Personal development has been a focus in the business world for a number of years now. But when it comes to business and your career, professional development is equally important. Personal development is all about enhancing skills that can help you both inside and outside of the workplace. This is obviously still extremely important, but what about professional development?
Increasing your professional development skills means becoming the best you can be at your current role. It also requires some focus on your future career, because you’re looking to develop the professional skills to move to the next level. Sounds great in theory, right? But how do you go about it?
Here, we’re going to discuss some professional development tips for individuals and businesses. Are you ready to take the next step in your professional career?
What are Professional Development Courses?
Professional development courses cover a broad range of topics that are relevant in all types of industries. There’s a common misconception that professional development is just for office executives and professionals, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Professional training courses relate to any industry around the world. Some will be common for all types of careers, such as leadership courses. Project and time management courses are also going to be useful in most jobs. These courses will help you develop skills you can apply at any stage of your career, no matter where you work.
However, professional development courses can also be something specific to your industry. Builders may want to learn more about construction project management. A person in retail customer service may want to study retail management. Essentially, it’s all about setting yourself up to take that next step.
Remember, There’s No Right Way to Achieve Your Goals
Firstly, when you consider professional development, it’s important to remember there’s no right or wrong way to achieve your goals. Naturally, there are moral and ethical boundaries you may not want to cross to further your career. And certainly criminal boundaries you should stay away from! But when it comes to developing yourself professionally, everybody’s path is different.
For example, to get where you want to go in your career, the common view is you need to keep moving up. The fact is, you may need to do a bit of sideways movement before climbing. Let’s say you work in a business that has many departments. You may have worked in accounts, and you’ve moved into a management role in that department. In order to take the next step, you may need to manage the marketing area or spend time in the business strategy team.
Likewise, you may even need to leave your company altogether and start at a lower level in different business areas. While these sideways or even backward steps seem odd, they may be the best path for you to become the leader you want to be.
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Leading on from the previous point, it’s difficult to achieve real professional development without stepping outside of your comfort zone. Using the example of our accounts manager, finance is all they’ve ever known. So, the thought of moving to the marketing department is naturally going to be daunting. However, for their professional development, learning how a different department runs could be crucial to moving up into a higher management position.
Read also: How leaving your comfort zone can boost your career
This applies to all professional development. Sometimes it’s necessary to try something new in order to develop your skills. If you’re not a good public speaker, attending a course on presentation skills is just what you need. It might feel uncomfortable, but it’s a chance to fill one of your professional skill gaps and take you to the next level.
Embrace Professional Training Courses
There’s a saying that the best leaders never stop learning. There’s definitely some truth in that because you can never really learn too much. Professional training courses come in many shapes and sizes, and if you think of them as opportunities rather than chores, they can take you a long way.
From an employer’s perspective, you want well-trained staff, so you should never shy away from sending your people on courses to develop their professional skills. Some leaders are intimidated by people below them becoming too well-trained, for fear they will leave the company or even pose an internal threat to themselves. Ultimately, this way of thinking just harms the business.
Well-developed staff are happier, more productive, and deliver better results. It also ensures you have a range of suitable staff to step into roles as they become vacant.
Become a Master of Time Management
Time management is a skill that everybody should learn. This is one that helps in your personal life too, but in a business sense, you can really start kicking goals once you can manage your time. We’re all busy, and it often feels like we’re being asked to do more with less time. Often, you’ll find there’s plenty of time to achieve all of your tasks if you could just manage your time more effectively.
You can attend training courses to improve your time management, and it can benefit you in more than just your daily tasks. Time management also encompasses goal-setting, both short-term and long-term. If you want to remove some of your time pressures, consider time management courses to increase your productivity.
Find a Mentor You Respect
Mentors can be a great source of professional development. One of the things about developing yourself is, that you should never be afraid to ask for help. Mentors are there to provide exactly that. Every mentorship looks a little different. You could arrange to meet as frequently or infrequently as you like, and you can talk about whatever you need to. Your current situation, your future goals, and how you’re tracking towards those goals. Mentors can provide invaluable advice and encouragement.
Mentors can be someone in management within your own company, a former supervisor, or even someone completely outside of your industry. It really depends on the type of advice and helps you need. Choose someone you respect both professionally and personally and get the help you need.
Learn How to Influence and Negotiate
One of the key professional development skills to learn is how to communicate with influence and negotiate. It’s all about getting your ideas across and encouraging others to get on board. This is valuable in all industries and helps you enhance your position within any company.
You’ll learn great skills such as conflict resolution, assertiveness, and a range of influencing skills. When you’re trying to move your career forward, there’s nothing like being able to communicate effectively and gain support for your ideas.
Be Open to Opportunities
Above all, being open to opportunities is crucial to professional development. Make a point never to immediately say no to an opportunity. That doesn’t mean you should jump around from job to job just because someone wants you to work for them. There still needs to be some structure and a clear benefit to your career. However, you should always be open to at least consider any opportunity that comes your way.
This applies to training opportunities also. At first, you may think a training course is something you already know, but that may not be the case. Immerse yourself in training courses, seminars, and conferences if they come your way. Even if you learn one valuable thing that benefits your career, it will be worth it.
No matter how you choose to pursue professional development, just make sure you’re always trying new things. There’s no limit to the professional skills you can develop throughout your life, and you can always keep learning.
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