Individual Development Plans

Individual Development Plans

PSY 301

Terray Kashuba

September 8, 2006

Personal Development Skills

From infancy to adulthood, a person’s emotional development skills differ on many levels; for example: a person may have the ability to manage a whole department but lack a few skills necessary to manage the people who work in that department. I feel as though I can relate to this issue due to the fact that even though my employees get their jobs done, I sometimes sense that they do not consider me their manager because I was once their co-worker.

Managing people

The way managers and supervisors treat their employees determine the rate of retention and turnover. They interact daily with people who have individual needs and expectations. They significantly influence the attitudes, performance, and satisfaction of employees within their department and other departments. The stress of trying to lead and satisfy so many people's changing needs and expectations can be overwhelming, to say nothing of the demands from upper management. Being both firm and caring at the same time causes many to feel inadequate for the role. Forty percent of turnover is reportedly due to an inadequate relationship between the employee and their direct supervisor (Vroom (2006). Where trust is lacking, performance suffers. Enhancing ones emotional intelligence enables people to regulate their emotions and motivate themselves more effectively – allowing them to manage their own emotional turmoil effectively and demonstrate compassion and empathy for their employees, also provides them with the courage to push against the system to make necessary changes for their people. All employees want a supportive, caring manager who has their best interests at heart and in knowing this the employees are more likely to stay with the company for the long run.

Delegating

Most managers don't know how to delegate. That's not really surprising, because no one ever delegated anything to them. How else are they going to learn?

Many times, managers dump their work onto someone else, but there is a big difference between delegating and dumping. When you delegate something to a subordinate it should serve two purposes.

• First, it must lighten your load so you can concentrate on more important issues.

• Second, it must help the receiver learn and grow.

When you delegate, as opposed to dumping, you give the other person the same authority to complete the task as if you had done it yourself. If the task means signing a requisition, the person to whom you delegated the task must have the same authority to sign that requisition as you have. That doesn't mean you delegate all your authority to that individual, only that you have to give them the authority to do what you would have been able to do.

Remember, though, that you can delegate the authority, but you cannot delegate the responsibility. It is up to you to see that the person is adequately trained before you delegate to them and is adequately supervised after you delegate. They won't necessarily do it the same way you would have, and they probably won't do it as well to begin with. That doesn't matter. Keep them from making any major blunders as they get the feel of the task and you will have successfully delegated. You will have lightened your load and you will have helped one of your people develop further. In organizations we must work with and for others. To be able to mutually achieve our goals we must be able to relate to others effectively. These ideas will help do just that.

• Catch people doing things right and then let them know that they are doing things right.

• Use feedback to stay informed about what other people are doing in your area of responsibility and authority.

• Have regular, focused meetings regarding the projects that you are responsible for.

• Provide adequate instructions. Time is lost if things are not done correctly.

• Train others to do jobs. You cannot do them all, nor can others do them if they have not been trained.