A key leadership competency is self-awareness, the ability to understand what makes you tick as well as your strengths and weaknesses. An important adjunct to this is taking responsibility for one’s own learning experiences to help develop the skills to lead others and excel at work. That’s why everyone should have a personal development plan in addition to the more typical performance plans, which are focused on work-related outcomes rather than learning.
Professional development does not consist simply of attending discrete events such as workshops and seminars. Rather, it also should be a set of on-going activities including the following:
- reading articles and books related to learning goals
- networking with peers in other organizations
- seeking performance feedback from superiors, peers, and mentors
Follow these six steps to develop a plan that you can follow to enhance your knowledge in your field:
- Learning goal: Identify a learning goal for each competency or skill that you want to build. These are the
