Module One – Personal Development

What is self-awareness?
Self-awareness is the ability to look inwards, think deeply about your behaviour and consider how it
aligns with your moral standards and values. This helps you feel positive and confident. Self-
awareness gives a deeper understanding of your own attitudes, opinions, and knowledge.

Why is it important?
There is a strong link between self-awareness and high-performance managers. You’re more effective
in a leadership role when you understand your internal state as well as other people’s emotions. When
you’re secure in your own strengths and weaknesses you have the power to use your strengths
accordingly (leading to a happier career) and eliminate weaknesses by asking for help when needed.
On a personal level – it means you have greater control over your own life.

How to develop self-awareness:

-Know your strengths and weaknesses (personal SWOT analysis/personality tests).
-Reflect on the impact you have.
-Focus on others.
-Ask for feedback.

SWOT analysis:
SWOT analysis is a useful tool to assess things that are good or bad, plan and make decisions and
think proactively/question existing ways of doing things.

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities (outside of the organisation to help it grow)
Threats (outside of the organisation to stop it from growing)
You must be observant and there must be a clear reason for the analysis.

Gaining feedback from others:

Feedback from others is central to personal development.
1. Make clear what you want feedback about.
2. Chose who you want to invite to give you feedback.
3. Explain why you want feedback.
4. Decide how you will gather the feedback.

Feedback Matrix:
The feedback matrix is a useful tool that helps with self-exploration. It helps you to look at the
positives and negatives and then link the comments back to what you did or didn’t already know
about yourself. The feedback generally falls into one of 4 categories.

Positive/Expected – things you already know that you do well. Ask yourself: how can I celebrate this
aspect of myself? How can I use this skill to help others?
Negative/Expected – areas we know we need improvement. Ask yourself – what actions have I taken
to address this concern? What else do I need to examine or change to achieve the results I want?

Positive/Unexpected – positive feedback that we weren’t aware of. Ask yourself – why was I
surprised to hear this? How will I celebrate this newly discovered skill?

Negative/Unexpected – things that need improvement that we didn’t know about. Ask yourself – what
other information do I need to help me with this feedback? What plan can I put into place to make
changes in the short term?

Creating a Personal Development Plan:

PDP’s may be called several things - such as an appraisal, progress review, performance review etc.
These ensure that you/your team are working to the required standard, and that you are all motivated
and secure within your roles.

This benefits the employee because it gives you the opportunity to discuss issues and share your
thoughts on the organisation.

SMART targets:
There must be clear steps in place to meet a target. SMART targets were first developed by Peter
Drucker and G.T Doran – however they have been further developed since then.

Specific – must state the result required - accurate and focussed (apply, change, identify, analyse)
what do you need to do, why it is important, who will be involved etc…
Measurable – use reviews, task checks, feedback, recording documents.
Achievable – target you set must be challenging but achievable – has it been achieved before, do you
have all the required resources, staff support etc.
Realistic – must be achievable but stretch and challenge you to keep you motivated and focused. All
resources must be available.
Time bound – all targets must have an end point; you must be able to see when it has been achieved.
Take holidays and other staffing issues into consideration.

Things to avoid when setting a SMART target:

-Setting unrealistic targets.
-Failing to measure progress.
-Not identifying resources or support.
-Failing to update when required.
-Too many changes.
-Poor communication.