Are you prioritising your development?

We can take a lot of control over our own development and growth. It’s key to how we evolve and keep evolving, or not.

Alongside this personal drive, organisations need to support and guide development by investing in creating an environment where it's valued and sponsored. The organisations that create opportunities for development create opportunities for success.

Whether we turn those opportunities into growth is down to us individually. You'll have seen it, especially when you’re running development sessions for others. Everyone is getting the same input but not everyone does something with it.

So, how are you creating the time and space for your development and how are you taking action to grow? 

Here's a few ideas to help you prioritise your development and growth.

1.  Identify your focus areas for development.

Based on your current role and your future aspirations – where do you want to make progress?

Not sure what that might look like? Talk to people in the roles you’re interested in, look at job descriptions and identify people you admire.

What do they do, what is being asked for?

Now consider where you are against that and what you need to focus on to close the gap.

2. Don’t forget your strengths!

A great development plan should help you identify and focus on your strengths. In fact, I would encourage you to mainly focus on expanding your strengths as these can overcome or excel beyond your areas for improvement.

If you are not clear on your strengths – create time to reflect on things that are going well and how you are contributing to that. You can also ask others you trust to share what they see as your strengths.

3. Create a plan with goals for development.

Combine the outputs of 1 & 2 – what does this mean for you? What are the goals for your development?

Capture everything you want to achieve and then start exploring the actions to achieve these.

4. Engage with others to look at ways to achieve your goals

Whilst you are talking to people who do the work you’d like to do or in a way you would like to, ask them about their career path.

What development areas did they work on most and how they closed the gaps themselves?

Talk to people who you admire who demonstrate skills and behaviours that you are wanting to develop. How is it that they do or developed that?

These conversations will give you some ideas to focus on in your development plan. It may be those people can also help you through coaching and mentoring…don’t forget to ask them!

Get curious with the development areas you’ve identified – start reading, listen to audiobooks, watch YouTube and engage with posts on LinkedIn. There is plenty of inspiration out there.

5. Explore the right solutions for you - be creative, it doesn't have to be a course!

You might get asked what qualifications you have but the reality is, what you achieve and the impact you have is a result of how you are showing up and the skills you’ve developed.

You might do that through qualifications and a course, but you might not. If I think about my own career, I’ve taken a whole lot from qualifications and courses for my development but where I’ve gained most is in the flow of work – learning as I go, reflecting, and enhancing.

A combination of the two is a great way to go but don’t get fixated on qualifications or courses unless it is truly essential. There are loads of free or low-cost options, like watching clips, podcasts, or reading that can help you achieve your development goals and suit your preferred learning style.

Not sure of your own learning style, here’s something to help find out more.

6. Identify the actions.

Now that you’ve explored the development goals and heard from others – what actions will you want to take? Build them into your development plan and prioritise them. Which of these are short-term actions and longer-term actions?

This will give you a focus for your time. When looking at your actions, ensure you identify the desired outcome of those actions – what do you want to see because of it?

7. Protect time for your development plan.

You have to create the time to take action. By putting specific time into your calendar, you are setting a marker that it’s important to you and that you will create time for it.

You might not be able to complete it 100% of the time but if you put no time in at all you reduce the chances of achieving it.

Look for ways to make it enjoyable – can you go to your favourite coffee shop to read that book you’ve identified? Can you use other time productively, such as commuting by listening to a podcast?

8. Create time to reflect and review.

For you to keep connected to your development plan, allow yourself the time to assess the progress you are making. I’d also encourage you to assess how much you are enjoying it too!

Are you making progress with the goals you’ve identified and how is this impacting your growth?

Are the actions you identified helping you make progress, or do you need to try something different?

It may be helpful to get feedback on specifics to help you with this review process.

As with number 7 in this blog, make a deliberate meeting with yourself to review the plan and any changes you want to make. Keep evolving it, regularly, so it is serving you well.

I hope this inspires you to look at how you are prioritising your own development and that the steps suggested give you a structure to move forward.

I’d love to hear about any development tools you’ve used or currently use that have really helped you progress with your development goals. Please share them in the comments here or head to my LinkedIn page and share them there.

If you are looking for ideas to help with your development goals - why not explore the full Purple Sky Thinking Hub? I’d love to hear what you found most helpful!