11 tips For an Individual Professional Development

An individual development plan is key to achieving career goals. If you haven't any, it is difficult to make higher career positions.

We advise you to discuss and prescribe an individual development plan with your senior officer. In this case, the program should consider the goals set before the structural unit. If the company doesn't provide annual professional development plans, you can prepare this list yourself or through certified professional resume writers.

 

An individual development plan is a list of actions that can help you achieve your professional development goals.

This plan is:

• A tool for building and developing careers
• A tool of motivation
• A way to increase the level of expert knowledge
• A way to increase loyalty to the company

 

The list of development tools includes:

1. Training/Seminars/Workshops
2. Mentoring
3. Participation in projects
4. Internship
5. Performing additional tasks

 

To make a successful individual plan for professional development, here are several tips to follow:

 

The plan should include the following sections:

• Goals for next year
• Competencies that you need to develop to achieve your goals
• The sequence of actions you need to take to achieve your goals
• Criteria for evaluating the achievement of goals
• Date of realization of the set goals
• The time of the next individual development planning

 

Summarize your previous career plan, and if you didn't, then remember what was done in the last year:

• What has been achieved?
• What helped in the achievement?
• What do you need to work on next year?
• What topical goals you have not met can be postponed to next year?
• What method and form of training were most productive this year?

 

Plan with your senior officer and consider the following:

• Which goal will you be proud of at the end of next year?
• How can a company help you achieve this goal?
• To what extent are you satisfied with the result of your work?
• What needs to be changed in behavior?

 

Define SMART goals, and they should be: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, which significantly speeds up and improves the quality of achievement.

 

Tip #5

Divide complex and global goals into more straightforward, more comfortable to achieve. This way, you will see that even the most complicated goals are achievable.

 

Identify competencies that will help you.

 

Divide Competencies into Groups:

• hard skills (for example, knowledge of logistics, programming, bookkeeping)
• soft skills (persuasion skills, negotiation, teamwork, leadership)
• product knowledge
• knowledge of foreign languages

 

Evaluate the resources needed to implement the plan:

1. Time
2. Finances
3. People

 

Review the plan every 2-3 months for its relevance.

 

Ask the leader for feedback on the results of the planned actions. Feedback is an opportunity to adjust your behavior as needed and an opportunity to develop.

 

Make a career plan in the following stages:

• For the trial period, if you have just joined the company
• After the end of the trial period
• Once a year after the evaluation of the previous plan
• Search for a new job if you need a career change