Recent trends suggest that pressure on corporate profits has led to sometimes extreme expense controls. Controlling expenses too aggressively not only stresses out the workforce; it also can result in companies limiting their expenditures on training and development for their employees.
No matter what your position is within your company, don’t assume that your superiors will closely monitor, take a strong interest in, or offer to contribute to your development. You might need to take charge of your own professional development, even if it means using some of your evenings, weekends, or vacation time to participate in developmental activities.
This article suggests many ways in which employees can self-educate. Don’t be scared away by the extensiveness of these recommendations. The advice in this article can and should be staged over time. Much of it will be most relevant after you have been on the job for a couple of years or longer.
The list of suggestions is long and includes many strategies I followed during my career, but certainly not within my first year or two of employment. If you attempt to develop your skills too quickly, you risk burning out—or worse, sacrificing the attentiveness you need to give to your primary job responsibilities.
Nonetheless, it is extremely important to be aware of areas in which you need development and to articulate a plan to address them. Your plan should indicate an expected timetable for these pursuits. You will need to review and revise your initial plan often because your work situation will most likely change, and you might need to modify it accordingly.
There is no cookie-cutter approach to development because it needs to be customized for your own work situation and specific needs. But, in general, here are the most important steps to take in your own self-development:
- Create a vision of where you want to be in five years.
- Develop a plan to achieve the necessary skills to help you get there.
- Track your progress against the plan.
- Review the plan regularly, and revise it as needed.
My Own Development Experience
I started my insurance career as an actuarial student at John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston. As an actuarial student, I was expected to achieve professional designations, which required passing an extremely difficult series of nine exams. Even though I was paid a salary, my primary day-to-day responsibility was to study for those exams while taking on occasional projects. For almost three years, I didn’t even know who my boss was, and I was rarely given any meaningful assignments. For some extended periods, I had no work assignments at all.
I was forced to find my own work and to take steps to develop myself. As it turns out, that was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It got me started down a path of self-development that led to much more gratification and success than if I had simply sat back and tried to enjoy being paid to do almost nothing, other than study for professional examinations.
I will share with you the kinds of things I found useful in my self-development, not only early in my career, but throughout my career.
Development Tips in Four Broad Categories
In this article, I have identified some development tips in broad categories. You may already be proficient in some of these areas, so try to identify those that will aid you the most in achieving your vision. Build your plan with a timetable around those areas of greatest and most urgent need.
Here are the four categories I will cover. Categories #1 & #2 will be in part 1 of this blog and categories #3 & #4 in part two of this blog to follow next week.
- Adjust your mind-set.
- Increase your productivity.
- Remain current in your field of expertise.
- Hone your people skills.
Let’s look at the first two of these categories in detail.
Adjust Your Mind-Set
Develop a Growth Mentality
Recognize that you will either stagnate at your current level, or you will accept the challenge and effort required to grow and develop. Commit to doing what it takes to enable your own professional growth.
Recognize that this will be a lifelong learning process, and view minor setbacks as learning experiences, as opposed to failures. I always learned from my mistakes, and I believe I developed more rapidly as a result of those mistakes. Don’t be afraid to take risks, accept difficult challenges, and even make some mistakes.
Define Your Success Based on Your Beliefs and Values
Go through the exercise of identifying your core beliefs and values. With those in mind, it will be much easier for you to determine what truly makes you happy and how you will get there. And this will greatly facilitate the establishment of your future development plan. Identify what you believe will define success for you professionally in five years.
Be Willing to Take on New Challenges
Much of your development will involve your existing areas of expertise and job responsibilities and may be somewhat limited to your own close circle of associates. But be prepared to step out of your comfort zone, particularly if you are asked to serve on an interdepartmental project or task force.
Such an assignment might seem risky or difficult, but the upside is that you will meet new colleagues, expand your network, and probably gain a better understanding of how things work at the company. I always welcomed and even sought such opportunities.
Take Initiative on Your Own Behalf
Be proactive in taking the initiative to make your professional growth a priority. Don’t hesitate to periodically ask your supervisor or manager for the following:
- Feedback on how you’re doing
- How you can improve
- Steps he or she thinks you can take to grow and develop
This does not have to wait for an annual performance review, but certainly ask these questions at least annually. Be sure to phrase the questions in a way that indicates your desire to better support the mission and vision of the company. Then work hard to demonstrate your commitment to making those improvements.
Increase Your Productivity
Improve Your Time Management
If you already feel overworked (and my guess is, you do), then it might seem impossible to dedicate time to self-development. Delegating tasks to others is one effective way to deal with this, but you might not currently be in a management role that allows you to delegate.
One obvious way to improve productivity while demonstrating your commitment to the company is to spend more time in the office. However, that is not what I have in mind regarding a way to improve your time management. If you are honest with yourself, you might have more down time than you realize. You might be dealing with personal matters during working hours, and you might not be addressing the most important tasks with the priority they deserve.
According to a web survey by America Online and Salary.com, the average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per day, not counting lunch. Over the course of a year (and even after accounting for time that employers expect to be wasted), that adds up to $759 billion in salaries—in the United States only—for which companies receive no apparent benefit. Nearly 45 percent of the 10,044 employee respondents indicated that the number one way they waste time at work is personal internet use (email, IM, online polls, interactive games, message boards, chat rooms, etc.). Socializing with coworkers was the second most prevalent form of wasting time at work (23.4 percent of respondents). Conducting personal business, “spacing out,” running errands, and making personal phone calls were other prevalent workplace time-wasting activities.
Managers don’t expect you to work at your full capacity all the time; however, most will notice when people are slacking off. To fast-start your career, be known as one of the team members who is highly productive.
Prioritize
Whether or not you are able to delegate, prioritize your assignments. Focus on those that are most important, while eliminating or deferring others that are less important.
Throughout your career, you’ll be confronted with competing tasks that require your attention. As your workload increases, it might seem impossible to accomplish everything. I often said to my employees, “We can do anything, but we can’t do everything.”
What I have observed over and over again in businesses is how difficult it is to stop doing something that has always been done in the past, even if it is totally unnecessary. There are many approaches to improving efficiency. A few examples are to use productivity tools such as apps and software and to redesign processes.
When your work is piling up and there’s not enough time to do it all, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. One simple way to tame your growing list of priorities is to write them all down or type them into your computer or phone. Then rank them according to their urgency and importance. If someone is expecting a project by a certain time, that has to come first. If you have a project that will take only an hour to finish and another will take an entire day, finish the shorter project first. Large-scale projects can seem overwhelming if you try to finish them all at once. Break them down into chunks, and finish some of the work each day.
Maintain a “To-Do” List
I know it might sound old-fashioned, but I always relied heavily on daily to-do lists to help me prioritize projects and allocate my time. Listing all assignments in writing also allowed me to determine the priority I should give to each task. There are many software packages and apps on the market that can help you set up your to-do list format.
You will be surprised at how much more you can accomplish. You will derive a lot of satisfaction from watching your productivity improve as you update your daily list and realize how many things you are accomplishing.
To ground myself in what’s most important and to help me set priorities, every Friday evening, I would identify the top few tasks that I felt must be done in the following week. You’ll find that this brings a sense of closure to the current week and sets you up for a running start to the subsequent week. This simple practice will also enhance your enjoyment of the weekend and your ability to get good nights’ rest over the weekend.
Whether you jot down your to-do list in a notebook or type it on your computer or phone, the simple act of making the list can be motivating. Dr. Tim Pychyl, an expert in the area of procrastination research, says you will feel an immediate sense of accomplishment simply by writing down all the tasks you would like to complete, without completing any one of them. This is because your brain will simulate the success you would like to feel.
Some experts warn against writing vague, one-word tasks on your to-do list. The tasks should be specific. David Allen, who is considered a to-do-list guru, suggests writing your task down as actions. This will prevent you from using nonspecific terms when making your list. For example, instead of writing “Start and finish research for Tim,” word the first task necessary for that project as, “Do a journal article search using the terms XYZ.” Every time you write down a new to-do, Allen suggests asking yourself, “What is step number one to get this task done?” Step No. 1 becomes your new to-do.
See part 2 of this blog for the remaining two categories of advice for taking charge of your own professional development.