While there are tons of internal and external resources to help you build your personal development plan, the only person who should be creating it is you. If not, you become subject to the whim and inherent biases of others. They may mean well, but it is your career, your plan.
You do have a plan, right?
The difference between who you are now and whom you want to become is a process of self-development. The purpose of a Personal Developmental Plan is to detail what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do it. It is a workable plan that fits your particular needs and reflects your career development.
A self-made plan guides your development in the right direction.
Preparing the plan increases your awareness.
Working the plan puts you in charge of your career.
You might consider development in one or more of the following areas:
- Become more knowledgeable in a specific area.
- Improve current job performance.
- Make your work more challenging and/or interesting.
- Personal growth.
- Prepare for a job change.
- Acquire new skills.
Find three or four development areas that you consider beneficial to your career, keeping in mind long-term and short-term goals. The following questions will assist you.
- In what areas do you need to learn, improve, understand and/or grow to fulfill your potential?
- Success builds on success. What can you further enhance to achieve excellence?
- What results do you want to create? How will you be more skillful, learned or knowledgeable when you have completed this process?
- What resources are available to you? (Search for resources that will give you the greatest value for the time and energy spent.)
- What kind of action is appropriate to your goals? Will your method really give you what you want? Carefully select the method that will fulfill your need
- When will you start and by what date will you complete your plan? A someday plan might work, someday. You want a plan that works in the present.
Answers to these questions will guide your thinking and increase your career awareness.
Next, you can draft Your Personal Development Plan. It contains eight areas and should fit on one sheet of paper or fill your screen without scrolling.
1. Assessment Summary – Identify your most critical job-related strengths and development needs.
2. Career Objectives – Record your potential interests and/or career objectives for the future.
3. Developmental Objectives – List specific development objectives that will enable you to better perform your current job or to prepare for a position of potential future interest.
4. Activities Required – Capture what actions are to be taken and by whom.
5. Define Measurement – Decide how you will know when you’ve met your objectives.
6. Completion Target Date – Designate the month or quarter of the anticipated completion date for each action.
7. Resources – Explore the resources available to you.
8. Status – Record your current progress
Remember, ultimately the person responsible for guiding your career should always be you. You decide, in advance how, when and where to take specific actions that will lead you to your desired destination. Successful people do not wait for others to ask.
