CHAPTER 7

Personal Development

7.1 Introduction

Personal development is, according to me, a process that never stops until you die.

What is personal development in this context? Personal development is the acquisition of knowledge, experience, and skills in order to improve your personal performance and self-observation and to achieve your full potential (which will not be the same in all aspects of course).

Personal development has a number of areas such as mental, physical (condition, health, etc.), psychological (looking at yourself only), and psychosocial (you in your environment). I’m leaving out spiritual development which I think is too much outside this context. In fact this is holistic when you look at the list. You are more than your mind, you are more than your body, etc. You are everything. Why not get the best out of all your possibilities? That is personal development!

Quite some (commercial) organizations have a personal development plan (PDP). However, this is rather limited normally. Such a PDP focuses only on the particular parts which are in the interest of the company. Some organizations also offer, for instance, support for a healthy lifestyle by means of sport facilities.

You can also ask yourself where are my privacy borders? Do I want that my employer has access to my medical and/or psychological data? At the same time you can ask yourself who is responsible for YOUR life?

7.2 The Dive

Possible questions to dive into yourself (SMART descriptions):

1. Where am I standing now regarding work, private life, the way I feel, and my body?
2. What do I want to achieve regarding work, private life, the way I feel, and my body in, for example, one month, one year, and five years?
3. What is my passion?
4. What is my mission in life?
5. What gives me energy and what draws my energy?
6. What are the prerequisites to achieve my objectives? Who else do I need (dependency is not something you want but you can’t do everything yourself)?
7. What are the blockers that could prevent me achieving my objectives? Who could be blocking me and how could I prevent this?

7.3 Your Personal Baseline

As mentioned in the previous section, “where do I stand now” in fact determines your personal baseline.

A method to determine your personal baseline is by means of a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis.

This technique was developed by Albert Humphrey (Stanford University [29]) and can be used not only for companies and organizations but also for persons.

This analysis helps you to define actions, and when you put this action into a plan (and of course also execute the plan!) this will be your PDP. You can also see this as your personal baseline.

However, its is advisable to repeat this action for instance every few years while you are developing (hopefully) and the environment has changed as well in the meantime.

To get an idea, below are a few examples.

Strengths

1. What (special) certifications or special/unique skills or qualifications do you have?
2. What are your unique selling points?
3. What are your strengths?

Weaknesses

1. What are the gaps you can identify regarding your knowledge and skills? Are they outdated or missing?
2. What is holding you back (now and in the past)?
3. What kind of things don’t you like or even hate?

Opportunities

1. What kind of chances do you see for yourself in both the short and long term? Look around in a broad sense (work, private, etc.) and don’t limit yourself by, for example, country borders.
2. Pay special attention to people crossing your path who are from a totally different way of living, thinking, etc. Look at them without judging and be open minded.
3. The world including business models is changing rapidly. Which companies are successful and how do they operate?

Threats

1. Look at yourself and ask yourself if you are holding back yourself (e.g., due to uncertainty).
2. Do you think that your personal situation is holding you back? Who has control over your personal situation?
3. Look around you and look at inhibitors (such as people or financial dependency) holding you back.

Everybody has talents and nobody will ever master everything. You can work very hard on your weaknesses but is this worthwhile? Sometimes it simply doesn’t work. How about putting more energy on your strengths?

7.4 Personal Development Process

Personal development is an iterative process.

You can make a plan for each area (road map). Each area in this context is: mental, physical, psychological, and psychosocial.

Let me give some examples of each area in terms of personal development.

1. Mental: Are your (technical) skills up-to-date to perform your job effectively? How do you communicate with people around you?
2. Physical: Can you walk 5 km or cycle 10 km easily? How much physical exercise do you have during the day? When do you sleep? How healthy do you eat?
3. Psychological: Are you aware of your traumas and the impact they have on your life? How happy are you with your life? How do you feel at work? How do you feel at home? Are you aware of your subpersonalities and when you apply them?
4. Psychosocial: How does it feel to stand in front of a crowd of people when giving a presentation? Do you dare to speak up in a group and stand for yourself? How personal are your relationships? How much do you show of yourself in front of other people or are you using a mask (or maybe even several masks)?

7.5 Personal Development Plan Structure

Below is a proposition for a PDP structure (for mental, physical, psychological, and psychosocial):

1. Your goals and target dates (month/year).
2. Needed skills/knowledge/experience/competence/physical condition/your current level (0–5), planned level (0–5), and the planned date (month/year).

   Investigating what you need regarding your psychological and psychosocial areas is harder compared to “hard skills.” Think about feeling unsecure, not standing for yourself, the fear of presenting in front of a crowd of people, etc. It could be helpful to talk to someone you trust, who know you very well and who is empathic. That person could act as a kind of therapist asking the right questions (not filling in) in order to make you dive into yourself and become aware of what is really going on inside you (and prevent you from running away from your own feelings and emotions when the going gets tough).

   You can also perform online self-assessment tests to get some idea of areas where you can improve, but in the psychological and psychosocial fields this should be performed in a human interaction setting, according to me, especially because of the required nonverbal observation and support when the feelings and emotions become strong.

3. Learning activity the particular course you would like to follow (tons of online courses are available and many are free [www.futurelearn.com]), course duration, completion date, and costs.

   Coaching by, for example, a mentor is according to me also a learning activity (for both). I think that the mentor role is an important one while this also covers human aspects.

   Do you know your learning style? Peter Honey and Alan Mumford are experts in this field and you can even perform online tests to sort out your learning style.

4. You can also join worldwide communities on particular topics and LinkedIn is a good source for networking and information.

   

5. Roadblocks. What obstacles do you expect or see already (e.g., availability of course, financial costs, time path)? What kind of support do you need? Who can help you?
6. Results. What has improved and in what way (or maybe “it” has not improved really but has given you new insights or was not beneficial at all)?

7.6 Tips

Some practical tips regarding personal development:

1. Prince2 has a daily log to record informal issues, required actions, or significant events which are not logged by other registers or logs. Create a personal development log book to make notes related to your personal development. Document events such as you were touched and went into a regression.
2. Don’t be too hard on yourself. In case you are really pushing yourself, ask why? Is this old pain?
3. Step by step is more motivating so don’t set your objectives too far away (especially in time) but use multiple small steps (e.g., monthly time frame). Celebrate your achievements.
4. Your PDP is personal and so confidential. Protect the file with a password. In case you want to share this with other people, make them aware of the confidentiality of your PDP.
5. Nobody is perfect. Not even you. However, you are making steps to develop yourself! Lots of people do not get to this stage at all . . .