EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development BSBWOR501 MANAGE PERSONAL WORK PRIORITIES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 1|Page v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Introduction .................................................................................................. 4 1. Establish work goals ................................................................................... 5 1.1 Serve as a positive role model in the workplace through personal work planning and organisation............................................................................ 5 1.1.1 Role modelling tips ....................................................................... 6 1.1.2 Organisation skills ........................................................................ 7 1.2 Ensure personal work goals, plans and activities reflect the organisation's plans, and own responsibilities and accountabilities ........................................ 9 1.2.1 Goal setting ................................................................................. 9 1.2.2 Goal setting theory ..................................................................... 10 1.2.3 Five principles of goal setting ....................................................... 11 1.2.4 SMART goals – examples ............................................................. 13 1.2.5 Starting to set personal work goals ............................................... 14 1.2.6 Align personal work goals to organisational goals ........................... 18 1.2.7 Key performance indicators (KPI’s) ............................................... 18 1.2.8 Achieving goals .......................................................................... 22 1.3 Measure and maintain personal performance in varying work conditions, work contexts and contingencies ................................................................ 24 2 Set and meet own work priorities ............................................................... 28 2.1 Take initiative to prioritise and facilitate competing demands to achieve personal, team and organisational goals and objectives................................. 28 2.1.1 Time management ..................................................................... 28 2.1.2 Prioritisation .............................................................................. 33 2.1.3 Prioritisation tools ...................................................................... 34 2.1.4 Delegation ................................................................................. 39 2.2 Use technology efficiently and effectively to manage work priorities and commitments ........................................................................................... 41 2.3 Maintain appropriate work-life balance, and ensure stress is effectively managed and health is attended to ............................................................. 43 2.3.1 Work-life balance ....................................................................... 43 2.3.2 Identify sources of stress ............................................................ 45 3 Develop and maintain professional competence................................... 52 3.1 Assess personal knowledge and skills against competency standards to determine development needs and plans ..................................................... 52 3.1.1 2|Page Personal work goal and action plan ............................................... 56 v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 3.2 Seek feedback from employees, clients and colleagues and use this feedback to identify and develop ways to improve competence ...................... 57 3.2.1 Feedback................................................................................... 57 3.3 Identify, evaluate, select and use development opportunities suitable to personal learning style/s to develop competence .......................................... 60 3.3.1 Learning styles ........................................................................... 63 3.4 Undertake participation in networks to enhance personal knowledge, skills and work relationships .............................................................................. 69 3.4.1 How to network.......................................................................... 70 3.4.2 Where can I network? ................................................................. 71 3.5. New skills to achieve and maintain a competitive edge ......................... 72 Appendix - VAK learning styles self-assessment questionnaire ........................... 74 Appendix - Time management quiz Scoring Instructions ................................... 78 Appendix - Body language............................................................................. 81 3|Page v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Introduction This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to manage own performance and professional development. Particular emphasis is on setting and meeting priorities, analysing information and using a range of strategies to develop further competence. This unit applies to managers and focuses on the need for managers to be organised, systematic and skilled, in order to effectively manage the work of others. As such it is an important unit for most managers, particularly as managers serve as role models and have a significant influence on the work culture and patterns of behaviour. What does this mean? In simple terms, it means that as a manager of others, you are a role model, and your behaviours will be observed and copied by team members. To manage others effectively you need to be able to organise yourself and them and focus their work on tasks that are meaningful for the business. Achieving business goals requires all employees to align their personal work goals with those of the business. That includes developing skills and knowledge to fill any gaps that may exist, or to continually look to improve your performance in your job. This unit is designed to give you some fundamental skills in self-organisation and personal development. This involves: Setting goals and aligning them to business goals Managing your time and prioritising work activities Seeking feedback and identifying development opportunities Maintaining your professional competence 4|Page v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 1. Establish work goals Managers are constantly required to be prepared and willing to examine their skills and goals to make sure they are on the right track with their professional development. As a manager you need to ask yourself if you have the skills and attitudes to do the job required of you. If you don’t have the skills in particular to perform tasks and duties assigned to you, how you do improve your performance and skills? Do you need training? If you do then what can you do to prepare for the next job? What do you need to do for your career or your organisation? Determining your development needs What skills, knowledge, and behaviour do you need to do your job? What skills, knowledge and behaviours do you already have? Identify the gaps in your development. Determine how to meet those needs. 1.1 Serve as a positive role model in the workplace through personal work planning and organisation As a manager of others, you are a role model. Humans are social animals and we take many of our behavioural cues from people in positions of authority. Acting as a role model is something a manager does whether they realise it or not. Here are some simple ways of being a good role model: Look listen and learn! Good leaders listen more than they speak. If you listen to both verbal and nonverbal language, you will be aware of how you staff are reacting to you and how you can best help them. They will respond to you if they feel that you are trying to understand them. See more information regarding body language in the appendix to this eBook. Lead by example! Good leaders guide by example. If you constantly present yourself, as you want others to present themselves, everything you do will create the standard, and you can expect this behaviour to be emulated. This is how you train your staff on how to handle the customers, or clients. If you are rude, they will be rude. Maybe not in front of you, but it will happen! Your actions have already approved this behaviour! Follow the rules! When you implement a rule, do you follow it? Example 5|Page You are a restaurant manager and you ask that everyone clear tables with a tray. Are you doing this? Or do you break the rule because it is v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development more convenient for you not to use a tray? If you say it is important, make it important. Perhaps you establish a policy that every customer must be greeted when entering the store. As a great role model, you would not only present cheerful greetings to all customers but you would have a few different greetings, to demonstrate the ways it is possible to greet your valuable customers. People do not usually quit their jobs because they are unhappy with an organisation, but because they are unable to have an impact on the business. Satisfaction comes from performing exceptionally well and making a difference. This is encouraged through the effective management of people. Managers need to know the power of their words, displays of emotion, attitudes and, importantly, their behaviour. Organisations generally do not fail because of bad strategies, but because of bad managers. Good managers ‘walk the talk’. They are aware of the importance of their role. Most people do not understand the power of their words. Just as a beautiful ballad can touch your heart, words said rashly in anger can be as deeply felt. Being in a position of authority adds weight to these words. They can cause stress or depression in employees which will impact performance. 1.1.1 Role modelling tips Bite your tongue Words matter Do not judge – evaluate Keep track 6|Page Managers must remain cool and patient, no matter what comes along. Managers who are short-tempered and stern are unlikely to be approachable. Employees must be able to rely on their manager to help them in times of difficulty, if not, help may not be sought. If you as a manager cannot manage your own emotions, how can you manage others? As a people manager you must understand the importance of your words. Words can boost morale or demoralise. You remain effective as long as anger and smiles are well-managed. Be very careful in passing comments especially ones which highlight areas of improvement - such comments can be taken as negative feedback. This must be managed constructively. Most of us judge people. Even a first impression is enough to make us think we can comment on someone. This may work in day-to-day life but are not advisable for a manager. People managers must manage each individual separately. Keep background, behaviour, attitude and aptitude in mind. Don’t wait until the last minute to highlight subordinate’s shortcomings. Good people managers keep a log of events designed to improve employee’s performance, not to punish or v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Give constructive feedback Neutralising illusions Winning hearts and minds Train a replacement Instil confidence! ridicule. Encouragement is usually more effective than punishment or humiliation. Feedback must be constructive – not just good or bad. Constructive feedback coupled with documentary proof clearly lets your team know what is expected, what errors have been made and tips for improvement in a given time frame. It should be structured and provide opportunities for improvement. Poor feedback is emotional and unstructured and does not contain opportunities for improvement; the how-to-improve part is always missing. Successful managers keep people ‘on board’ with organisations visions and goals and how they match the needs of the individual. Individuals need to understand the direction the organisation is moving in so both sets of needs are being met. Understand that people are loyal to people (managers) not necessarily organisations. If your subordinates respect you they will work for you and this benefits the whole organisation. Good managers have Emotional Intelligence. Understand your people and develop relationships with them so that they look to you when they are in need. If you cannot be replaced, you cannot be promoted, always pass on your skills. Make miracles happen. Satisfied employees accomplish miracles. The failure of employees in performing their jobs well is in fact the failure of a manager. As a manager you need to manage potential in your staff in order to get the best from them. 1.1.2 Organisation skills While many people feel stressed because they don't have enough time, it's often due to lack of time management or poor organisational skills. Here are a few points to consider with management and organisational skills: Allow people to be efficient in their choices. Eg: a mailman may organise his route to travel to the most distant delivery first and works his way back to his home post office so that his last delivery leaves him close to work Let your staff keep track of completed projects, projects in process and projects they need to start so that they can manage time and resources Create structure and eliminate chaos Strong skills help you stay organised so that you can manage your time, keep your workspace clutter-free, prioritise projects and stay on top of your schedule Good skills ensure you are on time for meetings, don’t miss deadlines and know how to maximise productivity - in this way you work smarter, not harder Good skills help you focus on what needs to be done and in what order 7|Page v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Include the ability to make lists, prioritise and set goals. It is easier to understand how to structure your time if you prioritise your to-do list, listing it in a particular order whether it is based on urgency, deadlines or just the alphabet. The goal is to do work efficiently, clustering tasks so that you can get them done quickly Organisational skills help you maintain your peace of mind while accomplishing all of the tasks in front of you. Time management A vital component of organisation. The ability to identify tasks that will take longer than others and to make the time to accomplish them is important to success academically, personally and in the workplace. Students often overload by failing to manage the time necessary to complete assignments and research papers. One purpose for homework is to help students and maturing teenagers master organising their time effectively in order to meet deadlines. Everyone experiences running out of time or coming up against a deadline feeling unprepared. In order to avoid feeling overwhelmed, consider the little things you can do to organise your life and time. Keep in mind the phrase ‘everything has its place and everything in its place.’ Put pens where they go so when you need one, all you have to do is reach for it and it is there. Avoid procrastination. When you put off tasks, you cannot predict what will occur that may delay you further. Use these tips to get organised! 8|Page v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Clear a space on your desk •To improve your task management you need a peaceful, clean space where you can organise your tasks, file your papers and decide on your next plan of action •Find a space in your home where you can sit at a clean desk and spend time planning out your schedule Automate tasks •Set up automatic bill pay with your bank for bills that occur in the same amount every month (mortgage bills, phone bills etc.) •Get a simple calendar program for your computer and set up reminders for any upcoming appointments •Set up to-do lists with reminders so you always know what the highest priority task is Create a structured schedule •If you are overloaded with tasks and never know what to do next create a structured task schedule •Pick a day of the week when you will do certain tasks and always do them on the allocated day and time •Create a work schedule for the hardest tasks during a time of day when you are least tired Delegate and ask for help where possible •If you can pay for a personal organiser to help with some of your tasks, make that a priority •If other people in your life can help with some of the things on your plate, make sure you reach out and ask for help •Don't be afraid to let go of a little control to regain order in your life Eliminate the clutter •It is easier to think in a clean space with no clutter •Throw out junk mail as it comes in, or refuse it in the first place •Put away things as soon as you are finished •De-clutter a small area at a time •Work on de-cluttering 10 minutes at a time •Improve organisation skills by using task management - create a clear schedule you can stick to 1.2 Ensure personal work goals, plans and activities reflect the organisation's plans, and own responsibilities and accountabilities 1.2.1 Goal setting Goal setting is a powerful motivator! The value of goal setting is so well recognised, entire management systems, have goal setting basics incorporated within them. 9|Page v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development In fact, goal setting theory is generally accepted as among the most valid and useful motivation theories in industrial and organisational psychology, human resource management, and organisational behaviour. Many of us have learned to set SMART goals. It seems natural to assume that by setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound, we will be well on our way to accomplishing them. S M A R T Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant TimeBound OR OR OR OR OR Significant Meaningful ActionOriented Rewarding Trackable Dr Edwin Locke pioneered research on goal setting and motivation in the late 1960s. In his 1968 article ‘Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives’, he stated that employees were motivated by clear goals and appropriate feedback. Locke went on to say that working toward a goal provided a major source of motivation to actually reach the goal – which, in turn, improved performance. This holds true decades later. This shows the impact his theory has had on professional and personal performance. 1.2.2 Goal setting theory Locke's research shows the relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people's performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals. Telling someone to ‘try hard’ or ‘do your best’ is less effective than ‘work on getting more than 80% correct’ or ‘concentrate on beating your best time’. Hard goals are more motivating than easy goals, because it's much more of an accomplishment to achieve something that you have to work for. A few years after Locke published his article, another researcher, Dr Gary Latham, studied the effect of goal setting in the workplace. His results supported exactly what Locke had found, and the inseparable link between goal setting and workplace performance was formed. In 1990, Locke and Latham published their seminal work, ‘A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance’. In this book, they reinforced the need to set specific and difficult goals, and they outlined other characteristics of successful goal setting. 10 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 1.2.3 Five principles of goal setting To take the concept of SMART goals further consider the following principles of goal setting. To motivate, goals must have: Clarity Challenge Commitment Feedback Task complexity Clarity Clear goals are measurable and unambiguous. When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviours will be rewarded. You know what's expected, and you can use specific results as a source of motivation. When a goal is vague – or expressed as a general instruction, like ‘take initiative’ – it has limited motivational value. To improve your or your team's performance, set clear goals that use specific and measurable standards. ‘Reduce job turnover by 15%’ or ‘respond to employee suggestions within 48 hours’ are examples of clear goals. When you use the SMART acronym to help you set goals, you ensure the clarity of the goal by making it Specific, Measurable and Time-bound. Challenge One of the most important characteristics of goals is the level of challenge. People are often motivated by achievement, and they'll judge a goal based on the significance of the anticipated accomplishment. When you know that what you do will be well received, there's a natural motivation to do a good job. Rewards typically increase for more difficult goals. If you believe you'll be well compensated or otherwise rewarded for achieving a challenging goal your motivation and enthusiasm will be boosted and drive you to get it done. Setting relevant, SMART goals links them closely to rewards given for achieving challenging goals. Relevant goals will further the aims of your organisation, and these are the kinds of goals that most employers will be happy to reward. When setting goals, make each goal a challenge. If an assignment is easy and not viewed as very important – and if you or your employee doesn't expect the accomplishment to be significant – then the effort may not be impressive. Note: It's important to strike an appropriate balance between a challenging goal and a realistic goal. Setting a goal that you'll fail to achieve is possibly more demotivating than setting a goal that's too easy. The need for success and achievement is strong; therefore people are best motivated by challenging, but realistic, goals. Make sure your goals are Achievable or Attainable, that’s SMART! Commitment Goals must be understood and agreed upon if they are to be effective. Employees are more likely to ‘buy into’ a goal if they feel they were part of creating that goal. 11 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development The notion of participative management rests on this idea of involving employees in setting goals and making decisions. Agreed goals lead to commitment. This doesn't mean that every goal has to be negotiated with and approved by employees. It does mean that goals should be consistent and in line with previous expectations and organisational concerns. As long as the employee believes that the goal is consistent with the goals of the company, and believes the person assigning the goal is credible, then the commitment should be there. Goal commitment and difficulty often work together. The harder the goal, the more commitment is required. If you have an easy goal, you may need less motivation to get it done. When you're working on a difficult assignment, you will likely encounter challenges that require a deeper source of inspiration and incentive. As you use goal setting in your workplace, make an appropriate effort to include people in their own goal setting. Encourage employees to develop their own goals, and keep them informed about what's happening elsewhere in the organisation. This way, they can be sure that their goals are consistent with the overall vision and purpose that the company seeks. Feedback In addition to selecting the right type of goal, an effective goal program must also include feedback. Feedback provides opportunities to clarify expectations, adjust goal difficulty, and gain recognition. It's important to provide benchmark opportunities or targets, so individuals can determine for themselves how they're doing. These regular progress reports, which measure specific success along the way, are particularly important where it's going to take a long time to reach a goal. In these cases, break down the goals into smaller chunks, and link feedback to these intermediate milestones. SMART goals are Measurable, and this ensures that clear feedback can be provided. Taking the time to formally sit down and discuss goal performance is a necessary factor in long-term performance improvement. Task complexity The last factor in goal setting theory introduces two more requirements for success. For goals or assignments that are highly complex, take special care to ensure that the work doesn't become too overwhelming. People who work in complicated and demanding roles probably have a high level of motivation already. However, they can often push themselves too hard if measures aren't built into the goal expectations to account for the complexity of the task. It's therefore important to do the following: Give the person sufficient time to meet the goal or improve performance Provide enough time for the person to practice or learn what is expected and required for success 12 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development The whole point of goal setting is to facilitate success. Make sure conditions surrounding the goals don't frustrate or inhibit people from accomplishing their objectives. This reinforces the ‘Attainable’ part of SMART. By understanding goal setting theory, you effectively apply the principles to goals that you or your team members set. Locke and Latham's research confirms the usefulness of SMART goal setting, and their theory continues to influence the way we measure performance today. Use clear, challenging goals, and commit yourself to achieving them. Provide feedback on goal performance. Take into consideration the complexity of the task. If you follow these simple rules, your goal setting process will be much more successful, and your overall performance will improve. 1.2.4 SMART goals – examples S M A R T Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-Bound Resolve all accounting issues within 24 hours To establish myself as an expert, I will write a 150page book on social media by writing one chapter per month (3-5 pages per week) Have coffee with my team once a month to make sure there is nothing stopping them from achieving sales goals Secure contracts from two new clients by the end of each week Make cold calls to at least 50 potential clients each week When creating your smart goals remember to make sure they actually are SMART. Look at the first goal: It is very specific 50 i.e. clients a week Measureable, at the end of the week did you call 50 clients? Why not? At the end of the week if you weren’t able to call 50 then perhaps your goal is not attainable, so perhaps 40 is a better goal for the following week. Alternatively you may be able to call more! Is it relevant? Is it important to be able to call 50 people, or would you be better to convert 10 sales? 13 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development This goal is certainly time bound. You have a week to do this in. If you said you wanted to call 50 people but no time frame this would not be as SMART! Looking at the ‘Attainable’ goal, if your goal simply said you wanted to write a book, it would not be a SMART goal, this new version of the goal is well structured to be specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Have a look at the rest of the goals to see if they are also SMART. The goal to have coffee with your team once a month is quite SMART but it could be SMART-er! Perhaps this goal could be to set a day like the first Monday or you could aim to find out at least one particular roadblock each month from your team. Your goals need to be relevant to your situation and your team’s needs. Remember you can change them if they aren’t working. 1.2.5 Starting to set personal work goals When you set goals remember to include all people who will be impacted by your goals. For example, if you are setting goals for work consider what goals the organisation has. You need to align your goals to those of the organisation. The same could be said of your family and friends. You may set a goal to complete a course. If you are the only income earner in your family this may not be an easy goal to achieve. That’s not to say it can’t be achieved just that you may need to consider a range of smaller steps first. Set your goals on a number of levels: First create the ‘big picture’ of what you want to achieve (or within a particular time frame), and identify large-scale goals you want to achieve Break these down into the smaller goals or targets you need to hit in order to reach your big picture goals Once you have your plan, start working on it to achieve these goals Depending on the type of goal setting you are doing you may choose to start the process by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, work on the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them. Length of time for goals is somewhat dependant on your circumstances. In general though, short term goals are usually able to be completed within 12 months, long term goals are therefore greater than 12 months. Step 1 Setting your ultimate goals – these could be lifetime, personal or career goals The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting these large goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making. To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you): 14 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve? Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals? Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals? Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family? Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behaviour or find a solution to the problem.) Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps will you take to achieve this? Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!) Public service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how? Spend time brainstorming, then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Consider trimming again to end up with a small number of really significant goals you can focus on. As you do this, make sure the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, remember you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!) Step 2 Setting smaller goals Once you have set your personal, lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan. Step 3 Create a to-do list of things you should do today to work towards your goals At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting. Review your plans, make sure that they fit the way you want to live your life. Step 4 Staying on track Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep reviewing and updating your to-do list on a daily basis. 15 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 month goal: EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify to reflect your changing priorities and experience. A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary. Case Study – Miriam Miriam works in a large graphic design company in the art department. She is really enjoying her job and wants to stay with the company. The company is one of the newest graphic design firms in the city and are hoping to open four offices around the country within the next five years. They will need Senior Art Directors and Deputy Art Directors for all of the new offices in the next four years to begin development of the offices and staff. For her New Year's resolution, Miriam has decided to think about what she really wants to do with her life. She has identified her major (personal, career and lifetime) goals: Career - To be Art Director of the company that I work for by 2020, by completing my dual degree in arts administration and event management by 2017 and the mentoring program within my organisation. My choice of degree is directly necessary for my professional development and tailored to these goals, I am more than half way through. I am able to dedicate one hour of my work time and three hours of personal time to my studies Artistic - To keep working on my illustration skills. Ultimately I want to have my own show in our downtown gallery. Physical - To run a marathon. Now Miriam needs to break each one into smaller, more manageable goals. Let's take a closer look at how she might break down her lifetime career goal becoming a Senior Art Director: 5-year goal: Become Deputy Art Director 1-year goal: Volunteer for 5 projects the Art Director is head of 6-month goal: Go back to school and finish my degree Enrol in in-house mentoring program Talk to the Art Director about skills needed to do the job and the kind of person they need to fill these roles 1-week goal: Book the meeting with the Art Director, familiarise myself with the direction the company wants to go in If Miriam takes the time now to align her goals of promotion with those of the company she is more likely to achieve her career goal as it does align with the goals of the organisation. Breaking big goals into smaller, more manageable goals makes it far easier to see how the goal will be accomplished. Goal setting is an important method of: 16 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Deciding what you want to achieve in your life Separating what's important from what's irrelevant, or a distraction Motivating yourself Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals Set lifetime goals Five year plan of smaller goals you need to complete to reach your lifetime plan Regularly review and update goals Enjoy the satisfaction of achieving goals when you do Don’t forget your goals will be more powerful if they are SMART • • • S - Specific (or Significant) M - Measurable (or Meaningful) A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented) R - Relevant (or Rewarding) T - Time-bound (or Track able) For example, instead of having ‘to sail around the world’ as a goal, it's more powerful to say ‘to have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015’. Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand! The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective, achievable goals: Express your goals positively – ‘achieve a competent result in the execution of this technique by February’ is a much better goal than ‘don't make this stupid mistake’ Be precise - include dates, times and amounts to measure achievement Set priorities - when you have several goals, give each a priority Write goals down - this crystallises them and gives them more force Keep the low-level goals that you're working towards small and achievable Set performance goals, not outcome goals - take care to set goals where you have control as far as possible, it can be dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control, basing goals on personal performance, gives you control and satisfaction over the achievement of your goals In business, bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy can impact on your ability to achieve your goals Set goals you can achieve - people (for example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you, they will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions 17 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 1.2.6 Align personal work goals to organisational goals You as an employee must align your goals with those of the organisation. It is important that your goals and those of the organisation do not clash, but actually assist each other. Key performance indicators (KPIs) Organisations often express their goals as KPIs. These set targets for individuals or work groups within the organisation. Sometimes as a motivational tools management may link KPIs to bonuses or other work place incentive methods. 1.2.7 Key performance indicators (KPIs) There are several terms which crop up over and over again. Business objectives, goals, key performance indicators….What is the difference? Business Objectives •The main reason for doing what you do •Highest or over arching aim •Desirable outcome for your business Goals •Specific steps or strategies to achieve business objectives •What you need to do to achieve your objective Tasks, Actions, Activities •Breaking the goals down •The next step in achieving goals and business objectives •Detailed KPIs •Measurements of performance (success or otherwise) Steps to take when establishing the direction of the organisation, the team and the individual. 18 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Organisations need to clearly identify their objectives What needs to be achieved in order for the organisation to be successful? Then organisational objectives are broken down into goals KPIs should be set and reviewed so perfomance can be measured and adjustments made to keep on track Broken into individual goals Each employee who meets their individual goals directly contributes to the success of the team and the whole organisation Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure an organisations progress and performance towards achievement of goals and business objectives. KPI’s can, and should be, established to measure all aspects of the organisation. Example Financial, service, employee behavioural management, employee performance management, product development, productivity – specifically numbers of new customers, debtor reduction, return on investment (ROI). A financial indicator can be sales figures, nonfinancial indicators are the benefits created by hiring new executives. KPIs should be set and reviewed at regular intervals. Management should monitor these measures to ensure individuals and teams are meeting required performance standards. If not, corrective action should be taken. KPIs are best written using the SMART method. Specific Measureable Achievable Relevant Time bound When the SMART method is used an action plan is created to identify what will happen, how it will happen, when it will happen, who has responsibility and how the outcome will be measured. Understanding the direction your organisation wants to go in is the first step in aligning their goals to yours. Your organisation will have plans in place. Your professional development depends on being familiar with these. Case Study – Miriam Miriam is aware of the organisations plans to open more offices, this helps her to align her goals firmly with the organisations goals. 19 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Understanding your performance plan can assist you in determining your personal goals. It is important that you know and understand the strategic, tactical and operational plans (or equivalent in your organisation). When you develop personal plans, you need to be able to identify the role you play in the organisation’s plans; for example, your performance plan identifies that in six months new technology will mean an update in the organisation’s computing system. To ensure that you are prepared to introduce the change to the workplace and to ensure that the new technology training is suitable for your team, you complete training so that you can assist your team in learning the new technology. Strategic Plans Are defined by senior management. Deal with questions such as who is the client. Provides a framework for day to day planning. Usually span two to five years. Provides organisations with guidance for decisions and actions. Involves activity of all management within the organisation. Tactical Plans Breaks the strategic plan into short-term plans. Plans range from one year or less. Plans are developed to determine what the organisation must do to be successful. Developed by lower or mid management as plans related to parts of the organisation. Developed for areas such as marketing, personnel, and production, finance and plant facilities. Operational Plans Is the day-by-day and monthly planning. Are designed for all managers working on the frontline of an organisation. Define how your organisation will operate in implementing action and monitoring plans. Plans that do not stand alone. They are key components that make up the tactical plan and form part of the strategic plan. Your responsibilities and accountabilities will usually be set out in: Outputs expressed in position descriptions – they outline the basic summary and details of your position, including selection criteria and key responsibilities of the position, superannuation, position summary, type of employment and department A duty statement sets out the key activities and tasks of your job. The benefits of a duty statement are that it ensures that your position is consistent with others in a similar role and it can assist you in creating career opportunities. Regular review of the duty statement can assist you in determining changes that you may need to make to your personal goals so 20 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development that they are aligned with your organisation’s goals, they should provide you with your role statement, duties and accountabilities Statement of conduct outlines an individual’s responsibilities /actions / performance, the important principles of ethical and professional conduct and each staff member is encouraged and expected to maintain this level of conduct A statement of conduct will usually include: Working honestly and in a professional manner To maintain confidence and trust with customers/stakeholders and to ensure that this trust and confidence adheres to the requirements of their profession To continuously improve professional knowledge and skills to ensure currency with the requirements of their industry To provide staff with helpful, constructive and professional advice Within organisations there are important processes around defining roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. These processes are important as they provide structure and guidance for personnel. Among other processes organisations need to provide information for all staff around: Job descriptions, position descriptions or duty statements (what is the job?) Job or position specifications – are statements outlining the essential employee characteristics needed to be sure of satisfactory performance of duties, tasks of a specific job (what kind of person are we looking for?) Performance review or appraisal to monitor performance to plan for future improvements and development opportunities (how am I doing in my job?) Expectations of workplace performance, as expressed in a performance plan Performance plans are used to ensure that personnel have the skills, knowledge and performance levels to operate. A performance management plan is designed to suit individuals and should be adapted to suit their requirements and the requirements of their jobs A performance review is a great opportunity to discuss your development needs with your line manager. You may be able to discuss the changing requirements of your role, as well as your personal development aspirations (career development). Often these reviews are held annually as a formal process. There is significant criticism levelled at this, mainly due to the fact that the timing is too infrequent to be really useful and seems to be a ‘requirement’ of Human Resource (HR) management rather than a particularly useful process. In order to make sure the review process is useful make sure there are no surprises. If you have something to say either as a supervisor or an employee, waiting a year to say it is not helpful! It can however be managed well to be helpful. Both the employee and the manager need to be well prepared. Reviews are an excellent way to provide opportunities for improvement and feedback. 21 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Make sure your personal goals are aligned with the outcomes of your position. This means that you need to know: Outcomes: an outcome is what you will deliver or achieve in your position The objective: the task that will be completed that relates directly with each outcome If you do not align your personal plans with the job description, the duty statement or the statement of conduct, conflict will arise. This conflict will impact on your ability to meet your goals and objectives as a manager. This conflict will also have a negative impact on your team. Your personal plans need to ensure that you act SMARTER. Your responsibilities as a manager means that you must plan your day to complete your assigned tasks. Your accountability includes who you are answerable to. If you are unable to maintain your image as a role model that team members can look up to, then you are accountable to your superiors. This accountability can, in turn, jeopardise your position, as you will be demonstrating that you do not have the ability to meet your assigned responsibilities. This, in turn, makes you a liability to the organisation achieving its own goals. Work with your team to ensure that their personal plans correlate with the organisation’s strategy. In your role as a role model, you should make sure that all of your team: Understand how their actions impact on the rest of the organisation. When employees understand where the organisation is going and how they can help achieve success, then they become engaged in the organisation and productivity will improve Are rewarded for the correct behaviour. Rewards do not necessarily mean remuneration. If you are a role model, your acknowledgement of a job well done will usually be sufficient reward Know where they stand. This means that you are required to continuously update staff with any changes that will impact on their outcomes. Ensure that you focus any important updates with links to organisational performance, such as areas like changes to their outcomes 1.2.8 Achieving goals To achieve a goal or a vision you must plan how to make it happen. You cannot 'do' a goal or a vision. Instead you must do the things that enable it - usually several things, in several steps. A goal without a plan remains just a goal - many people have visions, intentions, ideas, dreams which never happen, because they are not planned. A plan makes things happen When you've achieved a goal, be satisfied with your results. If the goal was a major one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps with your self-confidence. Also what progress have you made towards other goals? 22 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development If you achieved the goal too easily, make the next one harder If your goal took too long to achieve, make the next goal a little easier If you think you should change other goals, do so Your goal is achieved but you still lack skills, how can you fix this? Goal planning can be especially helpful in advancing your career, job hunting, starting your own business, or becoming self-employed or freelance. A good plan identifies causes and effects in achievable stages. These need not necessarily be very detailed or time-bound unless the aim requires it. Having a clear aim begins to define the plan. For example: a large-scale short-term aim requires a plan with detail and strict timescales, whereas a goal to achieve a personal life change within five-to-ten years requires much less detail and scheduling, provided the crucial causes and effects stages are identified. Plans can also be structured in different ways according to individual preference and the various planning tools and methods which exist. Detailed people prefer detailed plans. Intuitive people prefer broader more flexible plans. Whatever planning format you prefer, all plans begin as a simple outline, like the planning template provided here. Beyond this you can add more detail and structure to suit your aims and preferences, but you must begin with a clear goal, and an outline of what will make your goal happen. Whatever the aim, all good plans tend to include: A clearly defined aim Linked steps or stages or elements - resources, actions, knowledge, etc. - the factors of cause and effect Relevant and achievable proportions and timings (for steps, stages, elements) Here is a simple outline goal planning template and process, which can be used as the full planning method for certain personal aims, or as an initial outline planning tool for the most complex organisational vision. Even the most ambitious goals and plans are achievable when broken down and given time. A plan to achieve a goal or vision is normally best developed by working backwards from the aim. Ask yourself at each stage of the plan: ‘What must happen before this?’ And then plan to achieve each element, working back in realistic bite-sized elements, to where you are today. When you have created your plan implement it by working upwards through the levels from the bottom to the top. Adapt your plan as required - especially add new factors as you discover them, and plan how each can be achieved by incorporating causal and enabling factors into this model. Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting. Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, consider letting them go. When you've achieved a goal don’t forget to enjoy it! 23 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Name: Miriam Give details of an organisational goal you have identified in your business plan and job description To expand operations into four more cities in five years – appoint Senior and Deputy Art Directors for all four offices within four years Describe the ‘Personal Work Goal’ you wish to set for yourself so you can achieve the above organisational goalBecome Deputy Art Director within five years TASKS ACTIVITIES TIMEFRAME KPI What needs to be done? What action is to be taken? How long will this take? Meet with the Art Director Schedule meeting 5 minutes Meet at the arranged time with the Art Director Attend meeting 30 minutes has been scheduled for this appointment Go back to school to complete design degree Re enrol in course, contact campus to assess any recognition of prior learning Volunteer for five projects in conjunction with Art Director Investigate the program for additional projects to determine which ones are the most helpful and how they will fit into my work and personal schedule How will you measure success? Use S.M.A.R.T. formula. I need to get feedback on what additional skills and knowledge I need to achieve my goal Is this achievable in the time frame? Pass all units on first go 2 years to complete degree Gain as many credits for past work as possible Achieve degree in two years 1 year Undertake five projects in a 12 month time frame with the involvement of the Art Director Seek feedback on your performance to improve 1.3 Measure and maintain personal performance in varying work conditions, work contexts and contingencies Performance is when you achieve your goals in an effective and efficient manner, in alignment with organisational goals. The tool that you use should benchmark your performance against others and indicate your strengths and weaknesses. 24 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development At this stage you should have determined what skills and knowledge or leadership style(s) are appropriate for your team. You should also ensure that your activities and plans align with the organisation’s plans. To assist you in measuring your performance, you may consider using benchmarks. An organisation uses its internal processes to measure their work practices by identifying, understanding and adapting them to ensure that they are considered best in class from their competitors. In the same manner, you can use your performance appraisal to benchmark your performance. These benchmarks can be utilised to assist you in ensuring that you monitor your performance against reliable measurements. Tracking benchmarks will also assist you in tracking your own progress and will ensure that you will make appropriate adjustments to changes in your own performance outcomes and objectives, so that you are aligned with working conditions, work contexts and contingencies. Personal performance can be measured against feedback. Feedback provides you with important information about your behaviour or actions. Based on the feedback received, you can adjust your current and future behaviour so that your desired results are achieved. Feedback will be covered in further detail in Section 2.3 of this eBook. Performance may also be measured against performance reviews. Performance reviews should be conducted over a yearly basis. However, some organisations perform them more often, especially in work environments that rely heavily on performance to reach outcomes and objectives. Performance reviews allow you to review feedback from your superiors, in regards to your performance in the workplace. They can be either formal or informal and should be utilised as a way to improve performance. If a problem is identified, then action should be taken to correct errors in your work or correct problems. If you wish to have a performance review more often, ask your employer to provide feedback on a needs basis. By identifying a problem within a performance review, you will be catching a small problem before it escalates into a larger problem. Performance reviews may include reviews of: Work performance – this type of review will help you identify whether you are meeting the goals set up by your employer by determining whether you are meeting your outcomes Working relationships – as a role model, it is essential that your working relationships are maintained in a professional manner and that you maintain your high standards Basic job skills – complacency breeds contempt, if you perform the same tasks over a long period of time, you may start to become comfortable in the position and bad habits may evolve There are several different performance reviews your organisation may use. The main process is called a performance appraisal. The steps of the performance appraisal include: 25 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Establishing performance standards Communicating expectations and standards Measuring performance Comparing performance with standards Discussing results and obtaining feedback Taking corrective action Your performance appraisal can assist you in identifying areas of weakness in your skills. Once any weakness have been identified take corrective action to minimise poor performance. Remember, this section deals with measuring and maintaining personal performance in varying work conditions, work contexts and contingencies. Consider how you can manage performance in your day. One of the most effective methods is being organised and ensuring your schedule is well planned. Go through the following steps in preparing your schedule: ONE Identify the time you want to make available for your work. This depends on the design of your job and your personal goals in life. TWO Block in the actions you absolutely must take to do a good job. These will often be the things you are assessed against. For example, if you manage people, then you must make time available for coaching, supervision, and dealing with issues that arise. Similarly, you must allow time to communicate with your boss and key people around you. (While people may let you get away with 'neglecting them' in the short-term, your best time management efforts will surely be derailed if you do not set aside time for those who are important in your life). THREE Review your to-do list, and schedule in high-priority, urgent activities, as well as essential maintenance tasks that cannot be delegated or avoided. FOUR Block in appropriate contingency time. You will learn how much of this you need by experience. Normally, the more unpredictable your job, the more contingency time you need. The reality of many people's work is of constant interruption: Studies show some managers getting 26 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development an average of as little as six minutes uninterrupted work done at a time. FIVE Obviously, you cannot tell when interruptions will occur. However, by leaving space in your schedule, you give yourself the flexibility to rearrange your schedule to react effectively to urgent issues. SIX What you now have left is your ‘discretionary time’, the time available to deliver your priorities and achieve your goals. Review your prioritised to-do list and personal goals, evaluate the time needed to achieve these actions, and schedule them in. By the time you reach step 5, you may find that you have little or no discretionary time available. If this is the case, then revisit the assumptions you used in the first four steps. Question whether things are absolutely necessary, whether they can be delegated, or whether they can be done in an abbreviated way. Remember one of the most important ways people learn to achieve success is by maximising the 'leverage' they can achieve with their time. They increase the amount of work they can manage by delegating work to other people, spending money outsourcing key tasks, or using technology to automate as much of their work as possible. This frees them up to achieve their goals. Also, use this as an opportunity to review your to-do list and personal goals. Have you set goals that just aren't achievable with the time you have available? Are you taking on too many additional duties? Or are you treating things as being more important than they really are? If your discretionary time is still limited, you may need to renegotiate your workload. With a well-thought through schedule as evidence, you may find this surprisingly easy. Scheduling is the process by which you plan your use of time. By scheduling effectively, you can reduce stress and maximise your effectiveness. This makes it one of the most important time management skills you can use. Scheduling is best done on a regular basis, for example at the start of every week. Before you can schedule efficiently, you need an effective scheduling system. This can be a diary, calendar, paper-based organiser, mobile based technology or a software package like MS Outlook. The best solution depends entirely on your circumstances. Scheduling is then a five-step process: Identify the time you have available Block in the essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in your job Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital ‘house-keeping’ activities Block in appropriate contingency time to handle unpredictable interruptions In the time that remains, schedule the activities that address your priorities and personal goals If you have little or no discretionary time left by the time you reach step five, then revisit the assumptions you have made in steps one to four. 27 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 2 Set and meet own work priorities 2.1 Take initiative to prioritise and facilitate competing demands to achieve personal, team and organisational goals and objectives 2.1.1 Time management Personal time management skills are essential skills for effective people. People who use these techniques routinely are the highest achievers in all walks of life, from business to sport to public service. If you use these skills well, you will be able to function exceptionally well, even under intense pressure. What's more, as you master these skills, you'll find that you take control of your workload, and say goodbye to the often intense stress of work overload. At the heart of time management is an important shift in focus: Concentrate on results, not on being busy. Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little, because they're not concentrating their effort on the things that matter the most. Time management tools How often do you find yourself running out of time? Weekly, daily, hourly? For many, it seems that there's just never enough time in the day to get everything done. When you know how to manage your time you gain control. Rather than busily working here, there, and everywhere (and not getting much done anywhere), effective time management helps you to choose what to work on and when. This is essential if you're to achieve anything of any real worth. Be prepared to make changes to the way you operate. Challenge your own routines and habits and really think about how you spend your time. There are a variety of tools or strategies you can use to improve your time management skills. First let’s take a look at procrastination a root cause of poor time management. Beating procrastination - Manage your time to get it all done. If you’ve found yourself putting off important tasks over and over again, you’re not alone. In fact, many people procrastinate to some degree - but some are so chronically affected by procrastination that it stops them achieving things they're capable of and disrupts their careers. The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to recognise when you start procrastinating, understand why it happens (even to the best of us), and take active steps to better manage your time and outcomes. Why do we procrastinate? 28 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development In a nutshell, you procrastinate when you put off things that you should be focusing on right now, usually in favour of doing something more enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing. Procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often work longer hours) but they invest their time in the wrong tasks. Sometimes this is simply because they don't understand the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks, and jump straight into getting on with urgent tasks that aren't actually important. They may feel that they're doing the right thing by reacting fast. Or they may not even think about their approach and simply be driven by the person whose demands are loudest. Either way, by doing this, they have little or no time left for the important tasks, despite the unpleasant outcomes this may bring about. Another common cause of procrastination is feeling overwhelmed by the task. You may not know where to begin. Or you may doubt that you have the skills or resources you think you need. So you seek comfort in doing tasks you know you're capable of completing. Unfortunately, the big task isn't going to go away – truly important tasks rarely do. Other causes of procrastination include: Waiting for the ‘right’ mood or ‘right’ time to tackle important tasks at hand A fear of failure or success Underdeveloped decision making skills Poor organisational skills Perfectionism (‘I don't have the right skills or resources to do this perfectly now, so I won't do it at all’) How to overcome procrastination Whatever the reason behind procrastination, it must be recognised, dealt with and controlled before you miss opportunities or your career is derailed. Step 1: Recognise that you're procrastinating If you're honest with yourself, you probably know when you're procrastinating. But to be sure, you first need to make sure you know your priorities. Putting off an unimportant task isn't procrastination, it's probably good prioritisation. More on this in a moment. Some useful indicators which will help you pull yourself up as soon as you start procrastinating include: Filling your day with low priority tasks from your to-do list Reading an e-mail or request that you've noted in your notebook or on your to-do list more than once, without starting work on it or deciding when you're going to start work on it Sitting down to start a high-priority task, and almost immediately going off to make a cup of coffee or check your e-mails 29 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Leaving an item on your to-do list for a long time, even though you know it's important Regularly saying ‘yes’ to unimportant tasks others ask you to do, and filling your time with these instead of getting on with the important tasks already on your list Step 2: Why are you procrastinating? Why you procrastinate can depend on both you and the task. It is important to understand what the reasons for procrastination are for each situation, so you can select the best approach for overcoming your reluctance to get going. Common causes of procrastination were discussed in detail above, but they can often be reduced to two main reasons: You find the task unpleasant You find the task overwhelming Step 3: Get over it! If you are putting something off because you just don't want to do it, and you really can't delegate the work, you need to find ways of motivating yourself to get moving. Try these ideas: Make up your own rewards. For example, promise yourself a treat at lunchtime if you complete a certain task Ask someone else to check up on you. Peer pressure works! This is the principle behind self-help groups, and it is widely recognised as a highly effective approach Identify the unpleasant consequences of NOT doing the task Work out the cost of your time to your employer, your employers are paying you to do the things that they think are important, you're not delivering value for money if you're not doing those things. Shame yourself into getting going! If you're putting off starting a project because you find it overwhelming, you need to take a different approach. Here are some tips: Break the project into a set of smaller, more manageable tasks. You may find it helpful to create an action plan Start with some quick, small tasks if you can, even if these aren't the logical first actions. You'll feel that you're achieving things, and so perhaps the whole project won't be so overwhelming after all To have a good chance of conquering procrastination, you need to spot straight away that you're doing it. Then, identify why you're procrastinating and take appropriate steps to overcome the block. Part of the solution is to develop good time management, organisational and personal effectiveness habits. This helps you establish the right priorities, and 30 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development manage your time in such a way that you make the most of the opportunities open to you. Activity logs - find out how you really spend your time How long do you spend each day on unimportant things? Things that don't really contribute to your success at work. Do you KNOW how much time you've spent reading junk mail, talking to colleagues, making coffee and eating lunch? And how often have you thought, ‘I could achieve so much more if I just had another half hour each day’. Are you aware of when in the day you check your e-mail, write important articles or do your long-term planning? Most people find they function at different levels of effectiveness at different times of day as their energy levels fluctuate. Your effectiveness may vary depending on the amount of sugar in your blood, the length of time since you last took a break, routine distractions, stress, discomfort, or a range of other factors. Activity logs help you to analyse how you actually spend your time. The first time you use an activity log you may be shocked to see the amount of time that you waste! Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to this, as it can be too easy to forget time spent on non-core tasks. How to use the tool Keeping an activity log for several days helps you to understand how you spend your time, and when you perform at your best. Without modifying your behaviour any further than you have to, note down the things you do as you do them. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working, making coffee, gossiping with colleagues or whatever, note down the time of the change. As well as recording activities, note how you feel, alert, flat, tired, energetic, etc. Do this periodically throughout the day. You may decide to integrate your activity log with a stress diary. Learning from your log Once you have logged your time for a few days, analyse your daily activity log. You may be alarmed to see the amount of time you spend doing low value jobs! You may also see that you are energetic in some parts of the day, and flat in other parts. A lot of this can depend on the rest breaks you take, the times and amounts you eat, and quality of your nutrition. The activity log gives you some basis for experimenting with these variables. Your analysis should help you to free up extra time in your day by applying one of the following actions to most activities: Eliminate jobs your employer shouldn't be paying you to do. These may include tasks someone else in the organisation should be doing, possibly at a lower pay rate, or personal activities such as sending non-work e-mails Schedule your most challenging tasks for the times of day when your energy is highest. That way your work will be better and it should take you less time 31 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Try to minimise the number of times a day you switch between types of task. For example, read and reply to e-mails in blocks once in the morning and once in the afternoon only Reduce time spent on legitimate personal activities such as making coffee (take turns in your team to do this - it saves time and strengthens team spirit) Activity logs are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness through the day. By analysing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate timewasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these times. To-do lists Do you often feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have? Do you face a constant barrage of looming deadlines? Or do you sometimes forget to do something important, and people have to chase you to get work done? All of these are symptoms of not keeping a to-do list. To-do lists are prioritised lists of all the tasks that you need to carry out. They list everything that you have to do, in terms of importance. While this sounds simple, it's when people start to use to-do lists properly that they often make their first personal productivity / time management breakthrough, and start to make a real success of their careers. By keeping a to-do list, you make sure that you keep all your tasks in one place. This is essential if you're not going to forget things. By prioritising work, you plan the order in which you'll do things, so you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can quietly forget about until much, much later. This is essential if you're going to beat work overload. Without to-do lists, you'll seem dizzy, unfocused and unreliable others round you. With to-do lists, you'll be much better organised, and seem much more reliable. Preparing a to-do list Write down all the tasks you need to do If they are large, break them into component elements If these still seem large, break them down again Do this until you have listed everything you have to do. This may be a huge and intimidating list, but our next step makes it manageable Run through these jobs allocating priorities from A (very important, or urgent) to F (unimportant, or not at all urgent) If too many tasks have high priority, revise your list and demote less important tasks Rewrite the list in priority order 32 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development You will then have a precise plan you can use to eliminate the problems you face. You will be able to tackle these in order of importance or urgency. This allows you to separate important jobs from the many time-consuming trivial ones. Tip: Once you're comfortable with use of to-do lists, you need to start differentiating between urgency and importance. Using your to-do lists Different people use to-do lists in different ways in different situations: if you are in a sales-type role, a good way of motivating yourself is to keep your list relatively short and aim to complete it every day. In an operational role, or if tasks are large or dependent on too many other people, then it may be better to keep one list and 'chip away' at it. It may be that you carry unimportant jobs from one to-do list to the next. You may not be able to complete some very low priority jobs for several months. Only worry about this if you need to – if you are running up against a deadline for them, raise their priority. If you have not used to-do lists before, try them now: They are one of the keys to being really productive and efficient. Key points: Prioritised to-do lists are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use todo lists, you will ensure that: You remember to carry out all necessary tasks You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs To draw up a prioritised to-do list, mark the importance of the task next to it, with a priority from A (very important) to F (unimportant). Redraft the list into this order of importance. Now carry out the jobs at the top of the list first. These are the most important, most beneficial tasks to complete. 2.1.2 Prioritisation Making best use of your time and resources Prioritisation is the essential skill you need to make the very best use of your own efforts and those of your team. It is particularly important when time is limited and demands are seemingly unlimited. It helps you to allocate your time where it is most-needed and most 33 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development wisely spent, freeing you and your team up from less important tasks that can be attended to later, or quietly dropped. With good prioritisation (and careful management of deprioritised tasks) you can bring order to chaos, massively reduce stress, and move towards a successful conclusion. Without it, you'll have too many competing demands. Simple prioritisation At a simple level, you can prioritise based on time constraints, on the potential profitability or benefit of the task you're facing, or on the pressure you're under to complete a job: Prioritisation based on project value or profitability is probably the most commonly-used and rational basis for prioritisation. Whether this is based on a subjective guess at value or a sophisticated financial evaluation, it often gives the most efficient results Time constraints are important where other people are depending on you to complete a task, and particularly where this task is on the critical path of an important project. Here, a small amount of your own effort can go a very long way It's a brave (and maybe foolish) person who resists his or her boss's pressure to complete a task, when that pressure is reasonable and legitimate 2.1.3 Prioritisation tools While these simple approaches to prioritisation suit many situations, there are plenty of special cases where you'll need other prioritisation and time management tools if you're going to be truly effective. We look at some of these below: Paired Comparison Analysis Paired Comparison Analysis is most useful where decision criteria are vague, subjective or inconsistent. It helps you prioritise options by asking you to compare each item on a list with all other items on the list individually. By deciding in each case which of the two is most important, you can consolidate results to get a prioritised list. Grid analysis Grid analysis helps you prioritise a list of tasks where you need to take many different factors into consideration. Action Priority matrix This quick and simple diagramming technique asks you to plot the value of the task against the effort it will consume. By doing this you can quickly spot the ‘quick wins’ which will give you the greatest rewards in the shortest possible time, and avoid the ‘hard slogs’ which soak up time for little eventual reward. This is an ingenious approach for making highly efficient prioritisation decisions. The 80:20 Rule or the Pareto Principle 34 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development The Pareto Principle, or the '80:20 Rule' says that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. This means that the remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. While the ratio is not always 80:20, this broad pattern is the norm in many situations. The main point here is to recognise that things in life are not evenly distributed! Concentrate on focussing your resources, time and effort on the 20%. By applying the time management tips and skills in this section you can optimise your effort to ensure that you concentrate as much of your time and energy as possible on the high payoff tasks. This ensures you achieve the greatest benefit possible with the amount of time available to you. The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. When the ‘crises’ of the day begin to take your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to change or not get done, make sure it's not in that 20 percent. The Urgent/Important Matrix Similar to the Action Priority Matrix, this technique asks you to think about whether tasks are urgent or important. Frequently, seemingly urgent tasks actually aren't that important. And often, really important activities (like working towards your life goals) just don’t seem that urgent. This approach helps you cut through this. What are ‘urgent’ and ‘important’ activities? Great time management means being effective as well as efficient. Managing time effectively, and achieving the things that you want to achieve, means spending your time on things that are important and not just urgent. To do this, and to minimise the stress of having too many tight deadlines, it's important to understand this distinction: Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals, whether these are professional or personal Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are often associated with the achievement of someone else's goals Urgent activities are often the ones we concentrate on; they demand attention because the consequences of not dealing with them are immediate. The idea of measuring and combining these two competing elements in a matrix has been attributed to the former US President Eisenhower and Dr Stephen Covey. Eisenhower's quote, ‘What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important’, sums up the concept of the matrix perfectly. This so-called ‘Eisenhower Principle’ is said to be how Eisenhower organised his tasks. As a result, the matrix is sometimes called the Eisenhower Matrix. 35 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Covey brought the idea into the mainstream and gave it the name ‘The Urgent /Important Matrix’ in his 1994 business classic, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. How to use the tool The Urgent/Important Matrix is a powerful way of thinking about priorities. Using it helps you overcome the natural tendency to focus on urgent activities, so that you can keep clear enough time to focus on what's really important. This is the way you move from ‘fire fighting’ into a position where you can grow your business and your career. Diagram: The Urgent/Important Matrix Follow the steps below to use the matrix to prioritise your activities: The first step is to list all activities and projects that you feel you have to do, include everything that takes up your time at work, however unimportant, if you use a to-do list or action program, you should have done this already Next, on a scale of 1 to 5, assign importance to each of the activities - this is a measure of how important the activity is in helping you meet your goals and objectives. Try not to worry about urgency at this stage Once you've assigned an importance value to each activity, evaluate its urgency, as you do this, plot each item on the matrix according to the values that you've given it Now study the matrix using the strategies below to schedule your priorities Strategies for different quadrants of the matrix Urgent and important 36 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development There are two distinct types of urgent and important activities: Ones that you could not foresee, and others that you've left to the last minute. You can avoid last-minute activities by planning ahead and avoiding procrastination Issues and crises, on the other hand, cannot always be foreseen or avoided. Here, the best approach is to leave some time in your schedule to handle unexpected issues and unplanned important activities. (If a major crisis arises, you'll need to reschedule other events) If you have a lot of urgent and important activities, which of these could have been foreseen, and how you could schedule similar activities ahead of time, so that they don't become urgent. Urgent and not important Urgent but not important activities stop you achieving your goals, and prevent you from completing work. Can these tasks can be rescheduled, or delegated? A common source of such interruptions is from other people in your office. Sometimes it's appropriate to say ‘no’ politely, or to encourage them to solve the problem themselves. Or, try scheduling time when you are available, so people know that they can interrupt you at these times (a good way of doing this is to schedule a regular meeting, so that all issues can be dealt with at the same time). By doing this, you'll be able to concentrate on your important activities for longer periods of time. Remember these tasks may be urgent for the other person but not important for you. It is important to provide alternative times for others who need your help that fit into both schedules. If you can never help them they may never be available to help you. Not urgent, but important These are the activities that help you achieve your personal and professional goals, and complete important work. Leave plenty of time to do these things properly, so they do not become urgent. Leave enough time in your schedule to deal with unforeseen problems. This will maximise your chances of keeping on schedule, and help you avoid the stress of work becoming more urgent than necessary. Not urgent and not important These activities are a distraction, and should be avoided if possible. Some can simply be ignored or cancelled. Others are activities other people may want you to do, but do not contribute to your own outcomes. Again, say no politely, if you can. If people see you are clear about your objectives and boundaries, they will often not ask you to do ‘not important’ activities in the future. The Urgent/Important Matrix helps you look at your task list, and quickly identify the activities you should focus on. By prioritising using the Matrix, you can deal with truly urgent issues, at the same time that you keep on working towards important goals. 37 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development The Ansoff and Boston matrices These give you a quick ‘rule of thumb’ for prioritising the opportunities open to you. The Ansoff Matrix helps you evaluate and prioritise opportunities by risk. The Boston Matrix does a similar job, helping you prioritise opportunities based on the attractiveness of a market and your ability to take advantage of it. Nominal Group Technique Nominal Group Technique is a useful technique for prioritising issues and projects within a group, giving everyone fair input into the prioritisation process. This is particularly useful where consensus is important, and where a robust group decision needs to be made. Using this tool, each group participant ‘nominates’ his or her priority issues, and ranks them on a scale, of say 1 to 10. The score for each issue is then added up, with issues then prioritised based on scores. The obvious fairness of this approach makes it particularly useful where prioritisation is based on subjective criteria, and where people's ‘buy in’ to the prioritisation decision is needed. Daily rhythm - Your natural rhythm cycle Everyone has a rhythm over a 24 hour period. The above chart gives you an example. Research into morning and evening types has been done by Professor Jim Horne at Loughborough University, who produces graphs by comparing your data to national profiles. Why does the chart dip? Having a siesta seems to be hard-wired into us. Most of us have a natural dip in the early afternoon - this is controlled by your body clock (not by how much you eat at lunch) Morning people (Larks) have a longer, more obvious afternoon dip than evening people (Owls) After a poor night's sleep, your afternoon dip would be more noticeable. Your graph would be one notch lower - something you should bear in mind if driving in the afternoon 38 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Can I affect the dips? Everyone's natural dip is made worse by alcohol - drinking at lunch time seems to have more of an effect than in the evening Afternoon tiredness can be overcome by coffee or a 20 minute nap (ideally both, since caffeine takes 20 minutes before it gets through your system) If you like to limit your caffeine intake, you may want to save your quota for when you experience your natural dip 2.1.4 Delegation If you have ever said ‘it is quicker to do it myself’ then you need to think hard about delegation and how it can help you and your team. What if you actually become too busy to always do it yourself? If you can never hand anything over to anyone else, not only will you have no chance to get a break but your team won’t ever be able to help you or do your job so you can do another one. It is also common to hear ‘who would I delegate to? There is no one!’ Rarely are there no others available to delegate to. However, if there are no others to delegate to perhaps you need to outsource the work? Perhaps you need to find someone and train them to be able to help you reliably and capably so you can do other, more important or more specialised tasks. Delegation is an important skill for management. It takes practice! It is a two way process which, if managed properly will help you and your team. They become involved in a useful way. Delegation helps free up your time as a manager and develops and grooms your people for promotion and job growth. In general there are several stage to effective delegation: What do you need to delegate? Who can you delegate this task to? Are they capable of doing the task? Do they understand what you need from them? Why do you need to delegate? If the person you are delegating to does not know why you are passing this job onto them they may not be as willing. What results do you expect? Ask the person you are delegating to if they understand the standard needed. What resources need to be supplied and used to make sure the job can be completed satisfactorily. Deadlines? Are there stages? If so make sure expectations are clear. Support the person you have delegated to. Don’t just dump the job on them and disappear. Communicate to make sure others know what is happening. Others may not understand why you are not doing the task yourself. Feedback – reward sucess, train and support for improvement as needed. 39 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Communication is the most important part of this process. Feedback is the best way to be sure people understand what you need from them. Questions to consider: Is there anyone else who could do this job? Will this task happen again? Can I train someone now to do it as it reoccurs? Can I develop one of my team to do these tasks? Is this task taking up too much of my time and stopping me from doing my main jobs? If you can answer these yes to these questions then possibly this is a good task to delegate to someone in your team! At what point do you delegate? It is more than telling someone what to do and walking away! Do you ask them to do a task with very strict instructions or give them a brief overview and leave them to it? Levels of delegation: It depends on your the boundaries you set. How free are you with the level of autonomy and responsibility? Should the person you are delegating: Wait to be told what to do, at every step? Ask what to do at each stage? Recommend actions and then proceed? Act and tell you what they are doing at stages through the task? Take full responsibility and report at stages predetermined at the start? If it is your task and one of your team is helping you, you may still retain responsibility make sure you manage the level of responsibility properly and clearly communicate all the way through the process. You are trying to develop a team member after all. Ask what approach they would take, what they are comfortable with. Presumably you have faith in their ability to help you, otherwise you would not have delegated to them. Ask for their ideas and solutions, don’t be too quick to just provide the answer and rescue them from any responsibility and opportunity to learn and offer suggestions. Consider the skill level of the staff you delegate to. If they are close to the source of the work they may be more competent than someone from another department. Choose the right person to help you, not only will you get a better outcome but the process will be positive for them as well. What results are you looking for? If you delegate be prepared to accept that someone else may have a better way to do it. Your way is not necessarily the best. Maintain control over the situation: Brief your staff properly Make sure they are confident of their roles and responsibilities 40 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Confirm when you need to know about progress and issues Provide support to build confidence and maintain a high standard of work Recognise and reward success Mentor and train for improvement Check in as agreed, not more, not less! If your team can help you, you will all be more productive and effective. The team will be motivated and work well together. 2.2 Use technology efficiently and effectively to manage work priorities and commitments Technology includes any tool you can use to improve your performance to meet your organisational objectives. To obtain the most efficiency in your work, make sure you use the appropriate technology to manage your tasks and meet your commitments. For maximum efficiency on your computer, you should: Create folders (directories) for electronic documents Create folders (directories) for emails and faxes File electronic documents in the correct folder Put the most used folders on your desktop Most computers will have the following computer applications. These applications, when used correctly, will improve your effectiveness and efficiency. Computer software can include: Database - a database is the way in which information can be organised so the amount of information generated is minimised. Relational databases are very popular within organisations. Data is represented in a mathematical way through tables with columns and rows. Each table should describe an entity for example, an asset or customer. Databases have many uses and applications, here is a very small sample of the possible applications they can be used for: Maintain customer records in terms of contact details, orders and payments Research data and establish a library catalogue Identify the relationships between training and meeting organisational objectives and goals A database can be designed as a way in which to increase the security of your data. This allows you to obtain information that can answer questions. Databases can be designed to: Create forms Design tables Produce reports 41 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Complete searches and analyses Word processing - Word processors are an excellent way in which to communicate information and maintain an ongoing copy of events that occur within the organisation. As a manager, you will come to rely on information in documents to provide you with historical information that can communicate what you have done and why you have done it, identify errors or ways in which to improve. These documents are produced quickly and have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of your work environment. Online services - As workplaces become more dynamic and the demands on time increase, more and more businesses are relying on technology to process information. To save time, less business personnel are travelling. Instead they attend meetings from their office. For example – video conference or audio conferencing. These meetings save not only time and money, but also increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation’s operations. Project management - To manage your personal work priorities and professional development you may consider using project management tools which are an excellent way assist you in meeting your goals and objectives. Programs such as Microsoft Project and Visio can assist you in developing the tools for project management. Visual diagrams are more appropriate for the decision making process. Visio produces concept maps, diagrams, flow charts and mind maps. Using visual information provides you with an opportunity to use both sides of the brain. The left and right sides of your brain processes information in different ways. The left side of the brain is used for managing, thinking in a logical manner, using rationality and is skilled at sequencing ideas, whereas, the right side of the brain uses visuals to form answers, is the dreamer, solves problems intuitively and is skilled at showing relationships between ideas. A visual aid will allow you to see ideas and form relationships that may otherwise not have been formed to improve productivity and improve your skills and knowledge so that you reach your organisational goals and objectives. Electronic diaries and mobile technology - are used more and more to assist in the effective and efficient running of business or individual roles within organisations. Records such as appointments, emails, phone calls, meetings and contacts can be found at your fingertips. The main advantages are: You can edit information easily You can search for information easily Reminders can be programmed for appointments You can view data as needed Remember to back up your data regularly! 42 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 2.3 Maintain appropriate work-life balance, and ensure stress is effectively managed and health is attended to 2.3.1 Work-life balance There is no agreed definition of work-life balance but it does appear that the ‘right’ balance for one person may differ from the next. Balance is achieved in different ways for different people. Some people do it to balance their caring responsibilities for children with work, while others want more time to themselves, engaging in leisure activities. Effectiveness and efficiency are likely to improve if you maintain an appropriate work-life balance and control stress levels. Reducing stress, allows you to better manage your energy and efficiency. Increased concentration and a less stressed workforce ensures increased productivity. Work-life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level of involvement or ‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life (Hudson, 2005). People’s perception of work-life balance is very subjective, as reflected by various descriptions of work-life balance by employees: ‘A good balance is a four-day work week. This allows me to get all the stuff (groceries, laundry, cleaning) done in one day and still have the weekend free’ ‘If the dream job has stress within tolerable / manageable limits, then I will have achieved a work-life balance’ ‘For me, a good work-life balance means something simple: to work to support my life, and not the other way around. I don’t want to use my life to support my work, I want to use my work so I can live my life in the way I want it. If I can do this, then I have good work-life balance’ Work-life balance for any one person is having the ‘right’ combination of participation in paid work (defined by hours and working conditions) and other aspects of their lives. This combination will change as people move through life and have changing responsibilities and commitments in their work and personal lives. How can you achieve it? Work-life balance policies can assist employees achieving the balance between their work and personal commitments that is right for them. The policies need to be supported by the workplace culture, which reflects the beliefs, values and norms of the whole of the organisation from the CEO to staff members. Other important factors in the success of work-life balance policies include proper communication of commitment to the policies to existing and future employees, raising awareness of the policies, education of managers about the importance of policies, and training of managers on ‘how to’ implement these policies. Who does it apply to? 43 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Work-life balance policies and practices can assist all people, not just those with young children. They assist people who are responsible for the care of elderly parents, people who have study commitments, those older employees who simply want to ease themselves into retirement or people with other personal and lifestyle commitments. Our work and personal lives change across the life span with associated responsibilities, and thus the need for work-life balance policies, changing all the time. One thing that an increasing number of people might have in common in the future is their caring responsibilities for the elderly (e.g. parents and spouse) with the ageing of the population. Plan your time. Make time for yourself. Scheduling is the process by which you look at the time available to you, and plan how you will use it to achieve the goals you have identified. By using a schedule properly, you can: Understand what you can realistically achieve with your time Plan to make the best use of the time available Leave enough time for things you absolutely must do Preserve contingency time to handle the unexpected Minimise stress by avoiding over-commitment to others A well thought-through schedule allows you to manage your commitments, while still leaving you time to do the things that are important to you. It is therefore a most important weapon for beating work overload and stress. If you find you are unable to maintain a healthy life and work life balance, you may need to obtain professional assistance. Many organisations employ counsellors and mental health professionals as part of their employee assistance program (EAP). Organisations design EAPs to enhance the emotional, mental and psychological wellbeing of all employees and if necessary the needs of the family. The aim of an EAP is to provide preventative and proactive interventions for the minimisation of personal problems that may affect performance. Employee assistance may include counselling, physical fitness and assistance for gambling, addictions, depression, anxiety disorders and communication problems. What is stress? Everyone experiences stress at some stage in their life. Stress is often referred to as the harmful physical, psychological and emotional responses that occur when an individual is exposed to perceived environmental pressures. Harmful responses to these pressures, known as ‘stressors’, occur when the requirements of a situation do not match the perceived capabilities, resources or needs of the individual. How an individual responds to stressors will depend on their personality, perceptions and past experiences. Some stress is positive when it assists us in achieving our work and personal goals. 44 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Prolonged or repeated stress may lead to a number of adverse reactions including psychological injury. 2.3.2 Identify sources of stress When an individual experiences stress, it not only impacts on their work behaviour but the broader work environment. Psychological injury is recognised as a costly type of workers’ compensation claim. Signs of stress may include: Absence from work Alcohol or other substance abuse Conflict Poor work performance Impact of stress in the workplace may be manifested in: Increased or excessive absenteeism High or increased accident rates Reduced morale Poor interpersonal relations in the workplace Poor or reduced work output and performance Increased staff turnover Personal wellness is an accumulation of six dimensions of wellness that influence the emotional state, motivation and overall health an individual. The six dimensions it is comprised of include: Occupational (job) wellness Emotional wellness Spiritual wellness Intellectual wellness Social wellness Physical wellness For more information on these dimensions visit: http://www.hettler.com/sixdimen.htm Stress has an effect on your wellness in ways which can impact your performance at work. Recognising signs and symptoms of stress Identifying the signs and symptoms of employee stress, and working proactively to address and resolve problems, can reduce the impact that these issues have on the individual and the workplace. As a manager, you are in an ideal position to recognise early warning signs indicating an employee is experiencing stress and/or requires support. 45 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development The information you use in assessing an employee’s situation may come from a variety of sources. Sometimes individuals will clearly communicate that they are experiencing personal or work related difficulties - they may even approach you directly. Often, however, it is through observing an individual’s behaviour and non-verbal communication, that you can identify this issue. Symptoms of stress may include: Anxiety Changed eating habits Difficulty concentrating Fear of criticism or disapproval Feeling overworked or overloaded Feeling tense or on edge Feeling tired Feeling unclear about roles and responsibilities Feeling weak or easily exhausted Increased consumption of alcohol Nervousness Restlessness Trembling or shaking Worry Monitoring ‘stress’ symptoms like the examples above, requires an understanding of exactly what you are dealing with before implementing any strategy. ‘Stress’ is a generic term widely used in society to describe feelings that some people have in response to pressures that they face in their lives. Stress itself is not a disease or injury and ‘feeling stressed’ is not sufficient to establish a worker’s compensation claim, unless it results in a mental or physical injury The form of mental injury generally associated with work-related stress is called ‘psychological injury’ and may include conditions such as depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder and post-traumatic stress Such injuries may be compensable under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 The Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act) provides the legislative basis for the Commonwealth workers’ compensation scheme Stress at work is not always harmful There is both useful stress (‘eustress’) and harmful stress (‘distress’) Eustress is challenging and can produce positive effects, such as the maximisation of output and creativity. 46 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development NOTE: Acceptable definition: Eustress is a term coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye which is defined in the model of Richard Lazarus (1974) as stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfilment or other positive feelings. Eustress is a process of exploring potential gains. Distress may become evident, however, when a person is subjected to demands and expectations that are out of keeping with their needs, abilities, skills and general coping with work related activity. Distress is likely to result in a loss of productivity and a decline in overall levels of well-being The occurrence of stress depends on the individual circumstances, particularly as the individual perceives them. No-one is immune to stress, and some circumstances are so stressful that the majority of people would be adversely affected. However, an individual’s reaction to stress will be influenced by a range of factors, including: Their personality Age Educational level Degree of training Health status (physical fitness and nutrition) Social status in the organisation The pressures they face outside the workplace Establish a plan to reduce stress If significant numbers of employees are experiencing and expressing effects of ‘stress’ at work, then the problem assumes organisational proportions. Workrelated stress can impact on an organisation in many ways, including: Workplace and work-team relations Productivity Quality Absenteeism Employee turnover Accidents Customer and client complaints Research has also emphasised the importance and benefits for organisations to investigate the relationship between employee health and the prevention of workrelated stress. How can you as an employee or a team work to reduce stress in the workplace? 47 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Individually •Schedule your work •Dont overload yourself •Plan regular breaks •Regular informal meetings with supervisor Team •Team social functions •Team meetings with group sessions to support the team Organisation •Casual Fridays and other informal measures •Counselling services for staff •Provide a flexible work environment It has been also suggested in research that the following areas are frequently symptoms of underlying stress problems. Treating the symptom without treating the problem is unlikely to be effective. Absenteeism Staff turnover Poor productivity Poor customer service Increased workers’ compensation claims What causes stress and psychological injury? Sources of stress may include: Complex tasks Cultural issues Work and family conflict Workloads Most claims develop over periods of six months or more, often in response to the interaction of a number of work-related and other factors. Data for psychological injury recorded by Australian government organisations over recent years indicate that there has been an increase in the proportion of claims classified as relating to ‘work pressure’ This category, ‘work pressure’, covers a range of stress factors arising from and including: Workload backlogs Deadlines Organisational restructures Interpersonal conflict with peers and supervisors Performance counselling 48 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development In terms of further establishing a plan to reduce stress, research has suggested this task may be best served if divided into the following categories, ‘physical’ hazards and ‘psychosocial’ hazards, context and content. Physical hazards Noisy or dangerous work can be associated with anxiety which, in turn, drives the experience of work-related stress. Psychosocial hazards Those aspects of the design, organisation and management of work and its social and environmental context that can cause psychological, social or physical harm. Context Relating to the manner in which the work takes place or how the work is organised. Content The work task or what the job involves. Work Context STRESS Risk Factors Organisational culture and function Poor communication, low levels of support for problem-solving and personal development, lack of definition of organisational objectives. Role in organisation Role ambiguity and role conflict, responsibility for people. Career development Career stagnation and uncertainty, under-promotion or overpromotion, poor pay, job insecurity, low social value to work. Decision latitude/control Low participation in decision making, lack of control over work (control, particularly in the form of participation, is also a context and wider organisational issue). Interpersonal relationships at work Social or physical isolation, poor relationships with superiors, interpersonal conflict (including harassment and bullying), lack of social support. Customerrelated The need to hide negative emotions during interactions with clients/customers, unrealistic customer expectations, and/or verbally aggressive clients/customers. Risk factors for violence include exchange of money with customers, few employees on site, and evening or night work. Home-work interface Conflicting demands of work and home, low support at home, dual career problems. 49 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Work environment and equipment Problems regarding the reliability, availability, suitability and maintenance or repair of equipment and facilities. Task design Lack of variety or short work cycles, fragmented or meaningless work, under-use of skills, high uncertainty. Workload/pace Work over-load or under-load, high levels of time pressure. Work schedule Shift working, inflexible work schedules, unpredictable hours, long or unsocial hours. Relieve stress and anxiety Flexible routines can help relieve stress and anxiety because there is a plan in place. It creates a mental release from having to constantly work out the details, wondering and worrying when an employee may be able to accomplish something. To build skills to better manage workload, some or all of the following areas can be examined: Take a realistic look at the sales team customers' and expectations Identifying the gaps and reasons between expectations and reality eg. unclear priorities, missing deadlines, cutting corners Clarifying roles, responsibilities, goals, objectives and priorities Providing easy tips and techniques for improving time and work management including managing meetings and quantifying and categorising work Building the skills to work smarter rather than harder or longer Using a simple self-coaching process to help set and meet improvement goals and a personal action plan to improve control of work and stress Self-management of stress Support and resolution strategies may include: Awareness raising Counselling Employee assistance programs (EAP) Family support Group activities Job design Mediation Sharing load Time off Training If you suffer from work-related stress you can help yourself in a number of ways: 50 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Think about the changes you need to make at work in order to reduce your stress levels and take action Some changes you can manage yourself, while others will need the cooperation of others Talk over your concerns with your employer or human resources manager Take care of yourself - eat a healthy diet, get plenty of sleep and exercise regularly Consider the benefits of regular relaxation, try meditation or yoga Provide enough free time to yourself every week Don’t take out your stress on loved ones - share your work problems and ask for their support and suggestions Drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, won’t alleviate stress and can cause additional health problems. Avoid excessive drinking and smoking Seek professional counselling from a psychologist If work-related stress continues to be a problem, despite your efforts to manage the stress, you may need to consider another job or a career change. None of the above comments or suggestions are based on any medical advice or foundation. They are drawn from practical experience, research and Australian Government records. 51 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 3. Develop and maintain professional competence 3.1 Assess personal knowledge and skills against competency standards to determine development needs and plans To ensure you maintain organisational standards, take steps to monitor and assess your performance. Utilise your job description, duty statement or statement of conduct and performance appraisal as a tool to measure your professional competency. These documents can assist you in determining your level of personal knowledge and skills. They will help you prioritise your activities to ensure that you work efficiently and effectively. It is important that you also take steps to monitor your performance. Performance can be measured in several different ways including: Observing people’s reactions to you - for interpersonal relations and to reinforce your position as a role model, take the time to observe whether personnel react to you in a positive manner. Particular attention should be paid to others’ body language. Is it open? Is it closed? Do people ask for your opinion? - If no one asks for your opinion, a red flag should be raised. You have either intimidated them and don’t feel they can approach you or they do not respect your opinion. Do not make assumptions. Gather feedback to find out what the situation is Exposure to other members of management - Communication is a two way process. Understand what other members of management think about your skills and knowledge. Observe their skills and knowledge to assist you in identifying ways in which you can improve your own personal skills and knowledge Competency standards can be used to measure the level of your performance. A competency standard is a document used as a frame of reference by your employer to determine how they expect the job and the performance of the job to be done and to determine how competent you are at your job. Competency standards aim to ensure that you can perform at a specified minimal level. The main types of competency standards are: Nationally endorsed units of competency consistent with work requirements, these are recognised nationwide and service as a basis for assessment and the issue of formal qualifications Enterprise-specific units of competency consistent with work requirements Organisational standards that are in-house and specific to your employer 52 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development In-house standards are developed to ensure you meet the minimal level for your employer. If you identify weaknesses in competency standards, corrective action should be taken to address the issue. The following table can be used to assist you in assessing your personal knowledge and skills. Skill or knowledge gap Competency standard to meet the gap Actual performance Case Study Miriam If we look at the case study for Miriam again we can use this table to help us. As a result of Miriam’s meeting with the Art Director she now knows, in addition to completing her degree she needs training in the process of recruitment (Art Directors are also involved in employment of their team) together they decided that Miriam should undertake another course, a unit from a Business Diploma aimed at recruitment, selection and induction. Her process may look like this. Skill or knowledge gap Competency standard to meet the gap Improve recruitment skills BSBHRM506 Facilitate recruitment selection and induction processes (RS&I) Actual performance Selection process Recruitment Legislation involved Organisations induction program KPI Complete the course in 14 weeks Undertake the next process of RS&I within three weeks It is also important that you seek feedback when you complete this form. Listening to the opinion of others will allow you to obtain a clear picture of your level of competence from other perspectives. You have identified your goals and set your plans. Now what? Identifying your development needs can be challenging. Often, we find ourselves looking at what training courses are available and deciding which of those would be most helpful. In fact, it is better to try and identify what the development need is and then to work out ways of meeting that need, which may or may not be a training course. Determining your development needs 53 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development What skills, knowledge, and behaviour do you need to do your job? What skills, knowledge and behaviours do you already have? Identify the gaps in your development. Determine how to meet those needs. Annual review is a great opportunity to discuss your development needs with your line manager. You may be able to discuss the changing requirements of your role, as well as your personal development aspirations (for example, career development). It is important that you have considered your development needs before your annual review meeting as this will enable you to make the most of your discussion. Stages to identifying your needs. ONE Identify what skills, knowledge and behaviours are ‘required’ for you to do your job well Virtually all roles have a position description and/or a person specification. Your position description will list the things that you are expected to do, and the person specification will identify the skills, experience, knowledge and behaviours that you need to do that job well. These are often incorporated into one document. You may find it helpful to talk to your line manager or Head of Department (HOD) if you feel you want to clarify any of the requirements set out in these documents. Your annual review meeting will be one place to have this discussion, but you can raise the issue of development at any meeting with your manager during the year. At this stage, it’s also worth thinking about the skills, knowledge and behaviours that you may need to develop in the future in your current job. You may know, for example, that your role will be changing or that you will be working on different projects or that you are interested in a career change. What new or different skills, knowledge and behaviours will you need? Go back to your life or career goals to include in your development plan. Make a list of current and future skills, knowledge and behaviours that you need. TWO Look at the skills, knowledge and behaviours you actually have now Look at the list you have produced. Now ask yourself how effectively you match against each one. You could consider talking this through with a friend or colleague, or with your manager or HOD. It’s important to ask yourself some rigorous questions at this stage and answer honestly! Are there areas of your work, for example, where developing more confidence would make a real difference to your success in your job? Are there knowledge, skills and behaviours that you only need on occasion that would benefit from some development? Can you identify areas where you feel confident and believe you perform well that could be an even greater strength for you with some development? 54 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development THREE Compare ‘actual’ with ‘required’ to identify the gaps. These are your development needs Try and be as specific as possible about what you need to do differently. This will really help you when you are deciding how to best address your development needs. It will also help you review and measure your success. For example, ‘I need to learn how to use Outlook to sort, prioritise and store my emails’, will be much more helpful than ‘I need to be more organised’, when it comes to deciding what development you need. It will also help you check how the Outlook training you undertook actually made a difference in your ability to be organised. FOUR Decide how to meet identified needs The next step is how best to address the development needs you have identified. Practicalities How do I prefer to learn? Finding the best solution Where to go for more help Practicalities You do need to consider the practicalities, such as cost, timescales and the urgency of your development need at the outset. How much funding is likely to be available and what solutions are available and when, will all have a bearing on how the needs are met. If you are asking your department to fund the cost of your development, remember that your HOD will need to consider your request in light of budgetary restrictions and within the wider training needs of the department. This may mean that your preferred option may not be feasible in the short term. You might need to consider a number of ways of meeting the identified development need where possible. How do I prefer to learn? Do you learn most successfully observing, trying things out, reading, listening, discussing, reflecting, researching or questioning? Think about the times when you have learned something successfully and try to work out why you were able to learn effectively. Or think about a time you didn’t learn well and work out why. Finding the best solution Remember to start by identifying what it is that you need to learn. Try to be as precise as you can. What is it that you need to do differently? Make sure the development you choose will result in the change you need. If you are thinking about a course, check the content and learning outcomes advertised and then review these against your development need. How well do they match? Remember to consider all the options to make sure you don’t miss the right opportunity. This may not always be a course or a formal training session. Look at the development solutions list for suggestions. 55 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501B Manage personal work priorities and professional development 2.3.3 Personal work goal and action plan Case Study Miriam Name Miriam Give details of an organisational goal you have identified in your business plan and job description To expand operations into four more cities in five years – appoint Senior and Deputy Art Directors for all four offices within 4 years Describe the ‘Personal Work Goal’ you wish to set for yourself so you can achieve the above organisational goalBecome Deputy Art Director within five years TASKS ACTIVITIES TIMEFRAME KPI What needs to be done? What action is to be taken? How long will this take? Meet with the Art Director Schedule meeting 5 minutes Meet at the arranged time with the Art Director Attend meeting 30 minutes has been scheduled for this appointment Go back to school to complete design degree Re enrol in course, contact campus to assess any recognition of prior learning Volunteer for five projects in conjunction with Art Director Investigate the program for additional projects to determine which ones are the most helpful and how they will fit into my work and personal schedule How will you measure success? Use S.M.A.R.T. formula. I need to get feedback on what additional skills and knowledge I need to achieve my goal Is this achievable in the time frame? Pass all units on first go 2 years to complete degree Gain as many credits for past work as possible Achieve degree in two years 1 year Undertake five projects in a 12 month time frame with the involvement of the Art Director Seek feedback on your performance to improve Consider using this form for your own action plan. 56 | P a g e February 2015 EBook BSBWOR501B Manage personal work priorities and professional development 2.4 Seek feedback from employees, clients and colleagues and use this feedback to identify and develop ways to improve competence 2.4.1 Feedback Humanist Carl Rogers listed five types of feedback. The sequence is important: they are given in order of frequency of use (not necessarily the same order of effectiveness): Evaluative Interpretive Supportive Makes a judgment about the other person, evaluating worth or goodness. There is a big difference between judging a person and judging their actions. A personal evaluation judges the whole person and implies this is a personal and unchangeable attribute. Negative personal evaluation can be very uncomfortable for the other person. Positive personal evaluation, is very flattering. Behavioural evaluation judges the action, but not the person. This makes negative evaluation easier for the other person to accept. You seek to test your understanding of what has been said by interpreting and paraphrasing back to the other person what you think has been said. This is typically followed by a question to allow the other person to agree with your interpretation or offer a correction. Understanding is not perfect and testing understanding is generally a very good thing to do. It is generally flattering too, as you are demonstrating an active interest in what is being said. Seek to support the other person in some way. In flattery, you support the other person's ego by telling them they are good in some way (whether or not this is true). With developmental supportive feedback, you seek to help the other person change in some way. This is not always easy, as some criticism may be involved. Supportive feedback can be reversed with the deliberate purpose of damaging the other person's ego in a personal attack. 57 | P a g e You are not a very nice person. / You are a lovely person. That was not a very nice thing to do. So you are interested in doing this job -- is this right? That was truly awesome! Can you sing it again, please? Your singing is improving. Try recording it and listen to the opening notes. That was awful! You should give up singing. February 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Probing Seeks to find more information by asking deeper questions that seek specific information. Could you tell me more about what happened? ... What happened next? Why? Understanding At the 'understanding' level, you are seeking to understand not just what was said, but the whole person underneath Asking questions not only shows that you are listening to the inner person, but also that you truly understand. Do not become defensive. Accept the feedback and thank the person giving it. You need to seek out feedback. It is important that you maintain your image as a role model to look up to. If you are defensive, consider the message that you are passing to your team members. A form of feedback that can be used to gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses is 360 degree feedback. This is the process where employees, peers, other managers and other personnel can provide managers with feedback about their performance. This form of feedback should be performed either in a survey or on-line. A group of eight to twelve individuals will be required to complete a feedback form about each other’s workplace competencies. The feedback is anonymous and their responses aim to provide you with information about your strengths and weaknesses. 360 degree feedback is used in two ways: To measure employee performance (such as through the use of a performance appraisal) As a development tool to recognise your weaknesses and strengths so you can identify where you may be required to take corrective action 360 degree feedback provides constructive feedback that assists: Managers, by saving time In team development Personal and organisational performance development Reducing the risk of discrimination With training needs assessments required by your employer to help identify areas in which you can improve and professional development strategies to close the gap between actual and expected performance Feedback tips 58 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Be specific rather than general •More meaning is gained from knowing what it is exactly that needs consideration •To be told you ‘dominate’ meetings is far less helpful than being told ‘Just now when we were discussing ideas for the way forward I would have appreciated it if you had allowed others equal time to put forward their suggestions’ Use descriptive rather than judgemental feedback •Describe the action without positioning a judgement, criticising or laying blame •This reduces the likelihood of the recipient getting defensive and helps to keep you focussed on ‘what is’ not an interpretation of ‘what is’ Avoid BUT and HOWEVER – people know what’s coming next… •Use ‘and’ when putting points together •Not only do people prefer hearing it, it also frames your feedback into solutions, possibilities and suggestions and can make for productive outcomes Ask questions •Seek clarity at every opportunity and ensure the conversation is two way •Have the receiver rephrase the feedback and confirm that it matches your intent Own the feedback •Use: The way I see it is that… My view is… It seems to me that…. Time the feedback well •It is most useful at the earliest opportunity after a particular behaviour has occurred Have a positive intention •Make sure your motives and mindset are well intended •Don’t give feedback when you are feeling angry or stressed •Don’t use feedback to ‘get at someone’ or prove your point •The purpose of feedback is to help the individual Feedback, no matter how it is given should be used as a way in which to improve your performance. If feedback highlights your strengths, then find a way to improve your strengths by creating more personal benchmarks. Be proactive in your approach to feedback. Demonstrate to your team members that it is okay to ask for feedback. Obtain feedback from: Colleagues at the same level and more senior managers Internal or external customers People from a wide range of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and with a range of physical and mental abilities 59 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Team members Treat all personnel equally, professionally and with the same level of consistency. Assure personnel that you will handle all feedback confidentially and make sure that you reinforce the trust that you have established with them. Case Study Miriam Considering Miriam again and her project of adding to her knowledge and skills once she has completed the process, the Art Director will be able to provide feedback based on the results of her study. The KPIs allow her progress and development to be measured effectively and she can ask and receive feedback on her performance. Skill or knowledge gap Competency standard to meet the gap Improve recruitment skills BSBHRM506 Facilitate recruitment selection and induction (RS&I) processes Actual performance Selection process Recruitment Legislation involved Organisations induction program KPI Complete the course in 14 weeks Undertake the next process of RS&I within the three weeks Her manager and the Art Director may be able to assist her with real, hands on experience and feedback on her performance. Her trainer will be able to provide feedback on her assessment and time management skills. At all stages Miriam should be willing and receptive to this feedback. Her mentors need to be able to provide positive and constructive feedback to help her. 2.5 Identify, evaluate, select and use development opportunities suitable to personal learning style/s to develop competence There are a range development opportunities available to be considered when developing your personal development plans: Action learning Coaching Exchange/rotation Induction Mentoring Shadowing Networking Structured training programs 60 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Action Learning Action learning is an educational process whereby people work and learn together by tackling real issues and reflecting on their actions. Learners acquire knowledge through actual actions and practice rather than through traditional instruction. Action learning is done in conjunction with others, in small groups. It is proposed as particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to reflect on and review the action they have taken and the learning points arising. This should then guide future action and improve performance Coaching When referring to being coached by a professional coach, is a teaching, training or development process where an individual gets support learning to achieve specific personal or professional results or goals. If you are receiving coaching you may be called a client or coachee or you may be an intern or apprenticeship with the person coaching you. Exchange/Rotation Job rotation is a management approach where employees are moved between two or more assignments or jobs at regular intervals of time in order to expose them to all areas of the organisation. It is a pre-planned approach aimed at testing employees’ skills and competencies in order to place them in the right place. Job rotation is a well-planned practice to reduce the boredom of doing the same type of job every day and explore the hidden potential of an employee. The process serves the purpose of both the management and the employees. It helps management in discovering the talent of employees and determining what he or she is best at. On the other hand, it gives an individual a chance to explore his or her own interests and gain experience in different fields or operations. Induction Commencing at a new workplace can be exciting and an overwhelming. The transition to the new workplace will be easier and more effective if there is a thorough induction process. A well-prepared and comprehensive induction program helps staff quickly understand the responsibilities of their new role and your expectations of them. Mentoring Mentoring is a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or knowledgeable person. However, true mentoring is more than just answering occasional questions or providing ad hoc help. It is about an ongoing relationship of learning, dialogue, and challenge. ‘Mentoring’ is a process that involves communication and is relationship based, its precise definition is elusive, and this is one example, there are many others. 61 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional development; mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less (the protégé)’. Essentially, a mentor provides a long term development relationship over a broad range of topics, and not a specific skill. As a guideline we could assign these roles to these participants in this kind of personal or professional development: Mentor Mentee Supervisor Support mentee Take responsibility Share expertise and experience mentee needs Initiate meetings Needs to be kept informed of progress Share experiences Listen actively Listen and respect other perspectives Must provide opportunities for appropriate personnel to participate Learn to find their own solutions Encourage participants to feed outcomes into the personal development plan and annual review Foster learning Help and clarify issues Answer questions Actively listen Spend time with mentees Spend time with the mentor Be accessible and positive Give constructive feedback Give and receive honest and constructive feedback Are non-judgemental Respect confidences Shadowing Work shadowing quite simply refers to a process where one staff member 'shadows' or follows another in their work role for a period of time. In practice, work shadowing provides an opportunity to increase knowledge, skills and understanding of a particular job role through first hand observation. It also provides a means of gaining insight into how the department operates, and how a particular work role fits within the overall organisational structure. Networking Networks are made up of groups who exchange information and ideas based on common interests. Networks will help you build contacts while developing your interpersonal skills. Networking can be formal or informal and work in hand with the other development opportunities. See more about networking in section 3.4. 62 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Structured training programs Structured training programs, whether online or face to face, feature a comprehensive set of learning objectives. Registered Training Organisations (RTO) offer accredited training for a wide range of subjects and professions. Learning professionals design and develop structured training programs to provide skills and knowledge. Extensive research, including task analysis, results in lesson content development that meets the learner's needs. In structured training programs, students must prove they have achieved the skills and knowledge presented in the current lesson before progressing to the next section. Self-evaluation, complemented by formal testing, ensures student mastery. Case study Miriam Miriam has decided to undertake some more study, a unit specifically related to recruitment selection and induction. Her Art Director and mentor have identified that this would be a useful skill for her to have as she moves towards her main goal of becoming a deputy Art Director. The unit she has decided to study is part of the Business Diploma – The unit code is BSBHRM506 and the unit of competency she needs to be able to complete is available here https://training.gov.au/Training/Details/BSBHRM506 This is the National Register on Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Australia. Training.gov.au is the authoritative source of Nationally Recognised Training (NRT) which consists of: Training packages Qualifications Units of competency Accredited courses Skill sets Now Miriam needs to find an RTO to help her with her course, she will of course, look at how she best learns to understand whether she should study face to face or on line for example. The most appropriate development opportunity will vary depending on outcomes sought, the individual participating, the nature of the business operations and time constraints. These issues must be incorporated into any personal development plan. 2.5.1 Learning styles ‘Learning style’ should be interpreted to mean an individual mixture of styles. Everyone has a mixture of strengths and preferences. No-one has exclusively one single style or preference. Please bear this in mind when looking at these ideas. 63 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development There are a variety of techniques that can be adopted to determine an individual’s preferred learning style. These include: VAK - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles Learning Styles Inventory Howard Gardner Seven Learning Modalities (referred to as intelligences) David Kolb’s Learning Style Model Myers Brigg Type Indicator Overview of learning styles Learning styles classify different ways people learn and how they approach information. If you feel like you can’t learn something important - even after you use a method a friend, a parent, a colleague, or a teacher suggested - you might have a different learning style and their approach might not be best for you. We all learn and process information in our own way, though we all share some learning patterns, preferences, and approaches. Knowing your own style can also help you realise that other people approach the same situation different from your approach. Learning style assessments provide you an opportunity to learn how you are likely to respond under different circumstances and how to approach information in a way that best addresses your own particular needs. Perceptual modalities The learning styles assessments which examine how you take in information through your senses are called ‘perceptual modality assessments’. They look at how you see, hear, feel, and move through the world. Those perceptions deeply affect your ability to learn. Whether you tend to rely more or less on one sense than another has a tremendous influence on how you interpret new experiences and succeed in whatever you work with each day. Multiple intelligences Howard Gardner asserts there are at least seven modalities (referred to as intelligences) that can be used to describe your individual style. His work encourages everyone to think about learning in new and creative ways. This work suggests people can be: • • • • • • Verbal-linguistic: sensitive to the meaning and order of words Musical: sensitive to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone Logical-mathematical: Able to handle chains of reasoning and recognise patterns and order Spatial: perceive the world accurately and try to re-create or transform aspects of that world Bodily-kinaesthetic: able to use the body skilfully and handle objects adroitly Interpersonal: understand people and relationships 64 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development • Intrapersonal: possess access to one’s emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others Mind styles According to Anthony Gregorc, there are four basic learning styles. Gregorc’s Mind Styles model categorises learners as: • • • • Concrete Sequential (CS) learners are hardworking, conventional, accurate, stable, dependable, consistent, factual, and organised Abstract Sequential (AS) learners are analytic, objective, knowledgeable, thorough, structured, logical, deliberate, and systematic Abstract Random (AR) learners are sensitive, compassionate, perceptive, imaginative, idealistic, sentimental, spontaneous, and flexible Concrete Random (CR) learners are quick, intuitive, curious, realistic, creative, innovative, instinctive, and adventurous Learning styles indicator David Kolb’s Learning Style Model classifies learners as having a preference for: Type 1 (concrete, reflective). A characteristic question of this learning type is ‘Why?’ Type 1 learners respond well to explanations of how course material relates to their experience, their interests, and their future careers. To be effective with Type 1 students, the instructor should function as a motivator. Type 2 (abstract, reflective). A characteristic question of this learning type is ‘What?’ Type 2 learners respond to information presented in an organised, logical fashion and benefit if they have time for reflection. To be effective, the instructor should function as an expert. Type 3 (abstract, active). A characteristic question of this learning type is ‘How?’ Type 3 learners respond to having opportunities to work actively on well-defined tasks and to learn by trial-and-error in an environment that allows them to fail safely. To be effective, the instructor should function as a coach, providing guided practice and feedback. Type 4 (concrete, active). A characteristic question of this learning type is ‘What if?’ Type 4 learners like applying course material in new situations to solve real problems. To be effective, the instructor should stay out of the way, maximising opportunities for the students to discover things for themselves. Myers-Briggs The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, based on the work of Carl Jung identifies 16 personality styles based on: 65 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development How you relate to the world (Extrovert or Introvert) How you take in information (Sensing or intuiting) •Extroverts: try things out, focus on the world around •Introverts: think things through, focus on the inner world of ideas •Sensors: practical, detail-oriented, focus on facts and procedures •Intuitors: imaginative, conceptoriented, focus on meanings and possibilities How you make decisions (Thinking or Feeling) How you manage your life (Judging or Perceiving) •Thinkers: sceptical, tend to make decisions based on logic and rules •Feelers: appreciative; tend to make decisions based on personal and humanistic considerations •Judgers: set and follow agendas, seek closure even with incomplete data •Perceivers: adapt to changing circumstances, resist closure to obtain more data For example, one learner may be an ESTJ (extravert, sensor, thinker, and judger) and another may be an INFJ (introvert, intuitor, feeler, and judger). Others There are other ways to organise learning style models. These fall into general categories such as information processing, personality patterns, and social interaction. Information processing distinguishes between the way you sense, think, solve problems, and remember information. You have a preferred, consistent, distinct way of perceiving, organising, and retaining information. Consider the following theories - Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory, Gregorc’s Mind Styles Model, and Keefe’s Human Information Processing Model. Personality patterns focus on attention, emotion, and values. Understanding these differences allows you to predict the way you’ll react and feel about different situations. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter are two of the most well-known personality pattern assessments. A lesser known assessment is Dellinger’s Psycho-Geometrics. Social interaction looks at likely attitudes, habits, and strategies learners will take toward their work and how they engage with their peers when they learn. Some learners are independent, dependent, collaborative, competitive, participant, and avoidant. Reichmann and Grasha as well as Baxter Magolda have developed assessments. The VAK learning styles model and related learning styles tests offer a relatively simple methodology. Therefore it is important to remember that these concepts and tools are aids to understanding overall personality, preferences and strengths which is always a mixture in each individual person. 66 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development As with any methodology or tool, use VAK and other learning styles ideas with care and interpretation according to the situation. They are a guide as to the mixture of preferences, strengths and learning styles in an individual, not a basis for deciding on one exclusive preference or approach to the exclusion of everything else. VAK learning styles The Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic learning styles model or 'inventory', usually abbreviated to VAK, provides a simple way to explain and understand your own learning style (and learning styles of others). The model is also referred to as Visual-Auditory-Physical, or Visual-AuditoryTactile/Kinaesthetic (or Kinaesthetic). The model is also extended by some people to VARK (Visual-Auditory-Reading-Kinaesthetic) or VAKT (Visual-AuditoryKinaesthetic-Tactile), and you can decide yourself about the usefulness of such adaptations. Original VAK concepts were first developed by psychologists and teaching (of children) specialists such as Fernald, Keller, Orton, Gillingham, Stillman and Montessori, in the 1920's. VAK theory is now a favourite of the accelerated learning community because its principles and benefits extend to all types of learning and development, far beyond its early applications. See also Kolb's learning styles model, and Gardner's Multiple Intelligences model, in which section you'll find more information about VAK, VARK and VAKT learning styles theories. Katherine Bensiger's methodology is also useful and relevant, as is the various material on the Personality Styles section. These models provide additional perspectives of the way we each think and relate to the world, and where natural strengths lie. The Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic learning styles model does not overlay Gardner's multiple intelligences, or Kolb's theory, the VAK model provides a different perspective for understanding and explaining a person's preferred or dominant thinking and learning style, and strengths. Gardner's theory is one way of looking at thinking styles; Kolb is another way; VAK is another. The more perspectives you have, the better you see and understand your own personality and learning styles, and the learning styles of employees, colleagues and staff. 67 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Visual Auditory Kinaesthetic Preference for seen or observed things Preference for the spoken word/sounds and noises Preference for physical experience ‘Tell me’, ‘let’s talk it over’ ‘Let me try’, ‘how do you feel?’ Perform best after listening to instructions Perform best by going ahead and trying, and learning as they go ‘Show me’, ‘let’s have a look’ Perform best after reading instructions or watching someone do a task first According to the VAK model, most people possess a dominant or preferred learning style, it is possible that many people have a mixed and evenly balanced blend of the three styles. The VAK model and test listed in the appendix provides a quick easy way to assess your own or other people's preferred learning styles. Please note the test is a simple indicator of preferred learning styles - it's not meant for rigorous scientific research. This VAK assessment tool is a good basic guide to personal learning styles, but it is not a scientifically validated instrument. VAK Learning Styles Explanation The VAK learning styles model suggests that most people can be divided into one of three preferred styles of learning, remembering that there is no right or wrong learning style: Someone with a Visual learning style has a preference for seen or observed things, including pictures, diagrams, demonstrations, displays, handouts, films, flip-chart, etc. These people will use phrases such as ‘show me’, ‘let’s have a look at that’ and will be best able to perform a new task after reading the instructions or watching someone else do it first. These are the people who will work from lists and written directions and instructions. Visual learning style involves the use of seen or observed things, including pictures, diagrams, demonstrations, displays, handouts, films, flip-chart, etc. Someone with an Auditory learning style has a preference for the transfer of information through listening: to the spoken word, of self or others, of sounds and noises. These people will use phrases such as ‘tell me’, ‘let’s talk it over’ and will be best able to perform a new task after listening to instructions from an expert. These are the people who are happy being given spoken instructions over the telephone, and can remember all the words to 68 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development songs that they hear! Auditory learning style involves the transfer of information through listening: to the spoken word, of self or others, of sounds and noises. Someone with a Kinaesthetic learning style has a preference for physical experience - touching, feeling, holding, doing, and practical hands-on experiences. These people will use phrases such as ‘let me try’, ‘how do you feel?’ and will be best able to perform a new task by going ahead and trying it out, learning as they go. These are the people who like to experiment, hands-on, and never look at the instructions first! Kinaesthetic learning involves physical experience - touching, feeling, holding, doing, and practical hands-on experiences. Kinaesthetic style is also referred to as 'Physical', or 'Tactile', or 'Touchy-Feely'. People commonly have a main preferred learning style, but this will be part of a blend of all three. Some people have a very strong preference; other people have a more even mixture of two or less commonly, three styles. When you know your preferred learning style(s) you will understand the type of learning that best suits you. This enables you to choose types of learning that work best for you. There is no right or wrong learning style. The point is that there are types of learning that are right for your own preferred learning style. A valuable tool is to utilise a Reflective Practice. This practice refers to the process of awareness of self, how we think and feel about events and experiences in our past and present. We can use the lessons we have learnt in our past if we are aware of them and their impact on our lives professional and personal. More information about learning styles, personality, personal and professional development is available at www.businessballs.com.With acknowledgements to Victoria Chislett for developing this assessment. Victoria Chislett specialises in performance psychology and its application within organisations. 2.6 Undertake participation in networks to enhance personal knowledge, skills and work relationships Networks are made up of groups who exchange information and ideas based on common interests. Networks will help you build contacts while developing your interpersonal skills. The contacts you make will provide you with opportunities to: Forge alliances which can provide you with industry information and give you opportunities that you did not think you could obtain access to Generate information - there may be times when you receive conflicting information. By building relationships with the network, you will be more informed and can make decisions based on reliable contacts 69 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Improve business relationships and help with obtaining better advice or prices for example Assist in the development of staff - when developing staff, members of your network can provide you with up to date information Access the latest trends and new information, new problem solving techniques and the latest technology and how it can benefit you Business contacts and networks may include the following groups and individuals within them: Other departments or branches of the organisation Organisations with industry links - your organisation purchases goods from suppliers for their office and technological needs, these organisations are an excellent source of information. They will introduce new innovations and give you a competitive advantage by keeping your organisation up to date with changes and trends within the industry Organisations with similar industry functions - some organisations deal with sub-contractors, others may deal solely with commercial organisations Potential and current clients - current clients can be leads for potential clients. Form relationships within your networks so you can listen for potential clients, all your contacts can become potential clients Networks may be either formal or informal. Informal networks comprise of staff from other organisations. You may not become a member of a network until you obtain credibility with other staff and your colleagues and peers. Formal networks can include joining associations aimed at providing information specifically to your industry. For example, Certified Practicing Accountants are usually members of CPA Australia. 2.6.1 How to network When you start to network you need to: Develop confidence which allows you to meet and greet more people Set up a file of contacts Know where and when you met these people It is important to display: Correct interpersonal skills Active listening skills - take note of what you are told and maintain eye contact Positive questioning skills - be interested in what is being said to you, acknowledge answers to questions Use open and close ended questions. Open questions start with what? Why? Where? How? Open ended questions need more than a yes or no response. Close-ended questions only require a yes or no response 70 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development When you meet other personnel or potential members of your network, remember: Their names, the company they work for and their special interests To exchange business cards To plan ahead Act professionally at all times to maintain your credibility with your peers. 2.6.2 Where can I network? You can network in a variety of places. Begin by deciding the best places that you may network. You might include: Your workplace Formal associations Business functions Trade fairs and conferences Community groups Classes and post-graduate courses Every person you meet can prove to be a valuable source of information, make sure you are aware of your work environment. Know the people you work with and listen to everything that you are told. Maintain confidentiality and never speak without thinking. You may be speaking to a professional networker who is very experienced and you may unwittingly give them inside information about the company you work with. Communication is integral of the networking process. Maintain contact with all of your networks and respond when they contact you. Use their preferred communication method. For example, a busy manager may prefer an e-mail which they can peruse at their leisure, whereas another may prefer a telephone call. Be consistent with your networks. As a role model, it is important you demonstrate the same level of integrity, trust and empathy that you would demonstrate to your team. Everyone should be treated equally. Demonstrate: Integrity - everyone must see you have a high level moral principle and professional standards when you interact with them. Ethical standards - follow a level of conduct stipulated by your group or industry. Empathy - demonstrate sensitivity to other’s feelings. Positive behaviour - Hard working, loyal, cooperative and confidential, showing respect and always be fair take steps to avoid conflict of interest. 71 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 3.5. New skills to achieve and maintain a competitive edge To maintain a competitive edge in your industry, leaders need to make sure that they continuously update their skills and knowledge to be reactive to the needs of the organisation. We have already established that two ways in which to improve your skills is by: Using your job description, duty statement or statement of conduct to identify whether you are meeting the organisation’s standards Using feedback from work colleagues, peers, clients and associates to identify weaknesses in your behaviour, skills or knowledge In both instances, where you identify behavioural, leadership knowledge and skills, you arrange to ensure that you bridge the gaps between your organisations standards or your personal goals. Another way to maintain a strong competitive advantage is to be proactive in identifying changes within your industry and deficiencies in your skills and taking action to breach that gap before the change is implemented. By being proactive, you learn skills before your competitors. Not only will you be ahead of your competitor, you will build your credibility within your network and clients. To achieve success: Try to be proactive. Look at the changes occurring in the market (such as technological innovation) and take steps to ensure that you update your skills Try to solve problems and ask for other people’s opinions. People have different experiences and may give you a perspective that you had not considered Challenge the way you do things. By trying new things, you may actually find ways in which to increase your performance Consult with team members and where appropriate consult with: Mentor or coach: a coach is usually someone you can learn from, whereas a mentor is someone you can learn from but also use as a role model. Both mentors and coaches will support you and assist in the learning process. Training manager: if you work for a large organisation take advantage of the inhouse training offered to most staff. It is part of the training manager’s job to ensure that the training offered meets worker’s needs. Colleague: approach colleagues who may be in a position to assist you. They may have already achieved the goal you are trying to attain. Know what your colleagues can do. If you know what they can do, you can save time by approaching them directly. 72 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Trainers and consultants: They can advise you on what learning strategies you need to follow to complete a task In short, you should know: What you want to achieve. If you need to learn a specific task, know exactly what that task is for and what steps you need to follow to attain a competent level What you need to achieve. Be clear on what the goals are and what the end product is. If you are unclear of the results, then you could be wasting time The advantages of what you are doing. What resources do you need? When planning activities, be clear on what resources you will need to achieve success. When participating in a new task, you may need to be aware of any legislation that may impact on your task. If you are unsure, consult with the appropriate legislative party. 73 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Appendix - VAK learning styles selfassessment questionnaire Learning styles are personal and a reflection of the type of person you are - how you perceive things and the way that you relate to the world. This questionnaire helps you to improve your understanding of yourself and your strengths. There are no right or wrong answers. Circle or tick the answer that most represents how you generally behave. (It’s best to complete the questionnaire before reading the accompanying explanation.) 1. When I operate new equipment I generally: a) read the instructions first b) listen to an explanation from someone who has used it before c) go ahead and have a go, I can figure it out as I use it 2. When I need directions for travelling I usually: a) look at a map b) ask for spoken directions c) follow my nose and maybe use a compass 3. When I cook a new dish, I like to: a) follow a written recipe a) call a friend for an explanation b) follow my instincts, testing as I cook 4. If I am teaching someone something new, I tend to: a) write instructions down for them b) give them a verbal explanation c) demonstrate first and then let them have a go 5. I tend to say: a) watch how I do it b) listen to me explain c) you have a go 6. During my free time I most enjoy: a) going to museums and galleries b) listening to music and talking to my friends c) playing sport or doing DIY 7. When I go shopping for clothes, I tend to: a) imagine what they would look like on b) discuss them with the shop staff c) try them on and test them out 8. When I am choosing a holiday I usually: a) read lots of brochures b) listen to recommendations from friends c) imagine what it would be like to be there 9. If I was buying a new car, I would: a) read reviews in newspapers and magazines 74 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development b) discuss what I need with my friends c) test-drive lots of different types 10. When I am learning a new skill, I am most comfortable: a) watching what the teacher is doing b) talking through with the teacher exactly what I’m supposed to do c) giving it a try myself and work it out as I go 11. If I am choosing food off a menu, I tend to: a) imagine what the food will look like b) talk through the options in my head or with my partner c) imagine what the food will taste like 12. When I listen to a band, I can’t help: a) watching the band members and other people in the audience b) listening to the lyrics and the beats c) moving in time with the music 13. When I concentrate, I most often: a) focus on the words or the pictures in front of me b) discuss the problem and the possible solutions in my head c) move around a lot, fiddle with pens and pencils and touch things 14. I choose household furnishings because I like: a) their colours and how they look b) the descriptions the sales-people give me c) their textures and what it feels like to touch them 15. My first memory is of: a) looking at something b) being spoken to c) doing something 16. When I am anxious, I: a) visualise the worst-case scenarios b) talk over in my head what worries me most c) can’t sit still, fiddle and move around constantly 17. I feel especially connected to other people because of: a) how they look b) what they say to me c) how they make me feel 18. When I have to revise for an exam, I generally: a) write lots of revision notes and diagrams b) talk over my notes, alone or with other people c) imagine making the movement or creating the formula 19. If I am explaining to someone I tend to: a) show them what I mean b) explain to them in different ways until they understand c) encourage them to try and talk them through my idea as they do it 20. I really love: a) watching films, photography, looking at art or people watching b) listening to music, the radio or talking to friends 75 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development c) taking part in sporting activities, eating fine foods and wines or dancing 21. Most of my free time is spent: a) watching television b) talking to friends c) doing physical activity or making things 22. When I first contact a new person, I usually: a) arrange a face to face meeting b) talk to them on the telephone c) try to get together whilst doing something else, such as an activity or a meal 23. I first notice how people: a) look and dress b) sound and speak c) stand and move 24. If I am angry, I tend to: a) keep replaying in my mind what it is that has upset me b) raise my voice and tell people how I feel c) stamp about, slam doors and physically demonstrate my anger 25. I find it easiest to remember: a) faces b) names c) things I have done 26. I think that you can tell if someone is lying if: a) they avoid looking at you b) their voices changes c) they give me funny vibes 27. When I meet an old friend: a) I say ‘it’s great to see you!’ b) I say ‘it’s great to hear from you!’ c) I give them a hug or a handshake 28. I remember things best by: a) writing notes or keeping printed details b) saying them aloud or repeating words and key points in my head c) doing and practising the activity or imagining it being done 29. If I have to complain about faulty goods, I am most comfortable: a) writing a letter b) complaining over the phone c) taking the item back to the store or posting it to head office 30. I tend to say: a) I see what you mean b) I hear what you are saying c) I know how you feel Now add up how many A’s, B’s and C’s you selected. A’s = B’s = C’s = If you chose mostly A’s you have a VISUAL learning style. 76 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development If you chose mostly B’s you have an AUDITORY learning style. If you chose mostly C’s you have a KINAESTHETIC learning style. Some people find that their learning style may be a blend of two or three styles, in this case read about the styles that apply to you in the explanation below. When you have identified your learning style(s), read the learning styles explanations and consider how this might help you to identify learning and development that best meets your preference(s). 77 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Appendix - Time management quiz Scoring Instructions For each question, assign the value and total at the bottom of the sheet. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Do you think you are over-worked and everyone else isn’t? Always 5 6 Often 3 4 Occasionally 2 Are the tasks you work on during the day, the ones with the highest priority? Do you find yourself completing tasks at the last minute, or asking for extensions? Do you set aside time for planning and scheduling? Do you know how much time you are spending on the various jobs you do? How often do you find yourself dealing with interruptions? Do you use goal setting to decide what activities you should work on? Do you leave contingency time in your schedule to deal with the ‘unexpected’? Do you know whether the tasks you are working on are high, medium, or low value? When you are given a new assignment, do you analyse it for importance and priorities accordingly? Are you stressed about deadlines and commitments? Do distractions often keep you from working on critical tasks? Do you find you have to take work home in order to get it done? Do you prioritise your ‘To Do’ list? Do you talk with your manager in order to prioritise your work? Before you take on a task, do you check that the results will be worth the effort that you will need to put in? Do you use agreed criteria to prioritise your work? Does your staff or manager find it difficult to meet with you as you are so busy? Do you have time at the end of the week to prepare for the following week? Are you regularly disappointing loved ones with your inability to meet them for special appointments? Not often 1 Never Question 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 5 5 5 1 1 4 4 4 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 4 4 1 1 1 5 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 Total: Score Interpretation Score Comment 46-75 You're managing your time very effectively! Still, check the sections below to see if there's anything you can tweak to make this even better. 78 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development 31-45 You're good at some things, but there's room for improvement elsewhere. Focus on the serious issues below, and you'll most likely find that work becomes much less stressful. 15-30 Ouch. The good news is that you've got a great opportunity to improve your effectiveness at work, and your long term success! However, to realise this, you've got to fundamentally improve your time management skills. As you answered the questions, you probably had insight into areas where your time management could be better. The following is a quick summary of the main areas of time management that were explored in the quiz, and a guide to the specific tools you can use. Goal Setting (Questions 6, 10, 14, 15) To start managing time effectively, you need to set goals. When you know where you're going, you can then figure out what exactly needs to be done, in what order. Without proper goal setting, you'll fritter your time away on a confusion of conflicting priorities. People tend to neglect goal setting because it requires time and effort. What they fail to consider is that a little time and effort put in now saves an enormous amount of time, effort and frustration in the future. Prioritisation (Questions 1, 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15) Prioritising what needs to be done is especially important. Without it, you may work very hard, but you won’t be achieving the results you desire because what you are working on is not of strategic importance. Most people have a to-do list of some sort. The problem with many of these lists is they are just a collection of things that need to get done. There is no rhyme or reason to the list and, because of this, the work they do is just as unstructured. So how do you work on to-do list tasks – top down, bottom up, easiest to hardest? To work efficiently you need to work on the most important, highest value tasks. This way you won’t get caught scrambling to get something critical done as the deadline approaches. For information on how to start prioritising your tasks, see activity logs, prioritised to-do lists, prioritisation, the action priority matrix, and the urgent/important matrix. Managing Interruptions (Questions 5, 9, 11, 12) Having a plan and knowing how to prioritise it is one thing. The next issue is knowing what to do to minimise the interruptions you face during your day. It is widely recognised that managers get very little uninterrupted time to work on their priority tasks. There are phone calls, information requests, questions from employees, and a whole host of events that crop up unexpectedly. Some do need to be dealt with immediately, but others need to be managed. Two excellent tools that discuss how to minimise your interrupted time are The Urgent/Important Matrix and Managing Interruptions. 79 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development However, some jobs need you to be available for people when they need help – interruption is a natural and necessary part of life. Here, do what you sensibly can to minimise it, but make sure you don't scare people away from interrupting you when they should. Procrastination (Questions 2, 10, 12) ‘I’ll get to it later’ has led to the downfall of many a good employee. After too many ‘laters’ the work piles up so high that any task seems insurmountable. Procrastination is as tempting as it is deadly. The best way to beat it is to recognise that you do indeed procrastinate. Then you need to figure out why. Perhaps you are afraid of failing? (And some people are actually afraid of success!) Once you know why you procrastinate then you can plan to get out of the habit. Reward yourself for getting jobs done, and remind yourself regularly of the horrible consequences of not doing those boring tasks! For more help on recognising and overcoming procrastination see our guide to Beating Procrastination. Scheduling (Questions 3, 7, 12) Much of time management comes down to effective scheduling of your time. When you know what your goals and priorities are, you then need to know how to go about creating a schedule that keeps you on track, and protects you from stress. This means understanding the factors that affect the time you have available for work. You not only have to schedule priority tasks, you have to leave room for interruptions, and contingency time for those unexpected events that otherwise wreak chaos with your schedule. By creating a robust schedule that reflects your priorities and well as supports your personal goals, you have a winning combination: One that will allow you to control your time and keep your life in balance. Time management is an essential skill that helps you keep your work under control, at the same time that it helps you keep stress to a minimum. We would all love to have an extra couple of hours in every day. Seeing as that is impossible, we need to work smarter on things that have the highest priority, and then creating a schedule that reflects our work and personal priorities. With this in place, we can work in a focused and effective way, and really start achieving those goals, dreams and ambitions we care so much about. 80 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development Appendix - Body language What our bodies say about our thoughts and feelings is a major part of how we communicate. You must consider the impact of the way your own body language reveals your own attitudes and feelings as well as what body language says about others. Body language is conscious and unconscious. Often you can’t control how you behave and won’t even notice how others behave towards you. You can learn to read body language however it is very important to understand that each person reacts in unique ways and no single body language is a reliable way to gauge how someone is reacting to you or feeling about a particular happening. Body language is referred to as nonverbal communication. You ‘talk’ with your body movements and facial expressions. Understanding others and our own body language is the key to becoming better communicators. Below are some commonly held beliefs regarding body language. Remember your specific circumstance will determine what all of these actually mean in any given situation. You could be watching someone with arms crossed thinking they are being withdrawn when they are actually cold! Someone scratching their nose can actually be itchy rather than lying or being shifty! Listening and watching is a great way to learn and begin to understand this science. Positive body language Arms Negative body language When moved slowly and in a curving way can indicate comfort. Moved quickly they can threaten. Arms crossed Can be a sign of authority if coupled with feet apart. Arms crossed (unless the person is very cold or lounging in a chair), indicates a blocking action - resistance to what is being said. If accompanied by a blank expression they’re simply not listening. Legs crossed This gesture can also intimate the person is claiming territory. The position of the legs (referred to as a leg lock) can also indicate feelings of superiority. Chin Often following on from evaluation gestures, chin stroking signifies decision-making, we should take a back seat here and let the person come to their conclusions uninterrupted. What happens directly after chin stroking (decision making) will give the greatest clues to the nature of that decision. Closeness The closer people are the more comfortable they are with you. Moving away indicates the other person is not happy to be so close. Eyes 81 | P a g e Dilated pupils can mean interest in you. Alcohol and drugs can cause this as well so be aware. v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development People who look sideways are distracted or nervous. Looking down can indicate an upset or trying to hide an emotion. Some cultures believe that looking at someone in the eyes is a sign of disrespect, or is only done with intimate friends or family, this could explain why someone is avoiding eye contact. Feet Crossed ankles usually means comfortable. Some people point their feet where they want to go. Or point them at what they are interested in! Tapping feet can indicate nervousness, impatience. In some cultures the sole of the foot are the lowest part of the body and can be insulting. Moving feet can be an indicator or a person lying. Swinging the foot can be a type of pointing. Fiddling Can indicate disagreement or boredom. Fists clenched When arms are crossed or when the unclenched hand is placed over the other holding it down, symbolically restraining the aggressive gesture. This indicates true feelings a person holds – they really don’t like what’s being said. They are not happy and can’t necessarily tell you. Hand gestures Depends on the context of the conversation, active hands can be trying to convince you of something. Can express passion and interest. Evaluation gestures include a closed hand resting on the cheek, this shows the person is interested in what is being discussed. Often the index finger will be pointing vertically upwards on the side of the head. The participant may be simply thinking about what is being said and attempting to make a decision or understand a concept. The ‘ok’ symbol is a rude gesture in some cultures. Eastern cultures beckon with the hand down. Fingers, and objects such as pens, and cigarettes placed in the mouth are a sign of anxiety. Babies are comforted and soothed by sucking on thumbs and dummies this gesture is a mimic of that need for comfort. Exposed palms signify openness and honesty, it is a submissive gesture indicating that the person has nothing to hide. This common gesture is used extensively by dodgy sales people, Watch out..... Concealed palms suggest that the person is hiding something or concealing the truth. Hands Behind your head means comfortable. Both hands behind the head is a gesture of superiority, it demonstrates a degree of ‘smugness’, which tends to annoy the person or people it is aimed at. Hands on hips On the hips can mean impatient or tired. Standing hands on hips may also indicate that the person wants to take positive action in response to what they’re discussing (not to be confused with the aggressive 82 | P a g e v1.0 April 2015 EBook BSBWOR501 Manage personal work priorities and professional development hands on hips in order to appear imposing - obviously an angry person is ready to take action of a different sort). Hands Rubbing together can indicate that someone is not comfortable, they are comforting themselves. If the hand supports the head; the degree to which the hand supports the head reflects the level of boredom. The head is heavily supported (facial features look crumpled) indicating extreme boredom. If one or more of your participants look like this, it may time for a break or an energiser. Hands clasped Clasped hands in front of the body as a protective barrier are a sign of nervousness or insecurity. Holding ones hands in front of the body is comforting in unfamiliar or stressful circumstances. One arm placed across the front of the body clasping the other, is also a sign that a person is uncomfortable or lacking in confidence in a particular situation (such as standing before a crowd or a group of unknown people). Conversely hands clasped behind one’s back (often with head up and chin out) signify confidence or superiority – people in authority often use this gesture. Head Shaking from side to side in India can signal agreement where nodding in Western countries means agreement. Head lowered Can be a mark of respect in some cultures. Head tilting Overly tilted can be a sign of sympathy, coupled with smiling can mean playful. Can be timid or a reason to hide something. Could mean a challenge or confusion depending on eyes and eyebrows and mouth. Mirroring behaviour 83 | P a g e Usually is complimentary. v1.0 April 2015