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Individual Development Plan

Samantha TurnerJacksonville University

MGT 550

Spring 2016

Table of Contents

Personal Background..............................................................................................2Personal History.........................................................................................................................2

Work History..............................................................................................................................3

Introduction.............................................................................................................4Summary of What You Learned..............................................................................................4

Benefits of further Development...............................................................................................4

Targets for Improvement..........................................................................................................5

Building Resiliency..................................................................................................6Personal Mastery........................................................................................................................6

Desired Mastery.........................................................................................................................6

Action Plan..................................................................................................................................6

Time Line....................................................................................................................................7

Stress Management.................................................................................................8Personal Mastery........................................................................................................................8

Desired Mastery.........................................................................................................................8

Action Plan..................................................................................................................................8

Time Line....................................................................................................................................9

Face-to-Face Communication...............................................................................10Personal Mastery......................................................................................................................10

Desired Mastery.......................................................................................................................10

Action Plan................................................................................................................................10

Time Line..................................................................................................................................11

Conclusion..............................................................................................................12Summary...................................................................................................................................12

Summary Table........................................................................................................................13

References.................................................................................................................................14

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Personal BackgroundPersonal History

I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, where I lived with both my parents and my two older brothers for most of my life. At an early age, I was involved in sports as I participated in track and field, volleyball, and basketball. I was also involved in extracurricular activities such as cheerleading, dance, and art during this time. Even though I was involved in many sports and extracurriculars, my family always emphasized the importance of my education and doing well in my course work. My father would always say, “school comes before sports”. This ideal was strictly enforced in my family since if my brothers and I were not passing our classes then my parents would not allow us to participate in any type of sports or extracurriculars. This principle taught me a lot about how to manage my time as well as learning study habits that would allow me to excel in the classroom so that I could do the sports and activities I loved.

In high school, I continued to play sports but I began to focus mainly on track and field when I learned I had the potential to earn a collegiate track and field scholarship. After discovering this, I put all my effort into becoming a better student as I maintained a 4.0 GPA while dedicating my extra time to practicing for my sport. From my hard work and determination, I was able to acquire a track and field scholarship from Jacksonville University after graduating high school.

I began my undergraduate degree at Jacksonville University during fall of 2012, where it took me three and a half years to obtain my BBA in Marketing and Management. While I was in my undergraduate degree, I was a thrower for the track & field team at Jacksonville University, I had been awarded Academic All-Conference and Freshman Field Athlete of the year honors for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons. Not only was I an excellent student-athlete but I was also a member of the Brumos Circle of Excellence, National Society of Leadership and Success, Beta Gamma Sigma, and Phi Kappa Phi.

Currently I am pursing my MBA with a concentration in both Management and Consumer Goods & Services. I am also still competing as a thrower for the Jacksonville University Track and Field team. Even though my passions are both school and track and field, some of my hobbies include painting, dancing, and cooking. I also enjoy traveling to new places and trying new things. I also enjoy going on new adventures and I feel that being a part of the MBA program is my next big adventure.

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Work History

As a student-athlete I have always taken pride in my time management skills, which I acquired from having to manage my academics, athletics and involvements in many organizations. However, I was able to further develop these time management skills when I began my undergraduate internship in October of 2014 at the United States largest wound care provider known as Healogics. At Healogics I held the position of a marketing intern, where my work concentrated mainly on community outreach, wound care center education, and sales of Healogics products and services.

During my eight months at Healogics I became educated on how to conduct data analysis for the productivity of Healogics individual wound care centers. From that information I then created evaluation reports that were sent to each individual hospital whose wound care centers were performing at a profit loss. I also developed a mock sales pitch during my internship where I had to utilize information from sales and data analysis in order to create the simulated sales pitch which was then presented to the marketing department.

After I completed my internship in May of 2015, I completed my bachelor’s degree at Jacksonville University. From the completion of my bachelors in December of 2015, I continued on graduate school at Jacksonville University. I began my MBA for the spring of 2016 at Jacksonville University and received my current position as a Tech assistant for the Davis College of Business.

In my current position as a Tech assistant, I am responsible for managing the Davis College of Business’s technological device inventory, which includes conducting updates, maintenance, and written records of devices such as surface pros, Ipads, and dell computers. I also assist professor, Dr. Mattia, with two of her undergraduate classes, where I help make sure her classes run smoothly by distributing laptops to designated students and properly updating, charging, and storing the laptops after her classes. Though I commit twenty hours a week to my tech assistantship I still remain actively involved in the Jacksonville University’s Women’s Track and Field program as well as the Brumos Circle of Excellence, National Society of Leadership and Success, Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

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IntroductionSummary of What You Learned

From the use of the self-assessments, guide books, and in class discussions I was able to understand how important self-reflection was when trying to be an effective manager, leader, and team member. By using the information gathered from these personal development activities I was able to recognize what my strengths were and what areas of listening, communicating, and management I was weakest. Since most of the self-actualization of these strength and weakness came from the self-assessments, I discovered that testing your level of mastery in areas of personal development should be done frequently so that you can create a plan of how to improve and strengthen areas of development you are weakest in. This enlightenment on self -reflection led me to recognize how personal development is a continual life long process that must be incorporated in any situation where you engage with others in order to develop and maintain strong relationships with these individuals.

Benefits of Further Development

Furthering your personal development is ultimately a necessity if your trying to maximize your potential as a leader, manager, teammate, student, or friend. Since furthering your personal development is essentially “a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals” (What is Personal Development, 2015) the benefits of using personal development is that it provides you with self- actualization, self-confidence, time management skills, and transferable skills that you can apply to all aspect of your life By incorporating further personal development you can be aware of your weaknesses and then eventually turn them into strength from recognizing, evolving, and utilizing the skills you established from this developmental process.

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Targets for Improvement

For work, school, and my sport I find it very hard to accept adapting in order to grow in my personal development. This creates a hindrance in my life since I constantly struggle to adapt to new challenges that accompany personal development. Since I want a future career in management, it is important that I acquire the ability to change not only so I can be more flexible but also so I can influence others to adapt in order for the organization to be more productive. One way managers can influence others is by their ability to communicate in a way that is clear, effective, and motivational. This is why in order to further and improve my personal development as a future manger I must focus on the following three target areas:

1. Building Resiliency

2. Stress Management

3. Face-to-Face Communication

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Building ResiliencyPersonal Mastery

According to the self-assessment “How Well Do I respond to Turbulent Change” (Vaill,1989)I scored a seventy-six on the rating scale. This score was below the average score of seventy-eight, which concluded that I was a person who found change uncomfortable, unpleasant, and overwhelming (Vaill, 1989).Since the assessments measurement of my response to change determined that I was more pessimistic when it comes to change, I can agree with these results since my initial response to change is always to resist and question authority. This type of response towards change can cause a hindrance when management needs to incorporate new ideas, new skills, new strategies, and new procedures since I see change in negative way. I understand that in order to be more comfortable with change I must build resiliency in order to create opportunity for my further development of adapting to change.

Desired Mastery

In order to build resiliency and become more comfortable with change, my goal is to increase my assessment score by ten points so I receive a score of eighty-six. To achieve this goal, I will have to integrate optimism, problem solving skills, continuous learning, and self-confidence in myself and my abilities when I’m faced with new and challenging activities(Sasson, 2016). To do this I must put myself in new and uncomfortable situation where I must deal with the unexpected. By putting myself in these new and uncomfortable situations more often I will be able to learn to adapt to new environments and create skills which will allow me to develop a comfort with turbulent change in order to build resiliency.

Action Plan

1. I will try four new activities/experiences I have never tried before and am hesitant to try. These activities consist of eating at a Mediterranean restaurant, going hiking at the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (Theodore Roosevelt Area), going on an Old Town Trolley Ghost Tour of St. Augustine, and doing a beer crawl of the King Street District in Jacksonville, FL.

a. I will utilize my time, money, ID, and the company of friends to experience all four activities.

b. I will be using a journal to record my overall experience.i. In the journal I will note my expectations before the

experience, my actual experience, and something I learned from trying these new activities.

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ii. This will act as a physical record of the activities and my experience so that I can evaluate and self-reflect on my progress towards building resiliency.

c. I will have to utilize patience, optimism, open-mindedness, acceptance, and self-reflection in the process.

2. I will learn to play the ukulele by taking beginner level ukulele classes to provide myself with an opportunity to learn a new skill, where I will be faced with challenges that I must adapt to.

a. I must commit to two classes per month, while also committing to two hours of practice two times per week

b. I will have to utilize patience, teamwork, continuous learning and listening skills in the process.

3. I will join and become an active member of the Jacksonville Bucket list group, which is a Jacksonville based group that organizes activities that people in the group want to cross off their bucket list but lack the confidence in doing them by themselves. This will cause me to have to handle the unknown and view change as an opportunity whether the experience is disappointing or successful.

a. I must attend three organized events each month.b. I will be using a journal to record my initial thoughts before the event and then

after the event. i. I will write down my overall thought of the experience both

good and bad.ii. This will provide a written record of how each group activity

created an opportunity to learn and grow, which will help build resiliency in understanding that change provides opportunity in personal development.

c. I will have to utilize patience, optimism, open-mindedness, and self-reflection in the process.

Time Line

1. Every Saturday after 1pm from January 22, 2016 to February 28,2016 until the four activities are completed.

2. Take lessons twice a month on Wednesdays at 6pm at Georgia’s music. Practice every Tuesday and Thursday during the time of 5pm to 7pm. This will begin on May 9, 2016 and finishing on September 2, 2016.

3. Three events each month starting from April 4, 2016 and finishing September 4, 2016.

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Stress ManagementPersonal Mastery

According to the self-assessment “Am I a Type-A”, I scored one hundred and eleven on the scale, which calculated that I was a Type A personality (Bortner, 1969).The four characteristics that I scored high on that are known characteristics of Type A’s were the behaviors of never being late, competitiveness, feeling rushed, and doing too many things at once (Bortner, 1969). From the interpretation of the assessment, I agree with the results of having a Type A personality since I observe myself having similar behaviors of “striving to achieve more with less time”, “being consistently impatient”, and “measuring success in terms of how much acquire” (Bortner, 1969). This causes me to build up stress that negatively affects my performance since I try to take on too many tasks with my limited amount of time. Since I I become stressed and frustrated very easily by being a Type A personality my health and my relationships are negatively impacted.

Desired Mastery

As a Type A personality, I’m constantly dealing with becoming easily frustrated from stress. Since this stress has a very profound effect on my everyday tasks, my goal is to lower my assessment score from one hundred and eleven to one hundred so that I will be a Type A- personality according to self-assessment (Bortner, 1969). Though I can’t change that I’m a Type A personality completely, I think if I can manage my reaction to stress I can become less of a Type A personality. In order to lower my score, I will work on stress management as recommended by the assessment (Bortner, 1969). This will include focusing on understanding my unique issues that cause my stress, provide time to vent about my stress, improve my reaction to stress, and finally find ways relieve stress (PENN Behavioral Health, 2008). During this process I will have to be optimistic, watch out for warning signals of stress, and then continually adjust my goals so that I learn how to deal with stress that comes from having a Type A personality (Mind Tools Editorial Team, 2016).

Action Plan

1. I will be self-reflecting with my assistantship supervisor about ways in which I can handle the frustration that occurs from my stress from being a Type A personality. From speaking with my supervisor I will describe why I thought the situation particular situations were stressful, reflect upon how I handled the stressful situation, determine what the positives of my reaction were, and then discuss what ways I could improve my reaction to the stress.

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a. There should be two-way communication where I give my own thoughts and then my supervisor acts as a mediator so I can find ways to improve the way I handle stress in various situations.

b. The responses will be written in a journal and act as a way to self-reflect.

2. I will set aside time for myself each week to listening to music, which I consider a de-stressor. This will provide me with a designated time where I can relive tension, anger, or frustration that comes from my daily stress as a Type A personality. This activity will be done alone to be able to fully destress.

3. I will create a support group with three friends, where we discus our stressors for the week over brunch. This will create a support system that I can lean on when things get hectic.

a. Topics of discussion include work, school, life, and relationships.b. The goal is to relieve stress in a social setting.c. Group must act as a trustworthy and reliable support network.

Time Line

1. Twice a week, Mondays & Wednesdays, during the time of 1pm to 5pm, from February 1, 2016 until May 1, 2016

2. One hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from March 1,2016 until December 1, 2016

3. Meet once a week on Sundays during the time of 11am till 2pm from August 28, 2016 until December 4, 2016.

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Face-to-Face CommunicationPersonal Mastery

According to the self-assessment, “What’s My Face-to-Face Communication Style”, I scored seven in the dimension of contentiousness (Norton, 1978). The dimensions I scored the lowest were dominance, dramatic, animated, relaxed, and open, which were all scores below a three. From my scores, the dimension that most negatively affects my face-to-face communication is my high score of contentiousness which makes my face-to-face communication style seems argumentative and closed off (Norton, 1978). I recognize that by lowering my high dimension of contentiousness I can begin to portray myself in a way that is respectful and focused on creating rapport with others rather than combative.

Desired Mastery

Since my face-to-face communication style is a seven in contentiousness making me seem argumentative, my goal is to lower my score in this dimensions from a seven to a two so that I can create a face-to-face communication style that helps create rapport with others. In order to lower my score, I will focus on being aware of the message my body language sends as well as incorporate active listening and clear expression in my face-to-face communication style. By focusing on these areas, my face-to-face communication style will portray a “clear expression of ideas in a manner and tone that can be easily and correctly interpreted by another party” (Bowles, 2014) rather than seen as argumentative.

Action Plan

1. During my assistantship I will carry a note pad with me, where I will write down notes during the moments I have face-to-face communication with my supervisor about directions or feedback about my work. This will provide me with an opportunity to prevent my face-to-face communication style from coming across as argumentative, closed off, and inattentive in order to create rapport with my supervisor.

a. I will take notes of my supervisors points and then create follow up questions that will be asked after my supervisor finishes talking.

b. After my supervisor has completed talking I will then ask my follow up questions to her previous statements.

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2. I will request people who I frequently communicate with face-to-face to provide me with feedback on my face-to-face communication style. This would include people such as my friends, family, coaches, professors, classmates, teammates, and supervisors. This will provide me with insight on how my face-to-face communication comes across so that I can improve my body language, tone, and conciseness during my face-to-face communications with others.

a. I can ask that these individuals each provide written feedback on my face-to face communication style, which would include both positive and negative aspects of my style.

b. I would also ask them to provide some advice on how to improve a negative aspect of my face-to-face communication style so that I could incorporate that recommendation into my development plan.

3. I will join and become an active member of SOAR, which is a local Jacksonville women’s empowerment group. This group will provide me exposure to new people that I will have to communicate with and work on my contentiousness dimension in order to prevent from coming across as argumentative.

a. I must be conscious of my body language, attentiveness, and clarity during the face-to-face conversations.

b. I must use my active listening skills as well as convey positive and open face-to-face communication style.

c. I must also avoid seeming too dominant or argumentative when meeting the other members of SOAR.

Time Line

1. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, during the time of 1:00PM to 5:00PM from March 7, 2016 until May 30,2016

2. On Wednesdays, from June 1, 2016 until November 1, 2016.

3. One Saturday each month from 11:00AM till 1:00PM starting May 2, 2016 and finishing December 28, 2016.

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ConclusionSummary

After completing the course assessments, readings, and in class discussions, I fully grasp how personal development can help provide your career with a competitive edge. Subsequently people who further their individual growth are able to be more open minded, team oriented, empathetic, and patient, these skills provide individuals with the ability to be able to plan, organize, and set of common goals for self-improvement. Since I want to pursue a career in management understanding my levels of adaptability to change, frustration from stress, and my personal image helps with my focus on my continual growth in the areas of resiliency, stress management, and face-to-face communication.

From completing this individual development plan, I plan to continue assessing my current skill levels in my future management career and determine in which ways I can improve my areas of weakness. By using my skills of problem solving, active listening, self-reflection, patience, and optimism I will be able to continue to develop into a manager, leader, student, athlete, or friend that is open to change and accepts opportunities to learn and grow. Below I have included a few pictures of my individual development journey as well as concepts I have learned and incorporated for my further development.

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Target Area Current Level

Desired Level Action Frequency Duration

Building Resiliency

Turbulent Change:

76

Turbulent Change:

86

1.Try four new experiences consisting of trying a Mediterranean restaurant, going hiking at the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (Theodore Roosevelt Area), going on an Old Town Trolley Ghost Tour of St. Augustine, and doing a beer crawl of the King Street District in Jacksonville, FL.

2. Learn to play the ukulele by taking lessons.

3.Join and become an active member of the Jacksonville Bucket List group.

1.Every Saturday after 1pm

2.Lesons every Wednesday at 6pm. Practice every Tuesday and Thursday during the time of 5pm to 7pm.

3.Three events each month.

1. January 22, 2016 to February 28,2016 until the four activities are completed

2. May 9, 2016 to September 2, 2016

3.April 4, 2016 to September 4, 2016

Stress Management

Type A Personality:

111

Type A Personality:

100

1.Self-reflect with assistantship supervisor about ways I react to stress and how I can improve my solutions to manage that stress.

2. Set aside time to listening to music in order to destress.

3. Create a support group with three friends, where we discuss our weekly stress over brunch.

1.Mondays & Wednesdays during the time of 1:00pm to 5:00pm.

2.One hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

3. Sundays during the time of 11am till 2pm.

1. February 1, 2016 to May 1, 2016

2. March 1,2016 to December 1, 2016

3.August 28, 2016 to December 4, 2016

Face-to-Face Communication

Contentiousness:

7

Contentiousness:

2

1.Use of a note pad to write down notes during the face-to-face communication with supervisor.

2.Request people who I frequently communicate with face-to-face to provide me with feedback on my face-to-face communication style.

3.Join and become an active member of SOAR

1.On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, during the time of 1:00pm to 5:00pm.

2.On Wednesdays each week.

3.One Saturday each month from 11:00AM till 1:00PM.

1.March 7, 2016 till May 30,2016

2.June 1, 2016 to November 1, 2016

3.May 2, 2016 to December 28, 2016

Summary Table

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ReferencesBortner, R. W. (1969). Short Rating Scale as a Potential Measure of Pattern A Behavior. Journal

of Chronic Diseases, 87-91.

Bowles, C. (2014, March 12). Effective Face-to-Face Communication. Retrieved from Livestrong.com: http://www.livestrong.com/article/158753-effective-face-to-face-communication/

Mind Tools Editorial Team. (2016). Managing Your Emotions at Work. Retrieved from Mindtools: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_41.htm

Norton, R. W. (1978). Foundation of a Communicator Style Construct. In Human Communication Research (pp. 99-111). Sage Publications Inc.

PENN Behavioral Health. (2008). Handling Anger and Frustration at work. PENN Behavioral Health Corporate Services, 8.

Sasson, R. (2016). The Power of Positive Attitude Can Change Your Life. Retrieved from Success Conciousness: http://www.successconsciousness.com/positive_attitude.htm

Vaill, P. B. (1989). In Managing as a Performing Art: New Ideas for a World of Chaotic Change (pp. 8-9). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

What is Personal Development. (2015). Retrieved from Skills you Need: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/personal-development.html

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