BSBWOR501 Manage Personal Work Priorities and Professional Development- Leadership Style

In my opinion, the type of leadership style I believe to be the most appropriate for my business is transformational leadership. As a transformational leader, I must be able to inspire my followers or clients to change and work towards common objectives and goals. I should also be capable of building trust, respect and admiration from my clients or followers. Being a broker means encouraging clients to discover novel ways of conducting business and new opportunities to learn.

Notably, despite being middlemen, brokers tend to have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and are able to articulate to their clients. To foster supportive relationships, a transformational leader keep lines of communication open so that clients or followers have the freedom to share ideas. By so doing, the leader also offers direct acknowledgement of each client’s or follower’s special contributions. Transformational leadership style is the most appropriate for my business because it will not only inspire and offer individualized consideration to my clients or followers, but also intellectually stimulate and idealize influence to them.

What ethical behaviours should you demonstrate if you want to be a positive role model?

To be a constructive role model, I need to display a number of ethical behaviours. For instance, I should communicate honestly and openly so as to develop trust, treat all clients or individuals equally, and show respect for other people’s decisions. As a broker, I should act in the interests of all by considering everyone I work with in the course of my decision making. Some brokers may be too proud to seek advice and ideas from their peers. However, their contribution to my performance should be recognized. Keeping information confidential is perhaps among the most important ethical behaviours I should demonstrate if I want to be a positive role model. When clients understand where the business is going and how they can assist in the attainment of its success, then they become more engaged in it and productivity improves.

1. Name a goal that you must be able to achieve as a Broker?

A goal that I must be able to achieve as a Broker is to attain my set targets and acquire high commissions from my business.

1. Now write this goal as a SMARTER goal, using the table below to assist you.

Personal plans should align with team and organisational plans.  Using your SMARTER goal, explain what each of the following plans might include. For example, if your smarter goal is to learn new sales skills to improve your sales by 1% by the end of 2016 to meet your organisational objectives, your tactical goal may be to attend training and the Strategic Goal may be to improve sales by 10% by 2018.

Explain the steps in a performance appraisal process and then identify what a performance appraisal might review?

The steps in a performance assessment process include instituting routine standards, communicating expectations and standards, gauging performance, evaluating performance with standards, discussing outcomes and obtaining pointers, and taking counteractive action. Notably, personal performance is measured against feedback, which in turn offers significant information about one’s behaviour or actions. Depending on the feedback I receive, I can be able to adjust my current and future behaviour so that my desired outcomes are attained.

Performance reviews allows an individual to review feedback from their supervisors regarding their performance in the workplace. They can either be informal or formal, and should be used as a way of improving performance. A performance appraisal may review one’s work performance, work relationships and basic job skills. Work performance assists in the identification of whether or not the set goals are being met. A performance appraisal assists in identifying areas of weakness in one’s abilities.

You believe you can use to improve your productivity and list them in the priority matrix.Using your understanding of your job description or feedback from a recent performance appraisal, select eight tasks The aim of this exercise is to improve your productivity.  Who would you consult with in regards to your priority matrix and why?

In regards to my priority matrix, I would consult my superior because s/he is more experienced and is aware of what works and what does not. S/he may have sound advice that I could use while in the field, and trying to convince potential clients.

Based on the feedback received through consultation, now use the priority matrix above to re-prioritise your tasks.

Based on the feedback received, I would re-prioritize my tasks by first starting with advertising and promoting my products. I would then plan on how to attract potential clients and retain them.

Did you improve your performance? What documentation could you use to assist you with this answer?

I, more or less, improved my performance. The documentation I could use to assist me with this particular answer would be the statement of conduct.

List the types of technology that you can use to improve your performance. Explain what functions each technology can be used for and how it can be used to improve productivity and performance.

Identify some contributing factors to workplace stress.

Some contributing factors to workplace stress include fatigue due to excess workload, frustration when personal goals are not achieved, and loss of time with friends and family. Most people do not realize that missing out on important family events tend to make a person feel left out, and may harm their relationships. This in turn increases one’s stress levels which affect work performance.

What can happen if you do not handle stress correctly?

If you do not handle stress correctly, a number of things can happen. For instance, your health may be affected, forcing you to become absent from work. A person may also lose their credibility and position as a role model. When one is stressed, they cannot perform their work well and this leads to low productivity. Low productivity often leads to loss of jobs.

List some activities or action/s you can adopt to maintain an appropriate work-life balance and to alleviate stress.

There are a number of actions or activities one can adopt to maintain a suitable work-life balance and alleviate stress. For instance, one can learn to manage their time safely. This means delegating activities judiciously when you are unable to keep up. Delegation of work indicates trust to one’s team members and builds their confidence. Thus, a leader needs to determine which knowledge and skills team members would like to learn and allot the tasks accordingly. A broker may at times be overburdened with the number of clients to be served. S/he needs to discuss with the seniors to reallocate the duties. It is important to leave work at work. This allows for time to spend with family and friends, and maintains a suitable work-life balance to alleviate stress.

• Serving as a constructive role model through personal effort planning

I understand that it is important for all leaders to encourage and inspire the individuals around them. To be a positive model, I need to have an understanding of the different leadership styles that inspire others to be a part of the team and actively work to improve the business’s work procedures and processes. Serving as a positive role model means being aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each type of leadership, and using them when they are suitable. Planning is quite a significant part of performing as a role model. The main management instrument that I utilize to manage my day is the use and application of SMARTER goals.

• How you develop personal work plans that reflect the organisations goals as well as your own responsibilities and accountabilities

I develop personal work plans that reflect the business goals by considering calculated plans, tactical plans, and operational plans. Strategic plans are important in that they offer my business guidance for actions and decisions while addressing questions such as who the client is. Tactical plans are mainly developed for marketing and finance, and determine what the business must do to be victorious. On the other hand, operational plans define how my business will function in the implementation of actions and monitoring of plans. My accountabilities and responsibilities are usually set out in the statement of conduct outlining a person’s actions/performance/responsibilities. This statement sketches significant principles of professional and ethical conduct. Each person is encouraged and expected to maintain this particular level of conduct.

• How you gauge and preserve your personal performance in changeable work conditions, work contexts and when unforeseen events occur.

I measure and maintain my personal performance by considering the use of benchmarks. These assist me in ensuring that I monitor my performance against dependable measurements. By tracking targets, I am able to track my own progress and ensure that I make suitable alterations to changes in my own performance objectives and results. This in turn allows me to be aligned with work contexts, work conditions, and contingencies.  

How you lay down and meet your own work priorities including;

• How you prioritise and ease challenging demands to accomplish personal, team and organisational goals and objectives.

There are times I find myself experiencing various kinds of weaknesses which come from transformations in my profession. In such instances, I realize that I am unable to make immediate changes for each weakness, my personal goals and objectives, my course, and the goals and objectives of my business. That is why I use my initiative to determine which weakness I will need to prioritize first. An important tool I use is the priority matrix. I find it to be quite effective in prioritizing my plans according to their level of significance, so I can know what is needed to be done first and what can wait.

• Explain what expertise you employ to efficiently and effectively manage work priorities and commitments.

Technology is an instrument that usually improves my performance as a broker and enables me to meet my business objectives. The technology I use to effectively and efficiently manage work priorities and commitments is the database. This is a way in which information is reduced so that the amount of information generated is minimized. Here, data is represented in a mathematical way through tables with rows and columns. A database is useful in maintaining client records in terms of orders, payments, and contact information. It also identifies the relationship between training and meeting business goals and objectives.

• How you maintain a fitting work-life balance, and make certain stress is successfully managed

Today’s businesses are culturally transforming to offering and managing work-life balances to help them implement work/life strategies which focus on their specific needs aimed at luring and retaining workers. I maintain a suitable work-life balance by ensuring that I take control of my time. I have learned to say no when I am overburdened with tasks, and leave work at work. I nurture myself by boostering my support system to assist in ensuring that I maintain a quality work life. I also take part in physical activities, and get enough sleep. Eating healthy foods is also part of maintaining a suitable work-life balance and ensuring stress is successfully managed.

How you extend and preserve your specialized ability including;

• How you assess your personal familiarity and skills against proficiency standards to establish your development needs, priorities and plans.

It is important that I not only develop, but also maintain my professional competence. To do so, I make use of my job description, statement of conduct or duty statement as an instrument to measure my professional competency. Such documents are significant in determining my level of personal skills and knowledge. I tend to measure my performance by observing other people’s responses to me, being exposed to other members of management, and keeping records of the number of times people ask for my opinion. I also share important information that may help in selling my products as a broker. Failure to do so means my clients will not make informed decisions. To assess my personal skills and knowledge against competency standards, I utilize a competency standard which is a document acting as a frame of reference by my seniors, to determine how they expect the work and performance of the work to be conducted. It also determines how competent I am at my job.                                                                                                                  

I believe feedback to be a unique instrument that I can use to determine where I need help and how I can improve in my line of work. My performance appraisal is the most appropriate way in which to confirm what is expected of me. Regardless of what work one does, feedback in performance is received in two ways; constructive feedback, and through positive and negative feedback. I have, at some point, received negative feedback about my performance as a broker. I do not take this to mean that my performance is bad, but that I can improve to better ensure that results are attained. On the other hand, positive feedback means that I should not be complacent but instead consider ways of improving my own performance so that I can meet the requirements laid out in the next target. Every time I receive feedback, I tend to ensure that I understand what the other person is telling me, ask questions to clarify what I am being told, and be patient even if I am not in agreement with what is being said. It is not advisable to become defensive when receiving feedback. I have learned to maintain my image as a role model to look up to, accepting the feedback and thanking the individual giving it. This is how I obtain pointers from colleagues and clients, and employ it to develop ways of improving competence.

• How you select expansion opportunities to develop required aptitude as well as new skills to uphold an aggressive edge

There are various development opportunities to choose from to develop required competence together with novel skills to maintain a competitive edge. I choose such opportunities depending on the given situation. Action learning is a development opportunity that challenges what works for others, and use that learning to improve my own processes. It holds the belief that learning is experiential. By selecting action learning as a development opportunity, I will be able to encourage others, sympathize with them, and actively listen to others. Another development opportunity to develop required competence is coaching. Its main aim is to improve performance and proceed towards another target. I can use coaching to generate goals that are not only attainable, but also realistic.

• Describe any networks you belong to and how these assist in enhancing knowledge and skills.

Networks usually comprise of groups who exchange information and concepts based on similar interests. Some of the networks I belong to which assist in enhancing knowledge and skills include possible and current clients, branches or departments of the business, and businesses with industry connections. The latter is useful in introducing novel innovations and offering a competitive edge by keeping my business up to date with trends and transformations within the business. On the other hand, current clients are possible leads for potential clients. That is why I establish and value my relationships within my networks so that I can listen for possible clients.

Reference List

Motzer, SA and Hertig, V. ‘Stress, Stress Response and Health.’ (2004) 39 Nursing Clinics of North America 1 – 17.

Northouse, PG., Leadership: Theory and Practice, 4^th Edition (Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, 2007).