05/06/2016 BSBWOR501 Manage Personal Work Priorities and Professional Development | |

Short Answer Questions

Question 1
- Build downtime into your schedule.
When you plan your week, make it a point to schedule time with your family and friends, and activities that help you recharge.
- Get moving.
It's hard to make time for exercise when you have a jam-packed schedule, but it may ultimately help you get more done by boosting your energy level and ability to concentrate.
- Remember that a little relaxation goes a long way.
Don't assume that you need to make big changes to bring more balance to your life. Brooks recommends setting realistic goals, like leaving the office earlier 1 night per week.

Question 2

- Organize & Prioritize
Create a daily schedule and follow it. Identify the top three or four critical projects that need to be completed. Ensure your task list is manageable, adds value, and benefits your firm.
- Stop Multitasking
Guilty as charged! In the past I’ve been a master multitasker, or so I thought. I could answer a phone call, respond to an email, and dabble on a project simultaneously. I was satisfied that I could work on several projects at once. In reality, the quality of my work was compromised. Multitasking lowers IQ, lowers EQ (emotional intelligence), slows you down, increases stress levels, and causes mistakes. Master unitasking instead.
- Avoid Distractions
Did you know that focus is a fundamental quality of productive people? Our brains are wired to work best when we focus on a single task. Practice staying focused and strive to complete one task before diving into another.

- Manage Interruptions
It’s easy to minimize or forget how many times we’re interrupted during the day. Interruptions can come in all forms: co-workers, bosses, family, etc. Here’s a great trick to manage your interruptions.
- Be a Great Finisher
Many of us are great starters but we fall short on finishing.

Question 3

1. Setting Lifetime Goals. The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime 2. Setting Smaller Goals. Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. | 1. Career – What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?2. Financial – How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals? | A quantifiable indicator used to assess how well an organization or business is achieving its desired objectives. | Many business managers routinely review various performance measure types to assess such things as results, production, demand and operating efficiency in order to get a more objective sense of how their business is operating and whether improvement is required. | “Time management” refers to the way that you organize and plan how long you spend on specific activities. | Answering the phone is urgent. If you don’t do it, the caller will ring off, and you won’t know why they called. It may, however, be an automated voice telling you that you may be eligible for compensation for having been mis-sold insurance. That’s not important. | The actions or reactions of a person in response to external or internal stimuli. | Attitudes are infectious and can affect the people that are near the person exhibiting a given attitude, which in turn can influence their behavior as well. | - reflecting on your own learning, performance and achievements- planning your all-round personal,- educational and career developmentrecording your achievements. | - increase your self-awareness – who you are and what you want- identify the skills and experience that you already have, and those that you need- create a plan to acquire the skills you may need for your academic studies or your chosen career path- keep a record of your achievements that you can draw on when you apply for further study or employment. |

Question 4
Visual Learners
Visual learners are people who learn best by using their sense of sight. In a classroom situation, visual learners often sit toward the front of the classroom, where they can get the best view of what is being taught. They learn best with presentations such as slide shows, videos, charts, graphs, and pictures. When attempting to study or otherwise remember things, it is helpful for visual learners to visualize the materials. Visualization is also helpful when actually taking a test or a quiz, as this type of learner will benefit from visualizing notes or diagrams that they used while studying or that were presented in class. Colorful highlighters are a valuable tool for the visual learner, as highlighting important notes, phrases, or passages is a useful strategy. Another useful strategy is color-coding. Visual learners should make every attempt to avoid visual distractions when studying, such as clutter, the television, or other activity. Visual learners tend to refer to diagrams and pictures and often draw them for studying and presenting information.

Question 5
- Personal Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Résumé. Drawing up a CV or résumé is not only necessary when applying for jobs, it can also be very useful for your own benefit and will help you appraise the skills you have gained through education, training, employment, voluntary work, leisure and other activities. In turn it will help to highlight skills that you should work on developing.
- Transferable Skills. Many skills that you have learnt and developed either through work, education or your personal life can be successfully applied to other areas of your life. For example, good listening skills are important in many aspects of life. Such skills are known as ‘Transferable Skills’ a term which is usually associated with a skill set that can be easily transferred from one job to another.

- Overcoming Barriers to Learning a New Skill. Learning a new skill will broaden the opportunities open to you, at the same time as empowering you as an individual. There are many things that prevent people from learning new skills, these barriers may be overcome with some thought.

TASK 1 : Establish personal work goals

1.1 Being an international student involves that you have to deal with many responsibilities and accountabilities. If you fail in these tasks, the consequences can be very heavy and to the extreme, send you back to your country. A big majority of the students are working to be able to pay their rent, food but also their school. They have the responsibility to attend their lessons for a minimum of 20 hours per week and submit their assessments on the due date. A student need a valid health cover if he or she wants to get their visa.

1.2 Objectives | Strategies | Resources | Results | Ability to achieve | Next | Know myself | Complete this assessment | Time and patience | Know myself | Achievable | Higher Unit | Find some objectives for the future | Research/Listen to people | Surrounding environment | Find some objectives for the future | Achievable | Achieve these objectives | Improve my English | Complete this assessment/Research | Internet/Library and talk with Australians | Improve my English | Achievable | Learn another language | Extend my knowledge | Read articles | Internet/News | Extend my knowledge | Achievable | More... |

1.3
Most of the objectives I want to achieve in my professional life and at school are linked. In many ways, if I fail on one side then I will also fail on the other side. For example If later I want to find a good job the fact of succeeding my assessments will be more than helpful. If I want to improve my English, going to school will be helpful and a good training. On the other way, it is exactly the same for the school. If they want to achieve their goals they need to give us the resources to succeed at school.

1.4 What was planned | What did you achieve | What was not achieved | What to do to address the results not achieved | Know myself | I improved my knowledge in myself a bit more everyday | I still have a lot to discover which, I think, is normal | Continue going to school and doing assessment | Find some objectives for the future | I already knew my objectives for the future | nothing | nothing |

Task 2 : Set and meet own work priorities

2.1 TASKS | factors | Weighting rating | rationale | Outcome to be achieved | Finish my assessment | study | 100 | The need to succeed at school | The task has to be achieved | Find new markets to work on | Professional life | 90 | Need money to afford life | The task has to be achieved | Fix my van | utility | 80 | Need my van for work | The work has to start but not to be achieved | Make some paste for the further market | business | 80 | Need paste to cook waffles and make money | The task has to be achieved | Find a graphic designer for my logo | Business/development | 70 | Need a logo to advertise my business | Can be achieved later | Improve my market stall | Business/development | 60 | Need a nice stall to sell my waffles | Can be achieved later | Be focused on the lessons of the week | study | 60 | Need to understand the lessons to do my assessment | The task has to be achieved | Advertise my business | Business/development | 50 | Need to advertise my business to sell more | Can be achieved later |

2.2

TASKS | factors | Weighting rating | rationale | Outcome to be achieved | Results | Gap | Finish my assessment | study | 100 | The need to succeed at school | The task has to be achieved | Achieved | no | Find new markets to work on | Professional life | 90 | Need money to afford life | The task has to be achieved | Achieved | no | Fix my van | utility | 80 | Need my van for work | The work has to start but not to be achieved | Not achieved | big | Make some paste for the further market | business | 80 | Need paste to cook waffles and make money | The task has to be achieved | Achieved | no | Find a graphic designer for my logo | Business/development | 70 | Need a logo to advertise my business | Can be achieved later | Not achieved | small | Improve my market stall | Business/development | 60 | Need a nice stall to sell my waffles | Can be achieved later | Not achieved | small | Be focused on the lessons of the week | study | 60 | Need to understand the lessons to do my assessment | The task has to be achieved | Achieved | no | Advertise my business | Business/development | 50 | Need to advertise my business to sell more | Can be achieved later | Not achieved | small |

2.3
As I go to school at the beginning of the week from Monday to Wednesday and that I work at the end of the week and during the week-end from Friday to Sunday, I would say that my study times and my professional work times are really well separated . If I combined both, I must spend minimum twelve hours a day in my outcomes. A professional work day is approximately twelve hours, three or four times a week. I sleep eight hours per night from Monday to Thursday and five to six hours per night from Friday to Sunday. I also try to play sports three hours a week.
2.4
I am stressed when I start doing my assignment and before I start the markets. It is not a huge stress so I don't really need coping strategies. Maybe that I will need coping strategies later if the stress increase like :
- Analyse the situation
e.g. Pay attention, avoid taking on more responsibility than you can manage.
- Work harder
e.g. Stay up all night to study for an exam

2.5

I don't practice enough sport which is not good for my health. I also eat too often in fast food but I don't eat too much. I don't smoke and just drink alcohol from time to time. To improve my health, I should do more sport and cook more often food like vegetables.

Task 3 : Develop and maintain professional competence

3.1/3.2

Information from unit of competency"Interpret market trends and developments" | Abilities/Stakeholders feedback | Use statistical analysis of market data to interpret market trends and developments | 4/3 | Analyse market trends and developments for their potential impact on the business | 4/3 | Use measures of central tendency or dispersion and correlations between sets of data for quantitative interpretation of comparative market data | 3/4 | Analyse performance data from all areas of the business to determine success of marketing activities | 5/5 | Identify over-performing and under-performing products and services to be considered for redevelopment or withdrawal | 4/5 | Forecast existing and emerging market needs based on information available using forecasting techniques | 5/4 |

3.3

Gaps | Objectives | Strategies | Analyse performance data from all areas of the business to determine success of marketing activities | Being able to deal with these skills and knowledge | Succeed in the next unit | Identify over-performing and under-performing products and services to be considered for redevelopment or withdrawal | Being able to deal with these skills and knowledge | Succeed in the next unit | Forecast existing and emerging market needs based on information available using forecasting techniques | Being able to deal with these skills and knowledge | Succeed in the next unit |

My preferred learning style is the coaching. Here are the characteristics : Trait #1: Organised approach / commitment
The best of coaches are organised. This is perhaps one of the most important traits of a great coach because it shows commitment. Great coaches know that the success of their department / company is based on their employees. The better the employees, the better the results. Knowing this, they establish a coaching schedule each and every week. They know that coaching is like an exercise program: the more they follow the coaching schedule, the stronger their employees will become. They stick to it.
Trait #2: Process oriented / consistency
The actual coaching process with the employee is not arbitrary. It is consistent. The employee is not left confused by the methodology of the coach. Good coaching has four key components: standards, monitoring, analysis and feedback.
The great manager consistently monitors an employee's work based on what they do against a set of skill standards established in the initial training (see "Objectivity" below). The great manager analyses what has been done and provides feedback designed to positively modify, change and alter the employee's behaviour. There is no willy-nilly, shoot from the hip approach to coaching. It is reliable, dependent, and consistent.
Trait #3: Participative feedback
Great coaches don't tell their employees what they observed or what they 'did wrong'. Great coaches ask: "Mark, how do you feel you went?" "Chantal, relative to what we learned about knee jerk reactions, how do you think you went?". By doing this, the manager is allowing the employee to participate and in effect, coach themselves. Two way dialogue, not a one way monologue. The employee must do the analysis. It becomes more meaningful. The coach is not the 'bad guy'.
Trait #4: Objective
Great coaches are objective with their feedback. They eliminate the arbitrary and subjective nature of feedback by clearly defining the 'standards' or 'standard operating procedure' for certain key parts of the employee's job. When feedback is provided on the standards, it is based on pre-determined components and not on the whim of the coach at that moment. The employee understands that and realises it is not a personal perspective. This makes the feedback meaningful, relevant and easier to apply.