CPD MODULE 1

Getting the Best

out of Yourself
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Acknowledgements
Developing Professional Management Skills was developed by MCI in partnership with the Association of
Accounting Technicians, the Engineering Council, the Institute of Administrative Management and the Royal
Institute of British Architects.
MCI gratefully acknowledges this contribution and, in particular, that of their representatives: Clare Morley (AAT),
Paul Saunders (Engineering Council), Mike Faulkner (IAM) and Sue Beavil-Till (RIBA).
MCI thanks the 700 professionals and the professional bodies and organisations who tested Developing Professional
Management Skills, the Department for Education and Employment who provided financial support, the Advisory
Group and, in particular, Carol Scutt of MCI.
Julie Witana
Project Manager
MCI
Copyright
Unless stated otherwise, this material is Crown Copyright 1997 and is reproduced under licence from the
Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office.
ISBN 1 897 587 70 8
MCI, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5BZ, Telephone 0171 872 9000.
MCI is the operating arm of the National Forum for Management Education and Development (Registered Charity No: 1002554)
The Institute of Royal Institute of
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT British Architects
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Getting the best out of yourself
Introduction to the module
This module is about managing your own workload in order that you can achieve all that you
wish to achieve. Whilst this is a CPD module in its own right, the concepts covered by this
module underpin all areas of work and non-work activity and therefore are useful skills to
enable the busy manager to get the best out of themselves through all areas of their life.
The sections of the module
There are two sections to this module:
Section 1: Managing your time ....................................................................... page 3
Section 2: Work under pressure, not stress.................................................. page 25
Although the sections follow a logical sequence, you can tackle them individually and in any
order, depending on your needs.
Your first action plan
Action planning has been introduced to you in divider 3 of your User Guide. Divider 2, Focus
on your Management Development Needs, will have helped you to identify the specific
management knowledge and skills you need to develop immediately.
In order to get started you may find it useful to attempt the first three questions of an action
plan before working on this module. This will enable you to determine in greater detail your
current competence in, for example, managing your time.
Take an action plan sheet from the last divider of your User Guide and, using the questions
below, take an initial stab at producing your plan. You will find it useful to fill in as much as
you can, but do not agonise over it too much.
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1. Where are you now?
Consider what might be the main skills involved in the topic. What are your strengths in
each area? Where do you feel you could improve?
2. In what general area do you most want to improve?
Do you need to focus on any specific area?
3. Which specific skill or skills do you intend to work on?
Do not be too ambitious take one step at a time.
Now go to your chosen section . . .
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Managing your time
Introduction and anticipated outcomes through CPD
Time is probably your most valuable, non-renewable resource. Unfortunately, it can also be the
most abused! Time cannot be turned on or off, replaced or stored up. There are only 24 hours
in a day, so time is also a limited resource. The time resource requirement can be difficult to
estimate, hard to keep to, and impossible to reallocate without taking time away from
something else or renegotiating the activity completely, all of which has implications for all
other resources human, financial, accommodation, machinery, equipment and materials, etc.
If you complete this section successfully you should develop the knowledge, skills and abilities
you need to become competent in managing your time. The following outcomes have been
identified for you to use as measures of your progress. You may wish to change or add to these
outcomes yourself, especially whilst your understanding of the CPD process develops as you
gain in confidence and competence with more practice.
The outcomes you will seek to achieve whilst working through this section are to:
1. Monitor your current use of time;
using your own versions of time sheets, checklists, activity planning.
2. Clarify your goals and objectives;
making them achievable, realistic and challenging.
3. Use different ways to prioritise your goals and objectives;
including delegation of responsibility and authority.
4. Estimate the duration of tasks and activities;
determining how you can save time in the future.
5. Plan how to deal with the unexpected;
making contingency plans whilst ensuring you also have quiet time.
6. Use methods to plan your time and say no positively;
ensuring you do not end up doing everything yourself to little effect.
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Allocate your time
A key principle in time management is the Pareto principle, commonly known as the 80/20
rule. A 19th century Italian economist, Wilfredo Pareto, observed that the significant items in a
group seemed to form the smallest proportion of that group:
I 20% of a workforce does 80% of the work
I 20% of a document contains 80% of the relevant information
I 20% of a companys sales accounts for 80% of its profit.
Applying this rule to time management, 20% of your tasks may produce 80% of your results.
Time management is a process by which you take control of your time and use it to do the
things you want, or need, to do. Good time management will improve the quality of your life
because you will:
I achieve more goals
I become less stressed
I gain more personal and job satisfaction
I produce better results quality rather than quantity
I have more time to think
I have more leisure time.
You can improve the way you manage your time if you understand how you use your time at
the moment. You will then be able to pinpoint areas where your management of time can be
improved and take specific steps to increase your control over your time. You are therefore
recommended to:
I keep a daily time log
I complete time sheets
I make lists or notes of what you do, when, and for how long.
When analysing how effectively you use your time, ask yourself:
I do I spend enough time on planning and scheduling my work?
I do I make to do lists and prioritise tasks?
I am I doing work which could be done by others? Am I managingor doingthe work?
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I do I need to allocate specific times to specific activities (eg Monday mornings for
administration)? Are there regular activities which can be planned in?
I do I leave enough time between activities to allow myself to adjust my role?
I am I so busy getting low priority work out of the way that I do not get time for high
priority activities?
I are there areas which I want to change? What are they? What changes do I want to make?
Activity 1: Allocating your time
Create a time log. Plan and prepare ways of allocating your time and recording actual
time spent, which are appropriate to your situation. The chart on the next page may help
you with this, or you can use an alternative method if you prefer.
A
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Personal peak performance time
It is also well known that people vary as to what time of the day they reach their peak in
terms of performance. We have all heard people say that they are a night person or at their
best in the mornings. It is useful for you to understand yourself when developing time
management skills and maximising your use of time:
I think about and identify your energy cycle
I use your peak time for concentrating on priority tasks
I use your trough time for doing simple, routine tasks
I for many people, maximum performance time is in the morning
I also for many, after lunch is a relatively relaxing time (watch people drowse during early
afternoon meetings or training sessions!)
I there is often a secondary peak later in the day.
But you can only improve your time management if you really want to. There are several
techniques which you can adopt, but they will only work if you are genuinely committed to
changing the way you approach your management of time.
Activity 2: Your personal peak time
Look back at your time log from Activity 1 and think about your ideal performance in
the past. Can you arrange your priorities in an order that best fits your personal peak
performance time? Try it on a To Do Today list.
Be clear about your objectives
Spend some time clarifying what you have to achieve overall, by when and what the priorities
are. Remember also to allow adequate time to cope with unforeseen circumstances. Identify
what individual activities need to be carried out to achieve these objectives, how you and
others might carry them out, the resources you will need to achieve them and estimate how
longeach activity will take. For the purposes of this section, focus your attention fully on the
time resource, leaving others to later activities.
R
Review your action plan
What time management learning needs have you identified from working through these
activities?
A
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Plan these activities into your time on an annual, monthly, weekly and daily basis to ensure
objectives are achieved on time. Include time for monitoring, review and evaluation. Allow
time in your planning for additional activities as may be identified later and for activities to
overrun.
When setting your aims and objectives, remember that time management is not about doing as
much as possible. It is about doing those things which achieve the required objectives. Results
come by doing the right things, not by doing things right! (Peter Drucker). Effective time
managers match daily tasks with personal and business objectives and set out to achieve them.
Objectives should also be consistent with organisational objectives, policies and values. Daily
planning should involve objectives which are SMART:
SPECIFIC clear and unambiguous
MEASURABLE outcomes must be obvious with clear values
APPROPRIATE to your needs
REALISTIC achievable and not too ambitious
TIME-BOUND deadlines which you will be able to achieve
and
CHALLENGING objectives need to be developmental and demanding.
Activity 3: Auditing your time
Referring to Activity 1, audit the time you allocated to activities and the time actually
spent. Decide which aspects of your own time management you need to improve. Use the
form on the next page to help you.
A
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Prioritise and plan
You will need to agree your priorities with others, as well as in relation to the objectives you
have set yourself. Clear views of how you should prioritise at the beginning of activities can
save a lot of time later. That is not to say that they are set in stone; it is often necessary to
change priorities as the unexpected occurs or additional criteria emerge following reviews, etc.
Early prioritising will help you have a clear idea of:
I what should be done
I what should come first
I what can be put aside
I what can be delegated.
By setting priorities, you can make decisions about what is most important overall, or should
be done before all else because it is a prerequisite. There are also activities which can be
carried out simultaneously; these need to be identified. You can then avoid doing the less
important, or less urgent, tasks (which may not move the business forward or achieve your
personal objectives) when doing them would affect those tasks which are urgent and
important. There is also a difference between avoiding doing certain activities altogether
because they are irrelevant, and simply postponing activities until they are more important or
more urgent.
A way to prioritise effectively is to use the urgency and importance system. You have to decide
what you must do first (top priority) and what can be left until later (low priority) or rejected
altogether. A task can be:
I very urgent and need immediate action
I very important and need a great deal of attention.
It is often assumed that urgent and important are the same. They are not. Urgency implies a
timescale. Importance implies a pay-off.
Set time limits which will concentrate the mind, allowing approximately:
I 5 hours (60%) for planned items
I 3 hours (40%) for contingencies (interruptions, emergencies, thinking time).
R
Review your action plan
having identified any improvements in how you spend your time or any personal
development needs.
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Review your plan:
I on an ongoing basis interruptions may cause a need for rescheduling
I at the end of the day tick off completed tasks, move uncompleted ones to the next
appropriate day.
Use planning aids; these might include:
I daily, monthly and yearly planning forms
I action planning forms for use in achieving key personal development objectives
I key task forms.
Successful planning involves:
I mapping out your day
I setting your objectives
I clarifying what needs to be done
I prioritising
I estimating the time required
I setting time limits
I building in contingency time
I rescheduling if necessary
I reviewing your efforts at the end of the day
I ticking off completed tasks and transferring unfinished or untackled tasks to the
appropriate date
I planning your next day before you go home.
To plan effectively, you need to establish:
I your strengths your attributes which will help you achieve your goal
I your weaknesses time problems which might prevent you from achieving your goal
I opportunities ways of changing the way you manage your time
I threats outside barriers which may hinder you achieving your goal.
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Activity 4: Planning your time
Update Activity 1 (your time audit) including planning and prioritising. You may change
or develop the form below, according to your own needs.
A
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Delegate activities making the most effective use of available
time and resources
Effective delegation is a delicate skill deserving careful attention in your development of it. As a
manager, the two statements you do not want to be made about you by others are:
I I never get any really interesting work to do, its all bits and pieces; I have no
responsibilities
I My boss just tries to pass the buck to me because they dont know what to do.
To avoid the first of these statements, you will need to discuss in some detail what is required
overall, and then agree with individuals what contributions they can make immediately to the
outcomes required. You can then agree the specific responsibilities they can shoulder and how
your role subsumes responsibility and accountability for the total outcome. You will also need
to identify with individuals what and how they need to develop to make other contributions
later on, and identify and agree opportunities for them to do so.
To avoid the second statement, you will need to follow on from the above agreement, by
openly accepting and acknowledging your own strengths (and how best to apply them) and
weaknesses (and where you need to overcome them), what your overall responsibilities are
and how you should be allocating your own time.
You will need to show your approach to delegation by identifying: h o w you are using individual
expertise as the best method of achieving the various aspects of the objectives; and/or h o w y o u
are best using the time of individuals as available to you. You will also need to p r o v ethat you
accept overall responsibility and are ultimately accountable, by providing the means of
reviewing and feeding back as often as needed between the various individuals and yourself.
Where priorities need to be changed for yourself and others, you need to show that you are on
top of the situation and fully conversant with the issues concerned. This will only be so as long
as you make timeto review performance and outcomes, formally and informally, at regular
intervals according to need.
Review your activities and, where possible, delegate those activities which could be done
equally well (and often better!) by someone else, with training and guidance where
appropriate. How often do you hear managers say I dont have time to delegate or No one
else could do it properly or even If you want a job done, do it yourself? These are signs of
poor delegation.
R
Review your action plan
Do you need to add to your skills and abilities in order to improve your prioritising
skills? How might you best do this?
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Good delegators give themselves more time to manage, build teams and motivate other staff.
Poor delegators end up doing everything themselves and do not have time to manage
effectively. Delegation does not always have to be downwards it can also be upwards and
sideways but the direction it takes must be appropriate to the situation.
Effective delegation:
I relieves you of routine tasks
I gives you more time for planning
I extends your capacity to manage your time
I motivates and improves job satisfaction for those to whom you delegate
I develops team spirit
I relieves boredom
I spreads the workload.
Effective delegation involves a number of steps. First of all you need to decide:
I what to delegate consider the appropriateness of the tasks and whether you should
delegate whole tasks or part of them. Remember to delegate the good things as well as
those perceived to be not so good!
I who should do it the person to whom you choose to delegate work must have the
skills, knowledge, motivation and/or potential to carry out the task.
Once you know what you want to delegate and to whom you are going to delegate it, you
need to:
I brief the person take time to explain the task(s). Be clear and precise about them and
invite feedback to ensure that the person has understood correctly. Specify the outcomes
you are expecting.
I provide guidance ensure that there is two-way communication and give
encouragement. It may also be necessary for the person to receive some training before
undertaking the task.
I monitor progress ensure that the initial stages are being completed correctly and that
interim target dates and systems for reporting back are adhered to. Remember to make
allowances for mistakes. When you delegate, it is often more effective to adopt a hands
off approach.
I review the process provide positive feedback give praise and constructive criticism.
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Delegation dos and donts
Do:
I delegate things you do not want to delegate
I delegate the objective, not the procedure
I trust the colleague to whom you delegate
I always delegate to the most able and appropriate person.
Dont:
I delegate what you can eliminate
I delegate simply because you do not want to do it yourself
I abdicate!
Activity 5: Delegating to maximise the time resource
Update your planning and prioritising (Activity 4), this time including delegation of
activities to others.
A
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Activity 6: Delegation scenario
Read through the following scenario. You might have the opportunity to role play this
scenario with colleagues, especially if you have away-days from your place of work. If
you feel you cannot relate to an operation which plans and delivers management training
and development, then go to the next section, Control your Time, on page 19.
A
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The people Their backgrounds(all experts in their fields, and have managed projects before )
The Manager: Chris marketing and management research
Technical Team:
Clara operations management (holidays planned for the last two weeks of J une)
Karen supplier networking and distribution management (holidays planned for last
week in J uly and first in August)
Alan computer analysis and programming
Brian management and financial accounts (holidays planned for last two weeks in
September)
Tim human resource management
Michael administration management (he currently supports the team in this activity).
The situation:
J ustus Training is a small operation, managing the provision of management training and development in
a small Sussex town. The firm provides training and consultancy to several large blue-chip companies
nationally and internationally, local government, health trusts and various organisations responsible for
government sponsored initiatives.
Chris has just received instructions from the J ustus directors to manage a project researching, planning
and delivering a large programme of management development in the UK, Europe, Australia and
Singapore (regional headquarters of a multi-national conglomerate supplying oil and oil-based products).
The programmes must cover all the generic managerial functions, but the team are expected to network
widely to ensure sufficient coverage, including membership criteria of all the major professional
institutions as may be appropriate the customer.
The month is J une, and the workload of Chriss team is already excessive, with each member delivering
training events solidly until October. There is also the additional problem of three of the team taking two
weeks holiday each, between the end of J une and the end of September.
A quick calculation tells Chris that the initial re s e a rch is likely to take three months. The planning phase,
which might commence before the re s e a rch is completed, will take another three months. Pro g r a m m e
d e l i v e ry must commence towards the end of J anuary of the following year and is likely to continue for up
to three years, or until each region is capable of delivering all or parts of the programme themselves.
F u rther issues to consider are: the development of regional delivery staff, diff e rent cultures, various
legislation and codes of practice, local politics (large and small p), differing views of what management is
and various leadership styles.
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Thinking about your own approach to delegation, and what you are learning, how do you think
Chriss team will respond? What contributions is Chris likely to reasonably expect from the
individual members? Would you have handled it differently? If so, how? What areas should she
delegate and to whom? How should she move forward from here, having made her immediate
decision? Use the form on the next page to help you.
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The customer understands that sub-contracting will be necessary and an agreement has already been
made for Chris to do so, with whom, covering what stages and when she considers it to be appropriate.
However, the results are fully Chriss responsibility and she will be accountable to both senior
management and the customer for them.
Chris decides to hold a meeting explaining the situation to her staff and, at the same time, telling them
that she will be taking full responsibility until the immediate holiday period is over. She tells them that
she does not expect any contributions from them until October. In the meantime, she asks them for any
ideas they might have. She sets them a deadline for this feedback as the end of J une.
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Control your time
By managing your time, you are taking control. This control is not only influenced by your
personal attributes, but also by factors like:
I the nature of your job can you make the more reactive side of your job proactive by
planning for such eventualities?
I the culture of the organisation if it is bureaucratic, can you make room for personal
initiative within the culture?
I your physical surroundings if you work in an open-plan environment, can you arrange
time when you will not be disturbed?
Control interruptions by making it clear when you welcome consultation with others, and
when you require uninterrupted time to complete an activity. Being available for other people
at all times might sound like the hallmark of an effective manager, but it can waste a lot of
time. Constant availability means constant interruptions. Interruptions are distractions and
distractions prevent you from doing what you choose to do. Once you have been distracted,
you may need to spend time building up your concentration again.
Interruptions and distractions may be self-generated or part of your working environment. By
whatever means they arise, you will only deal with them if you change your attitude towards
them. Saying no on occasions will improve your:
I effectiveness
I efficiency
I well-being.
As far as possible, you should also discourage drop-in visitors when you need to concentrate
on what you are doing.
Let people know that you do priority work at specific times. Learn how to say no not just to
others, but to yourself as well. Try saying Im really busy doing priority tasks/dealing with an
emergency. Could I come back to you?, I would love to take on that task but unfortunately it
would mean my schedule slipping or What is your top priority?
R
Review your action plan
as a result of Activities 5 and 6.
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Organise yourself by:
I screening telephone calls (where possible)
I having messages taken during your priority time
I being brief when making telephone calls limit polite chat and be assertive!
I dealing with mail at specific times, then handling it only once.
It is difficult to avoid emergencies, but you can allow for them by:
I allocating contingency time in your daily schedule
I reviewing your schedule to ensure that your objectives will still be met
I ensuring that you learn from any mistakes.
Constant demands from senior staff can be a problem (for example, unrealistic deadlines, or
one project dropped for another). Be assertive! Make them aware of the consequences on your
workload.
Keep your objectives in mind and do not indulge in, or allow others to indulge in, digressions.
Handle paper once only (as far as possible); when dealing with paper, decide immediately to
respond, refer, file or destroy.
Activity 7: Minimising interruptions
Analyse the kinds of interruptions and unnecessary digressions common to your daily
experiences and identify ways in which you can control your time better. Use the form on
the next page to help you.
A
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Time wasting
There are various reasons why people waste time, you will need to identify for yourself what
your particular weakness(es) is/are. Time wasters can be grouped into:
I doubters who do not believe in their ability to do the job
I perfectionists who set themselves impossibly high standards and then fail to achieve
them
I rebels who want to show their control over themselves, others and the situation, by
constantly firefighting and working to last-minute deadlines (often working excessively
long hours in the process)
I socialisers who involve themselves in gossip, extended lunch hours, constant tea
breaks, etc.
Ways to avoid unnecessary time wasting:
I accept that you do it everyone does at times
I recognise when you do it for example, you may only waste time in certain situations,
usually in an area of weakness
I recognise why you do it for example, a fear of failure may make you waste time
I get going if you do nothing, you achieve nothing
I make the second thing you do each day the thing you least want to do difficult or
boring tasks are easier to tackle once you have achieved something
I make a commitment if you make a promise to someone else, you may motivate yourself
and avoid the time-wasting trap.
R
Review your action plan
using your greater understanding of delegation and time control.
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Outcomes achieved through CPD
Have you:
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I Monitored your current use of time? How have you done this?
I Clarified your goals and objectives? How have you done this?
I Used different ways to prioritise your goals and objectives? How have you done this?
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R
Review your action plan
What further development activities do you need to plan so that you manage your
time better?
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I Estimated the duration of tasks and activities? How have you done this?
I Planned how to deal with the unexpected? How have you done this?
I Used methods to plan your time and say no positively? How have you done this?
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Work under pressure, not stress
Introduction and anticipated outcomes through CPD
For modern managers, the identification and management of stress is vital to effective
performance. This section will help you to understand the causes of stress and manage them
effectively. It will help ensure that you develop the knowledge, skills and abilities you need to
become competent in dealing with stress.
The following outcomes have been identified for you to use as measures of your progress. You
may wish to change or add to these outcomes yourself, especially whilst your understanding of
the CPD process develops as you gain in confidence and competence with more practice.
The outcomes you will seek to achieve whilst working through this section are to:
1. Identify the causes of stress in your own situation;
recognising the signs of stress and analysing the symptoms to determine the causes.
2. Take the action required to reduce the causes of stress.
When stress becomes distress
Stress is a problem for many people and whilst we are all stimulated when working under
pressure, when stress becomes distress our physiological and psychological wellbeing can
come under threat.
We need to become aware of the symptoms of stress in ourselves and others. The effects of
stress are always negative; the difficulty is in recognising the symptoms for what they are. We
need to become familiar with the notion of stress before we can begin to understand the
symptoms and then how to deal with the root cause.
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Negative effects of stress occur when:
I the degree of stress is greater than the ability to cope (which will vary from person
to person)
I warning signs are unrecognised and therefore unheeded
I coping strategies are inadequate.
The signs of stress
Because people are different and they behave differently according to their personality, life
experiences, cultural background and individual expectations, it is inevitable that they will
display different characteristics when they are suffering from stress.
You may find that you are exhibiting some symptoms of stress yourself:
I quick temper, taking it out on others
I frequent sick leave and/or lateness
I lack of concentration, motivation, commitment
I excesses in smoking, eating or drinking
I frequent working of long hours (some people will make it obvious, whilst others quietly
take work home because they fear failure)
I nervousness, shaking, unexplained sweating
I constantly in a hurry, talking fast, sometimes incoherently
I taking on too much, trying to do several things at the same time
I inability to relax
I indecision, arbitrary decision taking, rushing to judgement
I overcritical, blaming others for own shortcomings
I defensive, offensive, aggressive
I obsessive/possessive
I avoidance of issues, overreaction, over-emotional
I abusing company property/systems, sabotage in extreme cases.
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The list seems endless, and because everyone behaves differently, the diagnosis of stress
symptoms becomes very difficult. It is also a very sensitive issue for many people who might
feel that to experience and show signs of stress is unprofessional and a serious weakness.
What is even worse is that you might not even know you are suffering from stress. It
sometimes requires the intervention of a third party to point out that the behaviours you are
exhibiting could be proof that your stress levels have increased.
You must first understand that the weakness lies in denying the potential and reality of stress
and not in suffering from it. Once you accept the existence of stress, you can then take
measures to reduce its effects.
Activity 1: Your stress symptoms
Take a few days to examine your own behaviour in relation to the possibility of
exhibiting signs of stress. Use the form on the next page to help you.
A
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Stress as an organisational issue
The culture and structure of the organisation can affect your stress levels, especially if you
dont quite fit the existing culture. It might be that you were recruited specifically to assist
cultural change rather than that you refuse to conform. The structure, on the other hand,
might be more or less hierarchical than you have experienced:
I your responsibilities may clash with perceptions (yours or others)
I roles and their interrelationships may not be clearly defined
I relationships with colleagues may be strained
I your career prospects may be uncertain, especially during periods of change
I the job itself may need development but your attempts are frustrated
I your own role could have changed and you feel vulnerable
I you may have to carry out functions for which you feel unsuited or insufficiently trained
I the climate within the organisation may not be conducive to your wellbeing.
Stress costs an organisation in terms of staff coverage, poor performance, sick pay, etc.
Activity 2: Stress and your job
Analyse your position in relation to the above list and determine whether you might have
such problems within your present job role. Now complete column 3 of Activity 1.
How to reduce the causes of stress
Poor time management can lead to stress and poor performance as well as vice versa. You
might be crying out for help by claiming that you never have enough time to complete your
tasks and meet your objectives. However, situations invariably appear worse than they really
are and a positive approach to managing your time can also go a long way to ensuring lower
stress levels.
A
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Assertiveness
It is a common mistake to believe it is only shy and quiet people who need to develop their
assertiveness. In fact, it is relatively simple and straightforward for these people to achieve
compared to a defensive/offensive, aggressive individual. There is a fine line between
assertiveness and aggression and it is not easy for this type of person to learn the differences
between the two types of behaviour. This kind of behaviour is often the outward expression of
stress symptoms. It is possible for these individuals to harbour feelings of inadequacy, lack of
development and general lack of security and the only way they seem to be able to cope is by
exhibiting aggressiveness in order to overpower the perceived threat.
Activity 3: Stress and assertiveness
Review your approach to assertiveness apply this activity in association with other
people to help reduce the causes of stress. Use the form on the next page to help you.
A
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Working together
The experience of stress by some individuals can affect the general wellbeing of everyone. It
therefore becomes the responsibility of all to ensure that stress is not experienced by anyone
in the group.
Teams or groups of colleagues can work together to:
I raise stress awareness
I identify and discuss various negative behaviours
I identify formal education/training needs
I regularly review priorities and workload (one-to-one and group)
I use counselling as a preventative measure
I use counselling as a cure
I delegate upwards, downwards and sideways
I participate in establishing objectives
I exercise control over the use of time
I give and receive responsibility and authority fairly and appropriately
I encourage polite interchange and mutual respect eg please, thank you, smile, empathise
with others and understand needs
I encourage and be encouraged to meet challenges
I exchange ideas and understanding about stress and its causes
I say no appropriately and encourage others to do the same
I promote participation and exchange of ideas
I create a culture of personal responsibility, independence and individual innovation,
balanced with openness in seeking and giving help.
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Outcomes achieved through CPD
Have you:
R
Review your action plan
using any insights you have gained from this section.
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I Identified the causes of stress in your own situation? How have you done this?
I Taken the action required to reduce the causes of stress? How have you done this?
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Further action planning
Having progressed through the module, or sections of it, you will now have a clearer idea of
the further development required under each of the topic areas. Learning is not once and for
all; we develop incrementally and it is never complete.
Your CPD approach will, therefore, have evolved so that you should now find you are
considering any topic in terms of: the c o n t i n u i t y of depth of knowledge and understanding; the
e n d l e s sbreadth of skills and personal qualities; and the need to demonstrate, to yourself and
others, that you are continuously improving and developing your perf o rm a n c e. There is always
room to perform better. Whatever your personal situation happens to be, you will need to:
I define your objective
I identify the action point(s)
I decide the date for completion
I complete a learning log as you progress.
At the beginning of the module you were asked to look specifically at the first three questions
of the action plan. As you progressed through the module, you were invited to update your
plan as you were introduced to new concepts and approaches.
You are now being asked to look specifically at the final three questions to reinforce the notion
of Continuing Professional Development. You may find that you want to revisit the modules
themselves periodically in order to augment your understanding or gain further insights.
Complete your action plan using the questions below:
4. How do you propose to work on the skill or skills you have chosen?
Do you need to arrange for any formal training? Would it be useful to talk to colleagues
to get an idea of how they have developed/are developing their skills and how they may
have overcome any problems?
5. What do you want to achieve and by when?
How are you going to assess whether you have improved in your chosen skill or skills? By
when do you expect to see improvement?
6. How do you know you have got there?
How will you know when you have achieved competence?
Enjoy your future learning . . .
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