What Am I Supposed To Do With a Development Plan?

Many businesses get their employees to sit down and write a “development plan.” A great opportunity in theory, in that we get to think about what our skills are, where we want to develop them more, where we would like to take our careers and then discuss all of this with our boss. Even if you don’t do this at all, I guess it is the same as writing down goals and new year’s resolutions. All great stuff, particularly because the research says that if we write a goal down there is an 80% increased probability that we will achieve them. I wrote my goals down for 2012 for the first time and was surprised to find that I achieved 75% of them (as a caveat they weren’t all that grandiose. One was to go to Waiheke and do a wine tasting).

The hard thing is, what on earth do you write? At first I found it hard to work out where to begin. Which is why completing my strengths profile has made that whole process much easier. Why I think this works is that it comes down to framing. Amanda Fleming, through her course “Essentially Speaking”, taught me this concept. She defined it as follows; “framing is used to describe the process of creating meaning for those who you are talking to. Given there are many ways to perceive the same event or circumstance, framing creates a way of looking at something. It helps create a perception that can ensure you and your audience are heading in the same direction. What people don’t understand they will make up - accurately or not - and what’s more you will not necessarily know if they are off track.”

Finding out your strengths (you can complete this at https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/Purchase/ and select the Strengths Discovery Package) gives you a tonne of language to be able to: describe what you are good at; and gives direction to set goals that amplify these even more. When I coach people, we talk a lot about how they can bring their strengths to life, and often set one objective around each of their Top 5 strength themes. Because your strengths are uniquely you, and are focused on what you naturally excel in, the goals are more likely to resonate and increase the chances of being achieved.

Once you have finally pulled something together, the best part is sitting with someone and discussing your plan. My view is that it is a great time to invest in you and you should ask this from either yourself or your boss. What training course would you like to do? What new project would you like to get involved in? And perhaps (if I could be bold enough to suggest), could work pay the USD $15 (or shout yourself) to complete your StrengthsFinder profile. And as a point of clarification I get no commission for saying this.