F1 Accountant in Business

Chapter 28

Improving personal effectiveness at work

Chapter learning objectives Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to: explain the purposes of personal development plans identify the stages in putting together a personal development plan give reasons why continuous monitoring and feedback is important explain the purpose of time management describe the time management techniques that one might employ to improve one's use of time describe the barriers to effective time management and how they may be overcome outline how information technology could be used to improve personal effectiveness explain the terms mentoring, coaching and counselling.
Mentoring Coaching conselling

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Plans Time Management Personal Effectiveness

Improving personal effectiveness at work Personal development plans A personal development plan is a 'clear developmental action plan for an individual that incorporates a wide set of developmental opportunities including formal training'. During their career, employees are increasingly encouraged to manage their own development. In consultation with management, they might be asked to set up personal development plans whereby they set targets and propose actions/activities to achieve them. Development is more general than training, is more forward-looking and orientated towards the individual, and is concerned with enabling the individual to fulfil his or her potential. Training Development Immediately practical Connected to job performance
No immediate practical

application

Over time it enables a person to deal with wider problems

1.1 Purposes of personal development plans The purpose of personal development is to ensure 'growth' during the person's career. The growth should be triggered by a job that provides challenging, stretching goals.
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The clearer and more challenging the goals, the more effort will be exerted, and the more likely it is that good performance will result. If the person does a good job and receives positive feedback, he or she will feel successful (psychological success). These feelings will increase the feelings of confidence and selfesteem and lead to involvement in the work, which in turn leads to the setting of future stretching goals. This career-growth cycle is outlined below:
Support Feedback

CHALLENGING JOB GOALS

EFFORT

PERFORMANCE

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUCCESS

INVOLVEMENT

SELF - ESTEEM

Counselling

The purpose of the plan will be aimed at: improved performance in the current job developing skills (manual, intellectual, mental, perceptual or social) for future career moves within and outside the organisation developing specialist expertise. Illustration 1 Personal development plans There are usually mechanisms and programmes in an organisation to help the individual with development planning. To assess job requirements and current competence and training requirements information can be gleaned from their job analysis, job description, role definition, personnel specifications and competence definitions (generally used for recruitment purposes), training needs analysis, self appraisal and performance appraisal and informal feedback from friends and colleagues. Test your understanding 1 What methods will the manager/supervisor use to support employee development?

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1.2 Preparing a personal development plan

PREPARING A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN Stage 1 Analysis of the current position

Stage 3 Draw up action plan to achieve the goals

Stage 2 Set goals to cover: performance in the existing job future changes in the current role moving elsewhere in the organisation developing special experience

Stage 1 Analysis of current position - requires the individual, with their manager, to carry out a personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. This can be as simple as assessing what an individual does by referring to the job description, evaluating which aspects of a job an individual likes and dislikes on the one hand, and those aspects that an individual does well and not so well in on the other. Tasks the person likes and does Tasks the person likes but doesn't do well well Tasks the person dislikes but does Tasks the person dislikes and does not well do well Stage 2 Set goals - following the above analysis, personal goals should be set for the individual.

The tasks the person does not do well are examined and reasons are established. This can take the form of an alternative and more traditional type of SWOT analysis by examining the person's strengths and weaknesses. Particular weaknesses should be identified as being the cause of failure to carry out certain tasks well. This should then inform a personal set of objectives in order to overcome these weaknesses.

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Illustration 2 Personal development plans

Strengths
What advantages do you have? What do you do well? What resources do you have access to? What do other people see as your strengths?

Weaknesses

What could you improve? What do you do badly? What should you avoid?

Opportunities
Where are the good opportunities facing you? What are the interesting trends you are aware of?

Threats
What obstacles do you face? Are the required specifications for your job or products changing? Is changing technology threatening your position? Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your job/business?

Goals should have the characteristic of SMART objectives: specific measurable attainable realistic time bounded. Stage 3 Draw up action plan an action plan and training programme should be based on addressing the identified weaknesses and trying to move more of the tasks of the current role into the 'do well' side of the matrix on the lefthand side. It is easier to improve the performance of individuals in tasks that they like performing than in those that they don't.

GOALA / OBJECTIVES

STRATEGIES

TACTICS

CO NT RO L

ACTIONS

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When drawing up and implementing an action plan, some degree of control is necessary to monitor the extent to which the programme is achieving the goals and stated objectives. Control processes give people structure, define methods and indicate how their performance will be measured. It is reassuring to know what you are required to do and how the outcome will be measured. Test your understanding 2 How do you use the SMART acronym to ensure your goals are achievable? Test your understanding 3 To assess the extent to which a goal has been met we need to be able to measure it. How might the performance expectations be described? 1.3 The importance of continuous monitoring and feedback Once the goals and personal ambitions have been defined and the person has begun the development plan, the monitoring must begin. Monitoring in simple terms means watching over something that is happening. Control processes give people timely, relevant feedback on their performance - this is information about how they did in the light of some goal and that can be used to improve performance. Feedback will usually be provided by the manager or supervisor, and should be concurrent - or certainly not long delayed. People naturally want to know how well they are doing on a particular task and need the reassurance that they are on the right track and are achieving what is expected of them. Feedback should be clear and frequent and this can only be achieved if there is continuous monitoring of the task. Feedback can also have a motivating effect by providing recognition of work done which in turn provides the incentive to sustain and improve performance levels. Recognition, praise and encouragement create feelings of development and progress that enhance the motivation to learn. confidence, competence,

Illustration 3 Personal development plans How am I doing? Just imagine being completely denied any feedback whatsoever - no guidance, no praise, and no constructive criticism for the things you do. If you received no input at all, how much initiative would you demonstrate? Would your productivity be high, or low? What would your morale be like as time went on? And if you experienced this kind of treatment in the workplace, how likely would you be to look for a job somewhere else? The sad fact is that most of us take feedback for granted. But interpersonal feedback is a
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critical nutrient for everyone - it is the psychological equivalent of food and water. Without strong, clear feedback to use as a reference point, people are incapable of functioning fully and productively. Test your understanding 4 Why should feedback be concurrent? 2 Time management

PURPOSE

TIME MANAGEMENT

IMPROVING PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

TECHNIQUES

BARRIERS

Whatever the qualities or attributes of a successful manager, or the qualities of the people working for him or her, one essential underlying criterion is the effective use of time. Time is a unique resource - you cannot hire, rent or buy more time. The supply is totally irreplaceable and everything requires time. 2.1 The purpose of time management
TIME MANAGEMENT PLAN THE BEST USE OF TIME PURPOSE ELIMINATE WASTAGE COMPLETE MORE IN THE TIME AVAILABLE

DEVOTE MORE TIME TO THE REALLY IMPORTANT ISSUES

The purpose of time management (TM) is to: plan the best use of time cut down on time wasted devote more time to the really important issues, or jobs on hand complete more in the time available. This will allow you to: eliminate wastage refuse excessive workloads monitor project progress
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allocate resource (time) appropriate to a task's importance plan each day/week efficiently. Since Personal Time Management is a management process just like any other, it must be planned, monitored and regularly reviewed. Time management techniques include the following: Spend time planning and organising - using time to think and plan is time well spent. In fact, if you fail to take time for planning, you are, in effect, planning to fail. Produce an activity log - a breakdown of your time spent in a typical week, divided between activities at work, home, study, leisure and travel. Consider what proportion of your time was important to you, important to others and could easily be delegated to others. Cost your time - every occasion when you 'save' an hour, or put it to better use, you become more cost-effective. Costing your time Conserving time means:
communicating effectively organizing meeting effectively reducing paperwork controlling interruptions setting time objectives for task

The rest of the time may be wasted and lost due to: lack of focus on task failure to delegate interruptions fatigue loss of attention failure to communicate failure to anticipate

What is your total cost? How much productive time do you achieve? What utilization do you obtain? How much would a temp or subcontractor charge?

Make lists - plan the whole of the coming week in advance, then make a list every day before you start work. Refuse to do anything that is not on the list for the day. Prioritise - look at the list and assess tasks for relative importance, amount of time required, and any deadlines - sorting out what you must do, from what you could do, and from what you would like to do.
TASK, DUTIES, ACTIVITIES WITH APPROXIMATE TIME ASSESSMENT Must (Ms) Has to be done in whole or part today probable by a certain time Ought(OS) Should be done during to day but as a last resort could be delayed Prefer (Ps) Would like to do but must not spend too much time to the detriment of Ms & OS

Schedule the work: use a monthly calendar or planning notebook to schedule important activities, due dates, deadlines, and appointments. Highlight important dates with a marker.
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Concentrate and control: work on one thing at a time avoiding, where possible, disruption by the unexpected. Illustration 4 Time Management Time management can also be improved by developing appropriate skills (faster reading, report writing, handling meetings and assertiveness skills), target setting, negotiating and delegating. Which category are you in? Stephen Covey outlines what he sees as the four generations of time management approaches: First generation: Reminders Followers limit their time management efforts to keeping lists and notes. They see these papers as reminders. Items that are not done by the end of the day are transferred to the next day's list in the evening. These people use calendars and appointment books. They will note where meetings are held and identify deadlines; this is sometimes even done on a computer. This generation plans and prepares, schedules future appointments and sets goals. Third generation time managers prioritise their activities on a daily basis. They tend to use detailed forms of daily planning on a computer or on a paper-based organiser. This approach implies spending some time in clarifying values and priorities.

Second generation: Planning preparation

and

Third generation: Planning, prioritising, and controlling

Fourth generation: Being Fourth generation people understand the difference between efficient and proactive urgency and importance, e.g. some people may go their entire lives completely missing out on important things (like spending time with their children before they have grown up) because it was never 'urgent'. The point is not to ignore urgent things, but to embrace important things without waiting for them to become urgent.

Test your understanding 5 We will assume you earn $50,000 per annum basic pay. On top of this the direct and indirect costs of your employment are $25,000. You work 37.5 hours per week for 44 weeks of the year. What is the cost of your time per hour?
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2.3 Barriers to effective time management The main influences on a person's use of time are outlined in the diagram below:
MANAGEMENT STYLES CULTURE COLLEAGUES

NATURE OF THE WORK

TIME MANAGEMENT

STAFF DEMANDS

INDIVIDUALS PERSONNAL SKILLS

INDIVIDUALS PERSONALITY

Influences include: Established jobs with routine and predictable work have fewer barriers than new or developing work. Jobs involving contact with others are more prone to interruptions than those with no near contacts. People with offices of their own can operate an 'open door' policy for staff communications but a 'closed door' policy when a physical barrier is needed. The location of colleagues, customers and suppliers can contribute to time wasted in travelling. Some organisation's cultures favour strict adherence to protocol and procedures, discouraging informal contacts. Others encourage an open access communications policy that can be stimulating but time wasting. An individual's personal work standards are going to be influenced by the type of decision making (slow and deliberate or quick) in the firm. The attributes and style of the job-holder depend on personality and preferences, e.g. some are more assertive and find it easier to deal with colleagues who waste their time. Barriers to effective time management may be internal or external.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT

Internal Discipline Procrastination Lack of motivation

External Workload issues Available resources

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Overcome the internal barriers

Overcome the external barriers

Be assertive - identify your time wasters and resolve to deal with them, learn to say NO, delegate. Identify and make use of your personal biorhythms, or 'up' time and 'down' time. Conquer procrastination -find out what causes you to put off doing something and remedy it, e.g. a feeling of inadequacy could be due to lack of information, lack of a particular skill or lack of training. Promise yourself a reward.

Do the right thing right -doing the right thing is effectiveness; doing things right is efficiency. Focus first on effectiveness (identifying what is the right thing to do), then concentrate on efficiency (doing it right). Eliminate the urgent - urgent tasks with short-term consequences often get done to the detriment of the important tasks - those with long-term, goal-related implications. Break big jobs into little steps. Use negotiation to improve the use of time.

Illustration 5 Time Management What task are you doing on a regular basis that you should shift to a different time? Personal biorhythms are such that we are not at our peak of productivity or energy all day every day. For whatever reason, there are some times of the day when we have more energy, or are more creative, or are more willing to do unpleasant tasks. At other times of the day, we might be more inclined toward slowing down, being restful, letting our minds drift, or staying away from anything that looks like work. Daily patterns can be discovered. You can simply keep a journal for a week. Make a note every hour or so that records how you feel, how much energy you have, how creative you feel, or if you are in a sour mood. At the end of the week you might find that there is a pattern. The important thing is that you are looking for your very own pattern, not somebody else's. Once you see a bit of a pattern, then you can work on shifting things around. Check your own personal biorhythms, and find the best time during the week for doing a specific regular task. Make a decision to perform this task at the ideal time for you. Keep this going for a few weeks, and then decide whether this shift was right for you. How can the differences in attributes and style of the job-holder influence their use of time?

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Test your understanding 6 How can be differences in attributes and style of the job-holders influence their use of time? 3 Improving personal effectiveness

Effectiveness means setting the right goals and objectives and then making sure they are accomplished. Being effective means getting the result that you want. Using a planning aid You may well have gathered by now that you will need a planning aid of some sort (a time/appointments diary, a work-planner or daily schedule form) to assist in planning the day's activities and managing your time. Information technology available to support and improve personal productivity includes:
ELECTRONIC PERSONAL ORGANISERS INTEGRATED SOFTWARE PACKAGES

PLANNING AIDS

PROJECT MANGEMENT SOFTWARE

HAND-HELD COMPUTERISED DIARIES

Integrated software packages like MS Outlook or Goal Pro 6 have the following features for personal productivity management:
A scheduler or calendar allowing users to timetable their activities for the day and plan

meetings with others. It will also be able to generate reminders, for example when a deadline is approaching, or the date of a meeting. An address book.
To do lists. A journal. This can automatically record interactions with people involved in a project,

such as email messages and record and time actions such as creating and working on files. The journal will keep track of all of this and is useful both as a record of work done and as a quick way of finding relevant files and messages without having to remember where each one is saved.
A jotter for jotting down notes as quick reminders of questions, ideas, and so on.

Hand-held computers like the Palm does not attempt to do the work of a complete computer. It tracks appointments and contacts, synchronises them with a desktop computer, and takes
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the occasional note. The features include date book, address book, To Do list, calculator, Expense Tracking, and memo-pad. Illustration 6 Improving personal effectiveness Check out the activity log from the following website http://www.deskdemon.com/pages/uk/advice/7dayprimer. Without modifying your behaviour any further than you have to, note down the things you do as you do them and their degree of importance and urgency. Every time you change activities, whether answering the phone, working, in a meeting, making coffee, gossiping with colleagues or whatever, note down the time of the change. As well as keeping track of activities, you could also write down how you feel - are you wide awake, concentrating, tired, full of energy? Do this at various points throughout the day. Test your understanding 7 What are the features of Microsoft's Outlook Task Manager? 4 Mentoring, coaching and counselling

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Mentoring Help, guidance, advice and support to facilitate

Coaching Focuses on achieving specific objectives

Counselling Problem solving Help people to help themselves

Mentoring is a process where one person offers help, guidance, advice and support to facilitate the learning or development of another. It follows an open and evolving agenda and deals with a range of issues. The mentoring process consists of three core activities, which set it apart from other developmental activities: exchange of knowledge that is unique to a business, industry, profession or organisation a sustained partnering relationship measurable, beneficial outcomes for the individual parties involved and for the larger organisation. A mentor is a guide, counsellor, tutor or trainer who: can give practical study support and advice
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can help with development of interpersonal and work skills is an impartial sounding board - no direct reporting responsibility is a role model who can help improve career goals. Coaching: focuses on achieving specific objectives, usually within a preferred time period. It is more about improving the performance of someone who is already competent rather than establishing competency in the first place, or focusing on the task and ensuring that the learner gains competence.
It is usually on a one-to-one basis, is set in the everyday working situation and is a

continuing activity.
It involves gently nudging people to improve their performance, to develop their skills and

to increase their self-confidence so that they can take more responsibility for their own work and develop their career prospects. Most coaching is carried out by a more senior person, or manager. What is essential is that the coach should have the qualities of expertise, judgement and experience that make it possible for the person coached to follow the guidance. Counselling can be defined as 'a purposeful relationship in which one person helps another to help himself/herself. It is a way of relating and responding to another person so that the person is helped to explore his/her thoughts, feelings and behaviour with the aim of reaching a clearer understanding. The clearer understanding may be of himself/herself or of a problem, or of the one in relation to the other. The counsellor needs to be: Observant. There is a need to note behaviour, which may be symptomatic of a problem. Sensitive. There is a need to acknowledge and understand that another person's beliefs and values may be different from their own (for example religious beliefs). Empathetic. There is a need to appreciate that the problem may seem overwhelming to the individual. Impartial. There is a need to remain impartial and refrain from giving advice. Discreet. There will be situations when an employee cannot be completely open unless they are sure that the comments they make will be treated with confidentiality. Through active listening, the use of open questions and clarifications, the counsellor encourages reflection and helps the client identify issues and solutions. Counselling does not involve giving advice or making suggestions.

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Test your understanding 8 How can a mentor assist a new recruit?

Chapter summary
Monitoring Help, guidance, advice and support to facilitate learning Coaching Focuses on achieving specific objectives Counselling Helping people to help themselves Plans Preparing a personal developing plan IMPROVING PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS Planning aids Personal organisers Project management Software Computerised diaries integrated software packages

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

TIME MANAGEMENT

Internal Discipline, procrastination and lack of motivation

Stage 1: Analysis of current position.

Purpose Plan the best use of time Eliminate wastage Complete more in the time Devote more time to really important issues

BARRIERS

External Workload Resources

TECHNIQUES

Stage 2; Set goals

Activity log
Cost your time

Stage 3; Draw up action plans

Make lists Prioritise

Schedule the

work

Concentrate and Control

Test your understanding answers Test your understanding 1 Managers and supervisors support employee development when they assign tasks which challenge them and provide them with the opportunity to grow. Examples include delegating a responsibility (appropriate to the employee's classification and development), providing .onthe-job training and referring employees to classes, workshops and other learning and development opportunities.
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Test your understanding 2 One way of ensuring that your goals are achievable and easily quantifiable is to use the SMART acronym. Specific: It is clear what is meant by the objective.

Measurable: It will be possible to assess the extent to which the objective has been met. Achievable: The objective represents something that can be implemented in the real world and can be met by the resources available. It will contribute to your overall work outcomes. Delivery of the objective is linked to a specific date.

Relevant: Timely:

Test your understanding 3 Standards should be written in clear language, describing the specific behaviours and actions required for work performance to meet, exceed or fail expectations. The performance expectations should be described in terms of:
timeliness - deadlines and dates

cost - budget constraints and limits quality - subjective and objective measures of satisfaction quantity - how many customer satisfaction independent initiative demonstrated and any other relevant verifiable measure.

The acceptable margin for error should be specified as should any specific conditions under which the performance is expected to be accomplished or the performance assessed, e.g. assuming the required information is received on time from IT department, using job aids provided by Mr X, assuming this task is performed 50% of the day. Test your understanding 4 Feedback is information about what has happened, the result or effect of our actions. The environment or other people 'feed back' to us the impact of our behaviour, be that upshot intended or unintended. Concurrent feedback is information that is 'fed back' to us as we perform; so it serves as the basis for learning and intelligent self-adjustment en route. Delayed feedback comes after the task is completed and can only be used to affect future performance. Test your understanding 5 You work 37.5 hours per week for 44 weeks of the year = 1,650 hours. $75,000 / 1,650 = $45.45 per hour.
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Test your understanding 6 The differences in attributes and style are due to the fact that some people: are more assertive and find it easier to deal with colleagues who waste their time have more skills and experience than others work best in the morning, whilst others work best later in the day are untidy and disorganised whilst others are neat and methodical like to concentrate their efforts into short, intensive periods, whilst others pace their work can deal with several tasks simultaneously, whereas others can only cope with one issue at a time are task-oriented as opposed to people-orientated
like to delegate while others prefer to keep the work to themselves.

Test your understanding 7 With the Outlook Task Manager you can set yourself tasks, prioritise them, tell Outlook what 'category' they fit into, and ask for a reminder. You can also cross tasks off as you achieve them and indicate what percentage of a task is completed. If you set a due date for your task, the tasks will turn red once the deadline has passed. The calendar feature can be used to enter appointments and study tasks. Once again you can set reminders, type in notes about the 'event', and even set priorities. Test your understanding 8 Mentoring is the use of specially-trained individuals to provide guidance and advice that will help develop the careers of those allocated to them. They can assist by: drawing up personal development plans giving advice on administrative problems facing the new recruit helping to tackle projects by pointing the recruit in the right direction.

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