Professional Continuous Improvement Cycle
Today it’s imperative that you are continuously learning. In rapidly evolving industries like internet marketing it’s critical that you not only stay abreast of strategic and tactical developments in the industry, you also need to address your own professional developmental needs to insure that you not only maintain but increase your value to your employer, remaining sharp and marketable. But how do you prioritize and focus your efforts?
There are 3 priorities for your professional development that I would recommend regardless of your career path.
- Identifying current professional development needs
- For the role you hold today
- Identifying future professional development needs
- For your next career move
- Keeping current
- Industry trends, tactics and best practices
- Business and competitive philosophy and strategy
- Industry relevant economic research and trends
- Industry relevant consumer research and behavioral trends
It is very common for people to move into different functional areas as their careers develop. Even if you remain in the same department for your entire career there is nothing more valuable then someone who knows their job, can demonstrate transferable skills, offer cross-functional insight and is knowledgeable about topics that have direct impact on the broader business. That’s a person I want to promote.
Current Developmental Needs
I would begin with your most recent employee review and work with your line-manager to identify three developmental areas that you can focus on to improve in the coming year. I would formalize objectives and deliverables that both tie into the organizational objectives but also stretch your skill in the developmental areas you’ve identified.
If your organization doesn’t include professional development in your review process then engage your manager in the dialogue anyway and take it upon yourself to close the developmental gaps. One tool that I would strongly recommend is the Lominger, For Your Improvement (FYI) book and their Leadership Architect Sort Cards. The card set is an invaluable aid in gap analysis. I’ve learned a great deal from these materials. Lominger also offers an excellent Architect Suite of professional development tools that I would highly recommend for any HR organization.
Future Developmental Needs
As you contemplate your career advancement, begin to identify the skills you will need to be successful in that future role. One way to do this is to talk to people who hold the role you aspire to and ask them what competencies have made them successful in that role. Then use Lominger’s FYI to understand the skilled use of those competencies, how to remedy common problems and identify additional resources.
You can also ask a senior manager to be a coach or mentor and help you develop your career. If a mentoring relationship isn’t possible simple observation can also help identifying traits that distinguish successful people. Nevertheless dialogue and observation will help you identify competencies and define gaps.
Keeping Current
Because there are so many resources available to keep current I think it’s more important to be very selective about the quality and relevance of the content you consume. You could read dozens of books a year; thousands of blog posts; hundreds of research documents; read the NY Times cover to cover every day and not take one step to embrace or apply what you’ve learned. It’s like eating and never leaving the dinner table. It’s your choice, fat, lethargic and irrelevant or healthy, alert and insightful! Who do you want as your coworker?
Application
So you’ve identified some gaps, how are you going to fill them? While many employers will pay for a certain amount of training annually, unless your on a fast-track, it is not likely that they will pay for future skill development. So focus on immediate skill needs with your current employer. Outside of your current job you need to make a commitment to a professional continuous improvement cycle. Small steps will lead to big steps. Resources abound for investing in your continuous improvement from reading professional journals, going to conferences, even going back to college. I’d like to remind you of some of the non-traditional online resources available. Here’s my short list:
- Online Universities
- Podcasts & your iPod
- Audio Books – ITunes, Audible.com, Amazon’s Kindle
- Professional Webinars
- Industry Blogs using an aggregator like Google Reader
It may seem difficult to add professional development to the existing demands on your time. Yet, online universities can provide you with an outstanding education that’s flexible to your schedule. Many of us are reclaiming time wasted commuting, sitting in airports, overnights in a hotel, workouts at the club, or simply doing chores by using our iPods. Yes it may mean sacrificing some of the music on your Nano for an audio book or podcast but it’s worth it. For webinars I frequently wait for the recorded version of a live daytime event to get posted so it doesn’t conflict with my regular workday.
As you begin this new learning discipline you’ll want to think in terms of synthesis. How can I apply this to optimize my current skills or role? How can these ideas be rearranged and combined into solutions that will contribute to the success for my current business situation? Let those thoughts simmer a little and if your new insight is as profound as you think, it will be just as profound weeks if not months later. And probably much better thought-out by then!
I’ll be adding a list of the most influential resources I’ve experienced for your reference to my Blogroll and a Recommended Reading tab. I’d love to hear about other resources you’ve found valuable.
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