Introduction

Managers are constantly required to be prepared and willing to examine their skills and goals to make sure they are on the right track with their professional development. The learner desires to be a car parking manager and so this assignment has discussed the different strategies and aspects required for managing the professional career. As this position is responsible for the overall day to day management of parking operations including supervision of staff, customer service, preserving maintenance and appearance standards, the candidates need to implement effective skills and capabilities. 

Serving as a Role Model 

As a manager, one needs to deploy certain qualities that help him or her to act as a role model. Some of the important qualities that the candidate would require to serve as the role model being a car parking manager are listed below: 

1. Managers must remain cool and patient, no matter what comes along. Patience would help the manager in Managing all customer service inquires, complaints, incident reports and claims in an efficient and timely manner (Employment Office, 2020)
2. As a people manager it is important to understand the importance of the words spoken. A car parking manager has to deal with different sorts of people for which selection of the right words are necessary. Showing respect and concern for others direct the ways of how other people see you. 
3. Feedback must be constructive – not just good or bad. Constructive feedback coupled with documentary proof clearly lets your team know what is expected. As a successful parking manager it is important to provide technical and professional direction to staff, related to hiring, training, evaluation, corrective action and resolution of employee grievances (Job Hero, 2020).
4. Successful managers keep people ‘on board’ with organisations visions and goals and how they match the needs of the individual. As a parking manager it is essential to exhibit leadership to ensure a smooth running operation by guaranteeing that all staff employees are performing their job functions in an efficient manner (Job Hero, 2020).

Maintaining personal performances 

Performance is when you achieve your goals in an effective and efficient manner, in alignment with organisational goals. As a car parking manager it is essential to determine the skills and knowledge or leadership style(s) are appropriate for the team and should also ensure that my activities and plans align with the organisation’s plans. As a car parking manager it is important to deploy skills and knowledge or leadership style(s) are appropriate for my team. I should also ensure that all my activities and plans align with the organisation’s plans (Careers Australia, 2015). The actions that can help me in maintaining the personal performances are:

1. Taking initiative to prioritise and facilitate competing demands to achieve personal, team and organisational goals and objectives 
2. Using technology efficiently and effectively to manage work priorities and commitments 
3. Maintaining appropriate work-life balance, and ensure stress is effectively managed along with health 
4. Assessing personal knowledge and skills against competency standards to determine development needs, priorities and plans 
5. Seeking feedback from employees, clients and colleagues and use this feedback to identify and develop ways to improve competence
6. Identification, evaluation, selection and use development opportunities suitable to personal learning style/s to develop competence 
7. Participating in networks to enhance personal knowledge, skills and work relationships 
8. Identification and development of new skills to achieve and maintain a competitive edge

Action Plan 

Use of Technology 

A parking manager is responsible for providing leadership, direction, coordination and planning for all operations related to parking enforcement, citation appeals process, the safe ride programs and special event parking (Employment Office, 2020). A parking manager is responsible for scheduling and directing staffs in their work assignments. Technology is helpful in this case as it aids in improving my performance to meet your organisational objectives. In this case, database can be used in which information can be organised so the amount of information generated is minimised. As a parking manager, database can be used for creating tables and producing reports. Through the databases, I can maintain customer records in terms of contact details, orders and payments. I can keep track of all the activities that are taking place and I need to keep track of the activities that need to be done. 

Using different software can also help in improving my overall performance. For example, staff evaluation is an important function of the parking managing. Consequently, different software can be used and I have selected Culture Amp is such an application through which I can carry out performance reviews, goal tracking, continuous development, and 360 reviews. Customize performance review templates to ensure consistency and mitigate unconscious bias (Culture Amp, 2020). Ensure continuous development with unlimited access to all the feedback your organization needs, customizable and in real time. Thus, apart from recoding all the action and activities carried out by employees the parking manager can effectively review the performance and thereby undertake steps for attaining efficiency.  

Maintaining work life balance  

Attaining work-life balance can help in achieving the balance between the work and personal commitments that is right. As a car parking manager, the work-life balance can be attained through the following steps:

1. Scheduling and planning of activities which help to manage my commitments, while still leaving my time to do the things which are important to us
2. Managing stress by developing effective plans by preventing over loading, planning regular breaks, and organizing regular informal meetings with supervisor
3. Providing easy tips and techniques for improving time and work management including managing meetings and quantifying and categorising work
4. Considering the benefits of regular relaxation, try meditation or yoga

Assess personal knowledge and skill 

For maintaining organisational standards, take steps to monitor and assess your performance. The car parking manager has certain competency stands that need to be maintained which require skills. Since I aspire to be car parking manager, I have assessed my personal knowledge and skill accordingly. 

Learning style and development opportunity 

I feel that I prefer to learn by watching and experience and since a car parking manager needs to regularly involved in the analysis, enhancement and implementation of process and program efficiencies through-out the organization, it is essential to gather knowledge. Thus, I prefer action learning development opportunity. Action learning is an educational process whereby people work and learn together by tackling real issues and reflecting on their actions. Learners acquire knowledge through actual actions and practice rather than through traditional instruction (Careers Australia, 2015). 

Since I am a quite extrovert person and loves to communicate with people and gather experiences, I would consider the Kinaesthetic learning style of the VARK model (Business balls, 2020). As per this learning style, I have preference for physical experience - touching, feeling, holding, doing, and practical hands-on experiences. Gathering the practical experiences is quite important for me for understanding effectively. 

Network to enhance personal knowledge

Networks are made up of groups who exchange information and ideas based on common interests. Networks will help you build contacts while developing your interpersonal skills. Although as a car parking manager I do not need much network but some are needed to enhance my skills and abilities. Some of the networks which I have selected for improving my networks are listed below: 

1. The seniors of my workplace who can provide me experiences of better handling the customers and the employees as well 
2. Community Groups to have better understanding of the needs of the customers 
3. Trade fairs and conferences for having deep insight about the skills and knowledge requires as car parking manager 

Skill to attain competency 

I feel that in order to be a successful car parking manager as well as to become a role I need to instil certain skills which are: 

• Being proactive and look at the changes occurring in the market (such as technological innovation) and take steps to ensure that I update my skills 
• Ability to solve problems and ask for other people’s opinions as people have different experiences and may give you a perspective that you had not considered  
• Challenging the way of doing things and trying out new things which may help in improving my  performance 
• Developing a positive work attitude is essential to handle all the works and pressure. Since I often get pressurised under work it is important for me to create a positive work attitude that would help in enhancing my skill and also reduce my shortcomings. 

Conclusion

In the current report different aspects has been reviewed as my ability to be a car parking manager. I feel that I possess certain qualities but I need to develop certain abilities to be a successful car parking manager.