Focusing on Personal Development

One of the most rewarding things I've found in my career is supporting others to find their strengths, focus on their development and help demystify their career path.

Having managed many people and after numerous mentoring sessions recently, I'm always surprised how little focus most of us place on personal development. Both investment in time and money.

Lets be honest, how often do you actually focus on an Individual Development Plan AND review it regularly AND do what you say you are going to do at the beginning of the year AND not treat it as a tick box exercise?!

Then it dawned on me, I am being unbelievably hypocritical!

Why?

Well, for many years (read more than 15!) I can honestly say I used my the education allowance that I was so blessed to have a grand total of once. Once in 15 years of having access to a fund specifically there to support my development.

Of course I did all the mandatory training and have been incredibly lucky to have received unbelievable input into my skills and career. But it was only in the last 5 years that I really focused on my PERSONAL development realising the wider benefits of investing in myself.

I pondered the reasons why it took me so long to realise this and from my own experience, came up with:

Too busy

Too busy

Too busy

It’s the excuse I used for years!

"I'd love to be a better SE, but I think I'm pretty good right now and another deal has just come in so I'll park that training course into next quarter."

"I've always strived to be a better manager but can't focus on improving my coaching skills because its week/month/year end and there are deals to close and promotions to figure out."

If these excuses sound familiar, let me be so bold to challenge you to rethink your priorities.

Yes, of course you need to do your day job to the best of your abilities, but you are cheating yourself if you let the day job get in the way of developing YOU.

I'm sure you know that many companies offer education or professional development grants for their employees but what you might not be aware of is most allow this funding to be used for mentoring.

I've found mentoring to be an amazing way to step out of the day-to-day, declutter my mind and get an outsiders perspective. It’s a fantastic way to start (or restart!) your development journey whilst getting ideas, advice and guidance on the day job too.

So why not invest in your personal development? - It really is a case of use it or lose it!

Solution Sales Advisors offer mentoring specifically for Solution Engineers whether you are an individual contributor or a manager/leader. If you are interested, check out the 'For Individuals' section of the Solution Sales Advisors website.

Don't believe me on the value of mentoring? Well I'll leave you with this feedback from a recent mentee…

"….what I found for the first time was mentoring that went beyond surface-level reflection and advice. From every session I felt equipped with frameworks for growth in the areas we'd discussed. And, towards the end of the sessions Iain helped me gain a more nuanced perspective on my career, which has allowed me to think about and develop a clear, actionable plan for addressing my professional development areas."