Friday, 18 May 2007
What Gets in The Way of Good Development Discussions?
What Development Means. Self-Development means being personally committed to and actively working to continuously improve yourself. It means understanding that different situations and levels may call for different skills and approaches. It means using your strengths and working on weaknesses and limits.
If you are passionate about self-development, you seize on-the-job opportunities and get involved in a variety of activities to maximize development. You seek to learn new information about your profession on a regular basis. You ask for formal and informal feedback to better understand and overcome weaknesses. You know your strengths well and continually maintain and use them to advantage.
At work you ideally keep your skills current. Your read up and keep in touch with in-house and industry experts. You attend appropriate training activities and accept on-the-job challenges that stretch abilities. You are aware of development needs and are willing to work on areas that require improvement.
Why Development Discussions Aren't Easy. Development discussions are not always easy to accomplish. Being aware of the following factors that lead to unsuccessful discussions, or keep discussions from occurring, will help you avoid pitfalls.
Constructive Criticism is Difficult to Hear. You may not feel comfortable receiving constructive criticism. However, it is important to listen to what you manager has to say, get specific behavioral examples of improvements needed, and be open to reassessing your opinion.
"Nothing in it for Me" You may feel not rewarded for focusing on development. In the drive to accomplish results, too much emphasis is sometimes placed on current results and not enough on the kinds of skills you will need in the future.
Lack of Time and Dedication. Development takes time and dedication on both your part and your manager's part. Often the time needed for this is difficult to find because of the pressure to "get things done." As a result employees often don't pursue or seek out challenge or change. As a result plans often don't contain an adequate level of detail. Nonetheless, the including discussions, plans and resulting activities are important to the long-term success of your organization.
If you are passionate about self-development, you seize on-the-job opportunities and get involved in a variety of activities to maximize development. You seek to learn new information about your profession on a regular basis. You ask for formal and informal feedback to better understand and overcome weaknesses. You know your strengths well and continually maintain and use them to advantage.
At work you ideally keep your skills current. Your read up and keep in touch with in-house and industry experts. You attend appropriate training activities and accept on-the-job challenges that stretch abilities. You are aware of development needs and are willing to work on areas that require improvement.
Why Development Discussions Aren't Easy. Development discussions are not always easy to accomplish. Being aware of the following factors that lead to unsuccessful discussions, or keep discussions from occurring, will help you avoid pitfalls.
Constructive Criticism is Difficult to Hear. You may not feel comfortable receiving constructive criticism. However, it is important to listen to what you manager has to say, get specific behavioral examples of improvements needed, and be open to reassessing your opinion.
"Nothing in it for Me" You may feel not rewarded for focusing on development. In the drive to accomplish results, too much emphasis is sometimes placed on current results and not enough on the kinds of skills you will need in the future.
Lack of Time and Dedication. Development takes time and dedication on both your part and your manager's part. Often the time needed for this is difficult to find because of the pressure to "get things done." As a result employees often don't pursue or seek out challenge or change. As a result plans often don't contain an adequate level of detail. Nonetheless, the including discussions, plans and resulting activities are important to the long-term success of your organization.
Posted by at 12:00 PM in Performance Tips
