Creating A Development Plan.

Creating Your Development Plan.

Your development plan doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to help you ‘stretch’ while balancing your day job.

What is a ‘development plan’?

A development plan is a plan to grow. It doesn’t need to be complex: all it needs to outline is what you want to do more of, or do differently, to help you get where you want to in your career.

In many workplaces, you’ll have the opportunity to create your own development plan and how your existing job can play a small step in that direction.

What’s the deal?

Depending on your workplace, a development plan is typically created in four steps. As an employee, you’re responsible for driving this process (your boss won’t make you do it, so the ball is really in your court here - go get it!).

The process typically looks like this:

• You do a self assessment on where you can grow.

• You outline ideas on how you could make this happen (while balancing your day job).

• You then ask your boss for feedback and ideas to create your game plan.

• You agree on a game plan with your manager.

Your boss’ role is to be a ‘sounding board’, helping you be realistic (in that you can do this in addition to your day job!) and honest, by sharing feedback on the skills they see you benefitting from developing.

Where do I start?

Before you start, laser out on the big picture. Ask yourself honestly, ‘What do I want my career to provide me in my lifetime?’

This question helps you step away from the nitty gritty and actually ask yourself ‘What’s in it for me?. From here, it’s that much easier to make a development plan and be motivated by it. Here are a few examples:

In my lifetime, I want my career to provide:

• Intellectual stimulation.

• A sense of purpose.

• Security for my future.

• Pathway to financial freedom.

• To learn and grow.

When you’re clear on what your ‘end game’ is, you can retro-fit your development plan to that goal.

What if I don’t know what my career goals are?

You don’t need to have that clarity to create your development plan. For this exercise, all you need to do is ask yourself one question: ‘What role would I like my career to play in my lifetime?’ And, ‘What skill or expertise will help me achieve this?’

Creating your plan.

Ever heard the saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’? The same is true for your job.

Outline what already works well for you in your current role. This paints a picture of what doesn’t need to change, before looking at ways to build on it. It’s also a valuable element of your Confidence Equation, by extracting evidence of a job well done!

Examples might include:

• BAU (Business As Usual) activities.

• Projects I enjoy managing.

• Relationships that are working well.

• How well I adapt to change and welcome change.

Where can you ‘stretch’?

You just have one question to ponder next: ‘What areas can I stretch in, to keep relevant in my role/career?’

An excellent place to start is your existing job description. Getting our competencies and skills in our existing job is a great way to help us limit our focus on excellence where we are while also setting ourselves up for our future.

One way you might do this is by doing a ‘self evaluation. What do you need, right now, to be successful in your existing role? Or, to be considered for a future role, what might you need to have experience or an understanding of?

Examples might include:

• Knowing about the latest developments in my industry.

• Growing technical or digital expertise.

• Relationships that are important in this workplace.

• Developing my communication skills.

This framing helps us keep up to date with our skills (even if no ‘future opportunity’ is immediately on the horizon). Slowly, those edits add up.

Having the conversation with your manager.

You might secretly hope your manager doesn’t have any feedback. Instead of worrying what that could look like, I urge you to think of it as ‘gathering data’. You get to decide what data is relevant for you and you can’t grow if you don’t know, right?

Book a time with your leader to ask:

• What are your observations of my self assessment?

• What are your views on areas for development?

What’s possible here?

In this conversation, you and your boss can also answer the questions of ‘what’s possible here?’ This helps you understand the business priorities, your boss’s priorities and laser in to how you developing this area helps the business.

If it doesn’t help the business, that’s okay. All it needs is a little finessing between you both to find a skill development that helps your role and the business. Sometimes there are external factors that influence this, and this convo is where you are able to clarify what is realistic, what is feasible, and what is possible in your workplace.

One thing in, two things out.

When we learn new things, we underestimate how much time we need to absorb and embed these learnings, even if they’re relatively small.

So, if you’re adding 5% more to your workload in your plan, you’ll need to chat to your boss about what 5% you can swap it out for. Bosses reading this - this will actually help your team member prioritise the ruthlessly important tasks. You’ll both be better off!

It’s the small wins that add up.

By now, you might have quite a few ideas on things you’d love to prioritise. Here’s the pro tip: choose one. Yep, just one to start with.

Think of it like ‘adding 5%’ to your existing workload.

When we’re excited to start something new, we underestimate how long it will take. It’s a phenomenon called planning fallacy. If you want to see results, limiting your focus is the way to do it. (If you struggle with overcommitting, remember this: you can always add more later!).

5% doesn’t sound like a lot, does it. But, over 12 months, it can really add up to a completely new skill set. It’s all about small stretches, over time.

Celebrate the wins.

You’re all set up. What’s next?

It’s time to monitor and celebrate your successes! By creating a reflection practice, you can capture learning milestones and share these outcomes with your boss.

Simply diarise monthly, or quarterly, reflections on what you’re noticing and how you’re progressing. Share these observations with your boss and open the conversation on what you’re learning.

When you share what you’re learning, you’re so much more likely to retain it. And if you find yourself achieving those goals months in advance? Time to celebrate and … find your next opportunity to stretch.