Professional Development

Proposal

Bob DaumerEDD 9100 (24800)

November 19, 2006

Need for Professional Development Information age & a fast pace The only constant is change

“It’s more important than ever … to continue learning” (Hughes, L., 2004, p. 26.)

Competitive and valued employees Soft skills & technical skills Define the goal (Cano, J., 2006).

Identifying the Opportunities Evaluate the organization Select organizational sample Create & administer holistic leadership

professional development survey (Clawson J., 2006; Kouzes, J. & Posner, B., 2002)

Interpret all sources of data Customer evaluations Employee monitoring Survey responses

Interpreting the Results Customer evaluations and employee

monitoring indicate opportunities exist Survey responses reveal specific

opportunities Organization-wide holistic leadership training Organization-wide time management skills Individualized professional development

programs

Interpreting the Results (continued) Do participants recognize their leadership

responsibility? The majority of participants recognize

leadership as part of their responsibility 72-90% of participants identify leadership skills

as “highly relevant” to their job.

Interpreting the Results (continued) Do participants practice holistic leadership

all of the time? Participants indicated that holistic leadership is

not practiced all the time Most participants only practice holistic

leadership between 70 and 80% of the time Individual participants indicated a wide

spectrum of time spent practicing, including responses in the 10 to 50% range

Interpreting the Results (continued) Are participants proficient in leadership

skills? Participants indicated that they are either

proficient or can perform leadership skills with minimal guidance

This finding is interesting as it seems to indicate a disconnect in perceptions

Senior leadership has identified a need for improvement

Participants rated themselves high, indicating improvement is not necessary

Further investigation of this finding is necessary

Interpreting the Results (continued) What opportunities for improvement do

the participants ask for? Participants asked for general holistic

leadership training Participants asked for time management

training Other hand-written comments indicate

individualized development opportunities exist and are desired.

The Strategy for Improvement Implement professional development as a

required leadership practice (Fenwick, T., 2003)

Programs are based on a formal coaching process (Ting, S. & Hart, E., 2004)

Develop organization-wide development programs for holistic leadership and time management

Develop individualized development plans for each employee

References Cano, J. (2006). Essentials for effective professional development. The

Agriculture Education Magazine, 79(2), 2.

Clawson, J. (2006). Level three leadership: getting below the surface (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Fenwick, T. (2003). Professional growth plans: possibilities and limitations of an organizationwide employee development strategy. Human Resources Development Quarterly, 14(1), 59-77.

Hughes, L. (2004). The importance of professional development. Women in Business, 56(2), 26-27.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ting, S., & Hart, E. (2004). Formal coaching. In C. D. McCauley & E. V.Velsor (Eds.), The Center for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development (pp. 116- 150). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.