Business Administration Level 2

Unit 202 Improve own performance in a business environment
1. Understand how to improve own performance
1.1 Explain the purpose and benefits of continuously improving performance at work
I believe the purpose and benefits of continuously improving my performance at work are to:

* To exceed my limitations. * Achieve personal goals. * Impress corporate officials. * Increase income if on a piece-rate. * Self-motivation. * Satisfaction.

1.2 Explain the purpose and benefits of encouraging and accepting feedback from others
People that ask for feedback do this for the reason of hearing someone else's opinion. As corny as it might sound, the work you make will only be seen from your side if you don't ask for feedback. If you let people look at your work, they will see it from another perspective. That's a good thing, because that person does not have a personal attachment to the work, thus it is much more honest (usually).
The reason why you're probably asking this is that you're probably afraid of criticism. While it is true that people can be hard on you, they are being honest. However, the biggest reason of feedback is giving an idea of how it could be better. It's only a suggestion, so you don't have to change everything a person says.
1.3 Explain how learning and development can improve own work, benefit organisations, and identify career options
Learning and development is a good way to improve your own knowledge base e.g. apprenticeships. This helps you to understand your job role better as it opens up possible places for future promotions / job offers and also helps the organisation as you are more equipped to do the jobs currently set for you.
1.4 Describe possible career progression routes
Things you’re willing to learn every day is a progress for you for a new career. You learn and develop yourself and that's the way you progress.
1.5 Describe possible development opportunities
Development opportunities are like: * Interview sessions to get you ready for a real interview * Training courses that are relevant (for example, First Aid is always good for any job, Touch Typing for Admin, etc.)
If you want to change roles or get ahead in your career, it's important that you know how to identify and pursue opportunities that are a good match for your interests, skills, and circumstances.
This takes time. You can think of the process of finding opportunities as a journey that will eventually lead you to an exciting but unknown destination. You need to be patient, and persist in your efforts.
That said, work that you put in now will pay off in the future. Not only will you end up in a role that's right for you, but you'll have a good understanding of your options. What's more, people will think of you when new openings come up, and you won't waste time pursuing the wrong opportunities.
You'll also have a better understanding of where you need to build new skills – and develop existing ones – to be successful in your career.
2. Be able to improve own performance using feedback
2.1 Encourage and accept feedback from other people
It is important to accept feedback from others, so that you can learn and improve from your mistakes, this way in the future you can do a much better job. Getting feedback from your manager will also help see ourselves from the perspective of others, to see ourselves as others see us. We can learn a great deal from feedback. I would encourage my manager to give me feedback, so that i know what tasks I’m doing really well/good and what tasks I’m not so great at doing.
2.2 Use feedback to agree ways to improve own performance in the workplace
Imagine you have made a speech at a meeting, how would you know that you had done it well? Generally, people will tell you after your speech whether they enjoyed it and which bits they enjoyed the most. This is feedback, without it, it is difficult to judge your performance, with it – you can identify both your strong and weak points, and importantly, improve your performance for next time.
So, if you were then asked to make another speech, you could include the aspects that people praised, and work to improve anything that people did not enjoy. By using the comments and feedback from your first speech, your next speech would be better.
2.3 Complete work tasks, using feedback given, to improve performance
When a worker sees the feedback, one can use that in order to improve performance. The worker should pay attention to specific suggestions, comments and even criticisms, in order to do a better job on tasks.
3. Be able to agree own development needs using a learning plan
3.1 Investigate and agree where further learning and development may improve own work performance
Learning and development brings new skills and knowledge, this increases your chances in obtaining a job and shows that you are a valuable member of staff. By what you are learning can help you advance within the company you are working for. I think that you can learn a lot of new skills in the time you spend in your job. This can develop you career further and open up better opportunities.
3.2 Confirm learning plan changes
In businesses, a learning plan is always useful as it sets out achievable objectives. Here are the directions for a learning plan:
Directions:
1. Identify learning objectives with the aid of your supervisor; they should be consistent with your program and personal goals. It may be helpful to state these in the order you are likely to work on them. Keep in mind that learning objectives can be renegotiated as necessary during the semester if implementation is impossible or somewhat modified.
2. Design learning activities which facilitate the translation of a learning objective into action. Learning activities are the specific tasks, projects, steps, processes necessary to achieve your objectives.
3. Indicators of achievement specify the means by which you and your supervisor can determine whether or not you met the objectives. Make sure your actions are “measurable.”
4. A completion date will guide your activities over the term and help you to organise and plan your time appropriately.
5. Your level of achievement is your own rating of your performance for each stated objective. Your assessment will be compared with both your field practice supervisor’s.
3.3 Follow learning plan
Following to learning plan will help set out what work needs to be done as said in the directions above. With this, tasks can be set and completed in due time by the right members of staff.
This is my Learning Planner:

3.4 Review progress against further learning updates, if required new learning and career opportunities
Below I found a cycle of the learning and career path from setting goals at the beginning to reviewing progress and recording achievements made.
http://archive.excellencegateway.org.uk/media/SFL/import/batch1/BATCH%201%20-%20100%20MB%201/PLRA1%20(1)/83306_Access%20Plus.pdf