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Effective communication in the workplace
Effective communication in the workplace

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5 Personal development plan

Each week of the course you are encouraged to set a relevant goal. But setting goals can be a challenging process. For example, you might be over-ambitious or choose goals that are too easy. You might set unrealistic deadlines or be too vague about what you are trying to achieve.

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Figure _unit4.5.1 Figure 5 The growth of your person development plan

For some advice on SMARTER goal setting, watch this short video by Creative Huddle:

SMARTER goal setting [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]

Activity _unit4.5.1 Activity 5 My Week 3 plan

Timing: Allow 20 minutes for this activity

Take some time to identify one action or goal to set yourself this week. Perhaps you would like to appear more confident by changing your posture? Think about what you learned in the video about making your goal Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound, Emotional and Rewarding (SMARTER).

Add your goal to the personal development planning table you downloaded in Week 1.

Each week you will have the opportunity to review your progress and set additional goals.

Discussion

Once you are more aware of non-verbal cues, it can be relatively easy to identify areas for improvement. For example, you will know if you are someone who fiddles with their phone or keeps checking their email in meetings, so perhaps leaving your phone in your bag or pocket would be a good starting point.

However, some cues are more difficult to spot in yourself. Asking a trusted colleague for feedback about your non-verbal cues could be a really useful exercise in helping you to identify any issues you need to work on.