THE IMPERATIVE OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

  Employees that gradually develop their skills and abilities through personal development are valuable to their organisations. The era of relying absolutely on the employer as the sole driver of employee training and retraining is gone. You are the architect of your destiny. Job security is no longer certain in the workplace of today. You must invest personally on gaining those capabilities that are crucial to your marketability for future jobs and opportunities.

Investment towards self-development is a worthwhile investment. Organisations have high demand for people with the capacity to hit the ground running from day one on the job. It takes investment on self-development to fit into this expectation.

Experience over the years has taught employers never to expect that their key employees have come to stay with them for as long as they wanted them to stay. Employers today are fully aware that their competitors are out there to compete not only in terms of product, service and market share but also on talents.

 Star employees invest extensively on self-development. This investment must be strategically made for it to be beneficial in the long run. It must focus on bridging core skill gaps as well as on acquiring the capacity to deliver superior performance now and in the future.

The strategies enumerated below if well marshalled can lead to a result oriented self-developmental effort.

Personal Skill Inventory

The first step in bridging individual and organisational skill gap is to clearly identify and understand the various skills needed to get the job done efficiently and effectively.

You must analyse your current skills and knowledge in order to identify the areas where improvement is needed. You could introduce a self-directed 360 degree performance management system to understand how others perceived you in terms of your competencies and shortcomings. This is necessary for you to channel your training and development effort on those areas where real improvement is needed.

Benchmark Global Competency for the Position

The world is now a global village. Irrespective of where you work or reside, you can actually benchmark your current skills and knowledge with that of the incumbents in leading companies across the globe.  Think some of the fortune 500 companies.

You can also benchmark the skills and knowledge of the job incumbent of the leading companies in your country, industry and market. Leading competitors should be benchmark as well.

Identify Available Options

Once you have identified the areas where improvement is most needed, the next move is to identify the most effective options available for you to close the gaps.

It is important to identify and list out the various learning and development intervention options at your disposal in terms of cost and benefit analysis. Coaching, mentoring, on the job and off the job training options must be closely looked into. You must attend seminars, workshops and symposium where you can garner quality knowledge and exposure capable of closing all identified skill gaps on time. You may need to consult the training calendar of leading training and consulting firms in your country and globally.

Obtain necessary Certification

Getting necessary certification is essential. In addition to your years of experience, level of exposure and competency on the job, certification is essential for anybody to take you serious.

Certification is important in professions such as Accountancy, Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Human Resources, Project Management, Information Technology and Engineering. Get certified in your chosen field.

Get Role Models

Role models are individuals with those qualities we admire. They are people we aspire to pattern our life after. Get to know them closely. Imbibe their positive traits.

Learn all you can about them. Read about them. Get to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Take advantage of their strengths and overcome their challenges.  

Read Wide

Readers are potential leaders. Reading exposes people to the world around them. Essential skills, knowledge and capabilities could be acquired through reading. There are good books in all professional fields you can think about. Identify the leading and influential personalities in your chosen field and read their works.

Read biography of successful individuals across the globe. Biography is a good source of information regarding the various challenges of life and how we can overcome them. Professional journals are excellent sources of getting expert knowledge and opinion about one’s chosen field or profession. Leading journals are available in Engineering, Medicine, Finance, Management, Human Resources and Information Technology. All leading professions have specific journals. You must cultivate the habit of reading trade journals.

Newspapers and Magazines are also available for information about the happenings around us. Cultivate the habit of reading something new daily.  Internet is a huge source of information for avid readers. You may subscribe to any of the several online libraries for a fee. Library subscription is good for those who are hungry for knowledge.

Have a Realistic Annual Training Budget

We need to have annual training budget because our wants are numerous while the means to satisfy these wants are limited in supply.

A certain percentage of your annual or monthly income should go for self-development. Never leave your training and development solely in the hand of the employer. Take charge of your life. The world we live in today is a world where information is fast becoming obsolete, almost immediately. You can’t afford to be left behind.

Make a yearly budget for seminars, workshops and trainings. You must also have budget for book acquisition. You must cultivate the habit of buying at least a book in two months; this will add at least six good books to your personal library in a year.

A professional without a personal library is not serious about self-development. It’s never too late. Start now. Buy a book today.