Personal Profile and Current Position
Learning to manage self and others at workplace has been one of the most importance processes for me following my appointment into a junior managerial position at Emirates Airline. The ascent into the position of junior management has been long and characterized by a number of challenges. I was hired as an Executive Secretary to VIP Commercial Ops in December 2007, a position that did not involve any managerial task. I was promoted to the position of Senior Flight Crew Licensing Assistant the following year.
This was a supervisory position and I was assigned a group of ten flight crew members who worked under my directions. It was at this point that I started learning- through experience- the concept of people management. I realized that I was not only expected to manage their work-related activities but also personal issues which have direct impact on their output at work.
In August 2010, I was promoted to the position of Flight Crew Licensing Coordinator, a position that came with many roles. I had to coordinate various activities within the firm and ensure that international regulations are maintained in all the operations of this firm. I had to work closely with external authorities such as the General Civil Aviation Authority, International Civil Aviation Organization, among others to create awareness within the firm about the changing national and international laws and policies within the aviation sector.
Currently, I am the Regulatory Specialists at Emirates Airline, a position I ascended into on March 2013. In this junior managerial position, I play a critical role in coordinating the activities at this firm to ensure that they adhere to the set regional and international policies. My role as a regulatory specialist requires me to coordinate closely with various internal and external stakeholders. I have to work with my junior officers and ensure that each one of them understand the regulatory expectations they have to meet in their respective duties.
As a manager, I have come to learn that leading people does not primarily involve issuing orders and expecting exemplary outcome. People, unlike machines, have feelings, and the relationships they have with others around them define their output at workplace. I also learnt that to manage others successfully, one must start with managing self. This involves the dress code, the approach one takes in addressing problems, the mannerisms, and the relationship with others.
Managing self successfully earns one respect among the followers. This respect gives the leader some sense of authority that will help in managing others. People may not necessarily follow the instructions of the manager simply because he or she is in a managerial position (Smith 2012). However, respect and love makes it easy for a manager to coordinate people and influence them to give their best in every assignment they undertake.
Initial Personal Development Plan
As a leader, I know that there are lots of expectations from my current and future employer. Emirates Airline is one of the leading airline companies in the global aviation industry. To be successful, I have to maintain a process of continuous learning and development in the fields relevant to my career. In this section, I will focus on my personal development plan.
Personal development plan
Skills audit
SWOT
Weekly Diaries
Reflective Statement on Management Development Activities
The management development activities involve complex learning processes which have an overall impact of transforming a person’s skills and capabilities. When analyzing personal development plan, my strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats were clearly brought out. This way, it was easy to understand how to use the strength to overcome weaknesses and manage threat while taking advantages of the opportunities that are available.
In this analysis, one thing that comes out clearly is the need for further learning. According to Gitomer and Hersey (2011), the best way of gaining skills and knowledge is through learning. In the development objectives, it has been stated that various areas need further learning to enable me better my current performance. There are various learning models for adults that will be very useful in my career development process.
David Kolb’s Learning Cycle is one of the most popular learning concepts used in the modern society. It explains the learning process that takes place among the adults. It starts with concentrate experience where one comes in contact with a given situation that brings about a new concept. Once hit with the new experience, one will make reflective observation of the experience by looking for the inconsistencies between it and the current knowledge.
The next step is abstract conceptualization which gives rise to development of new idea (Mumford 2007). Sometimes it may involve modification of existing concepts a process Smith (2012) calls knowledge development. The last stage is active experimentation. This involves application of the newly gained knowledge to improve existing situation. The model is shown in the figure below.
I believe this learning cycle will be very relevant to my career development process because every new concept learnt and understood will be put into immediate application at my workplace. Peter Honey and Alan Mumford further developed Kolb’s model to explain the learning process among the adults. The figure below shows their modification of the Kolb’s model.
These scholars associated the process of encountering new experience with activism. When one encounters new experience, there is always a sense of rejection as one tries to comprehend it. After that, the mind will reflect upon it before it can theorize it. Finally, the activist becomes pragmatist after understanding the new concept.
According to Drucker (2008), learning takes place best when one has specific questions that should be addressed through the process. VARK (visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic) is a questionnaire that enhances the learning process by giving suggestion of strategies one should be using. This learning model based on setting specific questions will be very useful in my study. It will help me in setting clear targets in all my academic activities.
Additional resources or learning materials
The preparation of this personal development plan involved the use of various learning materials at different stages. Other than the materials mentioned in the plan, it was also important to use the internet to access various resources. Online libraries were particularly very important in providing the needed materials for the plan. The colleagues at workplace, especially those who have advanced academic qualification in the field of aviation, also played a critical role in terms of advice.
Reference List
Drucker, P 2008, Managing oneself, Harvard Business Press, Boston.
Gardner, D & Miller, L 2014, Managing self-access language learning, City University of Hong Kong Press, Hong Kong.
Gitomer, J & Hersey, P 2011, Jeffrey Gitomer’s little book of leadership: The 12.5 strengths of responsible, reliable, remarkable leaders that create results, rewards, and resilience, John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken.
Jackson, S & Tap, P 2008, ‘Education and personal development’, European Journal of Psychology of Education, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 435-445.
Mumford, A 2007, How managers can develop managers, Gower, Aldershot.
Smith, J 2012, Personal Development Planning-What You Need to Know: Definitions, Best Practices, Benefits and Practical Solutions, Emereo Publishing, Dayboro.