Professional Development Plan Case

Professional Development Plan

Tamika Holmes

LDR/531

Dr. Darry Dugger

February 18, 2015

Professional Development Plan

The purpose of this essay will be to develop a plan that will address and confront the various personality characteristics of “Learning Team A”. It is the intent of this plan to design an effective way to determine the needs of the learning team as a whole and individually. It is perceived that this plan will serve as a tool for the members of the team to assess their skills, strengths, and areas needing improvement. By proactively creating this plan, using the knowledge obtained from the completion of the DISC Platinum Rule Assessment; as designated Manager, it is my hope to help my team members harness continuous performance improvement and align them with the resources needed to help them reach their goals of being a positive contributor to the team.

As previously alluded to; during week one of this course all members of “Learning Team A” successfully completed the DISC Platinum Rule Assessment. “A DISC behavioral profile is a powerful tool of self-understanding.” (“Platinum Rule”, n.d.). This assessment seeks to break down an individual’s predominant behavioral styles and characteristics into four personality types; dominance, interactive, steadiness, and cautious. To further help define types, there are also sixteen sub-styles in addition to the four personality types. “Learning Team A” is comprised of a total of three members and of these members only two personality styles are represented. These two styles are dominance and steadiness. An individual with a dominance style can be described as a self-starter who is fast-paced and goal oriented. This style tends to come across as cool, direct, and only concerned with the bottom line. Those with steadiness as a personality style tend to be somewhat indirect, and highly self-reliant. These characteristics are ideal for a short-term planner.

Characteristics of Learning Team Manager

Upon completion of the assessment it was determined that my personality style is Dominance with a substyle Steadiness (Ds). A person with this style is driven, a go-getter, and will often bend the rules to get to the desired result. The creators of assessment call people with this personality style, the Producer. I agreed with the results and felt that strength of this style were being able to focus under pressure and completing assignments on schedule. Areas for development would be broadening my perspective and practicing flexibility. To work better with my team members it will be essential that I encourage them to share their ideas on how we should accomplish tasks and take note of their expectations, while making mine known. This can all happen if I am authentic with my feelings and actively address theirs.