Developing Yourself and Others

In order to carry development needs analysis on myself, I made use of customer feedback surveys that include customer complaints and compliments. This technique is representative of the entire customer opinion as KAYA Doncaster is the sole customer for which the team is contracted to. KAYA Doncaster has a procedure to ensure feedback to its service provider through completing surveys, complain or commendation. The survey is based on the performance of my team as a whole, providing the service. This reflects on my people management skills and allocation of tasks.

To assess the developing needs of my team member, Y, I make use of one to one interview technique. This technique allows me to explore employees’ opinions, have an in-depth discussion. This technique is useful for understanding opinions and feelings and helpful in exploring a range of views.

To identify any particular learning style for myself or my team member, I made use of the Learning Style questionnaire developed by Honey and Mumford.

Occasionally I tend to also take a reflective learning style where it makes me stand back to ponder experiences and observe them from many different perspectives. I like to collect data, both first hand and from others, and prefer to think about it thoroughly before coming to a conclusion.

The outcome of the questionnaire has revealed that my team member has a more activist learning style. Activists are those people who learn by doing. They need to get their hands dirty, to dive in with both feet first. They have an open-minded approach to learning, involving them fully and without bias in new experiences.

The first learning option available for me is through analysis of previous experiences. Those past experiences can therefore cater to provide solution for any current or arising problems. My second option would be to shadow a successful colleague from a different site to enable me to see a first-hand operation within the organisation for relevant problems or situations.

For Y, brainstorming about the task would generate new ideas and assigning these ideas hands-on would be the first learning/development option. The second option would be to get Y to be involved directly in group discussions so as to give the

Opportunity to learn through actively expressing and learning from the group discussion

Shadowing would require allocation to a different site and also it will be done during my normal working hours. Physical presence to a different site during my normal working hours can represent a barrier to the learning/development option. To overcome this, transport mode/cost and a dedicated day within my working agenda can be provided to make it achievable.

Brainstorming and group discussion are time consuming and will be based on availability of staff time. To overcome this, brainstorming sessions or group discussions will have to be allocated on non-busy days.

Monitoring my own development will be based on analysing performance pre and post shadowing. Any changes arising from the learning activity whilst shadowing will reflect on the best way of performing task and these changes can be looked into and adapt to other tasks in order to better them for future.

Minutes from group discussions and brainstorming sessions for any new ideas generated should be kept. On future one to one interviews with the team member, the implementation of these ideas should be reflected upon to analyse their outcome. Successful outcome will indicate progression of the team member and unsatisfactory will enable to understand any barriers to implement them and support needed to overcome these barriers.