of the same profession to get the necessary information for your career growth. This helps one to know whether to move to another job or employer of a similar business. Sharing of information can be, therefore, done through discussions after meetings or via the internet (Valerie, 2009).
To be a manager on your own requires knowledge of the finance related issues in that particular profession. This is a dream for many people who desire to manage their own businesses. People can access such kind of information through interaction with those in the finance departments.
The knowledge gained may help be aware of how much is required to run such kind of business. The skill will prevent from starting an enterprise that will collapse due to inadequate funds because of unpreparedness and lack of experience (Stanleigh, 2006).
Knowing the worthiness of one’s services is necessary as it also contributes to the career growth. After employment, there is the development of skill and one should therefore keep in mind the time he or she has done that particular job to evaluate the extent of improvement in order to request for a promotion.
An employee is justified to ask for a promotion if his/her performance is good and consistent. Taking chances in the job helps in developing the skills to achieve the career goals. This involves engaging oneself in performing the duties that are not included in one’s job description (Valerie, 2009).
When managing their projects, some managers fail to achieve their goals due to the existing gaps between the available skills and the skills required in order to be successful. Due to the managerial skills gap, managers struggle with responsibilities in their jobs, hence failing to create management culture in their projects because they do not understand the scope of their roles.
Competency assessments can help identify the gaps through the evaluation of the current skills and knowledge among the employees and comparing them with the project requirements. For instance, in managing the products and services, the HR manager needs to analyze and identify the training needs of the employees for them to acquire the necessary skills. These are short-term tasks to be performed for the smooth running of the organization (Sangster, 2000).
Defining the job profiles helps in recognizing the roles of every employee in the organization. Identification of right qualifications, such as knowledge, skills and character in relation to the project roles, ensures to have the competency required in every work. This will, therefore, reduce the gap that may result from leading people as a team. This is a long-term activity since it controls the whole process in an organization (Powell, 2004).
Once competency has been developed in various duties, the management allocates tasks to the employees according to their competencies and project role requirement, hence successful management of technology. The employees become innovative because they are comfortable in the duties they are assigned to.
This leads to developing new products and services in the market due to creativity and innovation, hence coming up with more ideas that help the organization be productive. These gaps are short term and have to be achieved for the realization of the long-term objectives (Stanleigh, 2006).
Developing job profiles is another way of reducing the gaps in management skills. The management has the task of developing profiles for all the positions in an organization based on the common set of the practices for achieving the goals. This helps in planning since the management is in a position to know the strategies to be applied and the kind of competency required from the employees and predicts the payment rates for each job.
In addition, this can help the management in developing sustainable solutions for the strategies in order to ensure the products and services satisfy the consumers, attract as well as retain them. Planning is a long-term activity that requires all the processes to be followed to achieve the goals (Honey, 2007).
SWOT analysis help reduce the gap in management skills. When there is an objective analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it allows to determine the current position in the market. This will empower to assess the competitive environment in the business and, therefore, improve the technical skills necessary to promote productivity of the company. This can be a medium or short-term task depending on the size of the company (Simpson, 2011).
References
Honey, P. (2007). Continuing personal development. New York: Peter Honey Publications.
Powell, G. (2004). Managing a diverse workforce, (2nd ed). Chicago: Sage
Sangster, C. (2000). Planning and organizing personal and professional development. London: Gower Publishing.
Simpson, S. (2011). Competency-based human resources management. Planning For Success, 10, 27.
Stanleigh, M. (2006). Use competence assessments to close project management skill gaps. Using Competency Assessment, 9, 45-78.
Valerie, N. (2009). How to shorten the odds for job search success. New York: Emereo Pty Ltd.