Taking Personal Responsibility For Your Development

It is now becoming a standard catch phrase that people must take personal responsibility for their development, but what does that really mean? If we do not take responsibility it means that we are leaving it to others to determine our development and therefore our future.

Taking personal responsibility for our development is not as simple as deciding the training courses in which to participate; it is so much more.

Perhaps the first step to determining our development requirements and making our development effective, is to determine some career goals. We should not set one career goal but several and these are best couched not in positions, but in the elements that you would like to have in a role.

For example, rather than being locked into a goal of being Global Dictator, your goals might be: to be able to exert great influence, to work at a strategic level, to lead large teams, to help shape the future. If we are stuck pursuing a position we may close ourselves off to exciting opportunities that come our way and it may end up in great disappointment should we not achieve that position.

What types of development opportunities are open to us?

They may include:

• formal qualifications
• training courses (both attending and presenting)
• work shadowing
• job assignments
• networking (formal and informal)
• reading (magazines/journals, books, web articles)
• writing articles
• seminars (both attending and presenting)
• discussions with people in the types of roles you aspire to
• coaching (as coach and coachee)
• mentoring (as mentor and mentee)
• conferences (both attending and presenting)
• keeping a reflective journal

Where might these opportunities exist?

Opportunities exist both within the organisations for which we work as well as outside the organisations for which we work.

Development opportunities within organisations.

In good organisations you will have access to a comprehensive range of learning and development (L&D) options. However, rather than just be told what activities to participate in, you should seek opportunities that support your career goals. These will include focussing on technical and non-technical (so-called soft skills) opportunities. Once again, these opportunities are far more than just the training programs on offer. Always seek opportunities such as those in the list above. Remember, although you are an employee in an organisation and undertaking tasks for the benefit of the organisation, you are still in control of the attainment of your career goals.

Development opportunities outside organisations.

In your career you may have periods of ‘between contracts.’ It is important at these times to maintain a focus on your development. Even when you are in employment, external opportunities should be explored. You may join an association and/or a formal network in your field; you may subscribe to journals, whether paper-based or web-based, a number of which are free; you may attend business breakfasts, not necessarily for the topic being spoken of but for the opportunity to meet people and network.

Remember

• You are responsible for your career, just as you are responsible for your life. If you are prepared to listen and to ask questions, I have always found people willing to give of their experience.
• Determine your career goals
• Regularly reflect upon your goals and if you need to modify them as you gain more experience, and how you might achieve them
• Think broadly about types of development opportunities – they exist every day
• Think broadly about where you might find those opportunities
• Be proactive. The world is full of people prepared to sit back and expect everything to come to them. Look around you and you will see them
• Don’t become obsessed with your goals. You do have a life. Becoming obsessed risks not being able to recognise opportunities that present themselves.

This article has been submitted by one of our readers.

Mark Beale, L&D Consultant