Toronto School of Management October, 2020.

PPD - Personal & Professional Development

Personal Development Plan Project

You need a PLAN

Really? Why?

W
e frequently hear about how a business plan is a critical document for
every new business. We also hear and read about how crucial it is for a
company to have a clear mission statement, or to establish a vision for
long term. We learn that it is important to determine business goals and track the
progress. Experts will say that a Business Plan will help business owners and
managers to make better decisions and determine the answers to some critical
business decisions ahead of time.

Picture Source: WallpaperMaiden.com - Canada Alberta Road Sunset Mountains Scenic Trees

So, if a plan is so important for a business, why is it not taken as a serious tool
for personal development? Why shouldn’t we establish a clear set of goals for
ourselves? Why shouldn’t we track our personal and professional development?
Why wouldn’t we determine our core values? These self-reflection questions
could go on and on.

This assignment will help you to determine the mountain top you want to reach to
in your life and how you will manage to get there.

1 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

What is a Personal Development plan?

A Personal (Individual) Development Plan helps you to better understand your
strengths and areas of improvement. Your plan should include clear, actionable
steps that will help you to better manage your own life in order to achieve your
goals. A clear PPD to focus on will enhance your chances in achieving and
turning your dreams and aspirations into reality.

Writing a Personal Development Plan is the process of structuring aims and

goals, establishing habits and action steps that will help you to successfully
achieve them.

It can be as simple as planing your day better, as planing the next few years
ahead. The interesting thing here is that, when you have a better idea of how you
would like your future to look like in the long run, it will help you with the simple
actions as well as with the big choices you make in your daily life.

Start with a self

reflection
L
isten to what Simon Sinek has to
say about self-reflection. Click
on the video.

SELF-AWARENESS (3
marks)
Write an introduction paragraph about
yourself.

Who am I?

Describe yourself using 3 words. You

can put it in a sentence.

2 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

My Personality Type (3 marks)

Write a self-reflection piece about your personality test, based on your
16Personalities test results.

What type of leader to I want to become? (3 marks)

Consider the leadership types we have discussed in class. Which styles and traits
do you think are intrinsic in yourself?

What kind of leader do you want to become in the future? What do you have to
do to get there?

What do people say about me? Are they right or wrong? What am I
going to do about it? (3 marks)
Colect honest feedback.

Use real examples.

Remember you don’t want only positive feedback. You want the truth,
nevertheless it is about your own personal interest in development.

SWOT Analysis (12 marks)

Read the transcript to the
video below:
SWOT Analysis is a tool that many
businesses use as part of
developing their strategies.

SWOT stands for strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats, and it helps organizations
think about what they should and
shouldn't be doing. You can use
this framework on a personal level
as well, to spot opportunities that
you didn't know existed, and to identify problems or circumstances that might
have a negative effect on your career.

To perform a Personal SWOT Analysis, first think about your strengths. What
advantages do you have that others don't? What do other people say you do
better than anyone else? What skills and experience do you have that make you
unique?

3 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

List as many of these as you can.

Next, think about and list your weaknesses. What tasks do you avoid because
you don't feel confident doing them? What are some of your negative work
habits? For instance, are you often late to work, or do you have a short temper?

What do other people see as your weaknesses? Ask them – you might be
surprised!

Now it's time to identify and write down opportunities. Is there a way you could
create an opportunity for yourself by taking advantage of one of your strengths,
or by eliminating one of your weaknesses? Also, look at your organization. Is
something happening in the future that could be an opportunity for you?

Next, you need to list the threats that might be standing in the way of your
dreams and goals. What obstacles are you facing at work? What problems could
your weaknesses cause, if you don't address them? Are any of your colleagues
competing with you for projects or a promotion?

Finally, look at each of the four lists you created, and decide what actions you're
going to take to minimize threats, and take best advantage of the opportunities
open to you. Add these to your Action Program or To-Do List .

4 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

My Personal &
Professional
Development Plan:
D
efining your Mission & Vision statements depict an idealized version of your
life and both help you to align your actions and decisions towards
achieving your goals. These two statements will establish your view of how
you would like your life to be.

My individual Mission (3 marks)

Your Mission reminds you why you do what you do and how you face challenges.

You can see your mission statement as a summarized description on how you
wish to have lived when you are looking back from the end of your life. This
statement should be as a guide that motivates you to behave in line with your
principles and values.

My individual Vision (3 marks)

Your Vision guides your plans to improve the various aspects of your life. How do
you want your life to be like in the future? You can have a few lines addressing
each area of your life (such as professional, personal, financial, family etc.); or
you can write a longer paragraph addressing all these areas in general.

This is an idealized statement and this means that not all things stated here will
be 100% true at this time, but it should be how you wish your life will look like in
5 or 10 years from now.

My personal Values (3 marks)

What are your non-negotiable values. List and briefly explain your view on which
of them. You should be able to cite and explain at least 3 main values.

5 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

Identify your goals (18 marks)

1. List and explain your major personal and professional goals for a medium to
long term plan (5years average).

A. Identify your interests, values, and skills: Self-knowledge will make it easier for you to
identify subsequent goals that will help you to be successful in your research and your
chosen career.
B. Research career options, select possible career options, and identify the skills you will
need.
C. Develop the skills necessary to pursue these career possibilities: take courses and gain
experience.
D. Connect with people in you desired field and identify organizations to work for.
E. Prepare for the job search: application material, interviewing, negotiation.

2. Breakdown your goals into SMART objectives and actions. What are the
specific objectives that will help you to achieve your goals? Some goals might
require multiple steps to be taken. This will also help you to become deliberate
about your choices and avoid getting sidetracked by projects and opportunities
that are not aligned with your major goals. The bullet points below will help you
better organize and categorize your goals. If there is any additional core area of
your life you want to include in the list below, feel free to do so. SMART
objectives and actions are:

SPECIFIC • Use action verbs to write a clear definition of what you want to
accomplish.
• Think about who, what, and where.
MEASURABLE • How will you evaluate whether the goal has been met?
• Set criteria that are measurable so you can chart your progress.
ACHIEVABLE • Verify whether you have the resources and time to do this. Be
selective.
• Don’t pursue too many objectives - this can lead to failure.
RELEVANT • Make sure that your objective is clearly linked to a specific goal.
• Ask yourself, how will this action help you to get closer to your
goal?
TIME-BOUND • Set a date and time limit
• Although it is not always possible to predict how long something will
take, it is important to decide when you will re-evaluate whether this
objective is worth pursuing.

3. Evaluate your progress at regular intervals. You can do it every quarter of the
year, focusing on those goals that you should have achieved in that period and
the ones that are within a close due date. And every year you can look back to
the big picture and evaluate your achievements for the period and what is still
ahead of you. At this point you can review some deadlines and action steps.

6 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

• Professional goal/goals
• What kind of job do I want to have and why?

• What type of Company do I want to work for?

• When will I achieve this goal?

• Financial goal/goals
• How much money do I want to make, save, invest?

• How will I organize my budget?

• Personal Development goal/goals

• What do I want to study? What academic level do I intend to reach?

• Where am I going to study? Which school? Why?

• When should I have my Masters degree? PhD?

• Family/Personal goal/goals
• Where do I want to live? Downtown? Beach? Mountain? Country?

• Immigration to Canada? What province? City?

• Do I want to get married? Children? Who do I want to get married to?

• Health goal/goals
• What type of food do I eat?

• How often do I need to exercise?

• What is my ideal weight? Am I there? What am I going to do to get there? By

when do I want to get to my ideal weight?

• Spiritual/wellness goal/goals
• Devotional / meditation time?

• Time to rest?

• Vacation every year?

7 Prof. Victor Costa

 Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

How can I achieve my goals? (6 marks)

It is important that you organize your goals and make a list of action steps you
must take, deadlines to complete them, costs you might have, and detailed
information. You can also create a more simple “To Do List” to help you to make
sure you will not forget any details you need to prepare/do in order to achieve
your goals.

DETAILED PLAN

Target
Costs in % to Detailing Resolution
Main GOAL Action Step Start date Completion
CA$ conclude information / STATUS
Date

English 12/2020 01/2021 320.00 100% Decide which test

Proficiency to take before the
Test end of October
Apply for 2020.
PR via Need to score at
Express least xyz?
Entry
WES IRCC 01/2021 02/2021 350.00 100% WES.
Canadian
Report Need all my
Experience
certificates in a
Class
sealed envelop.
Program
Translations 11/2020 12/2020 250.00 100% Certified
of Certificates translation
and Diplomas

MY TO DO LIST

MAJOR
TO DOs DEAD LINE DETAILS STATUS
ACTION

Translation quotations 01/NOV/2020 Done

English Request official copies of Must be sent in a sealed Pending

Proficiency certificates envelop.
Test
Request official Must be sent in a sealed Late
transcripts envelop.

8 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

Conclusion
(3 marks)

W
rite a conclusive paragraph for your Personal Development Plan. Here
you can also highlight your self-commitment in achieving the goals you
have determined and how you will overcome obstacles and challenges.

So what are your conclusive remarks?

9 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

My One Page
Motivational Summary
for the next year
S
ometimes it can be easy to loose motivation and interest in your plan.
Specially if you are not achieving your goals in the short term. That’s why it
is important to have a short version of your plan, always in front of you. Put
in on your wall, in front of your computer, hang it on the mirror. It is a One Page
Motivational Summary that will help you to keep focus on your Plan. These
actions (habits, goals and sacrifices) might be aligned with your main Personal
Development Plan.

Your main development plan should be medium to long term plan. This One Page
Summary is your short term, summarized plan. You will review it every year and
you will always reflect on the records (history) of the previous year when you
review it and rewrite it for the next year. It is a good reflection piece to work on by
Thanksgiving holiday of the previous year. So, for instance, you can reflect on the
Thanksgiving weekend of 2020 and write your One Page Motivational Summary
for 2021. What was great, good, bad, terrible (ugly) about the previous year?
What can (and will) I do differently in the following year?

2021, the year of…

(1 mark)
Write a motivational statement about the year you are planing. What is the big
achievement for this year? What is the one word that will describe this year when
it ends?

10 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

3 habits,… (6 marks)
Things you want to start doing and that will help you in achieving your goals.

Let me give you an idea. Maybe in the FINANCIAL aspect, new habits could be:

• Start tracking every single expanse in a Personal Accounting Control

spreadsheet.

• Run my credit report every 3 months.

3 goals… (6 marks)
Things you want to achieve. Still using the FINANCIAL aspect of your life, let me
give you an example:

• In 2021 I want to save CAN$10,000.

• I want to pay off my mortgage.

and 3 sacrifices (6 marks)

Things you will stop doing. Usually they are things that are restraining you from
reaching the success of your goals. They are not necessarily bad of immoral
things, but they are things that are holding you back on your goals. For instance,
if one of your personal development goals is to read more, and you are watching
too much Netflix, maybe a good sacrifice for this year is to cancel your Netflix
signature.

Again, if I were to give you another example to the FINANCIAL aspect of your
personal life, a sacrifice could be:

• I will sell my car and will put all the money that was in my car budget in my
savings account (that will include the costs with financing, maintenance, gas,
insurance etc.)

Find a One Page Motivational Plan SAMPLE in the next page…

11 Prof. Victor Costa

Toronto School of Management October, 2020.
PPD - Personal & Professional Development

2021, The Year of Financial

Independence.
3 HABITS 3 GOALS 3 HABITS 3 GOALS

PROFESSIONAL FAMILY

3 SACRIFICES 3 SACRIFICES

FINANCES HEALTH

Run credit report every Save CAN$ 10K

3 months

Start a detailed Pay off house mortgage

Personal Accounting
Control

3 SACRIFICES 3 SACRIFICES

Sell my car

Cut expanses with eating out by 50%

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT SPIRITUAL LIFE

Read 25 books (at least Pursue a Masters Have 30 minutes

5,000 pages) Degree devotional time first
thing in the morning
every day.

3 SACRIFICES 3 SACRIFICES

Cancel Netflix Wake up at 5am every week day.

12 Prof. Victor Costa