Effective Workplace Participation

What is Self Management
How to improve Self Management
Abilities that can be affect Self Management
Resources/references

What is Self Management?
Self-management refers to an individual’s ability to manage themselves in relation to the outcomes expected of their role (in study or in work). Self-management is linked to planning and organising, but also describes the ability to know who we are and what we want.
A person with good self-management skills will have clear priorities and be able to critically review their strengths and weaknesses. As the world of work changes and employees are expected to take responsibility for their own performance, self-management skills are seen as increasingly important.

Self Management is about demonstrating:

• Initiative - being able to identify new work opportunities, challenges and responsibilities. 
• Planning - setting achievable and realistic goals, then implementing a systematic and organised strategy to achieve these.  Effective self management requires identifying priorities and organising your workload in order to maximise results. 
• Self motivation - pursuing tasks with energy, drive and enthusiasm. 
• Determination – working towards a goal despite difficulties, setbacks and distractions. 
• Performance - taking personal responsibility to exceed standards and expectations. 
• Self evaluation - reflecting on your own performance and acknowledging feedback in order to understand your strengths and weaknesses and taking responsibility for enhancing your professional development. 

How to improve/demonstrate your Self Management skills:

• Routine - Get into the routine of writing down work-related ideas as soon as you have them. 
• Plan - Use opportunities in education, work experience or extracurricular activities to get into the habit of planning.  Spend the first 15 minutes of each day preparing your daily strategy with a list of activities you intend to complete.  Use small pockets of time to revise and develop your daily plan. 
• Diarise - Keep a work diary/calendar and develop a routine of writing in appointments and deadlines as soon as they are established, then remember to check your diary regularly. 
• Reward - When you have successfully achieved an important goal, reward yourself.  This helps to maintain a high level of enthusiasm and gives you something to work towards. 
• Responsibility - Take responsibility for your own performance and don’t try to blame other people for your failures. 
• Reflection - Allocate some time each day to reflect on your performance and identify what you have achieved and how you could have done better.  Do not be over critical of any failures or weakness, but try to identify areas where you can improve your performance in the future. 
• Modelling - The same qualities which we expect from a good manager (e.g. leadership by example, optimism, sense of humour, work ethic, organised and enthusiasm) are the same qualities which are needed for self management.  Learn to embody these traits and you can learn to manage yourself effectively. 
• Tools - Use the range of free planning tools in packages such as MS Office to help you with planning your time and resources, e.g. diary, journal, alarms, contacts etc..

Self Management can be affected by difficulties in the following abilities:
(Impairments that may impact on the particular 'ability' are shown in brackets)

• Self Motivation (Mental Health Difficulties)
• Self Organization (ADHD; autism; dyslexia; dyspraxia; Mental health Difficulties)

Resources/references:
A'Echevarria, Anne de (2009) Introducing the skills and dispositions of self-management
Career One Stop: Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor
Planning and organising skills , University of Strathclyde

Chapman,Val et all (n,d,)Use My Ability employability & disability project - Resource Results. Retrieved 09 2014, from :http://www.usemyability.org.uk/resources/skills/self-management-initiative.html