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Self management

Overview

The concept of self management is principally concerned with the individual taking responsibility for their own personal, professional and career development - resulting in a balanced and structured approach to their work life.

All too often individuals neglect this important aspect of their development - learning about oneself is key to successful personal development as you will be better informed to make the right decisions for yourself.

The key to successful self management is self awareness - for example knowing your strengths and weaknesses, your learning style, and your personality profile will inevitably lead to you being able to identify the right career path for you and unlock your potential.

It is important to differentiate between Personal Development and Organisational Development. At times your personal development may be influenced by changes which are occurring in your current organisation. This influence should only be applicable to the short or medium goals which you set for yourself.

Using your knowledge about yourself will enable you to build a robust personal development plan. The plan should include short term and long-term goals relating to your current role, your future career and to your personal development.

A strong plan will set out attainable steps that you need to take to reach your goals, whilst being flexible enough to be amended as new opportunities arise

It is vital that as you progress in your career that you regularly take time to review your personal development plan. As you 'grow' during your working life you will constantly learn more about yourself and your personal development plan will need to be regularly updated to reflect your changing needs.

Continuing Professional Development

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is systematic, on-going, self-directed learning. It is an approach or process which should be a normal part of how you plan and manage your whole working life.

CPD is continuous because learning never ceases, regardless of age or seniority, whilst it is professional because it is focused on personal competence in a professional role. It is concerned with development because its goal is to improve personal performance and enhance career progression.

The key features of CPD are:

  • the planned and systematic updating of professional knowledge and improvement of personal competence throughout your working life.
  • the ownership of CPD by yourself
  • the emphasis on learning from an extremely wide range of activities
  • the integration of learning and work - the concept of work as a learning experience
  • an emphasis on outcomes - answering the questions "what did you learn?" and "how do you plan to apply this learning?" - rather than simply "what learning event did you experience?"

CPD can provide a wide range of personal benefits, including:

  • improving performance in your current job
  • enhancing your career prospects
  • increasing your learning capacity
  • greater personal confidence when facing change
  • managerial and organisational benefits
  • improvements to Current Job Performance

CPD gives you a system or framework for action which will help you to achieve optimum effectiveness in your current job. Put simply, CPD helps you to do your job better.

Resources

  • The UK Council for Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP) was established to promote professionalism in Health Informatics across healthcare and the UK. Its objective isto support individuals working in Health Informatics by providing independent accreditation of their qualifications and experience, and a mechanism to demonstrate Continuing Professional Development as evidence of their fitness to practice.
  • The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has produced a set of brief Improvement Leaders' Guides for personal and organizational development which focus on the people and culture that make up an organisation and their impact on improvement. They are about the people side of change.
  • East Midlands SHA has developedworkbooks to assist staff managing change in the NHS which can be downloaded in PDF format:
  • Learn Direct provides a Health Learning and Skills Advice Line
  • Develop Yourself is a complete online toolkit, produced by NHS Scotland. It provides practical support and guidance to deal with day-to-day issues, improve your performance and support your personal development. While the toolkit is free, you will need to register to use it.
  • The INFOcus programme was founded in 1998. It identifies and endeavours to fill gaps in the education, training and development of Health Informatics staff in the North West NHS.
  • Health Informatics Professionalism - A Road Map to Success 154KB is a guide produced by Cheshire and Merseyside SHA designed to meet the needs of all staff in terms of informatics skills development.

Further information

  • Skills for Health is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the UK health sector. Its purpose is to help the whole sector develop solutions that deliver a skilled and flexible UK workforce in order to improve health and healthcare.
  • NHS Employers provides ideas to help in the area of staff appraisals and personal development plans.
  • The Lifelong Learning website provides information on learning and career development.

The following websites offer information on personal development and self discovery:

NHS Connecting for Heath does not accept any liability or responsibility for the content of other web pages which are connected to this website through any kinds of links or linked material of any form.

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