Many of us would like to be better, whether in our personal lives or in our careers. Professional development - often called continuing professional development or CPD - is the way to do this in your working life.
There are many different forms of professional development, with many different intended outcomes. You can think of CPD as being like a fitness plan for your career. The type and intensity of exercise you take can be very personal.
- How much time can you devote to professional development?
- How quickly do you want to see results?
- Do you want to improve within your current job or broaden your career horizons?
In this post, we'll look in more detail at professional development and what it aims to achieve for different people, in different stages of their careers. We'll also list seven of the main ways to develop professionally and some of the things to keep in mind about each method.
Here are 7 ways to help you develop professionally:
- Make New Connections
- Get a Mentor
- Improve Your Time Management
- Polish Your Soft Skills
- Read More Books
- Add to Your IT Skills
- Set Some Goals
What is the purpose of professional development?
First of all, know what you want to achieve. Professional development doesn't have a single aim or outcome. In fact, the results can be as personal as the process you follow to get there.
- Starting out: Basic skills and initial experience
- Career path: Promotions and lateral moves
- Later years: Senior roles and independence
Early in your career, professional development might be about adding to your qualifications and accreditations within your chosen industry or gaining certain skills and experience that you could not study academically before entering the world of work.
During the middle part of your career, you might want to target promotion opportunities and build your leadership credentials. Alternatively, you might look to gain more transferable skills, especially during a recession or industry downturn, in case you decide to seek employment in a different sector.
And as you get older, professional development might lead you in a new direction. You could start to consider boardroom appointments and interim executive roles, or start a business of your own as an employer, a consultant or an outsourced contractor.
By knowing what you want to achieve, you can be sure to choose the techniques that are most likely to lead you there, and can set appropriate goals and milestones to make sure you stay on track along the way.
What are common examples of professional development?
Professional development can take many forms. Some of the most common examples of CPD include:
- Academic qualifications relevant to your career
- Computer and digital skills (both basic and advanced)
- Industry accreditations and professional memberships
- Mentoring and networking to learn from others
- 'Soft skills' and improved interpersonal abilities
We'll look in more detail at these and some other options for professional development below. If you're not sure where to start, time management is a good first thing to consider.
Getting organised can reduce stress and allow you to achieve more of your personal goals in the workplace. It can also free up more time to spend on things you enjoy, or on other areas of your career development that previously seemed too time-consuming.
Tips for continued development
Professional development is not something that happens once and then stops. It's something you work on overtime, setting new goals as you reach your short-term and medium-term ambitions.
Below we will look at seven of the best ways to develop professionally, including ongoing methods to improve your skills and expertise, to open the door to new opportunities, promotions and alternative career paths.
You don't have to do all of these all the time - and there are endless other ways to develop on a personal and professional level too - but by choosing a number of options to focus on, you can create a professional development plan to help you reach your long-term career goals.
1. Make New Connections
Networking is an excellent way to progress along your career path, whether that's by finding new job opportunities, gaining insight into the kinds of training you could be taking part in, or meeting an experienced individual who is willing to act as a confidante or mentor (more about this below).
Recognise and appreciate that every person you meet - both professionally and personally - has value to add to your life. They might inspire a new work ethic or reignite your motivation; you might look up to them as a leader and try to emulate their style; or you might learn from their mistakes so you can avoid repeating them yourself.
- Collaborate with colleagues
- Network with new people
- Reach out to inspirational individuals
You can start networking within your workplace by talking more to your colleagues and managers. Be genuinely interested in what they have to say, and not just self-serving in terms of what you can gain from them.
It's also beneficial to look beyond your horizons for new networking opportunities. There may be industry events - both physical and virtual - where you can talk to your counterparts from elsewhere in the country or the world.
Be bold. Everybody is finding their own way, even if they appear confident and capable. Don't be afraid to reach out to an individual if you really value their insight. The worst they can do is say no, and even that can be beneficial in learning to cope with a setback.
2. Get a Mentor
The Chinese philosopher Xun Kuang lived in the 3rd century BC and is the likely origin of a quote that is now more commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin:
"Tell me and I may forget,
Teach me and I may remember,
Involve me and I will learn."
Regardless of who said it first, this proverb is all about active learning, where the student is fully engaged in what their mentor is teaching them. In terms of modern-day career development, it means finding someone who has walked your career path before.
- Learn from past experience
- Avoid repeating past mistakes
- Build motivation and momentum
Mentoring can take the form of encouragement, sharing anecdotes and wisdom, and even challenging the mentee to reach and exceed certain goals. On good days, this can help you to maximise your productivity and progress, while on bad days it can help to keep you moving forwards at all.
3. Improve Your Time Management
Time management is not about doing more; it's about knowing there's a limit on how much you can do. No matter how driven, motivated and productive you might be, there are only 24 hours in a day, and you need to keep some of them to eat, sleep and relax.
One popular adage of unknown origin asserts that "If it weren't for the last minute, a lot of things wouldn't get done." Effective time management is about making good use of the first minute, the last minute, and every minute in between, to get everything done on schedule.
'Schedule' is the operative word here, as good time management means planning ahead, writing to-do lists, prioritising tasks and identifying deadlines. If you find you sometimes fail to complete tasks on time, improving your scheduling skills could be a big help.
- Learn to prioritise mission-critical tasks
- Be realistic about how much you can do
- Allocate time for admin tasks and personal life
Good time management not only helps you in your working life, but also frees up more time at home when you would otherwise be playing catch-up. That gives you more chance to relax, de-stress, and focus on your family, friends and personal goals.
4. Polish Your Soft Skills
People often associate 'soft skills' with effective communication, but that's only one part of polishing your transferable and interpersonal capabilities. This can include any skills you could take to a job outside of your current industry, and anything that makes you work well with others.
- Communicate better with others
- Gain skills you can take with you to other jobs
- Move forwards from past failings
In terms of communication, that means verbal and non-verbal, speaking and listening, and the ability to make your key message as clear as possible. Good communication is a hallmark of effective leadership, so any improvements you can make in this area should stand you in good stead for promotions in the future.
Transferable skills don't have to be about how you work with others. They can also include things like self-discipline, adaptability and ability to create original solutions to previously unseen problems. You can even improve your logic skills and lateral thinking by playing brain training games and solving puzzles, with benefits for your work life too.
Interpersonal skills can also be more general than the way you talk to colleagues. Be honest about any failings you currently have - anger management issues, old unresolved resentments and so on. By working on techniques to overcome these, you not only progress towards being a better professional, but can become a better person in general.
5. Read More Books
Books are a great way to learn from other people's experiences, without having to leave your office or armchair - and with the advent of ebooks, they're cheaper and easier to get a hold of than ever before.
- Try new genres to expand your professional borders
- Include self-training and self-help books for personal growth
- Shop online and second-hand to save on cost
Reading books provides you with valuable insight and broadens your horizons. You could choose to read a biography of a senior figure in your industry, or a behind-the-scenes look at how companies in other countries contribute to your sector.
There are, of course, endless self-help books and career coaching guides, and these can help you to learn new technical skills, as well as to brush up on the soft skills we mentioned above.
If you're looking for a way to improve yourself professionally on a very tight budget, look for cheap second-hand books, and you could bag yourself an iconic publication online for just a few pence. You might even learn something extra from the previous owner's notes in the margins!
6. Add to Your IT Skills
Most jobs, especially office jobs, now need a working understanding of computers, but as you climb the career ladder, you're more likely to be tasked with digital planners and time sheets to maintain and modify.
By improving your digital skills on a continuing basis, you can keep your computer abilities up to date, including new and emerging digital technologies as they become more widely adopted.
Your industry might be crying out for more employees with specific programming skills or team leaders who know how to add a formula to a spreadsheet - and as you master the basics, you build yourself a platform for more advanced digital learning too.
- Gain digital skills for future leadership roles
- Keep pace with emerging digital workplace technologies
- Learn specific highly sought-after skills to boost earnings and employability
The future across all industries and disciplines is likely to be increasingly digital, so if you're keen to progress in your professional development and you don't know where to start, an online course in beginner, intermediate or advanced computer skills could be a good option.
7. Set Some Goals
In the words of the late American poet Bill Copeland, "The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score."
- Know where you are going - and when
- Set different durations of goals to work towards
- Identify not only your destinations, but also your routes to get there
Goals are an essential part of professional development. They allow you to define what you are working towards and set a deadline by which you would like to make a certain amount of progress.
You can set short-term, medium-term and long-term goals, ranging from quick wins that might take little effort to achieve, through to ambitious and audacious end-goals that you know will take many years to come to fruition.
By planning ahead in this way, you can work out what you need to do to get there. That might mean some form of training, working towards a promotion, or a change of job completely. Without a destination for your journey, it's impossible to know what route to take.x
