In the given assignment of personal development as a strategic manager and a leader I am going to explain about the different strategic directions of an organisation. The given assignment also highlights different ways and procedures to evaluate the strategic skills that are required in order to achieve the required and targeted ambition or the goal of the organisation. Furthermore it also explains and asses the relationship between existing required skills and also explains the required future skills that are required by the organisation. In this assignment I am going to discuss the opportunities that support leadership development also constructing the development plan and implement all these things in the organisation. In the next part of the assignment I am assessing the achievements of outcomes of the plan, evaluate the impact of the achievement and also review the entire plan. In the last section I am going to evaluate the impact of corporate commitment to staff welfare on organisational objectives. At the end there is the discussion of different ways in order to make sure the staff welfare environment so that organisational objectives can be achieved easily, and then at the end consider the influence of a corporate commitment to staff welfare on the development of organisational values.
Taking the practical example of Tesco, one of the biggest organisations in the UK and USA, there are a lot of strengths of this organisation like good, cooperative, dedicated, hardworking and trustworthy staff. There is proper division of labour among the staff, every one understand their duties fully and properly. Dealing with customers is very good; payments with the customers and employees are fulfilled in time. Low prices and packages for the customers and also for the employer’s good quality products, behaviour of the workers with the customers is excellent and they are ready to help all the time. Display is very good; every section is separately displayed so that all the customers can reach easily to their required side.
THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF THE ORGANISATION:
Strategic direction can be defined as a course of action that ultimately leads to the achievement of the stated goals of the business or
organisational strategy. Strategic direction is established during the strategic planning of an organisation. During the strategic planning process an organisation will create a strategic plan and establish a written vision and statement. (Business dictionary 2011) While taking the practical view in the organisation of Tesco, in analyzing the strategic direction or the position of Tesco , the vision statement provides blueprints of their market position, (Johnson and Scholes, 2008). Tesco vision statement is to provide the best quality products in low prices. Tesco mission statement is to become a most successful retailer, to beat all the other megastores, (Tesco, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s) for the lowest prices, (TESCO, 2011) The strategic direction of Tesco is to provide quality products in UK, the best customer services, maximize profit for the shareholders, and become a reputable global brand with the adoption of current technology to assist efficient service delivery, (TESCO, 2011). I am a retail manager in this organisation and my main aims and objective is to be a general manager in the organisation of the frozen department in the next three years. To become general manager I need some skills and also needs to further develop those skills.
THE STRATEGIC SKILLS REQUIRED OF THE LEADER TO ACHIEVE THE STRATEGIC AMBITION: Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long -term which achieve advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations” (Johnson and Scholes, 2008) Right at the moment I am capable of some very important skills that can help me to perform my job roles perfectly. Some of them are goal setting, business awareness, communication skills, Self responsibility, Resolving customer’s problems, and personal management, customer services skills, good relationship, problem solving, operational skills, leadership skills, customer focus skills.
The most powerful point in my personality is strong command over communication; I have very good communication skills. Good communicational skill is like a key skill in order to get a good position in any public relation organisation because UK is a multi lingual and a multicultural
country, people belonging to different areas and culture are my customer and some of them cannot speak English properly, but I can understand by observing their body language and facial expressions, I know two more languages that help me in my customers dealings. I am also dealing with customer services and sometimes they are facing a lot of different problems such as they are not properly served, they want to exchange the things but they do not know the procedure. I can help them by treating nicely, by telling them all the new deals and listen to them carefully. The second most striking point in my personality is good relationship skills because it is very helpful to inspire others such as employees, customers and myself. Sometimes I have to face some problems like handling with invoices, shortage of employee, late delivery but I got the ability to handle all such situation. The second skill that I can handle very well is good customer services skills and customer focuses skills, this skills occupies a key position in order to achieve the strategic plan in order to achieve organisational goals as to provide good customer services is the first step for an organisation to flourish without this skill it is very hard to achieve the strategic ambitions of the organisation.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXISTING, REQUIRED AND FUTURE SKILLS TO ACHIEVE THE STRATEGIC AMBITION: Existing skills means the skills or abilities I already have and that are relevant to my future goals. Generally it is called as SWOT analysis, it will help me to analyse my present skills and it will impact on my future skills to achieve my strategic objectives, (CMI, 2011). SWOT analysis is one of the best technique to analyse yourselves, by using this technique I am able to understand the strong points in my personality, as for example through such analysis I came to know that the most strong skills that I got includes communication skill, problem solving skill, leadership skills. Other than strong points, through SWOT analysis I can able to carve out my weaknesses, like the some of my weak points are planning skills, result oriented skills, and operational skills, these are the gaps I need to work on them. I have also some opportunities to overcome these gaps in order to improve my skills, I am attending some lectures from a qualified business man who is running an organisation and these lectures are helping me in different ways, other than this I am spending my free time
in reading autobiographies of great leaders. I am planning to attend a seminar in Scotland in November 2011, I am also reading some CMI books and get diploma, and also going Manchester University for one week classes, in the next month for personal development, these are some of the opportunities that I have to improve my personal development.. There are some threats I have to face as well, the most important one is that I have only three years to achieve my strategic objectives, I have not too much time to achieve my planned objectives, other than shortage of time money is another problem, in order to attend different seminars I need money. These are the main threats I have faced.
THE OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:
There are a lot of opportunities to develop myself the most important one is paying attention by undertaking a feedback activities, through psychometric analysis, through such analysis all of my weak points comes out because this is a method of assessing my behaviour, education is also a source of personal development, such as attending lectures of level 7 diploma in strategic management and leadership. Other than this I am planning to attend lectures in Scotland University and seminars in Manchester University for personal development. Training is also a big opportunity for personal and leadership development .Monitoring other by other leaders such as Tesco, Wilkinson, Morrison etc look at their attitude, behaviour, their working patterns and strategies, and see how they deal with the customers, reading different management and leadership books and applying that knowledge in the organisation and the most important one is by observing big organisation. A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN TO DIRECT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: Beam (2006) suggest the frame work for constructing a personal development should include setting a smart objectives and allocating a time frame for achieving the objectives that table show below a frame work for my personal development as provided by Beam.
Name Abid ishaq Date 18-7-11 Personal development planning worksheet
My career goal is: To become a successful general manager of Tesco. I hope to obtain it by: The next three years.
My personal development objective in support of my career goal Personal development objective expected time of completion 1. My first development plan was to get the……completed in one year. CMI level 7 Diploma in one year….. (2010-2011)
2. Second personal development plan is attending a seminar…. (25th July 2011-30th July 2011) 3. My third personal development plan was to become a good….completed retail manager in the organisation where I am working within a year …… (2011)
4. My fifth personal development plan is to become a successful….will be completed Therefore I can get a promotion in the next three years…. (2013)
The PDP chart shows that the first two objectives I have achieved in the next year, but the next two objectives need a master level degree and to become a successful leader. In order to achieve my objectives it is compulsory for me to fulfil all the objectives in the planned frame of time. Taking the first objective, in order to achieve that goal I joined college, after completing my college education I am planning to join University so that I am able to get my MBA degree. The next objective to become a successful strategic manager and a leader in the next three years is very important in my life planning. After completing my degree I will be able to achieve my goal, and during that time I will be learnt the experience and reduce the limitation and at the end will be able to become a successful strategic leader in my organisation.
AN IMPLIMENTATION PROCESS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN:
To implement process at first I need to identify my personal development goals, capture feedback, plan steps to achieve my development goals, monitor my progress, and continually review my progress, (CMI, 2011). I had attended a seminar related to personal development plan and after that I implemented that development plan and now I am planning to go to USA, to attend another seminar , it costs about 600 pounds, my organisation give me 400 pounds and the rest I have to manage myself. I already paid my college fees for level 7 that is nearly 4000 pounds and I managed that entire amount myself. I
already attended different seminars related to personal development that gives me a lot of different in formations, previous two months I am working on my CMI level 7 assignments, for this purpose I am learning a lot of books, generals, articles, and magazines newspaper related to personal development. All of this stuff helps me a lot to improve myself and implement new and latest methods in my organisation, so that I can easily achieve my organisational objectives or ambitions. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF OUTCOMES OF THE PLAN AGAINST ORIGINAL OBJECTIVES: Because of a lot of seminars and conferences I am able to improve some of my skills like as before I was very weak in planning skills but now I paid attention in this field and improve this skill. Different seminars, conferences, lectures, meetings with other managers and specially preparation of CMI level 7 now I am able to improve my planning skills, I observed senior managers when they were planning in difficult situation and I learn a lot through them as for example I ordered some long in winter but because of bad weather condition, the order came late now I have long shoes in stock , the most possible step was to save them and sold them in winter but later on I planned to sold them now by using my planning skills as I planned and convinced them that it’s better to buy them now because they are half price now, but in winter the price will go up so you can buy some quality stuff in very less price and in this way I sold a lot of pieces. I made improvement in operational and IT skills, but still I am working on result oriented skills as I am still weak in this side. I have also improved customer services skills and communication skills, I was good in that but through continual personal development I improved in the respective fields. At start I was hesitate in decision making but now I am confident in all fields and I can make decision that I think are better for the organisation confidently. These are all the progress that I have made so far with my personal development. THE IMPACT OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF OBJECTIVES ON STRATEGIC AMBITION: Personal development has a very strong impact on my strategic ambition. In the start I need development in these areas, planning skills, operational skills, result oriented skills, problem solving skills, self-responsibility skills. I learn these skills through seminars, diplomas, conferences and meetings, now I am able to apply all these in the development and betterment of organisation. In the start I was not confident enough to handle critical situation or to
solve problems and was not so good in planning, but after learning personal development plan I am very confident in handling my problems and it also improve my ability of planning. This improvement helps me to achieve my strategic ambitions, goals and objectives. My strategic goal is to become the general manager of Tesco in the next three years, and I make some objectives to achieve this ambition, in frozen food department making 8 percent profit in 12 months, I am focusing on this objective to achieve my career goals, such as I am introducing new packages, making more trust worthy for customers, motivating the employers through rewards, bounces and packages, so they work hard and brings out good results. My next aim is to provide them best quality food product in less price in next 6 month, to achieve this I am looking new contact, cheap labour,(TESCO, 2010) If I will be able to achieve these goals it will be very helpful to achieve my strategic goals and ambitions.
REVIEW AND UPDATE THE LEADERSHIP PLAN:
It’s helpful to review where you are in term of progress, are all the development needs met? Have all the development objectives been achieved? Have all the outcomes being assessed? Has the impact on strategic ambition been evaluated?, it may be that one or more of the above point are still outstanding or there may have been new development needs identified or development objectives formulated? (CMI, 2011) Review and update are very important because of these two steps we are able to assess how much I have done and how much I have to do? I t also gives a clear analysis that how many objectives have been achieved and how many are still remaining? I reviewed everything I had a meeting after every three weeks with my supervisors to check the performance of the supervisors as they have their check sheets and progress sheets with them. Those sheets clearly explain and highlight their performance and rate of progress. Those sheets also explain that how much is left and how much needs to be done? Through those sheets I can easily understand the weakness of the organisation and of the supervisors comes out as well, with this I am able to understand the strong points of the organisation and that of the supervisors that needs to be appreciated so that the performance can be improved. I have spent a lot of time on seminars, meeting and conferences. Through those meetings I have found my weak points that are still in the organisation where I have more work; It also gives a review that how much I spent for study, meetings and seminars. It also gives a review of progress after every 4 weeks. I am also reviewing the file of every employer after every 6 months and updated it. After every 6 months I write down the progress of the organisation. These are the basic steps to achieve the strategic goals and ambition of the organisation.
THE IMPACT OF COOPERATE COMMITMENT TO STAFF WEFARE ON ORGANISATION OBJECTIVE: The occupational Safety & Health Administration, through it Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), set high standard for companies. The challenge and the reward, is to have safe working environment, that not only meet government standards, but also exceed them to the point that your company ‘safety program can be self-sustaining and become a model for your industry, (Phillip. Retallick, 2008), some companies aim to use their cultural commitment as a way of being socially responsible. What is important to them is positive image transfer and improved attractiveness as an employer. They also believe it improves investor attitudes, cooperate leaders here have a high level of cultural skills. Motivating their own staff is paramount, commercial aims and communications are less important. (Zurich, Munich, 2004)
Tesco gives a nice and attractive package foe their employers, including numerous options related to medical, dental, vision and prescription drugs coverage. They also provide life insurance packages with special packages. All of these packages are on the behalf of the organisation and that can create a great impact on the organisational objectives as for example the workers feel safe at work places, they are confident as well and also they utilize all of their potential to give an excellent result because they know that if they have any injury at work place they can get a good medical coverage without any cost. They also have 20 percent discount on everything. After getting so much benefits the employers think that if they are getting so many benefits then they should utilize extra effort to get organisational objectives and also these things motivates me because I am feeling secure at work place as I am getting full medical coverage and discount and special packages as well. O once in the last year I have some hearing problem and company paid for that. I get the full treatment without any cost. That is main reason I am paying my full potential in order to achieve organisational objectives so that I can achieve my own assigned goals.
HOW A STAFF WELFARE ENVIRONMENT CAN AFFECT ACHIEVEMENT OF ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES: If there is dissatisfaction at work, then definitely there are many circumstances of lower production rates at work places. So they managers and the leaders of the organisation must consider the factors that might be responsible for the dissatisfaction of the employers at work, and also sort out those factors in order to reduce those factors so that the production rates can be raised again. If I defined the satisfaction at work it means, attitude towards the work environment, salary and relationship with their colleagues, job security, grievance handling, performance appraisal, quality policies, career counselling and so on. The most important factor that must be considered for the employee satisfaction, work environment: work environment is the atmosphere to which the employee is actually exposed. This constitutes a major portion of the influence on the employees. This typically includes the quantum of work allotted, nature and complexities, system being followed, support from colleagues etc. Healthy and safe environment and cordial relationship in the department can help out in order to achieve organisational ambitions and objectives. Relationship with colleagues:
In order to achieve good environment it is important to create friendly and better understanding and relationship with colleagues. Good relationships with the employees at work can help to enhance stability and confidence among themselves that contributes to the security and improves overall performance. Motivation and Recognition:
If I want to explain the performance of any employee, it is actually the ability to utilize their abilities to achieve planned strategic organisational goals and objectives. Motivation is a source to handle management, which shows that every human being earnestly seeks a secure, friendly and supportive relationship that gives him a sense of warmth and recognition in groups that are most important to him. Salary:
It is the most important part related to the employee’s satisfaction. If the employee is satisfied with his salary, then they will show more patience and will work with more consideration and effort. In Tesco I am satisfied all these things, work environment, salary, relationship, job security, performance appraisal, this is the safe, welfare environment that put great effect to achieve organisational objectives.
THE INFLUENCE OF A COOPERATE COMMITMENTTO STAFF WELFARE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISATION VALUES: Employee’s commitment to their work teams and to the organisation can influence turnover, willingness to help co-workers and team performance. Building employee commitment to the work place is one important goal of human resource policies and practices, commitment has a positive effect on productivity, turnover and employees willingness to help co-workers, commitment to a team may translate into willingness to help team members, and improved team performance, low level of commitment to both the organisation, and the team, have been linked to absenteeism, turnover and intention to quit. Employers believe team can enhance productivity while giving employees a more active role in decision-making and a greater opportunity to be involved in meaningful work. But team success is often dependent on high levels of employee commitment to both the organisation and its goals. In Tesco they commitment for medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage. The company provides life insurance coverage, with group rates on any additional insurance an employee may need, employee discounts these all the things influence positively for the development of organisational values that is why I am working hard, and paying more intention on the betterment of the organisation and at the end this will achieve organisational objectives and also develop the organisational values. CONCLUSION:
At the end it is concluded that the given assignment explains the strategic direction of the organisation and it also evaluate the strategic skills that are required by any organisation in order to achieve the goals and ambitions of the organisation. The given assignment also analyze the existing skills and also position the skills and helps to develop the skills required by the
organisation. It also help to sketch the organisation plan for the next 5 years. It also discusses the ways to improve the environmental condition and discuss how a staff welfare environment can affect achievement of organisation objectives. And at the end consider the influence of a corporate commitment to staff welfare on the development of organisational values. REFLECTIVE STATEMENT:
After learning 7001 I know I am able to know I am able to know what is strategic direction and I am also able to know what are personal skills and through the SWOT analysis I am able to understand the weakness in my personality and on which I have to concentrate more, I am also able to understand what are the main policies that are very important to achieve the required goal and ambitions. I learned these skills through through training, education, meetings, seminars etc. Now I am able to review and update the existing and required skills. I am able to know about the vision statement of my organisation and mission of organisation and see the strategic direction of the organisation at first I am not be able to do all this but after study this section I am in this position I make strategic plan I am able to evaluate myself and also effectiveness of leadership. Also know what is corporate commitment and its effect on organisation objectives. I am able to develop my strength and implement all these things in any organisation. At first I am not able to know the importance of health and safety but after learning this unit knows I am able to evaluate that importance of this. Healthy and safe culture is really important for all the employees and also for me in the organisation.
REFRENCES:
Tesco, (2011) “aims and objectives” [online] available at www.tesco.co.uk.[Accessed on 6th 2011] Business dictionary, (2011) “strategic direction” [online] available at http:// www.businessdirectionary.com/definition/stretegic-direction.htm.[Accessed on 10th January 2011] Beam, H.H.(2006). “A framework for personal development”, journal human resource management 19(2):1-8 Johnson, G. & Scholes., (2008) “Exploring corporate strategic” 8th edition, Pearson education Phillip G. Retallick (2008) “Corporate Commitment, Local Dedication Pave the Way to Success” [online] available at http://ohsonline.com/article/2008/05/corporate-commitment-local-dedication-pave-the-way-to-success.aspx[Accessed on 4th March 2011] Zurich, Munich, (2004) “corporate commitment to culture- an integral part of their strategy” [online] available at http://www.rolandberger.com/company/press/releases/514-press-archive2004-sc-content/pr68.htm1(Accessed on 14th March 2011]
