Professional Development During Pandemic: Focus. Plan. Do!

I was a new grad during the 1990’s recession. Termed the jobless recovery, my first corporate job was leading workshops for leaders, engineers and professionals who needed to shift their skills during this economic crisis. I was fortunate to have met my career-long mentor Bruce Griffiths, I/O Psychologist, and President of Organizational Systems International. My early career partnership with Bruce, I learned the art and science of building competency models, assessments; using these tools and strategies to develop strengths & new capabilities across all levels of the workforce. He nurtured and inspired my passion for developing leaders, teams, and organizations; key to my pathway into executive, professional and personal coaching today.

30 years on, I learn every day, through our partnership, collaboration and friendship. Today, we share our thoughts on developing yourself during the pandemic. While the pandemic creates a need to shift and pivot, perhaps more challenging than what we faced back in the 90’s, the concepts remain the same: narrow your focus, create a plan, and leverage strategies, tools, and champions around you to “do” and develop yourself. We share our 10 tips to drive your development:

Thoughts on Professional Development During the Pandemic: Focus. Plan. Do!

By Bruce Griffiths and Laurel Marshall

We noticed that for many of us this time quarantined at home has provided found time to devote to personal growth. But COVID-19, recession, and social unrest have certainly presented a host of challenges to clear thinking and thoughtful plans. To help reflect on best practice and compose this article we’ve enlisted the aid of coach, colleague, and friend, Laurel Marshall. We would also like to thank our Canadian comrade and strategic partner, Bob Power, for his read and review. The link to our complete article is below but here are the elements we agreed were absolutely essential to any good professional development plan.

1. FORMAL PLAN

Pull those great ideas out of your head and write them down. Science suggests we encode goals in our brain, create clarity, and are more likely to achieve success, when we write down our developmental focus, actions steps and other key elements. Winging it won’t work.

2. DIAGNOSE USING A COMPETENCY MODEL

Objective feedback using an ideal state as a template is needed to reliably identify a developmental need.

3. FOCUS

Choose only one or two specific areas to work on at a time. Focus and attention enable progress and behavior change.

4. IMAGINE A PREFERRED FUTURE

It’s a good idea to visualize perfect execution, i.e., create and rehearse a mental rendition of your new competence, what it looks and feels like. Create your preferred vision of successful performance.

5. SET GOAL

Goals, milestones, checkups along the way are absolutely necessary. They are touchstones to measure progress and alert your key supporters when it’s time for feedback.

6. IDENTIFY YOUR MOTIVE

“What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) and “how will I feel” when I achieve the goal is super important. You need persistent motivation to sustain development over time.

7. ENLIST A SUPPORT GROUP
It does take a village to grow. Having mentors, coaches, supporters on your team is important – for feedback, emotional support, and accountability. Enlist a Community of Champions; surround yourself with a team of accountability partners.

8. BUILD ACTION STEPS

To truly grow you need to take focused action, i.e., schedule formal learning (workshops/books/webinars/etc.), schedule on-the-job experiences (projects, skill practices, etc.), solicit feedback and coaching (mentors, coaches, colleagues, and friends).

9. LIST POSSIBLE OBSTACLES

It is important to stay positive and focus on building a new set of skills and habits, but the change literature suggests that identifying possible challenges in making the needed change can help in preparing to overcome them and manage expectations along the way. A growth mindset, focusing on ideas & solutions to overcoming obstacles is key!

10. CELEBRATE SUCCESS

Win every day! Recognize and acknowledge yourself for achieving small inspired actions toward achieving your desired state.

In sum, if you are truly serious about personal growth then you must be serious about planning to improve. This means putting in place a formal plan with accountability.

Click to read the full article here.