The majority of professionals just wander in their professions without a definite roadmap and expect that sheer effort will bring them up. Nonetheless, there is one common thing between those who have grown professionally and made a great career: they have a personal development plan that they follow.
Personal development plan is your career GPS to know where you want to go, what skills you need to work on and how to track your progress in the process. Instead of letting your career development be a matter of chance, this strategic approach will keep you steadily developing the capabilities that will make the most difference to your career future.
To develop a successful personal development plan, it is not enough to enlist the career objectives. It also needs personal integrity, strategic thinking and a willingness to continually learn. The professionals that are able to master this process do not only progress quicker, but they create satisfying careers that are in line with their values and ambitions.
Understanding What Personal Development Really Means
Professional personal development is much more than new technical skills or certifications. It involves the active development of skills, knowledge and practices that make you more effective and more career-worthy.
A good personal development tackles various dimensions at the same time. Technical skills make you up-to-date in your profession, but soft skills such as emotional intelligence usually define the extent to which you will go. Leadership skills make you ready to take on more responsibility and industry knowledge enables you to make strategic contributions to your organization.
Personal development also entails the building of self awareness of your strengths, weaknesses and professional preferences. Knowledge of what motivates you and what de-motivates you enables you to make career choices that will bring about long-term fulfillment and achievement.
The most effective professionals see personal development as a continuing investment and not a single effort. They realize that they need to keep adapting to changes in the industries, the needs of the organizations, and new opportunities that arise in order to advance their careers.
Conducting an Honest Skills Assessment
You must be aware of your current abilities and their relation to your career goals before you develop your development plan. This evaluation procedure needs personal reflection and outside feedback to determine strengths to be used and gaps to be filled.
Start by taking an inventory of your technical skills, soft skills and leadership skills. Be precise as to what level of proficiency you have in each of these areas and how these skills are relevant to your present role effectiveness. This baseline evaluation can assist you in getting to know what you have to offer and what you have to develop.
Ask your colleagues, supervisors and mentors what your strengths and areas of improvement are in your professional life. Ask questions relating to your communication style, problem-solving ability and how you work with others. Outside opinions can help to identify blind spots that are not possible to detect using self-assessment.
Study the skills and qualifications needed to be in positions you want to be in. Research job descriptions, talk to people in those jobs, and determine the skills that make the best performers in your target jobs. This prospective analysis assists you to comprehend the difference between the present capabilities and future needs.
You might want to take formal personality tests or consult a career coach to learn more about your personality, work style and innate abilities. The tools are able to show patterns and preferences that can guide your development priorities and career direction.
Setting SMART Development Goals
Personal development needs to have clear and measurable objectives that will make one accountable and allow one to track the progress. General goals such as, “enhance leadership ability,” are not clear enough to take meaningful action and track success.
Narrow down the broad areas of development to individual and practical goals. Rather than, become a better communicator, make a goal such as; deliver three presentations to senior leadership by year end to improve executive communication skills. This particularity can assist you in finding practical steps and resources that will ensure success.
To make your goals quantifiable you need to set up specific success criteria. This may involve the completion of certain certifications, attainment of certain feedback ratings or attainment of certain performance measures. Quantifiable objectives will help you monitor the progress and change tactics accordingly.
Make achievable schedules that are ambitious and practical. Certain skills can be honed in a short period of time with intense practice, whereas others take months or years of practice. Knowledge of these timelines assists you to plan your development activities in an orderly manner.
Tether your development goals to your general career expectations and organizational needs. Multi-purpose goals, which improve your skills and solve workplace problems, are supported more and can be perceived as more effective.
Creating Your Learning and Development Strategy
After determining your priorities in development, develop an overall strategy that will integrate several learning styles. Various skills need various development techniques and a diverse approach allows you to remain interested and also ensures maximum learning.
They have definite credentials, and they are designed, formal training and certification programs. Consider whether a graduate degree, professional certification or special training program would provide you with a significant boost in your career. Compare the time, cost and opportunity costs of each of the options.
Take up challenging projects and stretch assignments where you have to use and build on new skills. Join cross-functional teams, suggest new ways of solving organizational problems or ask to take on tasks that are not in your comfort zone. Application learning can be more effective as compared to classroom learning.
Identify mentors and sponsors that will offer guidance and feedback and advocate on your career. Good mentoring relationships can open your eyes to new ways of thinking, guide you through the organizational politics and can fast track your learning process. Think of structured mentoring relationships as well as informal relationships with those you consider role models.
Belong to professional associations, attend conferences in your industry and other networking events that grow your knowledge and contacts. Such actions can help you stay up to date with the industry trends and develop relationships that can help you grow in the long term.
Developing Emotional Intelligence for Leadership Success
Studies have continued to demonstrate that emotional intelligence is the major contributor to career success as opposed to technical skills. The more you progress in your career, the more important your capacity to recognize and cope with emotions, both personal and of others is to effective leadership.
There are four fundamental competencies of emotional intelligence that have a direct influence on professional performance; they are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Emotionally intelligent professionals are more likely to earn more, grow quicker and develop stronger professional relationships compared to technically skilled but emotionally naive professionals.
Begin practicing self-awareness by noticing how you feel in response to events during the working day. Maintain a short journal recording scenarios that cause intense emotional responses and record what occurred, how you felt and how you reacted. The practice will assist you in discovering patterns and gaining more control over your emotions.
Be an active listener and empathetic in your day-to-day workplace communication. Listen to everything that the other people are saying and not to the preparation of your response. Be able to understand and react to the emotional state of others and vary your communication style in accordance with their needs and preferences.
Develop your skill of handling stress and pressure at work. Learn to develop positive coping mechanisms, identify the red flags that indicate your emotions are becoming overwhelmed, and learn techniques to manage your emotions so that you are able to respond to difficult situations, rather than react.
Building Strategic Relationships and Networks
There is hardly any case of career advancement taking place in a vacuum. The development of strategic relationships in your organization and industry opens opportunities, offers valuable knowledge and leads to advocacy of your professional development.
Take time to learn the working styles, communication preferences and career ambitions of your colleagues. Emotionally intelligent professionals develop a sincere interest in the success of others and seek to find a means of reciprocating and assisting one another.
Connect with people outside your immediate work place. Go to industry conferences, industry professional groups, and follow industry thought leaders on social media and professional websites. Through these wider networks, you are opened to new opportunities and alternative career development views.
Build contacts with people of different ranks in their careers, including peers and top managers. Both types of relationships have varying advantages: peers will be supportive and will offer collaboration opportunities, senior leaders will be able to mentor and advise.
Give before you take in your professional relations. Provide good information, introduce people to one another and be helpful when people are in need. This magnanimous attitude develops goodwill and a network of individuals who are ready to help your career growth.
Measuring Progress and Adjusting Your Plan
Evaluation and revision will make your personal development plan up-to-date and efficient as your career changes. Establish review intervals to assess your progress, to celebrate success and to adjust your strategy according to the new knowledge and evolving conditions.
Track your progress in regard to quantitative and qualitative outcomes. Recorded certifications, skills assessment and performance improvement and feedbacks by co-workers and supervisors on your professional development.
Be ready to change your plan as you learn more about your interests, strengths and realities of the career market. What appeared to be significant during the first steps of your development path may not be so important anymore, as you find new interests or stumble upon new opportunities.
Reward yourself and give yourself credit on what you have accomplished. Growth takes time and in order to keep yourself motivated to learn and grow, it is important to realize that you have grown.
Think about having a coach or a mentor who can give you objective views on the progress of your development and help you through the challenges or decisions on your career path.
Your Path Forward: Taking Action on Development
The production of a personal development plan is not the end-all. This will take determination, daily action, and the willingness to take risks and go after growth opportunities even when they seem difficult or daunting.
Begin by identifying one to two development priorities based on your assessment and develop concrete actions that you will take over the next 90 days. Do not attempt to tackle all the areas of development at the same time but focus on one area. This is a concentrated approach that is cumulative and has visible outcomes.
Block out time to do development activities the same way you would any other critical professional task. It could be reading industry publications, practicing new skills, having developmental conversations with mentors, or any other effort, but the compounding effect of a consistent effort will ultimately pay off.
Personal development is not a competition, you should keep in mind. The most successful professionals keep their eye on personal development and growth through the course of their careers, and they adjust their style accordingly as they embrace new challenges and responsibilities. The time you spend on self development now will reap benefits in your career.
