Corporate Cultures For Professional Growth: Developing T-Shaped Professionals

The Concept of 'T-Shaped' Professionals

Describe about the Corporate Cultures I for Professional Growth.

1. In modern business organisations, management has always preferred the employees to evolve themselves as “T-shaped” professionals. Precisely, a “T-shaped” professional needs to significant level of broader skills, talent, knowledge resources, and competencies. In order to enhance emerging skills among the young set of employees, the role of “T-shaped” professionals is essential for collaboration. In the definition of “T-shaped” professionals, two set of competencies and broader skills have been described. Through the vertical bar of the “T-shaped” model, the expert knowledge and experience of the professionals have been denoted (Marczely, 2006). On the other hand, the horizontal area of the “T-shaped” framework refers to the ability of collaboration in other necessary disciplines required to enhance knowledge. Meanwhile, a “T-shaped” professional is someone who possesses definite “T-shaped” skills and attributes. The “T-shaped” skills of a person include innovative management practices, communication techniques, and problem-solving concept at the corporate perspective. Moreover, “T-shaped” professionals must identify the responsibility and role associated with the assigned job position (Hunzicker, 2010).  

In order to develop such skills in practice, modern organisations have favoured management training and career development programmes effective for this purpose. Given a job position, the leading senior employees of the firm must be influenced to take the responsibility to encourage “T-shaped” skills development among the subordinates. Most importantly, it is not a process that can be completed with a couple of month or so. Thorough encouragement towards the staff members must be given to identify trans-disciplinary knowledge effective for developing “T-shaped” professional skills.  Moreover, the employee engagement must be motivated to attain the specific skills and knowledge effective to meet the organisation’s goal. Moreover, effective collaboration among the new set of hiring and seniors can influence “T-shaped” skills among the workforce (Pain, 2010).

To develop “T-shaped” skills within personal traits, first of all, the knowledge resources of an individual must be enhanced. Furthermore, effective communication is another vital aspect to elevate all kinds of “T-shaped” skills in personal traits. Significant discussion with the “T-shaped” professionals can be helpful to identify the relevant features of “T-shaped” skills. Admittedly, by working with diversified team members can develop sufficient skills of understanding, problem-solving and management styles (De Bortoli et al., 2016). Moreover, by following the team leader, decision-making and role distribution technique can be learnt. On the other hand, the internet resources can be useful to identify the modern theories and practices leading to skill enhancement. As far as self-development is concerned, competition and challenging work situation can encourage me to learn “T-shaped” skills to become an expert. 

2. Interview is one of the most complicated processes of HR management. There is no proper answer to the question of how to select the right person for the organisation.  On the other hand, the HR management must complete all other activities of the hiring process before conducting the interview session. The outcome of the interview process depends upon the efforts made on the previous activities such as screening the applications of the interviewee and conducting a background check (Jacobs, 2016). Hence, it is important to note that a good interview requires more structured and professional approach to identify right candidate because the interviewer must examine the information provided in the resume and screen them first to select the best talent available in the market. On the other hand, the HR manager must be capable of analysing the capabilities of the applicants and judge their behaviour by observing the gestures of the interviewee. Along with that, the HR managers must prepare a proper report of the interview to make appropriate decision regarding selecting the right person for the job (London, 2012). Hence, it can be said that a good interview needs a more structured and professional approach to identify right candidate.

Developing T-Shaped Professionals in Modern Organizations

There are several pitfalls of a poor interview that are discussed herein below:

The interviews may miss to measure the technical skills, team skills, attitude, intelligence and physical skills of the applicants accurately (Falzer, 2013).

The interviews are based on historical information that may not be appropriate to measure the future opportunities due to the fast changing world.

The interview questions are frequently asked and are not weighted appropriately. The minor questions are rated with same priority as the important questions (Falzer, 2013).

The interviewer may miss out to focus on the interview question in place of putting more attention on subjective factors such as accent, body language, height, dress, handshake and lateness of the interviewee.

First of all, in order to get prepared for more professional interviews a candidate must conduct a self awareness analysis. On the other hand, he must be aware of the business process that is operated by the employer in order to present an appropriate skills and knowledge regarding the product and services rendered by the company (Lussier, 2010). The applicant must prepare an attractive resume to get selected during the screening process. Furthermore, the candidate must develop skills to present his ascent, body language and gesture in a professional way. The candidate must wear a formal outfit to have a professional look that attracts most of the interviewers (De Bortoli et al., 2016). The candidate must go through the information provided in the resume and must be prepared to answer any question related to the data provided in the resume.

3. Self-awareness is one of the most significant aspects to attain professional growth and leadership skills. Without proper level of self-awareness, a professional employee cannot develop a bright career. Precisely, to attain high level of self-awareness, mediation technique can be recognised as the best practices. Moreover, through mediation, a person can speak to himself to identify the positive and negative features of his characters (Tjan, 2015). On the basis of self-assessment, mundane tasks must be taken into account to increase the level of self-awareness within personal trait. Secondly, one can increase self-awareness through writing down the crucial plans and objectives to be achieved. Such articulation of reasons can lead to significant decision-making (Davies, 2015). Respectively, one must get regular feedback to decide constructive competencies and knowledge style. Thus, self-awareness of a person can be elevated (Callahan and Spalding, 2006). A positive feedback can encourage being more aggressive whereas negative feedbacks should be identified as opportunities to improve. Admittedly, personality assessment has helped to build a great deal of self-awareness to be utilised in corporate jobs. On another note, a respective professional employee must participate in 360-degree assessment to identify whether professional as well as personal requirements have been met (Swartz, 2013). Furthermore, personal reflective journals may be a good option to enhance self-awareness of an individual.

Convincingly, my self-awareness has been significantly boosted by following the strategies and practices mentioned in the above section. During personal as well as professional growth, I have prioritised my inner voice to identify what my fundamental personal traits are in associated with college life and work life. I have encouraged my self-awareness through significant decision-making techniques. Furthermore, the self-assessment of my knowledge and career development priorities has encouraged the self-characteristics. Meanwhile, increase in the self-awareness has given me sincerity and enthusiasm to do well in my career (Brockbank and McGill, 2006). Often, I prefer to take personality tests to identify what major building blocks are associated with my regular knowledge resources. Also, my friends and relatives have given me the confidence to become a successful student. The informal feedbacks of my character and knowledge have boosted my thoughts to become more active and motivated on a regular basis (Denzine, 2011). Notably, I prefer talented coaches who have helped to influence my thoughts and decision-making. The effective coaches have enlightened my knowledge and personal traits to develop perceptions supportive for my college as well as work life (Hansen, 2012). In personal assessment, I have always scored high ranks to fulfil my self-structure. Essentially, my self-awareness has motivated me to do productive works effective for personal as well as professional development.

Strategies for Developing T-Shaped Skills in Individuals

The learner’s reflective learning journal is prepared to present owns understanding of the module by conducting a self awareness analysis. In order to present the reflective learning journal, I have conducted my SWOT analysis to discuss my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Dong and Hayes, 2012). I am good at character creation and public speaking. I have a good knowledge of using computer and other technical software. Along with that, I am quite capable of working in a team. I am capable of making fast and crucial decisions. All these positive points in me act as my strengths. But, along with my strengths, I have certain weaknesses such as I get easily distracted and jump to the final image without considering other facts. Considering the opportunities, I am going through a course of business studies that will develop my professional character and help me in the future. The threat that I fill for myself is the immense competition in the market.

I have the quality of a leader that makes me capable of guiding a team. On the other hand, I am quite effective in making quick decisions and analyse the situation using different theories and professional models. Hence, I have chosen the career of a manager to work in a team and lead it towards a strategic direction in order to make my organisation seek growth and achieve all its goals and targets. 

The identified personal experiences of my status have given significant and productive personal development skills. To be fair, I feel that my self-awareness, management skills and motivation attributes have boosted my confidence. Precisely, the versatile abilities of my personal traits have provided me the knowledge to lead with transition and change. More often than not, I have learnt about modern management techniques that can enhance my capabilities at the highest level. Currently, I have identified the theoretical concepts regarding valuable management to increase the level of experience and self-esteem (Swartz, 2013). Most importantly, I have maintained a significant balance in extra-curricular activities and management tasks to influence others.

A personal development plan has been presented herein below:

Milestones	Description	Timeline
Professional development	Develop professionalism by following the theories and models of the professional growth module.	End of the module
Prepare for interviews	Get prepare for interviews by reviewing myself and preparing a good resume.	End of the module
Strategic Thinking	Need to develop strategic thinking to make proper decisions and apply management theories in real life.	Within upcoming six months
Cross functional expertise	Need to develop cross functional expertise by concentrating on other modules of my course.	End of the Course

While attending the module of Corporate Cultures One, I have participated in several discussions about professional growth and T-shaped professional models. I have discussed with my teacher about how to develop professionalisms in myself and learned different techniques and methods of rising own self awareness. Along with that, I have discussed the best ways of conducting good interviews and learned about the pitfalls of poor interviews. Furthermore, I have also discussed in the class about how to get prepared for a professional interview and get selected for the job. My teacher has taught me about what I should not do and should do while attending an interview. Hence, I can conclude by saying that the module is quite helpful for me to develop professionalism in myself.

References

Brockbank, A. and McGill, I. (2006). Facilitating reflective learning through mentoring & coaching. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.

Callahan, S. and Spalding, E. (2006). Can High-Stakes Writing Assessment Support High-Quality Professional Development?. The Educational Forum, 70(4), pp.337-350.

Davies, N. (2015). Student life - Putting theory into practice every day. Nursing Standard, 30(12), pp.66-66.

De Bortoli, L., Ogloff, J., Coles, J. and Dolan, M. (2016). Towards best practice: combining evidence-based research, structured assessment and professional judgement. Child & Family Social Work.

Denzine, G. (2011). Making a Commitment to Professional Growth: Realizing the Potential of Professional Portfolios. NASPA Journal, 38(4).

Dong, X. and Hayes, C. (2012). Uncertainty Visualizations: Helping Decision Makers Become More Aware of Uncertainty and Its Implications. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 6(1), pp.30-56.

Falzer, P. (2013). Valuing Structured Professional Judgment: Predictive Validity, Decision-making, and the Clinical-Actuarial Conflict. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 31(1), pp.40-54.

Hansen, D. (2012). 7 Steps To Increase Self-Awareness And Catapult Your Career. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhansen/2012/01/24/7-steps-to-increase-self-awareness-and-catapult-your-career/#466f9ed66607 [Accessed Dec. 2016].

Hunzicker, J. (2010). Characteristics of Effective Professional Development: A Checklist. Professional Development in Education, [online] 37(2), pp.3-12. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED510366.pdf.

Jacobs, S. (2016). Reflective learning, reflective practice. Nursing, 46(5), pp.62-64.

London, M. (2012). Leadership development. 1st ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lussier, R. (2010). Management fundamentals. 1st ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South Western College.

Marczely, B. (2006). Personalizing professional growth. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Pain, E. (2010). Expand Your Professional-Skills Training. Science.

Swartz, G. (2013). Worksharing, jobsharing and skill development leave. 1st ed. Hull, Que?bec: Employment and Immigration Canada.

Tjan, A. (2015). 5 Ways to Become More Self-Aware. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2015/02/5-ways-to-become-more-self-aware [Accessed Dec. 2016].