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How to Create a Personal Development Plan: 3 Examples

For successful change, it is vital that the client remains engaged, recognizing and identifying with the goals captured inside and outside sessions. A personal development plan (PDP) creates a focus for development while offering a guide for life and future success (Starr, 2021).

This article introduces and explores the value of personal development plans, offering tools, worksheets, and approaches to boost self-reflection and self-improvement.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains

What is personal development 7 theories, coaching in personal development and growth, how to create a personal development plan, 3 examples of personal development plans, defining goals and objectives: 10 tips and tools, fostering personal development skills, 3 inspiring books to read on the topic, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message, frequently asked questions.

Personal development is a fundamental concept in psychology and encompasses the lifelong process of self-improvement, self-awareness, and personal growth. Crucial to coaching and counseling, it aims to enhance various aspects of clients’ lives, including their emotional wellbeing, relationships, careers, and overall happiness (Cox, 2018; Starr, 2021).

Several psychological models underpin and support transformation. Together, they help us understand personal development in our clients and the mechanisms and approaches available to make positive life changes (Cox, 2018; Passmore, 2021).

The following psychological theories and frameworks underpin and influence the approach a mental health professional adopts.

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

As a proponent of the humanistic or person-centered approach to helping people, Abraham Maslow (1970) suggested that individuals have a hierarchy of needs. Simply put, they begin with basic physiological and safety needs and progress through psychological and self-fulfillment needs.

Personal development is often found in or recognized by the pursuit of higher-level needs, such as self-esteem and self-actualization (Cox, 2018).

2. Erikson’s psychosocial development

Erik Erikson (1963) mapped out a series of eight psychosocial development stages that individuals go through across their lifespan.

Each one involves challenges and crises that once successfully navigated, contribute to personal growth and identity development.

3. Piaget’s cognitive development

The biologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1959) focused on cognitive development in children and how they construct their understanding of the world.

We can draw on insights from Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, including intellectual growth and adaptability, to inform our own and others’ personal development (Illeris, 2018).

4. Bandura’s social cognitive theory

Albert Bandura’s (1977) theory highlights the role of social learning and self-efficacy in personal development. It emphasizes that individuals can learn and grow through observation, imitation, and belief in their ability to effect change.

5. Self-determination theory

Ryan and Deci’s (2018) motivational self-determination theory recognizes the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in personal development.

Their approach suggests that individuals are more likely to experience growth and wellbeing when such basic psychological needs are met.

6. Positive psychology

Positive psychology , developed by Martin Seligman (2011) and others, focuses on strengths, wellbeing, and the pursuit of happiness.

Seligman’s PERMA model offers a framework for personal development that emphasizes identifying and using our strengths while cultivating positive emotions and experiences (Lomas et al., 2014).

7. Cognitive-Behavioral Theory (CBT)

Developed by Aaron Beck (Beck & Haigh, 2014) and Albert Ellis (2000), CBT explores the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

As such, the theory provides practical techniques for personal development, helping individuals identify and challenge negative thought patterns and behaviors (Beck, 2011).

Theories like the seven mentioned above offer valuable insights into many of the psychological processes underlying personal development. They provide a sound foundation for coaches and counselors to support their clients and help them better understand themselves, their motivations, and the paths they can take to foster positive change in their lives (Cox, 2018).

The client–coach relationship is significant to successful growth and goal achievement.

Typically, the coach will focus on the following (Cox, 2018):

• Actualizing tendency This supports a “universal human motivation resulting in growth, development and autonomy of the individual” (Cox, 2018, p. 53).
• Building a relationship facilitating change Trust clients to find their own way while displaying empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard . The coach’s “outward responses consistently match their inner feelings towards a client,” and they display a warm acceptance that they are being how they need to be (Passmore, 2021, p. 162).
• Adopting a positive psychological stance Recognize that the client has the potential and wish to become fully functioning (Cox, 2018).

Effective coaching for personal growth involves adopting and committing to a series of beliefs that remind the coach that the “coachee is responsible for the results they create” (Starr, 2021, p. 18) and help them recognize when they may be avoiding this idea.

The following principles are, therefore, helpful for coaching personal development and growth (Starr, 2021).

• Stay committed to supporting the client. While initially strong, you may experience factors that reduce your sense of support for the individual’s challenges.
• Coach nonjudgmentally. Our job is not to adopt a stance based on personal beliefs or judgment of others, but to help our clients form connections between behavior and results.
• Maintain integrity, openness, and trust. The client must feel safe in your company and freely able to express themselves.
• Responsibility does not equal blame. Clients who take on blame rather than responsibility will likely feel worse about something without acknowledging their influence on the situation.
• The client can achieve better results. The client is always capable of doing and achieving more, especially in relation to their goals.
• Focus on clients’ thoughts and experiences. Collaborative coaching is about supporting the growth and development of the client, getting them to where they want to go.
• Clients can arrive at perfect solutions. “As a coach, you win when someone else does” (Starr, 2021, p. 34). The solution needs to be the client’s, not yours.
• Coach as an equal partnership. Explore the way forward together collaboratively rather than from a parental or advisory perspective.

Creating a supportive and nonjudgmental environment helps clients explore their thoughts, feelings, and goals, creating an environment for personal development and flourishing (Passmore, 2021).

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A personal development plan is a powerful document “to create mutual clarity of the aims and focus of a coaching assignment” (Starr, 2021, p. 291). While it is valuable during coaching, it can also capture a client’s way forward once sessions have ended.

Crucially, it should have the following characteristics (Starr, 2021):

• Short and succinct
• Providing a quick reference or point of discussion
• Current and fresh, regularly revised and updated

Key elements of a personal development plan include the following (Starr, 2021):

• Area of development This is the general skill or competence to be worked on.
• Development objectives or goals What does the client want to do? Examples might include reducing stress levels, improving diet, or managing work–life balance .
• Behaviors to develop These comprise what the client will probably do more of when meeting their objectives, for example, practicing better coping mechanisms, eating more healthily, and better managing their day.
• Actions to create progress What must the client do to action their objectives? For example, arrange a date to meet with their manager, sign up for a fitness class, or meet with a nutritionist.
• Date to complete or review the objective Capture the dates for completing actions, meeting objectives, and checking progress.

Check out Lindsey Cooper’s excellent video for helpful guidance on action planning within personal development.

We can write and complete personal development plans in many ways. Ultimately, they should meet the needs of the client and leave them with a sense of connection to and ownership of their journey ahead (Starr, 2021).

• Personal Development Plan – Areas of Development In this PDP , we draw on guidance from Starr (2021) to capture development opportunities and the behaviors and actions needed to achieve them.
• Personal Development Plan – Opportunities for Development This template combines short- and long-term goal setting with a self-assessment of strengths, weaknesses, and development opportunities.
• Personal Development Plan – Ideal Self In this PDP template , we focus on our vision of how our ideal self looks and setting goals to get there.

“The setting of a goal becomes the catalyst that drives the remainder of the coaching conversation.”

Passmore, 2021, p. 80

Defining goals and objectives is crucial to many coaching conversations and is usually seen as essential for personal development.

Check out this video on how you can design your life with your personal goals in mind.

The following coaching templates are helpful, containing a series of questions to complete Whitmore’s (2009) GROW model :

• G stands for Goal : Where do you want to be?
• R stands for Reality : Where are you right now with this goal?
• O stands for Options : What are some options for reaching your goal?
• W stands for Way forward : What is your first step forward?

Goal setting creates both direction and motivation for clients to work toward achieving something and meeting their objectives (Passmore, 2021).

The SMART goal-setting framework is another popular tool inside coaching and elsewhere.

S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable/ or Agreed upon R = Realistic T = Timely – allowing enough time for achievement

The SMART+ Goals Worksheet contains a series of prompts and spaces for answers to define goals and capture the steps toward achieving them.

We can summarize the five principles of goal setting (Passmore, 2021) as follows:

• Goals must be clear and not open to interpretation.
• Goals should be stretching yet achievable.
• Clients must buy in to the goal from the outset.
• Feedback is essential to keep the client on track.
• Goals should be relatively straightforward. We can break down complex ones into manageable subgoals.

The following insightful articles are also helpful for setting and working toward goals.

• What Is Goal Setting and How to Do it Well
• The Science & Psychology of Goal-Setting 101

1. People skills

Improving how we work with others benefits confidence, and with other’s support, we are more likely to achieve our objectives and goals. The following people skills can all be improved upon:

• Developing rapport
• Assertiveness and negotiation
• Giving and receiving constructive criticism

2. Managing tasks and problem-solving

Inevitably, we encounter challenges on our path to development and growth. Managing our activities and time and solving issues as they surface are paramount.

Here are a few guidelines to help you manage:

• Organize time and tasks effectively.
• Learn fundamental problem-solving strategies.
• Select and apply problem-solving strategies to tackle more complex tasks and challenges.
• Develop planning skills, including identifying priorities, setting achievable targets, and finding practical solutions.
• Acquire skills relevant to project management.
• Familiarize yourself with concepts such as performance indicators and benchmarking.
• Conduct self-audits to assess and enhance your personal competitiveness.

3. Cultivate confidence in your creative abilities

Confidence energizes our performance. Knowing we can perform creatively encourages us to develop novel solutions and be motivated to transform.

Consider the following:

• Understand the fundamentals of how the mind works to enhance your thinking skills.
• Explore a variety of activities to sharpen your creative thinking.
• Embrace the belief that creativity is not limited to artists and performers but is crucial for problem-solving and task completion.
• Learn to ignite the spark of creativity that helps generate innovative ideas when needed.
• Apply creative thinking techniques to enhance your problem-solving and task completion abilities.
• Recognize the role of creative thinking in finding the right ideas at the right time.

To aid you in building your confidence, we have a whole category of articles focused on Optimism and Mindset . Be sure to browse it for confidence-building inspiration.

With new techniques and technology, our understanding of the human brain continues to evolve. Identifying the vital elements involved in learning and connecting with others offers deep insights into how we function and develop as social beings. We handpicked a small but unique selection of books we believe you will enjoy.

1. The Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to the Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching – Julie Starr

This insightful book explores and explains the coaching journey from start to finish.

Starr’s book offers a range of free resources and gives clear guidance to support new and existing coaches in providing practical help to their clients.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level – Gay Hendricks

Delving into the “zone of genius” and the “zone of excellence,” Hendricks examines personal growth and our path to personal success.

This valuable book explores how we eliminate the barriers to reaching our goals that arise from false beliefs and fears.

3. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are – Brené Brown

Brown, a leading expert on shame, vulnerability, and authenticity, examines how we can engage with the world from a place of worthiness.

Use this book to learn how to build courage and compassion and realize the behaviors, skills, and mindset that lead to personal development.

We have many resources available for fostering personal development and supporting client transformation and growth.

Our free resources include:

• Goal Planning and Achievement Tracker This is a valuable worksheet for capturing and reflecting on weekly goals while tracking emotions that surface.
• Adopt a Growth Mindset Successful change is often accompanied by replacing a fixed mindset with a growth one .
• FIRST Framework Questions Understanding a client’s developmental stage can help offer the most appropriate support for a career change.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit© , but they are described briefly below:

• Backward Goal Planning

Setting goals can build confidence and the skills for ongoing personal development.

Backward goal planning helps focus on the end goal, prevent procrastination, and decrease stress by ensuring we have enough time to complete each task.

Try out the following four simple steps:

• Step one – Identify and visualize your end goal.
• Step two – Reflect on and capture the steps required to reach the goal.
• Step three – Focus on each step one by one.
• Step four – Take action and record progress.
• Boosting Motivation by Celebrating Micro Successes

Celebrating the small successes on our journey toward our goals is motivating and confidence building.

Practice the following:

• Step one – Reflect momentarily on the goal you are working toward.
• Step two – Consider each action being taken to reach that goal.
• Step three – Record the completion of each action as a success.
• Step four – Choose how to celebrate each success.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others reach their goals, check out this collection of 17 validated motivation & goal achievement tools for practitioners. Use them to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques.

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

These 17 Motivation & Goal Achievement Exercises [PDF] contain all you need to help others set meaningful goals, increase self-drive, and experience greater accomplishment and life satisfaction.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Personal development has a rich and long history. It is underpinned by various psychological theories and remains a vital aspect of creating fulfilling lives inside and outside coaching and counseling.

For many of us, self-improvement, self-awareness, and personal growth are vital aspects of who we are. Coaching can provide a vehicle to help clients along their journey, supporting their sense of autonomy and confidence and highlighting their potential (Cox, 2018).

Working with clients, therefore, requires an open, honest, and supportive relationship. The coach or counselor must believe the client can achieve better results and view them nonjudgmentally as equal partners.

Personal development plans become essential to that relationship and the overall coaching process. They capture areas for development, skills and behaviors required, and goals and objectives to work toward.

Use this article to recognize theoretical elements from psychology that underpin the process and use the skills, guidance, and worksheets to support personal development in clients, helping them remove obstacles along the way.

Ultimately, personal development is a lifelong process that boosts wellbeing and flourishing and creates a richer, more engaging environment for the individual and those around them.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

Personal development is vital, as it enables individuals to enhance various aspects of their lives, including emotional wellbeing, relationships, careers, and overall happiness.

It promotes self-awareness, self-improvement, and personal growth, helping individuals reach their full potential and lead fulfilling lives (Passmore, 2021; Starr, 2021).

Personal development is the journey we take to improve ourselves through conscious habits and activities and focusing on the goals that are important to us.

Personal development goals are specific objectives individuals set to improve themselves and their lives. Goals can encompass various areas, such as emotional intelligence, skill development, health, and career advancement, providing direction and motivation for personal growth (Cox, 2018; Starr, 2021).

A personal development plan typically comprises defining the area of development, setting development objectives, identifying behaviors to develop, planning actions for progress, and establishing completion dates. These five stages help individuals clarify their goals and track their progress (Starr, 2021).

• Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory . Prentice-Hall.
• Beck, A. T., & Haigh, E. P. (2014). Advances in cognitive therapy and therapy: The generic cognitive model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology , 10 , 1–24.
• Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond . Guilford Press.
• Cottrell, S. (2015). Skills for success: Personal development and employability . Bloomsbury Academic.
• Cox, E. (2018). The complete handbook of coaching . SAGE.
• Ellis, A. (2000). Can rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) be effectively used with people who have devout beliefs in God and religion? Professional Psychology-Research and Practice , 31 (1), 29–33.
• Erikson, E. H. (1963). Youth: Change and challenge . Basic Books.
• Illeris, K. (2018). An overview of the history of learning theory. European Journal of Education , 53 (1), 86–101.
• Lomas, T., Hefferon, K., & Ivtzan, I. (2014). Applied positive psychology: Integrated positive practice . SAGE.
• Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personalit y (2nd ed.). Harper & Row.
• Passmore, J. (Ed.). (2021). The coaches’ handbook: The complete practitioner guide for professional coaches . Routledge.
• Piaget, J. (1959): The Psychology of intelligence . Routledge.
• Rose, C. (2018). The personal development group: The students’ guide . Routledge.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2018). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness . Guilford Press.
• Seligman, M. E. (2011). Authentic happiness using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment . Nicholas Brealey.
• Starr, J. (2021). The coaching manual: The definitive guide to the process, principles and skills of personal coaching . Harlow: Pearson Education.
• Whitmore, J. (2009). Coaching for performance . Nicholas Brealey.

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How to Craft a Personal Development Plan that Inspires Meaningful, Long-Term Results

Overview : This in-depth guide provides a comprehensive 7-step roadmap to create a customized personal development plan template to help you actualize your true potential. It also provides a personal development plan template you can use (with examples).

______________

I leaped into the personal development world with a copy of Tony Robbins’ Personal Power program in the early 1990s.

If you’re old enough and living in the States, you know the one I’m talking about (late-night infomercials).

I was 18, and this audio program made a measurable difference in my outlook and behavior.

From that moment onward, I was hooked on personal development.

I jumped from seminar to seminar, book to book. Investing every possible moment I had, I covered a lot of ground in my first five years.

Reflecting over 30 years on my journey, I now see I was missing several vital ingredients essential for long-term, healthy development back then.

In this guide, I will share with you lessons learned and provide a roadmap for crafting a powerful Personal Development Plan. (Also, toward the bottom of the guide, you can download a personal development plan template and an example plan.)

Let’s dive in …

What is a Personal Development Plan?

A personal development plan is like a business plan for an individual. A personal development plan creates a roadmap for an individual’s growth in key categories of life and work.

There’s no set formula or template for creating a personal development plan.

Your plan can be a half-page, a full-page, or 20 pages long. It’s entirely up to you.

To clarify, “individual development plans” are generally more geared toward career development than a personal development plan (or “self-development plan”), but they all share common attributes.

The primary question a Personal Development Plan helps answer is:

Where am I going to place my available time and attention?

Personal Development Definitions

If you examine most people over a decade, you’ll observe little or no change in their development and behavior.

Development implies a permanent change in the structure of your being including your body, brain, or consciousness.

Just because you adopt a new habit , for example, doesn’t mean you have or will grow from it. If this new habit leads to internal growth over time , however, it will facilitate your development.

It’s all too easy to believe we’re developing when we’re not. I know I deceived myself for many years and there’s evidence of this throughout personal development communities.

Reading books in this genre, for example, doesn’t mean you’re developing. You might just be acquiring more ideas.

Personal development books can potentially provide a roadmap for development in certain areas, but real development comes through practice and repetition .

Our behavior and the development of skills, aptitudes, and desired tendencies are where we can observe signs of permanent change.

Personal Development Is Not Self Help

Self-help implies there’s something wrong with us.

The multi-billion-dollar self-help industry profits by subconsciously communicating these “deficiencies” to its unsuspecting audience.

Actual personal development is how humans realize more of their innate potential.

In an ideal environment, this process happens naturally .

Because this perfect environment doesn’t exist in society, the call for personal development is an individual’s choice. It’s up to each individual to say “yes” to their hero’s journey .

Why Personal Development Plans Are Important

When you don’t have a vision, a plan, or a goal, where does your attention go?

For most people, attention goes to entertainment and distraction. Sight, sound, and motion captivate our brains.

Television series, films, video games, social media, sports, and stock prices hook the primitive parts of our brains.

Even if you’re an overachiever who defines yourself by accomplishments and external status, your attention likely gets fixated on more work, higher productivity, and making more money. That’s fine, but this effort doesn’t necessarily support our personal development goals.

When entertainment, distraction, and workaholism consume our attention, something doesn’t feel right within us.

We may not identify it, but a deeper part of us isn’t fulfilled.

Focusing on Growth Needs

Psychologist Abraham Maslow noted that when individuals mainly focus on meeting their basic human needs like physiological needs, security, fitting in, and being liked and respected, they become neurotic.

Self-actualizing individuals, in contrast, are more focused on their growth needs.

Their motivation stems from an internal directive called intrinsic motivation instead of being driven by external forces. (All of our basic human needs are external.)

To have a full and meaningful life requires us to open to deeper aspects of ourselves.

A personal development plan can help us do just that.

But most people don’t know what’s available to them. I certainly wasn’t aware of the options when I started my journey.

Youthful enthusiasm and naivete guided those early years.

If you go to personal development seminars or read books in this genre, you may only think within the confines of the illustrations these resources provide.

7-Step Roadmap to Creating Your Personal Development Plan

Before we jump in, here’s a quick overview of the steps for creating your personal development plan:

Step 1: Discover the Human Potential Landscape Step 2: Envision Your Future Self Step 3: Select your Current Areas of Focus Step 4: Determine Your Key Practices Step 5: Establish Personal Development Goals Step 6: Set Your Schedule for Deliberate Practice Step 7: Monitor Your Ongoing Progress

Step 1 is what’s missing from many people’s approach to personal development.

So we’ll start our journey with a larger vision for our human potential.

Note : Toward the bottom of this guide, you can download a personal development plan template based on this roadmap.

STEP 1: Discover the Personal Development Landscape

One thing I was missing from my personal development journey was a roadmap of the terrain. How can you navigate through your development without a map?

Every good explorer has one. Such a map shines a much-needed light on the diverse areas of our potential.

A reliable map of human potential wasn’t readily available in the early 90s.

The fields of transpersonal psychology, developmental psychology, integral theory, and neuroscience, however, were converging on one.

Theorist Ken Wilber played a major role in synthesizing many fields of research into a cohesive whole.

Personal Development Categories

In my experience, I’ve found it helps to take an integrated approach to your personal development plan.

That is, know your menu of options so you can select from multiple areas that interest you.

To create a map for our development, we need to know the categories available to us. These categories include:

• Lines of Intelligence (also called Streams of Development)

Skill Development

Major life categories, behavioral change, personality development.

Let’s look at each of these categories in more detail.

Available Lines of Intelligence

While we used to associate “intelligence” with IQ; we now know there are many forms of intelligence.

One popular model comes from the pioneering work of Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligence theory. 1 Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences , 2011.

In Gardner’s model, there are now nine lines of intelligence:

Logical-mathematical intelligence : logic, abstractions, reasoning, numbers, and critical thinking. This intelligence is associated with IQ and intellectual aptitude. This line is also referred to as cognitive intelligence as explored in Jean Piaget’s research.

Linguistic intelligence : words, languages, reading, writing, telling stories, and memorizing words.

Intrapersonal intelligence : to know oneself including one’s strengths and weaknesses, emotional triggers, and motivations. One’s ability to be introspective and self-reflective. Psychologist Daniel Goleman popularized this as  Emotional Intelligence .

Kinesthetic intelligence : one’s ability to control one’s body and one’s skill in using it. Also called body intelligence or body-mind connection.

Musical intelligence :  sensitivity to sounds, pitch, rhythms, tones, meter, melody, etc.

Visual-spatial intelligence : spatial judgment and the ability to visualize and imagine with the mind’s eye.

Interpersonal intelligence : sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments, motivations, and their ability to cooperate with others. Goleman popularized this as  Social Intelligence .

Naturalistic intelligence : sensitivity to one’s environment; the ability to recognize flora and fauna; nurturing and relating to one’s natural surroundings.

Existential intelligence : sometimes called spiritual intelligence; relates to one’s understanding of oneself concerning reality or the cosmos.

Integral Theory’s “AQAL” Model of Human Development

Additional Perspectives from Developmental Research

Other developmental researchers have studied the stages of growth in morals, values, worldviews, emotions, contemplation, spirituality, needs, and psycho-sexual development.

Do you see the diverse range of our potential?

In  Integral Life Practice , Ken Wilber, et al. group these “streams of development” into four categories:

• Cognitive development
• Self-related intelligence (including basic human needs , morals, values, and self-identity)
• Talent lines of development (including musical, visual-spatial, mathematical, and kinesthetic)
• Everything else (including spiritual, aesthetic, emotional, psychosexual, and interpersonal)

We each have a different base level of development in each line of intelligence and an innate potential we can realize through deliberate practice.

Our environment often thwarts this potential in early childhood. As adults, our responsibility is to resume this upward march. A personal development plan can help us with that!

Skill development is a broad category that includes areas where you show interest and/or ability. You can develop skills for personal or professional reasons.

There are skills in problem-solving , communication , collaborating, drawing, computer programming, bookkeeping, writing, analyzing, martial arts, persuading, musical instruments, negotiating, learning , presenting, goal setting, listening, managing, planning, reasoning, and predicting, to name only a few.

All skills are associated with at least one line of intelligence listed above. With sufficient interest, practice, and the right methods, individuals can develop any skill.

One way to get more clarity on your natural skills is to take the free VIA Character Strength survey . Your natural strengths often translate to specific skills.

The Wheel of Life Exercise

In your pursuit of personal development, you may have come across the Wheel of Life .

The Wheel of Life is a standard tool that coaches use to illustrate the various categories of one’s life, measure an individual’s status in each area, and set goals to improve in those areas.

Your wheel might include physical health, relationships, social, finances , professional, personal growth, spirituality , creativity , and fun.

The message behind the Wheel of Life is that development occurs through conscious effort and being intentional about how you grow within these key categories.

Who doesn’t have behaviors they would like to change?

We all have set patterns of behavior that get entrenched by unconscious repetition.

Making positive changes to these habits requires repatterning the brain.

For lasting change to occur, we repeat the new habit or behavior over time under various conditions.

The time necessary to install a new habit varies; research suggests it takes 66 days on average. 2 https://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php I’ve found that it’s usually much less.

Why do many personal development programs fail to produce long-term results? Because these programs are “one size fits all.”

Research shows there is a range of psychological types. In the Enneagram system, there are nine primary types and nine levels of development within each one.

Each type has varying propensities, habitual patterns, strengths, weaknesses, fears, and potentials.

If you want to create an effective Personal Development Plan, be sure you’re aware of your psychological type. Each type has a different pathway to higher development.

As a business coach to high-performing entrepreneurs for over 25 years, I went through and used most (if not all) personality tests on the market, including popular ones like Myers-Briggs (MBTI), Human Design Engineering (HDe), and DISC.

In my opinion, the Enneagram is the most efficacious, robust, and useful. (MBTI and HDE are insightful too.)

You can take a free Enneagram test here . You can find scientifically validated paid tests online as well.

After you get your results, read more about your type and see if it resonates. Then, look for ways to develop your type. (On the Enneagram Institute website, they offer “Personal Growth Recommendations” for each type.)

STEP 2: Envision Your Future Self

Consider what the above information means about our potential: Developing any line of intelligence gives us greater sensitivity to the world around us.

We can now process information in new and deeper ways. Every time we grow in a line of intelligence, we perceive the world differently.

We are more aware than before. We have greater sensitivity to the world around us. Our possibilities are remarkable to ponder.

Nietzsche believed it was our destiny to be Ubermensch or Superman. An Ubermensch is an integrated or whole human being accessing his full potential.

Numerous researchers in developmental psychology have come to a similar conclusion, calling the final stage of development “Integrated.”

Maslow called this stage of development self-actualization and later, self-transcendence .

Cast Your Vision

Now, in Step 2, it’s time to create your vision for your future self .

Your vision (and personal development goals) will inspire you if it is true to who you are.

Sometimes we create a vision based on what we  should want or what we hope will gain approval from others—our parents, significant others, colleagues, or friends). Such a vision will lack inspiration and will feel meaningless to us.

Don’t worry about creating a “perfect” vision or the “right” vision. Just craft a sentence or two that inspires you right now.

STEP 3: Select Your Current Areas of Focus

In Step 1, you see a diverse range of options available. Learning about these options can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. If you nailed your vision in Step 2, you have more clarity.

Now, depending on your level of clarity, Step 3 can either be the easiest or the most difficult part of this process.

Even when you have a compelling vision for your future self, selecting areas of development to focus on can challenge us because we have limited time and countless options.

We can’t do it all. Creating an aggressive or complicated personal development plan with many goals backfires over time. I can attest to this from personal experience.

An aggressive plan will create additional internal resistance that undermines your efforts.

Over-planning sets you up for failure and discouragement. Eventually, you will burn out (lose motivation) and abandon your plan.

Be Mindful of Your Available Time

We’ll discuss scheduling in Step 6, but consider how much time you have available to invest in your development.

Let’s say you only have 30 minutes a day.

Is it reasonable to expect to make significant changes in six areas of your life within three months?

Developing new skills, for example, may take a minimum of 15 minutes of daily practice.

To set yourself up for success, I recommend picking up to three areas to focus on within the next 90 days.

Where Should You Start?

Select the areas that interest you the most. You’ll learn faster in these areas and have an easier time staying engaged with your practice.

So the question is: What’s most important to you right now ?

What are the areas you are most interested in developing now ?

To help answer these questions, it helps to know what you most value .

Narrow Down Your Search

Be aware of the tendency to overthink the selection process.

Better to dive into something for a month or two and then determine it’s not for you than to analyze your options. Analysis, as the saying goes, often leads to paralysis.

If you’re still having trouble deciding, go with the classic categories of Body, Mind, and Spirit.

• Body : pick an area that interests you like strength training, stamina, aerobics, or functional training.
• Mind : select one to three topics you want to explore. Read relevant books for each one.
• Spirit : consider focusing on gratitude, acceptance, kindness, compassion, meditation, or service to others.

I also recommend you include shadow work as part of an integrated program.

Include Important Lines of Development

While everyone is different and will create their plan to suit their needs, there are certain areas I believe to be foundational (for at least most people).

Cognitive Intelligence

Research shows that cognition is “necessary but insufficient” for other lines of development. For example, just because you have well-developed cognition doesn’t mean you’ll have moral intelligence.

One way to improve your cognition is to read books that challenge your understanding.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

EI is, arguably, as important as cognitive development. EI relates to your physical and mental health, the quality of your relationships, and your leadership abilities (including self-leadership ).

One way to grow your emotional awareness is through meditation training . In the context of your personal development plan, meditation is a skill-building exercise. You are developing the skill of attention .

Intrapersonal Intelligence

Your level of self-awareness and knowledge of yourself influences your behaviors, moral development, and psychological development.

The Enneagram system can support the development of intrapersonal intelligence. Another way is to practice self-reflection and journaling.

See this in-depth guide on developing intrapersonal intelligence .

Kinesthetic Intelligence

Your awareness of your body defines the degree of your connection to your instinctive self. The more connected you are, the more mental balance you experience (and vice versa).

You can develop your body intelligence through practices like Yoga and Qigong as well as dancing and functional training. You can also use centering exercises , grounding techniques , and Zhan Zhuang  to increase body awareness.

Of course, there are other important aspects of your development. I singled out these four because they influence so much of our behaviors and decisions. Also, many of us are unaware of the profound role they play in our life experiences.

Pushing Beyond Professional Development

One thing I’ve observed in working with high-performing individuals is they tend to focus only on professional goals.

Many of us want to profit from our self-development plan. I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with that. Developing your abilities and talents should make you more marketable and of greater value to others.

However, watch the tendency to invest exclusively in this area, denying other aspects of yourself that are still important to a deeper part of you.

If you create a diverse personal development plan, you’ll increase your chances of actualizing your plan. You’ll also find it to be a more rewarding experience.

STEP 4: Determine Your Key Practices

Excellent books like Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code and Anders Ericsson’s Peak: The New Science of Expertise  show that talent isn’t born but cultivated through deliberate practice .

Once you have selected the areas of your Personal Development Plan, the next step is to determine your practices.

These practices are the actions you are committing to doing consistently to develop in your particular areas of interest.

Examples of Practices

For example, if you want to improve your writing, write at least 1,000 words every day and edit what you write ruthlessly .

Want to learn to play the guitar? Pick up your guitar for at least 15 minutes every evening.

Want to increase your strength? Determine your training routine and follow through three or four days per week.

You may not know what practices to follow in the beginning. At first, you’ll research different topics through books, videos, and articles.

This exploration will help you to pick your practices. You may also consider hiring a coach or trainer to help you establish your practices.

STEP 5: Establish Personal Development Goals

Another common mistake people make with their personal development plan is to set BIG goals.

Big goals are useful for businesses but suboptimal for your self-development plan.

A big goal might be to master a particular instrument within 12 months. Such a goal will go unrealized.

As Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War , “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.”

To win the battle for your development in the war of distraction, set mini-goals instead.

Mini goals help you build momentum because they’re more readily achievable than big goals.

Yes, have a big vision . But only set mini personal development goals that are fun, engaging, and manageable.

Examples of Mini-Goals

Instead of mastering an instrument, for example, perhaps you establish a mini-goal like learning how to read sheet music or comfortably playing your favorite song.

If you’re just starting with strength training and you can only do ten consecutive push-ups, perhaps you set a goal of 30 push-ups.

If you want to improve as a public speaker, maybe you set a mini-goal to speak in front of a crowd at least once a week.

If you’re getting into meditation, and you can’t sit comfortably for more than a few minutes, maybe you commit to sitting for just 2 minutes once or twice a day for the next 21 days.

These types of personal development goals will inspire your practice and help you build positive momentum.

STEP 6: Set Your Schedule for Deliberate Practice

Once you know your practices, ensure you block off sufficient time for making progress.

Many people struggle with scheduling for two primary reasons:

• They underestimate how long things take. They get too ambitious with their expectations.
• They don’t honor their calendar unless it involves other people. Time scheduled for ourselves is the first thing to get bumped.

Watch out for both of these common patterns. If you don’t honor your time, I can assure you, no one else will.

Ground Your Plan to Reality

So first ask, How much time can I reasonably commit to my personal development plan?

The question isn’t what you should do; it’s what you think is reasonable and practical in the course of your busy life.

This infographic from Inc. illustrates how 500 chief-level executives spend their day. The average business leader invests 30 minutes a day in personal development—right before bed.

For most people, the two easiest periods to carve out time for your personal development plan are early morning and late evening.

Both of these times share the same two qualities:

• There are fewer distractions and
• You don’t have to interrupt your work/life flow to jump into your practices.

The key is to find times when you can be consistent and then establish a daily rhythm with your practice.

This way you don’t have to make a daily decision of whether or not to practice. You just practice!

Just 10 to 15 minutes is sufficient when you have a busy schedule. On the weekends, you can carve out additional time.

STEP 7: Monitor Your Ongoing Progress

Feedback facilitates the learning process. Athletes and musicians excel when they have experienced coaches to provide the right practices and effective feedback .

In Daniel Coyle’s examination of exceptional talent, he found that having a masterful coach was one of the common denominators for producing talent. 3 Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code , 2009.

Be Aware of Your Overall Mindset

One reason many people fail to develop is because they have a fixed mindset . Individuals with a fixed mindset are more driven to avoid looking foolish than by the desire to learn. They evade any constructive or critical feedback from others.

In contrast, someone on the path to self-mastery accepts failure and mistakes as part of the learning process.

In The Art of Learning , chess master and tai chi champion Josh Waitzkin explains how he became a tai chi champion by challenging superior opponents.

Instead of sparring with opponents of equal or lesser ability, he sought more skilled martial artists. He was often defeated, but he learned quickly.

The Important Role of Attention

Other than outside feedback, the other key to monitoring your progress is to increase your awareness as you practice.

The goal is to become fully present-minded with your practice. (To assist in this process, try using something like The Mastery Method to increase your mental alertness and self-awareness.)

When you bring more awareness to your practice, you ignite an internal feedback loop that facilitates faster learning.

How to Develop Awareness

One way to develop greater awareness is through mind training.

Breathing techniques and meditation help develop parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex region) associated with awareness.

It’s also important to enter a centered state before you practice. It only takes a minute or two, and it will speed up your results.

Do Periodic Check-Ins

Finally, check in with your personal development plan often.

Scan it weekly and revisit it each month to see if there are any adjustments you want to make.

Are you making progress toward your personal development goals? If not, why not?

Evaluate and make course corrections as needed.

Your Personal Development Plan Template (Fillable)

To help you create your plan, I’ve designed a personal development plan template based on the roadmap and principles outlined above. The template is fillable.

Your free kit includes:

• Print-ready PDF of this guide
• Fillable personal development plan template
• Personal development plan example that’s already filled in

Download your free personal development plan kit below.

Note: After you enter your email, you’ll be redirected back here. Links to your free assessment templates will be right here.

Build Your Own Personal Development Plan Template

If you would prefer to create your own template, it’s easy to do. Just include the following elements we just discussed:

• Personal vision (the results from Step 2)
• Areas of focus (the categories selected in Step 3)
• Skills (you’re in the process of developing)
• Practices (you’re using to develop your skills and lines of intelligence from Step 4)
• Mini goals (associated with your skills from Step 5)

All of this information can fit on a single-page template. It will take effort to set up your plan, but once you do, it requires little energy to maintain and update.

Ready? It’s time to create your own Personal Development Plan.

Make Your Personal Development Plan Clear and Practical

It’s important to keep your personal development plan as simple and concise as possible.

The more complicated and robust your plan becomes, the less likely you are to follow through.

For years, I kept my plan on my desk. A 10-second glance at the document was often all I needed.

I used to help my clients create elaborate results plans that often grew into large report-sized documents. We found they were less functional the bigger they became. Eventually, we reduced these plans down to a single page.

Keep your plan to a single page if possible. A one-page personal development plan makes it easy for you to check in often.

Books Related to Personal Development Plan Roadmaps

First, here are a few excellent personal development books cited in this guide:

Mastery by George Leonard

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

The Little Book of Talent  by Daniel Coyle

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

From my experience, the most neglected step in creating a Personal Development Plan is understanding the terrain of human potential—what I attempted to summarize in Step 1.

Here are a series of books that opened my mind to greater possibilities years ago.

Integral Life Practice  by Ken Wilber, et al.

3 Vital Stages of Self-Discovery (and Activities for Each Stage)

A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey

How to Change Your Mindset from Fixed to Growth

How to Transmute Sexual Energy: An Inner Alchemy Guide

About the Author

Scott Jeffrey is the founder of CEOsage, a self-leadership resource publishing in-depth guides read by millions of self-actualizing individuals. He writes about self-development, practical psychology, Eastern philosophy, and integrated practices. For 25 years, Scott was a business coach to high-performing entrepreneurs, CEOs, and best-selling authors. He's the author of four books including Creativity Revealed .

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Personal Development: 9 Skills, Tips, and Examples

Why personal development is so important and how to improve yourself..

Posted June 7, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

I am obsessed with personal development because it's helped me completely change my life. Only 10 years ago, I had no connections, no money, and worked a minimum wage retail job. Now, I have a Ph.D. from Berkeley, am the author of a book on how to generate happiness in the technology age , and have created a variety of well-being-boosting programs . And it's all because I worked on developing myself. So how do you make personal development work for you?

Personal development can include any skill that you build to improve yourself—your emotions, thoughts, or behaviors. It doesn't really matter which skills you want to improve; the key to personal development is taking the right steps—steps that help ensure that you reach whatever goal you are pursuing.

Learn more from the video below:

What are the most important personal development skills? It really depends on what you're trying to achieve. But here are 9 that I have found to be important to successful personal development.

1. Start by figuring out which personal development skills you need to build. The first step in any personal development strategy is to figure out how to best use your time. It makes little sense to learn how to code if you don't plan to be a coder or to bench press 400 pounds if you don't plan to be a weight lifter. These can be hobbies, but personal development is more about building skills to reach your personal goals . So it's good to take some time to self-reflect. (If well-being is a goal of yours, take this well-being quiz to see which skills you need to build.)

2. Develop entrepreneurial thinking. Everyone can benefit from learning how to think like an entrepreneur, regardless of whether or not you are one. Why? Because entrepreneurs are innovative, good at planning for all possible outcomes, and skilled at getting others to buy into their vision or dream. And perhaps more importantly for personal development, they tend to be adaptable to all sorts of situations.

By developing entrepreneurial thinking, you better adapt to whatever your circumstances are so you can more easily achieve your goals, whether those goals are to start a business that makes a positive impact in the world , to set yourself up for an early retirement , or climb Mount Everest.

3. Develop a growth mindset . If we have a “fixed mindset,” we may shy away from challenges that could help us grow. But this can be problematic because our fear of making mistakes can lead us to avoid challenges and new experiences—experiences which would help us grow, improve ourselves in important ways, and create the life we desire.

If we have a “ growth mindset ” we seek out challenges because we value learning and growth more than we value feeling smart or knowing what we’re doing. That's why those with a growth mindset often build new skills more easily: They believe they can and so they really work at it.

4. Develop your self-soothing mechanism. High levels of stress are not only bad for our health and well-being, they can prevent us from effectively pursuing and achieving our self-development goals. By learning effective, long-lasting relaxation techniques , your body and mind will be more equipped to handle the inevitable challenges that arise when you're trying to develop yourself.

5. Develop resilience . Resilience is that super-important skill that helps you bounce back quickly after being knocked down. This is one of the most important skills for success because none of us will achieve anything if we don't keep trying when we fail. We can build resilience by improving skills like emotion-regulation , mindfulness , and positivity.

6. Develop your value compass. It's not always easy to live by our core values . But when we go through life without following our personal values, we can easily get lost. We may suddenly "wake up" and realize that we are not who we want to be or where we want to be. This is why it's so important to stay in alignment with our personal values.

What are your values? Perhaps: kindness, curiosity, creativity , hard work, or personal relationships. Define your personal values so you know which actions are in alignment with those values.

7. Create a personal development plan. A good personal development plan takes all these factors into consideration—the WHAT, the HOW, the WHY, and the WHEN. And it focuses on long-term goals . So ask yourself:

• What skills will you build?
• How will you build them?
• Why will you build them?
• And when will you build them?

It can be helpful to create a 10-year plan to map out how you'll reach these goals.

8. Record your progress towards personal development. Keeping track of our progress as we move toward our personal development goals is key to making sure we're on the right track. Then we can pause and take a different direction if we've gone off course. By maintaining self-awareness and frequently checking in with ourselves, we can identify things that we need to devote more attention to. As a result, we can make better progress toward our personal development.

9. Keep developing yourself in new ways. The science is clear: The more ways we develop ourselves, the broader our skillset, and the more success we tend to have. So try learning some new emotional skills or do some activities to build new skills. You just might learn something that changes your life.

Facebook /LinkedIn images: GaudiLab/Shutterstock

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. , is a consultant, writer, and expert on well-being technology.

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Seven Pillars Of Personal Development: A Comprehensive Guide

Personal development is an ongoing journey that encompasses improving self-awareness, developing talents, enhancing the quality of life, and realizing dreams and aspirations.

The “Seven Pillars of Personal Development” are central to this journey, which offers a foundational framework to guide individuals toward achieving long-term success and personal growth.

This article delves into each pillar, thoroughly exploring their significance, practical applications, and strategies for enhancing personal development.

I. Understanding Pillars of Personal Development

Knowing yourself.

The journey to personal development begins with self-awareness. Grasping your weaknesses, strengths, beliefs, and values is critical.

This introspection guides your actions and emotions, helping you make decisions that align with your true self.

Setting Specific and Achievable Goals

Goals give direction and purpose. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals ensures you have clear targets to aim for, providing motivation and a sense of accomplishment as you progress.

Nurturing the Mind

A positive mindset and continuous learning are the bedrock of personal growth. Developing a growth mindset, characterized by the belief that abilities can be acquired through dedication and hard work, is essential for overcoming challenges.

Strengthening the Body

Physical well-being supports mental health and cognitive function. Regular exercise, balanced nutrition, and adequate sleep are foundational practices that enhance physical and psychological resilience.

Fostering Meaningful Relationships

Relationships are a source of support, inspiration, and growth. Building meaningful connections with others enriches personal development by providing different perspectives and emotional support.

Embracing Failures

Failure is an inevitable part of growth. Learning from mistakes and viewing failures as opportunities for growth are vital for developing resilience and perseverance.

Celebrating Wins

Recognizing and celebrating achievements boosts confidence and motivation. Acknowledging even small victories reinforces positive behaviors and encourages continued effort toward personal goals.

II. Applying the Seven Pillars in Daily Life

Applying the seven pillars requires a holistic approach, integrating each pillar into daily routines through practical strategies:

III. Enhancing Personal Development

Improving adaptability.

Adaptability is key to navigating life’s changes and challenges. Enhancing adaptability includes embracing change, developing a growth mindset, and proactively seeking new experiences.

Developing Creativity

Creativity fuels innovation and problem-solving. Strategies to foster creativity include creating an inspiring environment, exploring new hobbies, and practicing brainstorming techniques.

Effective Problem-Solving

Problem-solving skills are critical for personal and professional development. Techniques such as brainstorming, root cause analysis, and seeking diverse perspectives enhance problem-solving abilities.

Setting and Prioritizing Goals

Prioritizing goals ensures that efforts are focused on the most impactful activities. Tools like the Eisenhower Matrix help categorize tasks based on urgency and importance, facilitating effective time management.

Tracking and Adjusting Goals

Regularly reviewing goals and progress is essential for sustained growth. Techniques for tracking include maintaining a progress journal, setting check-in reminders, and adjusting goals as circumstances change.

IV. Measuring Progress and Celebrating Success

Measuring progress in personal development is crucial for maintaining motivation and ensuring alignment with long-term objectives. Common metrics include:

Celebrating small wins is vital for sustaining motivation throughout the personal development journey.

Strategies for celebration include sharing achievements with friends and family, treating oneself to special experiences, and taking time to reflect on and savor success.

The 7 pillars of personal development provide a comprehensive framework for individuals seeking to enhance their lives and achieve their full potential.

By understanding and applying these pillars, individuals can create a balanced approach to personal growth that encompasses mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

Regularly measuring progress and celebrating achievements are essential practices that reinforce this ongoing journey.

Through dedication and persistence, the principles outlined in this guide can lead to meaningful and lasting personal development.

• https://leaders.com/articles/personal-growth/personal-development-goals/
• https://hive.com/blog/personal-development-goals/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_development/
• https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/improve-your-personal-development-skills/
• https://www.hays.nl/en/career-coach/personal-development/
• https://www.success.com/what-is-personal-development/

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Individual development plan examples: How to craft a roadmap to success

Navigating the intricate landscape of personal and professional growth, an individual development plan template (IDP) emerges as a strategic compass for individuals across various industries.

This comprehensive guide unveils the essence of individual development plan , transcending industries, by delving into their significance, crafting personalized examples, and illuminating their impact.

From hospitality to engineering, this guide offers a roadmap for individuals to chart their unique journeys toward mastery, a leadership position, and fulfillment. With a wealth of examples tailored to different sectors, this guide unlocks the door to transformative growth and success.

What is an individual development plan?

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a comprehensive document that outlines an individual's professional goals, strengths, areas for improvement, and the strategies they will undertake to achieve career growth and skill enhancement .

It serves as a roadmap for personal and professional development, helping individuals align their aspirations with the organization's goals. IDPs typically include a self-assessment, a list of short-term and long-term goals, action steps, timelines, resources required, and methods for tracking progress.

These plans are often created collaboratively between employees and their managers , ensuring that both parties are invested in the individual's growth journey. IDPs are essential tools for fostering continuous learning, skill development, and career advancement within the organization.

Benefits of creating an individual development plan

Creating an individual development plan (IDP) offers a range of benefits that contribute to an individual's personal and professional growth, as well as the overall success of the organization. These benefits include:

• Clear goals and direction : An IDP helps individuals define clear goals and objectives, providing a roadmap for their career and personal development journey .
• Focused skill development: IDPs identify areas for improvement, enabling individuals to focus on developing specific skills and competencies.
• Alignment with organizational goals: When IDPs are aligned with organizational objectives, employees' growth contributes to the company's success , fostering a win-win scenario.
• Enhanced performance: As individuals develop skills and knowledge, their performance improves, leading to increased productivity and contributions to the organization.
• Increased motivation: Setting and achieving goals outlined in an IDP boosts individuals' motivation, job satisfaction, and overall engagement .
• Support for learning: IDPs encourage continuous learning and self-directed development, empowering individuals to seek out relevant training and education .
• Effective career planning: IDPs provide a structured approach to career advancement, helping employees envision their desired career trajectory and plan accordingly.
• Structured feedback: Regularly reviewing and updating IDPs facilitates ongoing conversations between employees and managers, fostering open communication .
• Talent retention: Organizations that invest in employees' growth through IDPs are more likely to retain top talent , reducing turnover rates.
• Succession planning: IDPs identify potential future leaders , aiding succession planning by grooming employees for higher responsibilities.
• Personal fulfillment: Accomplishing goals outlined in an IDP goals contribute to personal fulfillment, as individuals see tangible progress in their development.
• Customized development: IDPs are tailored to each individual's strengths, aspirations, and learning styles, promoting personalized growth strategies.
• Organizational agility: Employees with diverse skills acquired through IDPs contribute to an agile organization prepared for dynamic challenges .
• Better resource allocation: By understanding employees' development needs through IDPs, organizations can allocate resources more effectively to areas where they will have the most impact.
• Enhanced team collaboration: As individuals develop a broader skill set and a deeper understanding of their roles, team collaboration and efficiency are improved.
• Employee empowerment: IDPs empower employees to take charge of their own development, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability for their growth.
• Improved work-life balance: IDPs can help individuals set realistic and balanced goals, leading to better management of work and personal life commitments .

Individual development plans offer a structured and strategic approach to personal and professional growth. They empower individuals to take ownership of their development while benefiting the organization by fostering a skilled, motivated, and engaged workforce .

What are the 5 areas of a personal development plan?

A comprehensive personal development plan encompasses various areas that contribute to an individual's holistic growth. While the specific areas may vary based on individual goals and circumstances, the following five key areas are commonly addressed in a personal development plan:

Professional skills

This area focuses on enhancing job-specific skills and competencies required for current and future roles. It includes technical expertise, industry knowledge, and certifications. These skills form the foundation on which your career growth stands, ensuring you remain not just relevant but indispensable in your field.

Personal skills

Personal skills encompass soft skills like communication , time management, problem-solving, and adaptability, which are crucial for effective interpersonal interactions and career success. These skills are the adhesive that holds your career together, fostering meaningful connections and paving the way for lasting success.

Leadership and management skills

Developing leadership qualities , such as decision-making, team management, and strategic thinking, prepares individuals for leadership roles and fosters their ability to guide others. Strategic thinking elevates your ability to see the bigger picture and plan for the long term. These skills not only prepare you for leadership roles but also shape you into a mentor and guide for your peers, propelling your career to new heights.

Personal well-being

This area emphasizes physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It includes practices like exercise, stress management, mindfulness, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance . Well-being isn't just a checkbox on your development plan; it's the fuel that keeps your career engine running smoothly, enabling you to thrive in all aspects of life.

Career development

This aspect involves setting clear career goals, identifying growth opportunities, networking , and planning steps to advance in one's chosen career path. This aspect of your personal development plan is your roadmap to success, ensuring you not only reach your desired career destination but also excel beyond your own expectations.

These areas collectively ensure a balanced approach to personal development, nurturing a well-rounded individual capable of excelling both professionally and personally.

What are the 6 components of personal development plan?

A well-structured personal development plan (PDP) is like a roadmap to self-improvement and success. To craft an effective PDP, you need to consider six key components:

• Clear goals: Start by defining your objectives. What do you want to achieve personally and professionally? Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Clarity here is crucial; it's your destination on the map.
• Self-assessment: Take a good, honest look at yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What skills or knowledge do you lack? Self-awareness is the compass that helps you navigate your development journey.
• Actionable plans: Once you know your goals and where you stand, outline the steps you need to take. Break down your goals into smaller, manageable tasks. These are the roads you'll travel to reach your destination.
• Resources: Identify the resources you'll need. This could include books, courses, workshops, mentors, or online tools. Resources are like the fuel that powers your journey; make sure you have enough to reach your goals.
• Timelines: Assign realistic timelines to your goals and action steps. A timeline acts as your schedule, ensuring you're on track and not wandering aimlessly.
• Monitoring and evaluation: Regularly review your progress. Are you moving in the right direction? Are you achieving your milestones? Adjust your plan as needed; it's like recalculating your route when you encounter roadblocks.

Individual development plan examples for managers

Individual development plans for managers are essential tools for nurturing leadership potential and ensuring that they continue to excel in their roles. Here are some tailored examples to guide managers on their development journey:

Enhancing leadership skills

A key goal for managers is to strengthen their leadership abilities. This might involve attending leadership workshops, seeking executive coaching, or participating in leadership development programs. The aim is to become an inspirational and effective leader who can guide and motivate their teams to success.

Strategic thinking

For managers responsible for decision-making and long-term planning, developing strategic thinking skills is paramount. They can achieve this by engaging in strategic planning sessions, collaborating with senior leadership , and studying industry trends to make informed decisions that drive the organization forward.

Team building and management

Fostering a high-performing team is a critical aspect of a manager's role. Managers can work on their team-building skills by attending team-building workshops, learning about effective communication, and studying team dynamics to create a cohesive and productive workforce.

Conflict resolution

Handling conflicts within a team is another important managerial skill. Managers can focus on conflict resolution through conflict management training, mediating disputes, and learning techniques to foster healthy workplace relationships.

Time management

Managers often juggle numerous responsibilities. Improving time management skills can help them become more efficient and effective. This can involve time management courses, using productivity tools, and setting clear priorities to meet deadlines and achieve goals.

Mentoring and coaching

Managers can develop their mentoring and coaching abilities by actively mentoring junior staff, providing constructive feedback, and staying updated on coaching techniques. This helps them nurture the growth of their team members.

Stakeholder engagement

Building strong relationships with stakeholders, both internal and external, is vital. Managers can enhance their stakeholder engagement skills by networking, attending industry conferences, and developing strategies for effective stakeholder communication.

Emotional intelligence

Developing emotional intelligence is crucial for managers to effectively lead their teams. This includes understanding and managing their own emotions, as well as empathizing with their team members. Managers can enhance this skill through emotional intelligence workshops, reading relevant literature, and practicing mindfulness techniques .

Innovation and creativity

Encouraging innovation and creativity within the team can lead to significant improvements and competitive advantages. Managers can foster these skills by participating in innovation workshops, learning about creative problem-solving techniques , and creating an environment that supports new ideas and experimentation.

Individual development plan examples for employees

Here are some practical examples to inspire and guide employees on their development journey:

Technical skill enhancement

Employees can focus on improving their technical skills relevant to their roles. This might involve attending specialized training sessions, enrolling in online courses, or seeking certification in specific software or tools. By becoming experts in their fields, they contribute more effectively to their teams and the organization.

Leadership aspirations

For employees aspiring to leadership roles, IDPs can include leadership development activities. They can participate in leadership workshops, join cross-functional projects to gain management experience , or take on mentorship roles to build their leadership skills.

Communication and presentation skills

Effective communication is essential in any job. Employees can work on their communication and presentation skills through courses, public speaking opportunities, or even joining a Toastmasters club. Strong communication skills enhance their ability to convey ideas and collaborate with others.

Time management and productivity

Many employees struggle with managing their time efficiently. An IDP can include time management training, using productivity apps, or learning organization techniques. Improved time management leads to increased productivity and reduced stress.

Project management mastery

Employees involved in project-based roles can focus on project management skills. They can attend project management courses, become certified in project management methodologies, and practice project planning and execution.

Cross-functional knowledge

Encouraging employees to broaden their understanding of other departments can be beneficial. This can involve cross-functional training, attending meetings in different departments, or collaborating on projects outside their usual scope.

Networking and relationship-building

Building a professional network is vital for career growth. Employees can set goals to attend industry events, join professional associations, and engage in networking opportunities. Strong professional relationships can open doors to new opportunities.

Work-life balance

Achieving a healthy work-life balance is crucial for employee well-being. IDPs can include actions such as setting boundaries, time management for personal life, and practicing self-care to ensure employees maintain a balance that prevents burnout.

Diversity and inclusion

In today's diverse workplaces, understanding and promoting diversity and inclusion is vital. Employees can seek out diversity training, participate in inclusion initiatives, and actively contribute to a more inclusive work environment.

How do you write an individual development plan for your employees?

Writing an effective individual development plan (IDP) for your employees involves a structured and collaborative approach. Follow these steps to create a well-crafted IDP:

• Identify development areas: Based on the employee's self-assessment and feedback from managers and peers, pinpoint the specific skills, knowledge, and competencies to be developed.
• Outline action steps: Break down each goal into actionable steps or tasks that will lead to its achievement. These steps should be specific, tangible, and sequential.
• Allocate resources: Determine the resources required for development, such as training programs, workshops, courses, mentoring , or job rotations.
• Create a development plan: Summarize the goals, action steps, resources, and timelines in a structured document. Use a format that's easy to understand and refer back to.
• Identify support: Specify who will provide support or mentorship during the development process. This could include managers, colleagues, or external mentors.
• Measure and evaluate: Regularly assess the employee's progress and the impact of the development plan on their performance and growth.
• Celebrate achievements: Celebrate milestones and achievements to keep the employee motivated and reinforce the value of their efforts.
• Adaptability: Be open to adjusting the plan based on changing circumstances, new opportunities, or evolving goals.
• Encourage self-reflection: Encourage employees to reflect on their learning journey, noting what worked well, the challenges faced, and how they've grown.
• Document growth: Maintain records of completed training, achieved milestones, and new skills acquired, which can be valuable for performance evaluations and career discussions.
• Continual improvement: Use the feedback from the employee and their experiences to improve the IDP process for future iterations.

Remember, an effective IDP should be flexible, adaptive, and supportive of the employee's growth journey within the organization.

Why implementing an individual plan is both a manager's and HRs responsibility?

Implementing an individual development plan (IDP) is a shared responsibility between managers and the HR department due to its comprehensive impact on employee growth and organizational success. Here's why both parties play crucial roles in this process:

Manager's Responsibility:

Direct supervision.

Managers have direct insight into their team members' strengths, weaknesses, and performance. This knowledge helps tailor IDPs to individual needs.

Goal alignment

Managers align IDPs with the organization's goals and the team's objectives, ensuring that employees' development contributes to the team's success.

Guidance and support

Managers provide guidance on setting realistic goals, suggest suitable development opportunities, and offer feedback as employees progress .

They offer constructive feedback to employees , helping them understand areas for improvement and offering insights for skill enhancement.

Accountability

Managers monitor employees' progress , ensuring that action steps are being followed and milestones are achieved as outlined in the IDP.

Managers recognize and celebrate employees' achievements and growth, motivating them to continue their development journey.

Individualized coaching

Managers take on the role of coaches, providing one-on-one support tailored to each employee's needs. This involves regular check-ins and personalized development plans that consider an employee's unique aspirations and challenges.

Identifying stretch opportunities

Managers actively seek out opportunities for employees to stretch their capabilities and take on challenging assignments. Encouraging employees to step out of their comfort zones fosters growth and resilience.

Skill transfer and knowledge sharing

Managers promote a culture of knowledge sharing within their teams. They encourage employees to share their expertise and mentor each other, creating a collaborative learning environment.

Succession planning

Managers play a pivotal role in succession planning. They identify high-potential employees, groom them for leadership roles , and ensure a smooth transition when vacancies arise.

HR's Responsibility:

Framework creation.

HR establishes a structured framework for creating, tracking, and evaluating IDPs across the organization. This ensures consistency and fairness.

Resource provision

HR identifies and provides access to various development resources, including training programs, workshops, and mentoring opportunities .

Skill assessments

They facilitate skills assessments and competency evaluations that inform the development areas to be included in IDPs.

Development opportunities

HR identifies potential growth opportunities within the organization, allowing employees to explore diverse career paths.

Employee alignment

HR ensures that IDPs align with the company's overall talent management strategy, fostering a cohesive approach to employee growth .

Measurement and reporting

They measure the impact of IDPs on employee performance and the organization's success, offering insights for improvement.

Continuous improvement

HR gathers feedback from both managers and employees to refine the IDP process, ensuring its effectiveness over time.

Legal compliance

Ensuring that IDPs comply with relevant labor laws and regulations is a vital HR responsibility. They stay updated on legal requirements and ensure that IDPs don't inadvertently violate any employment laws.

HR takes a proactive role in promoting diversity and inclusion within IDPs. They work to ensure that development opportunities are equitable and accessible to employees from diverse backgrounds , fostering a more inclusive workplace culture.

Data security

As IDPs often contain sensitive employee information, HR is responsible for maintaining data security. They implement measures to protect employee privacy and data integrity, ensuring that confidential information remains confidential.

Technology integration

HR leverages technology to streamline the IDP process, making it more efficient and user-friendly. They ensure that digital tools for creating, tracking, and reporting on IDPs are integrated seamlessly into the organization's HR systems.

Collaboration between managers and HR is essential for successful IDP implementation. While managers provide personalized guidance and support, HR ensures a structured framework and availability of resources. This joint effort fosters a culture of development, engagement, and continuous improvement , benefiting both employees and the organization as a whole.

How to set goals for your individual development plan?

Setting goals for your individual development plan (IDP) involves a strategic and thoughtful approach. Follow these steps to establish effective and achievable goals:

• Self-assessment: Reflect on your current skills, strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Consider feedback from colleagues, managers, and any previous performance evaluations.
• Define clear objectives: Clearly define what you want to achieve through your IDP. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound ( SMART ).
• Prioritize: Determine which skills or areas need immediate attention and which ones can be developed over a longer period. Focus on a manageable number of goals to avoid overwhelm.
• Quantify measurable goals: Use metrics or criteria to measure progress . For example, if your goal is to improve public speaking, set a target number of presentations to give within a certain timeframe.
• Research and resources: Identify the resources needed to achieve each goal. This could include workshops, courses, books, mentors, or online resources.
• Flexibility: Keep your goals flexible. Circumstances change, and you may need to adjust your goals based on new opportunities or challenges.
• Balance: Ensure a balanced mix of short-term and long-term goals, as well as goals that focus on both professional and personal development.
• Feedback: Seek input from your manager, colleagues, or mentors when setting goals. They can provide valuable insights and help refine your objectives.
• Regular review: Regularly review and update your goals. This helps track progress, make adjustments as needed, and stay aligned with your evolving aspirations.
• Celebrate milestones: Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements along the way. Recognizing progress boosts motivation and keeps you engaged in the development process.
• Leverage SWOT analysis: Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to gain deeper insights into your personal and professional landscape.
• Set long-term vision: While focusing on immediate goals, also establish a long-term vision for your personal development. Having a clear destination in mind can guide your short-term objectives and provide a sense of purpose.
• Incorporate learning styles: Consider your preferred learning style (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) when planning your development.
• Embrace adaptability: Embrace adaptability as a goal itself. The ability to adapt to new technologies, industries, or job roles is a valuable skill in today's rapidly changing world.
• Networking and collaboration: Include goals related to expanding your professional network and collaboration skills.

How to implement development plans?

Implementing professional and personal development plans in the workplace is crucial for fostering employee growth and achieving organizational goals. Here's a practical guide on how to make it happen:

• Needs assessment: Begin by identifying the specific development needs of your employees. Conduct regular performance reviews, gather feedback, and assess skills gaps. This will form the basis of your individual development planning.
• Set clear objectives: Once you've development identified the needs, set clear and measurable objectives. Ensure they align with the individual's career goals and the company's strategic objectives. These objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
• Resource allocation: Allocate the necessary resources for development. This includes budgeting for training programs, workshops, mentoring, and access to relevant tools and technologies.
• Development activities: Encourage employees to engage in development activities. This may involve attending workshops, taking online courses, participating in cross-functional projects, or seeking mentorship from experienced colleagues.
• Regular feedback: Provide ongoing feedback and support. Regular check-ins with managers or mentors can help employees stay on track and make necessary adjustments to their development plans.
• Measure progress: Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress. Monitor skill improvements, project outcomes, and the impact of development activities on individual and team performance.
• Recognition and rewards: Recognize and reward achievements along the way. Celebrate milestones and showcase success stories to motivate others and reinforce the importance of development.

How to craft individual development plan template for employees, managers, & senior leadership?

Crafting individual development plan (IDP) examples for employees, managers, and senior leadership requires a strategic approach that aligns with their unique responsibilities and career trajectories. Here's how to create effective IDP examples for this group:

• Needs assessment: Start by assessing the specific needs of managers and senior leaders. Consider their current roles, skills, and areas for growth.
• Alignment with organizational goals: Ensure that the IDP examples align with both the individual's career aspirations and the organization's strategic objectives.
• Leadership competencies: Focus on leadership competencies such as strategic thinking, decision-making, communication , and team development. Tailor goals to enhance these skills.
• 360-degree feedback: Gather feedback from colleagues, subordinates, and superiors to identify areas for improvement and strengths to leverage.
• Long-term vision: Help managers and senior leaders align their IDPs with long-term career visions, considering potential leadership roles and responsibilities.
• Executive coaching: Offer executive coaching or mentoring to support their development. Include goals related to improving coaching or mentoring skills if applicable.
• Change management: If their roles involve leading through change, incorporate goals related to change management strategies and techniques.
• Innovation and strategy: Focus on fostering innovation, creating strategic plans, and identifying opportunities for organizational growth.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Set goals that encourage collaboration across different departments or functions, enhancing their ability to lead multidisciplinary teams.
• Performance metrics: Quantify goals where possible. For example, increasing employee engagement scores or achieving specific revenue targets.
• Crisis management: Develop skills in crisis management and decision-making under pressure, considering their roles in guiding the organization during challenging times.
• Ethical leadership: Include goals related to promoting ethical conduct, fostering a positive organizational culture , and leading by example.

Remember, IDPs for managers and senior leaders should be forward-thinking, challenging them to expand their skill sets, embrace innovation, and navigate complex leadership scenarios .

Individual development plan examples for various industries

Explore diverse individual development plan (IDP) examples tailored to various industries. From tech to healthcare, these IDPs illustrate how professionals can enhance skills, achieve goals, and thrive in their specific fields.

Individual development plan examples for engineers

1. Technical skill advancement:

• Goal: Master [specific technology/tool] within [timeline].
• Action: Enroll in relevant courses, and apply skills to projects.

2. Leadership readiness:

• Goal: Develop leadership qualities.
• Action: Attend leadership workshops and mentor junior engineers.

3. Certification attainment:

• Goal: Obtain [industry certification].
• Action: Study, take preparation courses, and schedule exams.

4. Cross-functional exposure:

• Goal: Gain insight into [related domain].
• Action: Collaborate , attend cross-functional meetings.

5. Innovation contribution:

• Goal: Propose innovative solutions.
• Action: Engage in R&D projects, and submit patents.

Individual development plan examples for pharma employees

1. Regulatory compliance expertise:

• Goal: Master regulations like FDA guidelines within [timeline].
• Action: Attend regulatory workshops, analyze case studies , and contribute to compliance projects.

2. Clinical trial management:

• Goal: Develop proficiency in managing clinical trials.
• Action: Participate in trial coordination, learn data analysis tools, and collaborate with clinical teams.

3. Pharmacovigilance skills:

• Goal: Enhance adverse event reporting and monitoring capabilities.
• Action: Attend pharmacovigilance seminars, analyze real-world data, and contribute to safety assessments.

4. Cross-functional collaboration:

• Goal: Foster collaboration with R&D, production, and marketing teams.
• Action: Join cross-functional projects, engage in knowledge-sharing sessions, and attend inter-departmental meetings.

5. GMP and quality assurance:

• Goal: Become a quality assurance expert aligned with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).
• Action Steps: Attend GMP training, participate in quality audits, and contribute to process improvement initiatives.

Individual development plan examples for finance professionals

1. Financial modeling expertise:

• Goal: Enhance proficiency in financial modeling for more accurate forecasting.
• Action: Enroll in advanced Excel courses, practice modeling complex scenarios, and participate in case study workshops.

2. Strategic financial planning:

• Goal: Develop strategic planning skills to contribute to long-term financial strategies.
• Action: Attend strategic finance seminars, collaborate with strategy teams, and analyze industry trends for informed decision-making.
• Goal: Obtain [specific finance-related certification] to elevate professional credentials.
• Action: Study rigorously, attend certification review sessions, and schedule the exam within [timeline].

4. Risk management proficiency:

• Goal: Strengthen risk assessment skills to minimize financial vulnerabilities.
• Action: Attend risk management seminars, analyze historical data for risk patterns, and propose mitigation strategies.

5. Leadership in finance teams:

• Goal: Cultivate leadership qualities for effective management within the finance department .
• Action: Engage in leadership workshops, mentor junior team members, and initiate process improvement projects.

Individual development plan examples for supply chain employees

1. Supplier Relationship Management:

• Goal: Enhance supplier collaboration and negotiation skills.
• Action: Attend supplier management workshops , engage in cross-functional collaboration, and lead vendor evaluation projects.

2. Process Optimization:

• Goal: Streamline supply chain processes for efficiency.
• Action: Enroll in process improvement courses, map out current processes, and implement Lean principles.

3. Inventory Management Proficiency:

• Goal: Develop expertise in optimizing inventory levels.
• Action: Take advanced inventory management courses, analyze historical data, and implement demand forecasting techniques.

4. Global Supply Chain Understanding:

• Goal: Gain insights into global supply chain dynamics.
• Action: Participate in international trade seminars, collaborate with overseas teams, and understand regional regulations.

5. Supply Chain Analytics:

• Goal: Improve decision-making through data-driven insights.
• Action: Learn data analytics tools, work on supply chain data projects, and present findings to management.

Individual development plan examples for hospitality industry employees

1. Customer Service Excellence:

• Goal: Elevate customer satisfaction by mastering guest interactions and problem-solving.
• Action: Attend customer service workshops, role-play scenarios, and seek feedback from supervisors.

2. Multilingual Proficiency:

• Goal: Enhance guest experience by learning [specific language] to communicate with a diverse clientele.
• Action: Enroll in language classes, practice with colleagues, and interact with guests in the target language.

3. Upselling Skills:

• Goal: Boost revenue by becoming proficient in upselling techniques and personalized recommendations.
• Action: Attend upselling training, create upsell strategies, and track successful upsell transactions.

4. Leadership Readiness:

• Goal: Prepare for supervisory roles by developing leadership and team management skills.
• Action: Participate in leadership courses, mentor junior staff, and seek guidance from experienced managers .

5. Crisis Management:

• Goal: Enhance preparedness by training for effective crisis response and guest safety protocols.
• Action: Engage in crisis management drills, study emergency procedures, and participate in safety audits.

Individual development plan examples for healthcare professionals

1. Clinical skill enhancement:

• Goal: Improve proficiency in [specific clinical procedure or technology].
• Action: Attend relevant workshops, engage in hands-on practice , and seek mentorship from experienced colleagues.

2. Patient communication:

• Goal: Enhance patient communication and interpersonal skills.
• Action: Participate in communication skills training, role-play scenarios with peers, and gather feedback from patients.
• Goal: Obtain [specific healthcare certification].
• Action: Enroll in preparatory courses, study diligently, and schedule the certification exam within [timeline].

4. Research and evidence-based practice:

• Goal: Contribute to and apply evidence-based research in clinical practice.
• Action: Attend research seminars, participate in clinical studies, and review current literature.

5. Leadership development:

• Goal: Develop leadership capabilities for potential managerial roles.
• Action: Engage in leadership training , take on supervisory responsibilities, and seek mentorship from senior leaders.

Individual development plan examples for IT professionals

1. Programming skill advancement:

• Goal: Master [specific programming language or framework].
• Action: Take online courses, work on relevant projects, and participate in coding challenges.

2. Cybersecurity expertise:

• Goal: Enhance skills in cybersecurity to protect organizational data.
• Action: Enroll in cybersecurity courses, participate in threat simulations, and stay updated on security trends.

3. Cloud computing proficiency:

• Goal: Gain expertise in cloud computing platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Action: Attend cloud computing workshops, obtain certifications, and work on cloud-based projects.

4. Project management:

• Goal: Develop project management skills to lead IT projects effectively.
• Action: Take project management courses, earn a PMP certification, and manage small projects to gain experience.

5. Innovation and technology integration:

• Goal: Foster innovation and integrate new technologies into existing systems.
• Action: Participate in innovation workshops, stay current with emerging technologies, and pilot new solutions within the organization.

Role of an employee development program in implementing an individual development plan for your employees

An employee development program plays a pivotal role in successfully implementing individual development plans (IDPs). It provides a structured framework for employees to access resources, training, and opportunities aligned with their IDP goals. These programs offer tailored workshops, courses, and mentorship, fostering skill enhancement and career growth.

By aligning IDPs with the organization's development initiatives, employees receive the necessary support, ensuring their aspirations align with business objectives. Employee development programs create a culture of continuous learning, boosting engagement, job satisfaction, and overall organizational success.

In essence, an Individual Development Plan (IDP) serves as a personalized roadmap for growth, regardless of industry. With strategic goal-setting, tailored actions, and ongoing reflection, individuals can harness their potential, cultivating skills that enrich both their careers and their industries at large.

What are some individual development plan examples for managers?

Managers often focus on leadership development, strategic thinking, and team management. For example, a manager's individual development plan may include goals like enhancing leadership skills through workshops, participating in strategic planning sessions, and mentoring junior team members to foster leadership qualities. These plans aim to prepare managers for broader responsibilities within the organization.

Can you provide individual development plan examples for employees in the workplace?

Certainly! Employees can have diverse development goals. For instance, an employee may aim to improve technical skills by enrolling in relevant courses, enhance communication abilities through public speaking training, or build leadership qualities by joining cross-functional projects. These plans align individual aspirations with organizational objectives, fostering a motivated and skilled workforce.

What are the common components of an individual development plan in a professional setting?

A typical individual development plan includes clear goals, self-assessment, actionable plans, resource identification, timelines, and monitoring and evaluation. These components help individuals define their objectives, assess their current skills, outline steps to achieve their goals, identify the necessary resources, set realistic timelines, and regularly review and adapt their plans.

How do I create a personal development plan for my career?

To create a personal development plan, start by self-reflecting on your strengths, weaknesses, and career aspirations. Set clear, SMART goals that align with your vision. Create actionable plans, identify resources, establish timelines, and regularly review your progress. Adapt your plan as needed to stay on track and achieve your career objectives. Seek guidance and feedback from mentors.

What are some real-life individual development plan samples for career growth?

Real-life individual development plan samples vary based on career goals. For instance, a sample for career or personal growth may include goals like obtaining relevant certifications, attending leadership training, and joining cross-functional projects . Another sample for skill enhancement may involve taking technical courses, seeking mentorship, and participating in industry conferences.

Kailash Ganesh

Kailash is a Product Marketer with 5+ years of experience. He loves story-telling in the simplest way possible and he is an avid reader, movie buff, and likes to travel new places to meet new people.

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3 steps to a breakthrough

Tony Robbins' results system for creating an extraordinary life

GET YOUR FREE ULTIMATE EDGE TRIAL: Experience Tony's best-selling personal achievement program!

Home » 3 steps to a breakthrough

CREATE YOUR BREAKTHROUGH

Are you in need of a personal development breakthrough? Do you find some area in your life – your efforts toward building a healthy relationship , being a more involved parent or how you’re handling stress – lacking? You’re not alone. More than 40 million people from 100 countries have used Tony Robbins’ 3-part system for creating an extraordinary life , allowing them to achieve their ultimate goals and experience the true fulfillment they desire.

What is personal development?

Before focusing on creating a personal development breakthrough, you must first answer the question “What is personal development?” Personal development can cover any activity that improves your awareness or identity, enhances your quality of life or develops your talents and skills. Personal development plans can be used to become a better leader or business owner as well as improve relationships, enhance health and accelerate learning. At the heart of personal development is adopting the right mindset and building healthy and successful habits that lead to achieving your goals. 

Your program will be unique to your needs and lifestyle and, though there are many templates you can use to achieve personal development goals, it will likely look different from anyone else’s.

Personal development quotes

When developing and putting a personal development program into action, it’s helpful to read personal development quotes that you can use as mantras or that you can fall back on when you need inspiration to get through a tough time. Here are some of Tony Robbins’ best personal development quotes:

“There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream or desire a reality.”

“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capacity. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.”

“Let fear be a counselor and not a jailer.”

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”

“Three decisions that we all control each moment of our lives: what to focus on, what things mean and what to do in spite of the challenges that may appear.”

“You should never leave the site of a goal or an idea without figuring out some way to apply it immediately . That gives you power. That’s how you build momentum.”

How to develop a personal development program

Whether it’s a stay-at-home parent, a professional athlete at the top of their game or the CEO of a multinational corporation, those who are truly living an extraordinary life – a life on their own terms – are those who know the answers to three things:

• What do you really want?
• What’s preventing you from having it?
• How do you change your life now?

Let’s break down the steps of one of Tony Robbins’ most powerful personal development strategies.

Step One: What do you really want?

While it is defined differently for everyone, a successful life for most people is based on two things:

• The Science of Achievement, or the ability to turn any dream into reality, to produce any result.
• The Art of Fulfillment, or the process of finding joy in whatever life brings; harnessing the power to understand, appreciate and enjoy our lives at the deepest level, no matter the circumstance. Much of this is based on mastering meaning and realizing that life is happening for us rather than to us.

Do you know what it is you really want from your personal development program? Dig deep and make sure your goals are aligned with your values by asking yourself the right questions .

Step two: What’s preventing you from having it?

There are only three things preventing you from having anything you want in your life:

• You lack clarity about what it is you really want and can’t find a compelling reason for why things are important to you.
• You are missing the proven tools and strategies to achieve your goal.
• There are conflicts between your emotions, desires and beliefs that cause you to take one step forward and two steps back as you try to make progress. You lack alignment in your psychology that will cause you to naturally follow through.

The biggest problem for most people is looking for ways to solve their problems instead of focusing on creating the life they want – a life of their own design. For your personal development to be successful, you have to start with what you want instead of what you don’t want. When you adjust your psychology to focus on desired outcomes rather than actions, you can reach your goals and find fulfillment much easier. In other words, if you want to make personal development progress, start with the end in mind.

Step three: How do you change your life now?

To take your personal development to the next level and become the best version of yourself , you need an integrated approach. There are three levels of immersion for the Robbins Results System. Watch the videos below to see how you can take your life to the next level.

Unlock, Align, Integrate!

Get the best tools and coaching for success, get focused and clear.

What is personal development and how can you put a system in place to take action? Once you address inner conflicts, you can unlock and unleash your true potential, align your life with what you really value and get the focus, clarity and tools you need – you can finally achieve your goals and celebrate your successes .

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Effective Personal Development Plan | 7 Steps To Create with Free Template in 2024

Jane Ng • 29 January, 2024 • 11 min read

Do you need help in your personal or professional life? Do you struggle to keep up with the fast-changing world around you? If so, you're not alone.In today's fast-paced world, it's more important than ever to keep learning, growing, and developing yourself.

That's why you need a personal development plan . Although many people understand the importance of self-improvement, only some know how to execute it. 

Therefore, in this article, we'll explore the 7 steps to creating a successful personal development plan that can help you achieve your goals and become the best version of yourself.

Table of Contents

What is a personal development plan, why do you need a personal development plan, steps to create an effective personal development plan, what hrm can help to create a personal development plan, a personal development plan template, frequently asked questions, key takeaways, tips for better engagement.

• Self paced learning at work
• Continuous improvement examples
• Change management process
• What is project management?
• Constructive criticism examples

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A personal development plan (also known as an individual development plan) is a guide to help individuals identify their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement, and create a roadmap for achieving personal and professional goals. It is a tool for individuals to plan their personal growth and development over a defined period.

Check out: Use live word cloud generator to brainstorm better for your personal development plan.

The personal development plan typically includes

• An assessment of the individual's current situation
• Individual goals and objectives
• Strategies for achieving those goals
• A timeline for implementing those strategies

It may also include a plan for acquiring new knowledge or skills, improving existing ones, and developing new habits or behaviors.

Individuals can use personal development plans at any stage of their career or life journey to identify areas for improvement, build on their strengths, and create a clear path toward their desired outcomes.

By reflecting on your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, a personal development plan can help you better understand yourself and your potential. From there, you can create a clear roadmap to achieve your goals, enabling you to improve your quality of life and achieve success in your career.

Thus, if you're willing to get started today, learn the next step-by-step to have an effective personal development plan!

1/ Identify your Strengths and Weaknesses

Identifying your strengths and weaknesses is the foundation of creating an effective personal development plan. This process requires you to take a close look at your current skills, knowledge, and personal qualities to gain a better understanding of where you excel and where you could improve.

To begin, make a list of your current skills, and knowledge, such as communication skills, problem-solving skills, time management skills, and personal traits like leadership, creativity, and empathy.

Next, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are my strongest skills and qualities?
• What areas do I need to improve?
• What skills or qualities do I need to develop to achieve my goals?

(While assessing your strengths and limitations, be honest with yourself and try to approach this exercise with a growth mindset. Instead of seeing weaknesses as failures, consider them as opportunities for improvement and development.)

Finally, prioritize your areas for improvement based on their importance to achieving your goals. 

For example of a personal development plan, If your goal is to transition into a management position, it's essential to prioritize developing leadership, management, and communication skills rather than solely focusing on advanced skills. 

By taking time for the self-assessment process, you can understand what your strengths are and where you need to focus your efforts to achieve your goals.

2/ Set Goals 

After identifying your strengths and weaknesses, you need to set specific and realistic goals that align with your self-assessment.

To begin, think about what you want to achieve in the short term and long term. Your short-term goals should be achievable in 3 - 10 months, while your long-term goals should be achievable within the next 2 - 5 years. When setting your goals, make sure they are specific and measurable. 

Set a particular aim, such as "take a public speaking course to improve my presentation skills," rather than a general goal like "improve my communication skills." This way, you'll know exactly what you need to accomplish to reach your goal.

It is also critical to verify that your objectives are practical and achievable. Consider factors like your available resources, time limits, and personal commitments. Establishing unachievable goals can lead to feelings of anger and disappointment, which can limit your growth.

Finally, review your goals regularly to ensure that you are on track to achieve them. With specific and realistic goals, you can stay motivated and focused on your personal development journey.

3/ Create an Action Plan

After identifying your goals and assessing your current situation, it's time to create a roadmap to achieve your objectives, which may involve acquiring new skills, developing existing ones, or changing your habits and behaviors.

Here are some key details to consider when creating an action plan:

• Learn new skills: Depending on your goals, you may need to learn new skills to achieve them. For personal development plan example, if your goal is to advance your marketing career, you may need to develop new digital tactics or embrace the trend of using AI to create creative content. Identify the specific skills you need to acquire and plan for how to learn them. You can take courses, attend workshops or seek mentorship from someone with appropriate expertise.
• Improve existing skills: You may need to develop existing skills, along with learning new ones. For example, if you want to improve your public speaking skills, you may need to practice in front of others and ask for feedback. So choose the skills you need to improve and create an approach to accomplish this.
• Change habits and behaviors: Sometimes, achieving our goals requires us to change our habits and behaviors. For example, if your goal is to improve your health, you may need to change your diet or exercise routine. So, you need to identify the inappropriate habits and behaviors you need to change, then set specific goals, and actions or seek support from others for that.

You should also consider the following suggestions to create the most realistic action plan possible:

• Break down larger goals into smaller steps: It can be overwhelming to tackle all at once. To make it manageable, break down your larger goals into smaller steps. This will make it easier to track your progress and stay motivated.
• Determine the resources required: Consider the resources you will need to achieve your goals such as time, money, support from others, or any specific tools or materials. Be realistic about what you can accomplish with the resources you have available.
• Evaluate and adjust your plan: You may need to adjust your plan based on new information or unexpected challenges. So you should regularly evaluate your progress and be willing to make changes as needed.

4/ Establish a Timeline

A timeline helps you stay on track and motivated to achieve your goals.  

Here are some details when establishing a timeline for your action plan:

• Break down your action plan into specific steps: You first need to break down your action plan into specific steps. Each step should be clearly defined and manageable.
• Set specific deadlines for each step: Once you have identified each step, set specific deadlines for completing them. How much time do you need for each step? If something unexpected happens, how does it affect your timeline?
• Prioritize steps:  Choose the most critical steps that will have the greatest impact on the goals, and make sure they get the attention they deserve.
• Use a calendar or planner: Use a calendar or planner to schedule each step of your action plan. (Consider using color coding or other visual aids)
• Be responsible with your deadlines: You can share your timeline with a trusted friend, family member, or mentor, and ask them to hold you accountable for meeting your deadlines.

5/ Monitor your Progress

You can use a journal, a goal-setting app, or a spreadsheet to track your progress. Regularly monitor your progress toward your goals and adjust your plan if necessary.

You can use a journal, a goal-setting app, or a spreadsheet to track your progress. And don't forget to celebrate your successes along the way. This will help you stay motivated to continue working towards your goals. You can treat yourself to something you enjoy or share your successes with others.

However, don't be upset if there are mistakes or failures. Remember that setbacks and failures are a normal part of personal development. Use any failures as an opportunity to learn and grow. Reflect on what went wrong, and use that knowledge to adjust your plan moving forward.

6/ Get Supports

Achieving success is never easy. When you're having a hard time, you'll be in dire need of support, which could be emotional support, practical support, or accountability. 

So don't hesitate to reach out to your support system. This may include friends, family, mentors, or coaches. Be clear about what you need from them and how they can best support you.

7/ Reflect and Review

Reflecting and reviewing your progress is a crucial step in the personal development process. So take time to reflect on your progress towards your goals. Consider what is working well and what areas need improvement.

Also, consider your goals and action plan to see if they are still aligned with your values and aspirations to make any adjustments needed.

In addition to the previously mentioned support, it's important not to overlook the potential benefits of seeking assistance from Human Resource Management (HRM). HRM can be an excellent resource for creating a personal development plan, as their professionals are specifically trained to provide support to employees in their career development. 

They can offer valuable guidance on the skills and knowledge needed to achieve professional goals, tailoring their advice to the individual's needs with:

1/ Training and Development Programs

HRM can offer various soft skills training , technical skills training, and development programs that can help you acquire new skills, or develop existing ones. 

2/ Career Counseling and Coaching

They can help you discover your strengths, limitations, and career goals through career counseling and coaching. They can also assist you in developing a tailored action plan for reaching your career objectives.

3/ Performance Management

If you want to track your progress and ensure that you are meeting your personal development goals, HRM can provide performance management services to help. This can include regular feedback sessions, Q&A sessions, goal setting, and performance evaluations.

To help you create an effective personal development plan, we have created a sample of a personal development plan.

And don't forget AhaSlides can also be a valuable aid in seeking feedback from others or drawing inspiration from customized templates to support the development of your personal plan.

What are the key areas for self development?

Key areas include Mental Health, Social and Spiritual connection, Emotional and Physical well-being.

How to set up a personal development plan?

Firstly, you should find the key area needed improvement, then work with a coach or mentor to assemble a plan, then finally form a personal development goal.

Why is a personal development plan important?

A proper PDP helps you to reflect your goals, your values and your purposes, so that you know exactly what's needed to be done on your career path!

A personal development plan is an essential tool for achieving personal and professional growth. It allows you to take the right approach toward achieving your goals and provides you with a roadmap for success. With a well-crafted personal development plan, you can unlock your full potential and achieve your dreams.

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The Ultimate Personal Development Plan Template That Will Get You Noticed

• What is a personal development plan?
• How to use a personal development plan
• How to make a good personal development plan
• Personal Development Plan Template
• What are personal development goals?
• Best practices for setting personal development goals
• Examples of most common personal development goals
• Personal development goals for work examples
• Common mistakes to watch out

Employees look for training and personal development opportunities at their respective companies. The lack of these opportunities is one of the main reasons they decide to quit. HR professionals and team leaders can avoid this using a personal development plan template to help employees reach their personal development goals. In such a case, it would be a win-win situation for both the company and the people working there. 

A proper template ensures you help individual employees work on their weaknesses and build up their strengths. This is a direct way to set personal development goals and find the shortest way to reach them.

According to a survey , 94% of respondents said they would stay at the company longer if it invested in their careers. In addition, professional and personal growth leads to higher retention. Besides, 58% of employees claim that professional development contributes to their job satisfaction. Moreover, employees who feel respected, empowered, and as if they are making a difference are much more likely to stay in a company—those who don’t have less than a 35% chance of staying. 

A proper template ensures you help individual employees work on their weaknesses and build up their strengths. This is a direct way to set personal development goals and find the shortest way to reach them. It enriches their experience at work and has a positive impact on their career. 

On top of that, it also attracts new hires to your company. Almost 60% of millennials list development opportunities as key factors in applying for a job. As this is the case, it’s high time you work on your employees’ personal development.

Let’s take a closer look at a personal development plan and see how it correlates with personal development goals to tap into each employee’s power. Keeping that in mind, we should start with a personal development plan and later proceed to personal development goals for everything to make perfect sense. 

A personal development plan (PDP) is an agreement between an employer and employee that outlines that team member’s objectives. It wants to empower employees to analyze their professional life and work on self-improvement. Employees can easily achieve goals when they have a clear picture of their performance. They understand what it takes to reach a specific milestone because of their personal development plan.

HR professionals and managers usually help employees create a personal growth plan. However, team members don’t need to wait for their next performance review to learn new skills and identify areas that require improvement. They can make a personal development plan themselves. Employees can establish short-term or long-term goals and set realistic deadlines to fulfill them.

Having a personal development plan template helps all parties. You can just fill in the required fields and create a clear plan for an individual’s development. Add an HR management tool to that equation, and you’re set to take your workplace to the next level.

  Related: Top 12 Performance Review Software in 2023 ‍

Remember that a PDP must be tailored-made for a specific employee. You can’t take someone else’s plan and expect it to work for them. Each person has different skills and experiences. The plan reflects that.

Why is it important?

 Personal development is all about a process of self-improvement. The plan helps employees:

• Outline specific goals and what they should do to achieve them
• Identify the strengths that ensure they grow in their personal and professional life
• Recognize what skills they need to overcome their existing weaknesses ‍

It is essentially a roadmap that guides them through the process of achieving goals. ‍

What kind of benefits can you expect from a personal development plan? Here are the improvements you will see with a good PDP in place:

• Boosts employee motivation – a personal development plan makes employees aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They can use their strengths to work more productively and learn how to minimize their weaknesses. This boosts their motivation and encourages them to do more. 
• Minimize staff turnover – it can cost more to find a new hire than it does to retain an existing employee. You should give your employees a personal development plan template to show them you’re committed to their improvement. They are more likely to stay at the company if they have a plan.
• Advances existing skills – employees create a career plan focusing on their development. They identify performance development areas so that they can grow in the workplace. While improving existing skills, they also acquire new ones to achieve career goals.
• Improves goal-setting – a PDP outlines both long-term and short-term goals. Managers can teach employees how to break down those goals to make them more achievable.

A PDP benefits both the company and the employee. Introducing personal development plan templates makes the process easier for managers and HR professionals. ‍

Let’s see how you can use a PDP.

According to research , 74% of surveyed employees think they don’t progress at work due to a lack of development opportunities. You can help them reach their full potential with a personal development plan.

A PDP is an effective way to learn a new skill or master a particular one. Employees can also use it to boost their careers. They just need help from their managers or HR team members. ‍

If you’re a team lead or an HR professional, you can use a personal development plan to:

• Conduct a skill-gap analysis – a PDP helps you understand which skills your employees lack. The company’s subsequent training efforts should strive to fill the gap.
• Identify employees who want to grow – this plan also identifies team members who want a promotion. For example, let’s say your company is looking for a Project Manager. Instead of hiring someone outside the company, you can promote one of your employees.
• Align employee goals with business goals – one-on-one meetings reveal individual goals. When you know a team member’s career growth plans, you can align them with business goals and help them grow. ‍

Related: 5 Meeting Agenda Templates to Use Right Away ‍

Remember, most employees crave professional development opportunities. If you disregard their development needs, you’ll have a team of dissatisfied members. How can a company grow when the employees aren’t happy?

You should go through several steps to create an effective personal development plan. We’ll list those steps below.

• Ask employees to perform a self-assessment

It all starts with us. We can’t grow or improve if we don’t reflect on ourselves. That’s why your employees must do a self-evaluation first. After all, they know their interests, professional life goals, skills, and knowledge best.

You can ask them the following questions to fuel their path to self-improvement:

• How satisfied are you with your work progress?
• Is there something you can do to reach your full potential?
• What are your career goals? Do you have the skills to achieve them?

Employees can reflect on their performance and determine what they can do to develop personally and professionally. ‍

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• Set clear goals

Every employee should know what they want to achieve in their career. If they don’t, you can help them set and achieve goals. These objectives should reflect their strengths and personal development plans.

When creating a PDP for your company, we suggest you focus on SMART goals. They are:

• Specific – the goal should be precise and to the point. There’s no room for ambiguity. For instance, instead of saying, “I’m going to write an article this week,” your employee should say, “I’m going to write a 2,000-word B2B article.”
• Measurable – there should be criteria that measure progress. You can agree on how you will assess whether they’ve achieved the goal.
• Achievable – ensure your employees don’t set unattainable objectives. They should know if their skills and resources make it possible to achieve a goal.
• Realistic – your employee should be willing to work towards achieving an objective. This depends on their skills, so they should evaluate them before agreeing to something.
• Time-bound – encourage them to set a realistic deadline to meet their duties.

Setting these goals helps employees split their objectives into smaller, more manageable milestones. They complete a goal one step at a time which derives great pleasure and satisfaction. 

Related: The Best Performance Improvement Plan (+Template)

• Determine which strategies to implement

After setting the goals, it’s time to consider how employees will achieve them. The strategies vary depending on the objective. For example, if an employee wants to work their way up the career ladder, they might want to attend an online course that helps them expand their knowledge. They should consider the skill set they need and the best way to build those skills.

• Explore resources

Employees cannot achieve professional and personal growth without any further resources. It’s impossible to learn something new if you don’t have some help along the way. You can help employees determine which resources they need. Those resources include online courses, learning platforms, interactive flipbooks , conferences, niche-specific articles, webinars, and even training. Look at their personal development plan to figure out what can benefit them.

If you follow the above steps, you can make a good personal development plan for your employees. One thing that can help you—having a personal development plan template.

As your company grows, you’ll have to focus on more and more employees. Each of those employees requires their own plan. Not to mention, you must follow their career development and growth after the goal-setting process. What can you do to make the process more manageable? You can use a personal development plan template. PDP in HR is a popular way to track personal and professional development progress and make adjustments along the way.

Using a template for personal development needs is quicker and more efficient. Imagine if you need to create personal development plans for every employee. This would be time-consuming. Don’t make this mistake—use personal development plan templates. These PDP templates help you create a clear picture of your employee’s goals and the steps they should take to reach them.

You won’t need to worry about missing important information that can affect your employees' personal development. We have prepared a personal development plan template to jumpstart your team members’ success! The PDP template is concise and identifies areas your employees need to answer to achieve success. 

You can use the following personal development plan template to help your company grow with talented individuals.

Personal development plan template ‍

Employee name: _________________

Position and title: _________________

Date: _________________

Development area: _________________

Personal development goals: _________________

Top strengths: _________________

Areas to improve: _________________

Development opportunities: _________________

Action plan: _________________

Skills and knowledge needed for personal growth: _________________

Necessary resources: _________________

Evaluation period (how often will you check the progress): _________________

Deadline: _________________

Review (How am I doing): _________________

Personal development plans are the way best to get to know your employees and see how your company can influence their success and growth.

Here is a filled-in PDP sample you can use as an example of what a completed personal development plan template should look like:

Employee name: John Doe

Position and title: Social Media Manager

Date: July 30 2022

Development area: Time management

Personal development goals: Organize my time better to help my team members and learn how to prioritize tasks

Top strengths: Social media planning and delivery, communication skills, writing engaging content

Areas to improve: Time management and organizational skills

Development opportunities: Become a team leader of the company’s social media department

Action plan: Use to-do lists to better organize my day, track each task’s progress, report my progress to a supervisor

Skills and knowledge needed for personal growth: Time management and leadership skills

Necessary resources: Online courses about social media marketing, tools to better track the performance of social media posts and analyze our audience

Evaluation period (how often will you check the progress): Every month

Deadline: Three months from today

Review (How am I doing): N/A (to be completed every month)

Use personal development templates like this to make the process of creating a PDP for employees simpler and more time-efficient!

How to get started with a template

Achieving personal growth is easier with personal development plan templates. But the journey doesn’t end there. You must also take certain steps to ensure your employees are improving and meeting their goals.

Here are some strategies you can take after an employee submits their personal development plan: 

• Review the plan immediately – make sure to go over an employee’s plan. You must check if their goals are attainable and clear.
• Remind employees to check the plan periodically – a team member might forget what areas they need to improve. You can remind them to read their plan to see if they are working on the right skills.
• Assess their improvement so far – you can plan a one-on-one meeting with an employee. Ask them to be honest and tell you how they are doing, if they need additional help and which changes they see.
• Determine their success – personal development plans are about creating specific goals. The plan would be futile if you don’t check if an employee has made progress towards their goals.
• Decide what to do next – if you find any issues, you must devise a solution. Don’t abandon your employee—show them you're committed to their success!

When you know all about the personal development plan, it is time to proceed to the next crucial step, setting personal development goals. These two aspects come toe-to-toe and are vital for making goals and planning a reality.

‍ What are personal development goals?

Personal development goals, or self-improvement goals, are the objectives people set to improve themselves in many ways, including habits, mindset, skills or even work ethics.  Although personal development goals are not necessarily connected to the job setting, they can help people improve their professional and personal lives.

Some of the most common areas for personal development goals include:

• change of mindset
• improving hard skills
• working on social skills
• character building

How can they help people?

Working on personal development goals has many benefits, but here are five areas where it can help employees the most:

Better focus  

One of the biggest benefits of setting personal development goals is a better focus and a clear sense of direction. Clear goals inspire people to act and easily decide on their next steps. This pushes them to be proactive and get more things done in their personal and professional lives.

Free time endlessly scrolling on the phone without a clear purpose or spreading work throughout the day is easy. Specific goals will motivate people to become more proactive and efficient.

Increased productivity

Goal setting teaches individuals prioritization techniques. This way, it is much easier to decipher what matters the most and take care of it instantly. Another major advantage has concrete, measurable goals to work towards. This makes it possible to evaluate people’s success precisely and encourages them to keep improving. The more goals they tick off, the more satisfied they will be. Over time, this will also increase general productivity. 

Better professional relationships

Self-improvement goals can improve the quality of people’s relationships with their colleagues and business partners. By becoming a better version of themselves, they're inspiring everyone who gets in touch with them to do the same. Their growth mindset is reflected in others as well. As a consequence, positive relationships in your team could dramatically improve. People in self-development tend to be better listeners and more compassionate toward others.

Improved work-life balance

Employees that don’t have a healthy work-life balance are prone to burnout more than others. That’s why this aspect shouldn’t be neglected. Employees should be encouraged to pursue their passions and learn new skills that don’t have to be work-related. Personal development goals can help people find time for themselves and remember who they are outside of their job. Consequently, they will become more motivated, and their productivity at work will improve.

Career advancement  

Finally, working on personal development goals can positively affect professional life and bring professional success to everyone. Many skills are transferable, meaning one can use them in other areas. Communication skills, soft skills, and creativity — are all crucial for success at work. New skills can help employees better serve customers and even get promotions. Sometimes working on personal development goals can bring insights and ideas that can revolutionize how you work.

As an HR or business mentor, your job is to share some resources on goal-setting with your team. Of course, each person’s goal will be different, but here are some universal strategies that everyone can benefit from, regardless of their goal.

Here are some points you can ask your employees to do:

• Identify what you want

 This is a fun exercise you can do as a team. According to one statistic, employees engaged in meaningful activities are 87% less likely to leave the company.

You can ask them the following questions:

• What goal would make the biggest difference in your life? 
• Is that goal in alignment with your vision for the future?
• What is something you’ve always wanted to learn but never seemed to have enough time for?

This exercise helps them connect with their personal development goals deeper, which will help them commit. When it becomes hard, and it feels like quitting, it's important to connect with your why and remember why you started.

• Set milestones for your goal

Big goals are not only frightening, but they can also be too vague. The next step is to break your personal goals into achievable milestones.

There are three good reasons to do so:

• The goals become more doable.
• You feel more motivated to work towards your goals.
• It's easier to measure your progress.

For example, someone's personal development goal could be to learn French. That's too vague. That person would be much more motivated if they created smaller goals for each month or week. 

• Set a day and time to work on your goal

As Michael Hyatt once said: What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. Set yourself up for success by turning your goals into plans. It means that you should allocate time and space where you will be dedicated to working on your goal.

It will be much easier if your goal becomes part of your routine. It doesn't have to take a lot of time, especially in the beginning. The most important thing is to make it a habit.

How to Build the Best Employee Development Plan

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Here are the most common personal development goals related examples: 

• Improving your communication skills . This goal can improve professional relationships, the atmosphere of the whole team, as well as the results you get with clients.
• Mastering time management - Time management is one of the most important skills for your own success. Today it's even more challenging due to the distractions around us. One can learn different time management strategies from books, but it's important to try them and choose those that work in your life.
• Mindfulness - Mindfulness is one of the most effective stress management techniques, and everyone in the corporate world needs it. Your mindfulness practice could consist of meditation, visualization, breath work, or sitting silently for a few minutes every morning.
• Developing a growth mindset - A growth mindset is essential for success. Maybe you need to work on your mindset if you've been stuck lately. Some of the ideas include journaling, affirmations, or reading self-improvement books.
• Networking - One of the common goals is to grow your network and meet more people. This can be done through organizing networking events or joining clubs and communities on the topics that interest you.
• Learning a new skill - The best way to keep your brain sharp is to challenge yourself to learn a new skill! Choose something that interests you, whether crochet or graphic design and be patient with yourself because every new skill takes time.
• Creative thinking - Many people don't know it, but creativity can be learned! You need to give yourself space to let your mind wander, and ideas will come. There are also different exercises to boost your creativity, from design thinking to creative writing.
• Reading habit - One of the most common New Year's goals is: I'd love to read more books this year! Reading has many benefits, and it can be a life-changing habit. It's important to set realistic goals for yourself. Your first goal shouldn't be to read one book a week. Instead, your goal should be to get into the habit of regularly reading.

We'll now go into more detail and show you how to set personal development goals properly.

Improving leadership skills

Leadership is one of the most valuable assets that can benefit your employees in many ways. According to Forbes , it helps employees boost productivity, engagement, and independence.  ‍

Here is how your organization could help employees improve this skill:

• Organize internal workshops - You don’t need famous motivational speakers and leaders to organize a successful workshop. You can also organize internal workshops where managers and executives share their practical experiences with younger employees.
• Organize leadership challenges - It’s important to understand that one doesn’t need a title to be a leader. It’s about behavior and the way you treat others and tackle problems. To make it more fun, you could organize leadership challenges where each employee has to do one small task that shows leadership capabilities.

Become a better networker

If one of your team member’s goals is to become a better networker and create stronger relationships, you should first ask them to define what it means for them and why it's important. Next, they should list actions that will get them there. The steps should be concise and easy to follow.

The list may look like this:

• Read a book about communication
• Talk to people that are great networkers
• Practice being an active listener
• Commit to going to networking events every month
• Reach out to your new connections

They should also set some milestones, for example, I want to meet 10 new people by the end of this month. And then, you can create a plan of how they will do it. If you know that someone in your team lacks accountability, you can encourage them to share their goals with your other colleagues so you can support each other. 

As an HR, you could also introduce your team to the concept of an accountability buddy. It means that each person gets another person that keeps them accountable. They’re here to support each other and track their progress together.

Common mistakes to watch out for when setting development goals

Here are some of the most common mistakes people make when they set personal development goals:

The goal is not measurable

One of the first rules of goal setting is that personal goals should be clear and measurable. If people can't measure your progress, how can you know they're going in the right direction?

Some might say that certain goals are simply not measurable, and that's true. However, in that case, you can help people track their activities. They can measure how much time they dedicate to the goal weekly to ensure they're on the right track.

The goal is not something people want

The worst thing is to choose a personal development goal just because it's something that's "good for people" and "should be done". Achieving personal development goals requires time and dedication. That's why it's essential to help your employees choose a goal that's meaningful to them.

People don't have the right mindset

A positive mindset is crucial for continuous self-development. Even if some goals are out of people’s comfort zones, they can still work on those. Many people have limiting beliefs that prevent them from achieving their highest potential.

The rule is - if you want to succeed, it's essential that you believe that you can do it. If you lack self-confidence, you won't be motivated enough, leading to procrastination.

Now that people have set their personal development goals, it's time to do an honest assessment and see where they currently are. The best way to do it is during one on ones with employees.

Take some time to think about the following topics and encourage people to be honest with themselves. Here are some questions to ask employees should ask themselves:

• Did I allocate enough time to my personal goals?
• Did I have all the resources I needed for achieving this goal?
• What were the biggest obstacles?
• What can I do differently next time?
• Where can I get the support when I need it?

Even if they haven't achieved their goal, they should be patient with themselves. They can start again, but this time with a better strategy and more support. 

On the other hand, what if people achieve all personal development goals with success?

First, take time to celebrate and congratulate your employees. Too many people take their success for granted and always look for a new challenge. Right now, they should be proud of how far they've come!

Here are some things you can ask your employees:

- ‘’If you enjoyed working on this skill, you may want to take it to the next level. You can challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone once again and become even better at it. At this point, you may even consider getting a certification or something similar.’’

 - ‘’Or, you can choose a completely different area to work on. If you worked on your physical health, you could now switch to emotional intelligence or the other way round.’’

Conclusion: Personal Development Plan and Goals

Helping your employees work on their personal development plan creates a positive workplace. Employees are satisfied to see their company cares about them and doesn’t see them just as “seat-fillers.” With an effective personal development plan template, you can easily discover each person’s skills and weaknesses. You get to grow the talent you already have and nurture an impressive company culture.

As you can see, self-growth is a never-ending process. There's always room for improvement. Adopting a growth mindset and entering the field of personal development could be one of the most positive things you've done for yourself. If you're a manager or business owner, you should encourage your people to set personal development goals. They will not only make your employees happier and more productive, but they will influence everyone around them in a positive way.

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FAQ: How to Set Personal development goals

A personal development plan (PDP) is the practice of consistently adding new skills , knowledge and competencies to yourself in areas of your choice. It is a clear and documented outline that shows what you aim to achieve to attain better fulfillment and growth. A personal development plan does not have to be restricted to your career alone, as it also concerns your finances, education, relationships and other interests.

What is a personal development plan example?

A personal development plan could simply be 'Get a promotion at work next January'. To achieve this, you need a detailed plan to guide (documented) and steps to get the promotion. Such steps will include: taking a management training course, requesting a performance appraisal with HR, networking better with the line manager, etc.

What are the key elements of a personal development plan?

A personal development plan should include the following elements:

• A clear reason showing why you want to achieve your plans.
• A defined vision of where you want to be.
• A defined timeframe to help you prioritize the different areas of your PDP.
• The skills and resources you need to meet up with your plans.
• Your expected milestones to keep you on track.

What are individual development goals examples?

Some of the most common personal development goals include learning a new skill, developing a positive attitude, breaking bad habits, effectively managing your time, etc.

What are the 5 areas of personal development?

These are the 5 main areas of personal growth:

• Mental (working on your mindset, learning new skills)
• Social (working on your communication and networking)
• Spiritual (inner peace, meditating)
• Emotional (emotional intelligence, personal boundaries)
• Physical (physical health, proper self-care, fitness)

What are 3 goals for your career development?

The following 3 goals can influence your ongoing professional development: becoming a better communicator, enhancing your networking skills and learning leadership skills.

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What is a personal development plan?

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Activities for personality development: 15 ways to grow

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All about personality

Can you change your personality?

Personal versus professional versus personality development

15 personality development activities for personal growth.

One step at a time

Everything that makes you you — likes, dislikes, temperament — is something to celebrate. Your unique personality shows the world your value and is what makes you worth knowing. 

But there may be times when you’re not satisfied with certain facets of your character. Maybe your laid-back nature means you scramble to meet deadlines at work. Maybe you’re not as outgoing as you’d like to be, which keeps you from networking professionally . 

Wanting to change a character trait doesn’t mean you don’t love or accept yourself. It actually means the opposite: you recognize that becoming the best version of yourself takes work. Putting in that effort is a form of self-love .

That’s where activities for personality development come in. Incorporating one or more of these character-building pursuits can help you grow and adjust aspects of yourself that you feel hold you back. 

When you make a new friend or meet someone new, their appearance might be the first thing you notice. But once you start a conversation , their personality is what stands out and sparks a lasting first impression .

Your personality is the unique combination of traits and behavior that form in response to various influences. These influences include nature, your genetic predisposition, and nurture, your experiences and environment . The debate continues as to how influential these factors are, but generally, they combine to shape your: 

Defining characteristics

Motivations

Personal values

Capabilities

Emotional patterns

Self-awareness

You’ve probably heard a friend or colleague refer to their personality type, which is a systemic approach to classifying your personality. One of the most common forms is Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which categorizes your traits into four dimensions.

While there’s some argument about effectiveness , Myers-Briggs and other personality tests can provide insights into your strengths and weaknesses at a high level. 

Can you change your personality? 

Psychologists once believed that your temperament and character developed during childhood and didn’t change much over time. Sigmund Freud postulated that, by the age of five, you developed your “superego” (your moral standards) and therefore your personality. 

But more modern studies have found that your personality remains flexible throughout your life. It evolves as you age, whether that’s in response to a significant life event or through consistent effort and discipline . These changes are less about your personality and whole self and more about your individual skills, traits, and characteristics.

This is good news if there’s an aspect of your personality you’d like to resolve or develop. It is possible to make a change if you’re willing to commit to a personality training and development process , whether that’s meeting with a coach or reading books for growth . 

When embarking on self-improvement , you might focus on one of two areas: personal or professional development. Personality development can fall under either category, but knowing the distinction can help you better sharpen your efforts.

Personal development

Personal development is any activity meant to improve or transform yourself. Working to change your habits, develop discipline, or start a new hobby all fall under the personal development umbrella. The ultimate goal of these activities is to aid your physical, emotional, or spiritual growth on a personal level.

Professional development

Professional development is similar to personal, but instead of growing as an individual, you’re narrowing your scope to evolve as an employee. Employee training methods vary, but any time you gain knowledge, improve or learn career-related skills, or receive an industry certification, you participate in a professional development activity .

Personality development 

Personality development is a more holistic process that looks for insight into everything you do — both personal and professional. Once you understand your whole self better, you can enhance and improve your unique ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Personality development impacts both professional and personal growth. If you struggle to meet new people or make conversation, working on your interpersonal skills can help you better connect with others (personal) and improve your ability to work on a team (professional). When you’re trying to set goals for personal or professional growth, or both, think about the work you need to do at the personality level. 

When you’re making an effort to change yourself, skill development takes many forms. You might focus on a particular character trait, develop a specific skill, or reinforce new habits that contribute to your personality. 

Either way, when choosing self-development activities, consider lifestyle fit and whether you’ll stick with those practices. Signing up to make a speech when you’re terrified of speaking in front of crowds might be too much to handle at once. Instead, start slowly by working to develop your self-confidence while taking a beginner’s public speaking course . 

Here are some personal progress activity ideas you can do independently and at your own pace:

1. Work on your communication skills

If you want to enhance your personal and professional relationships, spend some time polishing your communication skills . Soft skills like active listening , cueing into body language and gestures, and clearly expressing yourself all fall into this category. 

Poor communication can lead to increased stress , project delays or failures, and decreased employee morale at work. And in personal relationships, improvements in communication style resulted in increased satisfaction . Becoming a more communicative person aids both aspects of your life.

2. Commit to a 30-day challenge

It’s normal to struggle to meet certain goals. Work on self-accountability by taking on a 30-day challenge. It can be something small to begin with, but try to make a commitment and stick to it every day for a month. If nothing else, this practice will teach you discipline and how dedicated you can be to new habits.

Examples of 30-day challenges include:

Spending 15 minutes writing in a journal

Exercise for 30 minutes 

Waking up early  

Establishing a nightly reading habit

Be sure to track your progress to keep motivated. As your success continues, you’ll feel confident tackling more ambitious goals and making bigger changes.

3. Step out of your comfort zone

Some people are comfortable in their routine, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But trying new things has many benefits, including increased focus, improved memory, and greater creativity, which can all contribute to your overall personality. 

If you want to become a little more adventurous, shake things up by:

Giving an interactive presentation

Volunteering for a difficult project at work

Writing an article for the office newsletter

Talking to someone new

Taking a class in something outside of your skill set

4. Learn how to say no

Generosity is a wonderful personality trait when you give to the people around you. But you could burn yourself out when you spend too much time on others rather than self-care . Saying no and developing healthy boundaries help you be more assertive and protect your energy . The benefits of curbing your people-pleasing tendencies include: 

Improved self-esteem

Increased sense of identity and independence

Enhanced emotional well-being

Deeper connection with your values 

Reduced chance of burnout

More time to work on your goals

5. Tap into your creativity

If you don’t have an artistic inclination, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to spark creativity, you can actually work to develop it as a skill . Creativity is linked to improved problem-solving , helping you innovate and think outside the box both in your professional and personal life.

6. Get curious

If there’s something you want to know, commit to learning more about it. Daily learning and intellectual curiosity have many benefits, including greater professional success and an increased sense of personal fulfillment. Start researching a new language, reading a self-help book , or listening to a podcast — whatever fits your lifestyle. You can even look at personal growth examples to inspire your next steps.

7. Give yourself a daily affirmation

Positive affirmations give you a confidence boost when you need it, which can motivate you to continue your personal development journey. Daily affirmations trigger your brain’s reward center to increase feelings of competence and self-worth. Stand in front of your mirror every day and tell yourself:

I deserve to have good things happen to me

I can find solutions to my problems

I’m able to reach my goals

I will face the day with courage and grace

I trust my decision-making skills

8. Practice some self-care

Developing your personality is a fantastic practice. But if you’re balancing that work with caring for others, developing your career, and going through the motions of daily life, it can wear you out. As part of your personal growth, prioritize your well-being so you have the inner resources you need to be there for both others and yourself.

9. Meditate

Taking time out of the day to calm your mind and focus on your thoughts can help develop mindfulness and make better choices towards development. Even mindful breathing during the day regulates your emotions and decreases stress. If you’re not sure how to start your meditation practice , you can find guided exercises in apps or YouTube videos. 

10. Start journaling

When making a change in your life, persistence can be a key factor in achieving your personal goals. Studies show that regular journaling enhances the self-regulation you need to achieve long-term goals like personality development. Starting a journaling practice helps you: 

Process negative emotions

Improve self-awareness

Document your successes

Track mistakes and reflect on what to do differently

Reduce anxiety

Writing in a journal doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Putting in a few minutes is enough to enjoy its benefits.

11. Play a team sport

Being independent is a beneficial trait, especially if you spend lots of time alone at work or at home. But if you tend to rely on yourself too much, playing on a team can help you understand the importance of interdependence. Not only will you learn teamwork , but you’ll also develop communication, risk-taking , and strategic planning skills, all of which can serve you well in any aspect of your life.

12. Volunteering

Reinforce the personality development skills you’ve been working on by volunteering for a cause you’re passionate about. You’ll help others while helping yourself, and you might have the chance to gain experience, network, and meet people like you in the process. 

13. Networking

Challenging yourself is part of growth, and if becoming more outgoing and social is on your list, there are lots of productive ways to do so. Put your new social skills to good use by creating a networking plan to expand your circle of professional connections. Your network can also help you:

Find a new job opportunity

Improve your creativity

Build your confidence

Establish a support system

14. Get feedback

When you’re making a personal change, it helps to get an objective view of how far you’ve come — whether that’s positive or negative. If you’re working on a specific aspect of your personality, like if you want to stop micromanaging , let the people around you know. Check in and ask for feedback on whether they’ve noticed a change in you. Their input: 

Lets you take ownership of the changes you want to make

Increases your confidence

Creates a healthy dialogue

Offers support and opportunities for creative problem-solving

Motivates you to reach your goals faster

15. Find a mentor/coach

The irony of self-improvement is it’s difficult to accomplish on your own. Finding a life coach or trusted mentor can speed up the process. Mentorship can be extremely useful on your journey, with 97% of mentees saying it was a valuable experience and 55% believing it contributed to their success . And the benefits of coaching are also extensive, including increased mental health and empowerment.

One step at a time 

Deciding to confront your flaws and make a change is a courageous choice. But it can’t happen all at once. Change takes time. It’s important that you accept and be patient with yourself while you undergo this process.

Consistently participating in activities for personality development wi ll help drive your progress and become the best version of yourself. With patience and determination, you’ll get there. 

Enhance your personal growth

Discover how targeted coaching can accelerate your personality development and help achieve your goals.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

Are you reaching your full potential? A guide to personal development

What’s personal space learn what it means, personal goals that work: 20 examples to get started, how are personal values formed discover the joy of a life aligned, feel better with help from personal health goals, the meaning of personal values and how they impact your life, 4 steps to create a personal vision statement and change your life, the 9 enneagram personality types: what’s yours, 30 personal values examples & how to live by yours, what’s a type a personality, and what are its pros and cons, 20 books for personal growth in 2024, what is personal power develop your power and own your life, how to increase your personal well-being ... at work, how to write a leave of absence letter (plus template), 10 personal achievements examples that can inspire yours, 50 self-discovery questions for getting to know the real you, clearing a personalized path to emotional permanence, leveraging humanistic psychology to achieve self-actualization, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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12 SMART Goals Examples for Problem Solving

Everyone should aim to develop their problem-solving skills in life. It’s critical for career growth and personal development. That’s why establishing SMART goals is a valuable tool for achieving success and reaching desired outcomes.

This article will provide SMART goals examples for effective problem solving. Gaining inspiration to pursue these goals can help you become more organized and effective in problem-solving situations.

Table of Contents

What is a SMART Goal?

The SMART framework is an amazing way to establish practical goals . For those unaware, SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

Still confused? SMART goals are:

• Specific: Accomplishing goals starts with defining them and how they will be achieved. The more detailed your goals for problem solving, the greater the likelihood you have of meeting them.
• Measurable: Having a quantifiable goal is a crucial SMART component. Tracking your progress makes modifying or adjusting the path forward easier if needed. You’ll also have a tangible way to determine whether or not your objectives have been met.
• Attainable: Try to decide on what is realistically possible before pursuing goals. If possible, break down your overarching goal into smaller objectives that fall within your current capabilities. Setting too high or unrealistic expectations cause you frustration and even giving up on your aspirations altogether.
• Relevant: You must align your actions with your core values . Hence, take some time to reflect on how you want your goals to reflect your interests and values.
• Time-based: Success doesn’t come without hard work and dedication, so you should have a specific timeline when working toward your dreams. You will stay organized and motivated throughout the journey when you set a deadline.

In today’s world, being able to identify and solve problems using analytical skills can’t be undervalued. Following the 5 SMART criteria above will allow you to achieve better results with fewer resources.

Here are 12 examples of SMART goals for better problem solving:

1. Define the Problem

“I’ll create a plan to define and describe the problem I’m trying to solve by the end of two weeks. This will allow me to identify the exact issue that needs to be addressed and develop an effective solution promptly.”

Specific: The goal outlines the task of defining and describing a problem.

Measurable: You can measure your progress by creating a plan after two weeks.

Attainable: The statement is within reach because it requires critical thinking and planning.

Relevant: Defining an issue is required for enhanced problem solving.

Time-based: There is a two-week timeline for accomplishing this goal.

2. Analyze Root Cause

“I will take the time to thoroughly analyze the root cause of a problem before I attempt to come up with a solution. Before jumping into a solution, I’ll consider the possible causes and try to figure out how they interact with each other.”

Specific: The SMART goal outlines what will be done to analyze the root cause of a problem.

Measurable: You could measure how often you take the time for analysis.

Attainable: This is realistic because taking the time to do a thorough analysis is possible.

Relevant: Gaining a better understanding of the root causes of a problem can lead to more effective solutions.

Time-based: You’ll follow this process every time you solve a problem, so this goal is ongoing.

3. Be Willing to Collaborate With Others

“For the duration of 10 months, my goal is to be willing to collaborate with others to find the best solution for any problem at hand. I want to be open to exchanging ideas and listening to the opinions of others so that we can solve our problems efficiently.”

Specific: The person must proactively strive to collaborate with others.

Measurable: You can keep track of how often you collaborate monthly.

Attainable: This is feasible because it requires only the willingness to collaborate and exchange ideas.

Relevant: Collaboration allows you to find better solutions and grow your network.

Time-based: You have 10 months to pursue this particular target.

4. Evaluate Alternatives

“I will review and evaluate at least three alternative solutions to the problem by the end of this month. I’ll evaluate the costs and benefits of each solution, prioritize them based on their potential effectiveness and make my recommendation.”

Specific: You will need to review and evaluate three alternative solutions.

Measurable: Count how many alternative solutions you listed.

Attainable: With enough time and effort, anybody can review and evaluate multiple solutions.

Relevant: This is related to problem solving, which can advance your professional career .

Time-based: You have one month for goal achievement.

5. Implement Action Plan

“To ensure that my action plans are implemented effectively, I will create a timeline with concrete steps and review it every two weeks for the 6 months ahead. I want all aspects of my plan to take place as scheduled and the process is running smoothly.”

Specific: The aim is to create a timeline and review it every two weeks for 6 months.

Measurable: The person can compare their timeline to the actual results and ensure that every aspect of the plan takes place as scheduled.

Attainable: This goal is achievable if the individual has the time, resources, and support.

Relevant: Realize that implementing an action plan applies to problem solving.

Time-based: Success will be reached after 6 whole months.

6. Ask the Right Questions

“I’ll learn to ask the right questions by reading two books on effective questioning strategies and attending a workshop on the same topic within the next quarter. This will allow me to get to the root of any problem more quickly.”

Specific: The goal states what to do (read two books and attend a workshop) to learn how to ask the right questions.

Measurable: You can check your progress by reading the books and attending the workshop.

Attainable: This is a reasonable goal and can be met within the given time frame.

Relevant: Asking the right questions is key to solving any problem quickly.

Time-based: Goal completion should be accomplished within a quarter.

7. Be More Flexible

“I will seek opportunities to be more flexible when problem solving for the following 8 months. This could include offering creative solutions to issues, brainstorming ideas with colleagues, and encouraging feedback from others.”

Specific: This SMART goal is explicit because the person wants to become more flexible when problem solving.

Measurable: Check how often and effectively you follow the three action items.

Attainable : This goal is achievable if you dedicate time to being more open-minded.

Relevant: Flexibility is integral to problem solving, so this goal is highly relevant.

Time-based: Eight months is the allotted time to reach the desired result.

8. Brainstorm Solutions

“I want to develop a list of 5 potential solutions by the end of this month for any problem that arises. I’ll brainstorm with my team and research to develop the options. We’ll use these options to evaluate the most feasible solution for a specific issue.”

Specific: You should come up with a list of 5 potential solutions with your team.

Measurable: Actively count how many potential solutions you come up with.

Attainable: This goal can be achieved with research and collaboration.

Relevant: Brainstorming solutions help you evaluate the best option for a certain issue.

Time-based: You should strive to meet this goal by the end of the month.

9. Keep a Cool Head

“When encountering a difficult problem, I will strive to remain calm and not rush into any decisions. For three months, I’ll take a few moments to pause, gather my thoughts and assess the situation with a clear head before taking action.”

Specific: The person identifies the goal of remaining calm when encountering complex problems.

Measurable: It is possible to measure success in terms of how long it takes to pause and assess the situation.

Attainable: Taking a few moments before taking action is realistic for most people.

Relevant: Keeping a cool head in difficult situations is beneficial for problem solving.

Time-based: This SMART statement has an end date of three months.

10. Don’t Make Rash Assumptions

“I will no longer make assumptions or jump to conclusions without gathering facts. I’ll strive to be more open-minded when finding solutions to problems and take the time to consider all perspectives before making a decision.”

Specific: The goal is explicit in that individuals aim to be open-minded.

Measurable: You can evaluate how often assumptions are made without gathering facts or considering all perspectives.

Attainable: Anyone can take the time to consider different perspectives before making a decision.

Relevant: This is suitable for those who want to be more mindful and make better decisions.

Time-based: Since the goal is ongoing, you will pursue it on a daily basis.

11. Take Responsibility

“I will take responsibility for all my mistakes and be open to constructive criticism to improve as a professional by the end of the next quarter. I’ll also learn from my mistakes and take steps to ensure they’re not repeated.”

Specific: The statement is evident in that you will take responsibility for all mistakes.

Measurable: Progress towards this goal can be measured by how well you respond to constructive criticism.

Attainable: This is possible since the person is willing to learn and improve with constructive criticism.

Relevant: Taking responsibility for your mistakes is an important skill, making this an appropriate goal.

Time-based: You have one quarter to complete the SMART goal.

12. Let Your Creativity Flow

“I want to explore the range of my creative problem-solving abilities and come up with solutions for difficult situations. To do this, I’ll take a course in creative problem solving and apply the principles I learn to practical scenarios within two months.”

Specific: You will take a course in creative problem solving and apply the principles learned to practical scenarios.

Measurable: By enrolling in the course, you can monitor your learning progress over time.

Attainable: The goal should be realistic concerning time and resources.

Relevant: Recognize that creativity is vital in many industries.

Time-based: You should ideally reach this goal after two months.

Final Thoughts

Setting SMART goals is a fantastic approach to solving any problem. They provide a clear structure for breaking down complex tasks into manageable chunks and encourage goal-oriented thinking.

While SMART goals may not work for every situation, they can offer a valuable framework for solving complex issues. Thus, it’s beneficial to experiment with this tool to develop problem-solving strategies tailored to individual needs.

How to improve your problem solving skills and build effective problem solving strategies

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Effective problem solving is all about using the right process and following a plan tailored to the issue at hand. Recognizing your team or organization has an issue isn’t enough to come up with effective problem solving strategies. 

To truly understand a problem and develop appropriate solutions, you will want to follow a solid process, follow the necessary problem solving steps, and bring all of your problem solving skills to the table.   We’ll forst look at what problem solving strategies you can employ with your team when looking for a way to approach the process. We’ll then discuss the problem solving skills you need to be more effective at solving problems, complete with an activity from the SessionLab library you can use to develop that skill in your team.

Let’s get to it! 

Problem solving strategies

What skills do i need to be an effective problem solver, how can i improve my problem solving skills.

Problem solving strategies are methods of approaching and facilitating the process of problem-solving with a set of techniques , actions, and processes. Different strategies are more effective if you are trying to solve broad problems such as achieving higher growth versus more focused problems like, how do we improve our customer onboarding process?

Broadly, the problem solving steps outlined above should be included in any problem solving strategy though choosing where to focus your time and what approaches should be taken is where they begin to differ. You might find that some strategies ask for the problem identification to be done prior to the session or that everything happens in the course of a one day workshop.

The key similarity is that all good problem solving strategies are structured and designed. Four hours of open discussion is never going to be as productive as a four-hour workshop designed to lead a group through a problem solving process.

Good problem solving strategies are tailored to the team, organization and problem you will be attempting to solve. Here are some example problem solving strategies you can learn from or use to get started.

Use a workshop to lead a team through a group process

Often, the first step to solving problems or organizational challenges is bringing a group together effectively. Most teams have the tools, knowledge, and expertise necessary to solve their challenges – they just need some guidance in how to use leverage those skills and a structure and format that allows people to focus their energies.

Facilitated workshops are one of the most effective ways of solving problems of any scale. By designing and planning your workshop carefully, you can tailor the approach and scope to best fit the needs of your team and organization. 

Problem solving workshop

• Creating a bespoke, tailored process
• Tackling problems of any size
• Building in-house workshop ability and encouraging their use

Workshops are an effective strategy for solving problems. By using tried and test facilitation techniques and methods, you can design and deliver a workshop that is perfectly suited to the unique variables of your organization. You may only have the capacity for a half-day workshop and so need a problem solving process to match. 

By using our session planner tool and importing methods from our library of 700+ facilitation techniques, you can create the right problem solving workshop for your team. It might be that you want to encourage creative thinking or look at things from a new angle to unblock your groups approach to problem solving. By tailoring your workshop design to the purpose, you can help ensure great results.

One of the main benefits of a workshop is the structured approach to problem solving. Not only does this mean that the workshop itself will be successful, but many of the methods and techniques will help your team improve their working processes outside of the workshop. 

We believe that workshops are one of the best tools you can use to improve the way your team works together. Start with a problem solving workshop and then see what team building, culture or design workshops can do for your organization!

Run a design sprint

Great for: 

• aligning large, multi-discipline teams
• quickly designing and testing solutions
• tackling large, complex organizational challenges and breaking them down into smaller tasks

By using design thinking principles and methods, a design sprint is a great way of identifying, prioritizing and prototyping solutions to long term challenges that can help solve major organizational problems with quick action and measurable results.

Some familiarity with design thinking is useful, though not integral, and this strategy can really help a team align if there is some discussion around which problems should be approached first. 

The stage-based structure of the design sprint is also very useful for teams new to design thinking.  The inspiration phase, where you look to competitors that have solved your problem, and the rapid prototyping and testing phases are great for introducing new concepts that will benefit a team in all their future work. 

It can be common for teams to look inward for solutions and so looking to the market for solutions you can iterate on can be very productive. Instilling an agile prototyping and testing mindset can also be great when helping teams move forwards – generating and testing solutions quickly can help save time in the long run and is also pretty exciting!

Break problems down into smaller issues

Organizational challenges and problems are often complicated and large scale in nature. Sometimes, trying to resolve such an issue in one swoop is simply unachievable or overwhelming. Try breaking down such problems into smaller issues that you can work on step by step. You may not be able to solve the problem of churning customers off the bat, but you can work with your team to identify smaller effort but high impact elements and work on those first.

This problem solving strategy can help a team generate momentum, prioritize and get some easy wins. It’s also a great strategy to employ with teams who are just beginning to learn how to approach the problem solving process. If you want some insight into a way to employ this strategy, we recommend looking at our design sprint template below!

Use guiding frameworks or try new methodologies

Some problems are best solved by introducing a major shift in perspective or by using new methodologies that encourage your team to think differently.

Props and tools such as Methodkit , which uses a card-based toolkit for facilitation, or Lego Serious Play can be great ways to engage your team and find an inclusive, democratic problem solving strategy. Remember that play and creativity are great tools for achieving change and whatever the challenge, engaging your participants can be very effective where other strategies may have failed.

LEGO Serious Play

• Improving core problem solving skills
• Thinking outside of the box
• Encouraging creative solutions

LEGO Serious Play is a problem solving methodology designed to get participants thinking differently by using 3D models and kinesthetic learning styles. By physically building LEGO models based on questions and exercises, participants are encouraged to think outside of the box and create their own responses. 

Collaborate LEGO Serious Play exercises are also used to encourage communication and build problem solving skills in a group. By using this problem solving process, you can often help different kinds of learners and personality types contribute and unblock organizational problems with creative thinking. 

Problem solving strategies like LEGO Serious Play are super effective at helping a team solve more skills-based problems such as communication between teams or a lack of creative thinking. Some problems are not suited to LEGO Serious Play and require a different problem solving strategy.

Card Decks and Method Kits

• New facilitators or non-facilitators 
• Approaching difficult subjects with a simple, creative framework
• Engaging those with varied learning styles

Card decks and method kids are great tools for those new to facilitation or for whom facilitation is not the primary role. Card decks such as the emotional culture deck can be used for complete workshops and in many cases, can be used right out of the box. Methodkit has a variety of kits designed for scenarios ranging from personal development through to personas and global challenges so you can find the right deck for your particular needs.

Having an easy to use framework that encourages creativity or a new approach can take some of the friction or planning difficulties out of the workshop process and energize a team in any setting. Simplicity is the key with these methods. By ensuring everyone on your team can get involved and engage with the process as quickly as possible can really contribute to the success of your problem solving strategy.

Source external advice

Looking to peers, experts and external facilitators can be a great way of approaching the problem solving process. Your team may not have the necessary expertise, insights of experience to tackle some issues, or you might simply benefit from a fresh perspective. Some problems may require bringing together an entire team, and coaching managers or team members individually might be the right approach. Remember that not all problems are best resolved in the same manner.

If you’re a solo entrepreneur, peer groups, coaches and mentors can also be invaluable at not only solving specific business problems, but in providing a support network for resolving future challenges. One great approach is to join a Mastermind Group and link up with like-minded individuals and all grow together. Remember that however you approach the sourcing of external advice, do so thoughtfully, respectfully and honestly. Reciprocate where you can and prepare to be surprised by just how kind and helpful your peers can be!

Mastermind Group

• Solo entrepreneurs or small teams with low capacity
• Peer learning and gaining outside expertise
• Getting multiple external points of view quickly

Problem solving in large organizations with lots of skilled team members is one thing, but how about if you work for yourself or in a very small team without the capacity to get the most from a design sprint or LEGO Serious Play session? 

A mastermind group – sometimes known as a peer advisory board – is where a group of people come together to support one another in their own goals, challenges, and businesses. Each participant comes to the group with their own purpose and the other members of the group will help them create solutions, brainstorm ideas, and support one another. 

Mastermind groups are very effective in creating an energized, supportive atmosphere that can deliver meaningful results. Learning from peers from outside of your organization or industry can really help unlock new ways of thinking and drive growth. Access to the experience and skills of your peers can be invaluable in helping fill the gaps in your own ability, particularly in young companies.

A mastermind group is a great solution for solo entrepreneurs, small teams, or for organizations that feel that external expertise or fresh perspectives will be beneficial for them. It is worth noting that Mastermind groups are often only as good as the participants and what they can bring to the group. Participants need to be committed, engaged and understand how to work in this context. 

Coaching and mentoring

• Focused learning and development
• Filling skills gaps
• Working on a range of challenges over time

Receiving advice from a business coach or building a mentor/mentee relationship can be an effective way of resolving certain challenges. The one-to-one format of most coaching and mentor relationships can really help solve the challenges those individuals are having and benefit the organization as a result.

A great mentor can be invaluable when it comes to spotting potential problems before they arise and coming to understand a mentee very well has a host of other business benefits. You might run an internal mentorship program to help develop your team’s problem solving skills and strategies or as part of a large learning and development program. External coaches can also be an important part of your problem solving strategy, filling skills gaps for your management team or helping with specific business issues. 

Now we’ve explored the problem solving process and the steps you will want to go through in order to have an effective session, let’s look at the skills you and your team need to be more effective problem solvers.

Problem solving skills are highly sought after, whatever industry or team you work in. Organizations are keen to employ people who are able to approach problems thoughtfully and find strong, realistic solutions. Whether you are a facilitator , a team leader or a developer, being an effective problem solver is a skill you’ll want to develop.

Problem solving skills form a whole suite of techniques and approaches that an individual uses to not only identify problems but to discuss them productively before then developing appropriate solutions.

Here are some of the most important problem solving skills everyone from executives to junior staff members should learn. We’ve also included an activity or exercise from the SessionLab library that can help you and your team develop that skill. 

If you’re running a workshop or training session to try and improve problem solving skills in your team, try using these methods to supercharge your process!

Active listening

Active listening is one of the most important skills anyone who works with people can possess. In short, active listening is a technique used to not only better understand what is being said by an individual, but also to be more aware of the underlying message the speaker is trying to convey. When it comes to problem solving, active listening is integral for understanding the position of every participant and to clarify the challenges, ideas and solutions they bring to the table.

Some active listening skills include:

• Paying complete attention to the speaker.
• Removing distractions.
• Avoid interruption.
• Taking the time to fully understand before preparing a rebuttal.
• Responding respectfully and appropriately.
• Demonstrate attentiveness and positivity with an open posture, making eye contact with the speaker, smiling and nodding if appropriate. Show that you are listening and encourage them to continue.
• Be aware of and respectful of feelings. Judge the situation and respond appropriately. You can disagree without being disrespectful.   
• Observe body language. 
• Paraphrase what was said in your own words, either mentally or verbally.
• Remain neutral. 
• Reflect and take a moment before responding.
• Ask deeper questions based on what is said and clarify points where necessary.   

Active Listening   #hyperisland   #skills   #active listening   #remote-friendly   This activity supports participants to reflect on a question and generate their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with it. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being: “the subject”, the listener, and the observer.

Analytical skills

All problem solving models require strong analytical skills, particularly during the beginning of the process and when it comes to analyzing how solutions have performed.

Analytical skills are primarily focused on performing an effective analysis by collecting, studying and parsing data related to a problem or opportunity. 

It often involves spotting patterns, being able to see things from different perspectives and using observable facts and data to make suggestions or produce insight. 

Analytical skills are also important at every stage of the problem solving process and by having these skills, you can ensure that any ideas or solutions you create or backed up analytically and have been sufficiently thought out.

Nine Whys   #innovation   #issue analysis   #liberating structures   With breathtaking simplicity, you can rapidly clarify for individuals and a group what is essentially important in their work. You can quickly reveal when a compelling purpose is missing in a gathering and avoid moving forward without clarity. When a group discovers an unambiguous shared purpose, more freedom and more responsibility are unleashed. You have laid the foundation for spreading and scaling innovations with fidelity.

Collaboration

Trying to solve problems on your own is difficult. Being able to collaborate effectively, with a free exchange of ideas, to delegate and be a productive member of a team is hugely important to all problem solving strategies.

Remember that whatever your role, collaboration is integral, and in a problem solving process, you are all working together to find the best solution for everyone. 

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing   #teamwork   #team   #leadership   #collaboration   In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team.

Communication  

Being an effective communicator means being empathetic, clear and succinct, asking the right questions, and demonstrating active listening skills throughout any discussion or meeting. 

In a problem solving setting, you need to communicate well in order to progress through each stage of the process effectively. As a team leader, it may also fall to you to facilitate communication between parties who may not see eye to eye. Effective communication also means helping others to express themselves and be heard in a group.

Bus Trip   #feedback   #communication   #appreciation   #closing   #thiagi   #team   This is one of my favourite feedback games. I use Bus Trip at the end of a training session or a meeting, and I use it all the time. The game creates a massive amount of energy with lots of smiles, laughs, and sometimes even a teardrop or two.

Creative problem solving skills can be some of the best tools in your arsenal. Thinking creatively, being able to generate lots of ideas and come up with out of the box solutions is useful at every step of the process. 

The kinds of problems you will likely discuss in a problem solving workshop are often difficult to solve, and by approaching things in a fresh, creative manner, you can often create more innovative solutions.

Having practical creative skills is also a boon when it comes to problem solving. If you can help create quality design sketches and prototypes in record time, it can help bring a team to alignment more quickly or provide a base for further iteration.

The paper clip method   #sharing   #creativity   #warm up   #idea generation   #brainstorming   The power of brainstorming. A training for project leaders, creativity training, and to catalyse getting new solutions.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is one of the fundamental problem solving skills you’ll want to develop when working on developing solutions. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, rationalize and evaluate while being aware of personal bias, outlying factors and remaining open-minded.

Defining and analyzing problems without deploying critical thinking skills can mean you and your team go down the wrong path. Developing solutions to complex issues requires critical thinking too – ensuring your team considers all possibilities and rationally evaluating them. 

Agreement-Certainty Matrix   #issue analysis   #liberating structures   #problem solving   You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic .  A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate.  It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably.  A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail.  Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward.  A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”  The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Data analysis 

Though it shares lots of space with general analytical skills, data analysis skills are something you want to cultivate in their own right in order to be an effective problem solver.

Being good at data analysis doesn’t just mean being able to find insights from data, but also selecting the appropriate data for a given issue, interpreting it effectively and knowing how to model and present that data. Depending on the problem at hand, it might also include a working knowledge of specific data analysis tools and procedures. 

Having a solid grasp of data analysis techniques is useful if you’re leading a problem solving workshop but if you’re not an expert, don’t worry. Bring people into the group who has this skill set and help your team be more effective as a result.

Decision making

All problems need a solution and all solutions require that someone make the decision to implement them. Without strong decision making skills, teams can become bogged down in discussion and less effective as a result. 

Making decisions is a key part of the problem solving process. It’s important to remember that decision making is not restricted to the leadership team. Every staff member makes decisions every day and developing these skills ensures that your team is able to solve problems at any scale. Remember that making decisions does not mean leaping to the first solution but weighing up the options and coming to an informed, well thought out solution to any given problem that works for the whole team.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)   #action   #decision making   #problem solving   #issue analysis   #innovation   #design   #remote-friendly   The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

Dependability

Most complex organizational problems require multiple people to be involved in delivering the solution. Ensuring that the team and organization can depend on you to take the necessary actions and communicate where necessary is key to ensuring problems are solved effectively.

Being dependable also means working to deadlines and to brief. It is often a matter of creating trust in a team so that everyone can depend on one another to complete the agreed actions in the agreed time frame so that the team can move forward together. Being undependable can create problems of friction and can limit the effectiveness of your solutions so be sure to bear this in mind throughout a project. 

Team Purpose & Culture   #team   #hyperisland   #culture   #remote-friendly   This is an essential process designed to help teams define their purpose (why they exist) and their culture (how they work together to achieve that purpose). Defining these two things will help any team to be more focused and aligned. With support of tangible examples from other companies, the team members work as individuals and a group to codify the way they work together. The goal is a visual manifestation of both the purpose and culture that can be put up in the team’s work space.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is an important skill for any successful team member, whether communicating internally or with clients or users. In the problem solving process, emotional intelligence means being attuned to how people are feeling and thinking, communicating effectively and being self-aware of what you bring to a room. 

There are often differences of opinion when working through problem solving processes, and it can be easy to let things become impassioned or combative. Developing your emotional intelligence means being empathetic to your colleagues and managing your own emotions throughout the problem and solution process. Be kind, be thoughtful and put your points across care and attention. 

Being emotionally intelligent is a skill for life and by deploying it at work, you can not only work efficiently but empathetically. Check out the emotional culture workshop template for more!

Facilitation

As we’ve clarified in our facilitation skills post, facilitation is the art of leading people through processes towards agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, ownership, and creativity by all those involved. While facilitation is a set of interrelated skills in itself, the broad definition of facilitation can be invaluable when it comes to problem solving. Leading a team through a problem solving process is made more effective if you improve and utilize facilitation skills – whether you’re a manager, team leader or external stakeholder.

The Six Thinking Hats   #creative thinking   #meeting facilitation   #problem solving   #issue resolution   #idea generation   #conflict resolution   The Six Thinking Hats are used by individuals and groups to separate out conflicting styles of thinking. They enable and encourage a group of people to think constructively together in exploring and implementing change, rather than using argument to fight over who is right and who is wrong.

Flexibility 

Being flexible is a vital skill when it comes to problem solving. This does not mean immediately bowing to pressure or changing your opinion quickly: instead, being flexible is all about seeing things from new perspectives, receiving new information and factoring it into your thought process.

Flexibility is also important when it comes to rolling out solutions. It might be that other organizational projects have greater priority or require the same resources as your chosen solution. Being flexible means understanding needs and challenges across the team and being open to shifting or arranging your own schedule as necessary. Again, this does not mean immediately making way for other projects. It’s about articulating your own needs, understanding the needs of others and being able to come to a meaningful compromise.

The Creativity Dice   #creativity   #problem solving   #thiagi   #issue analysis   Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

Working in any group can lead to unconscious elements of groupthink or situations in which you may not wish to be entirely honest. Disagreeing with the opinions of the executive team or wishing to save the feelings of a coworker can be tricky to navigate, but being honest is absolutely vital when to comes to developing effective solutions and ensuring your voice is heard. 

Remember that being honest does not mean being brutally candid. You can deliver your honest feedback and opinions thoughtfully and without creating friction by using other skills such as emotional intelligence. 

Explore your Values   #hyperisland   #skills   #values   #remote-friendly   Your Values is an exercise for participants to explore what their most important values are. It’s done in an intuitive and rapid way to encourage participants to follow their intuitive feeling rather than over-thinking and finding the “correct” values. It is a good exercise to use to initiate reflection and dialogue around personal values.

Initiative 

The problem solving process is multi-faceted and requires different approaches at certain points of the process. Taking initiative to bring problems to the attention of the team, collect data or lead the solution creating process is always valuable. You might even roadtest your own small scale solutions or brainstorm before a session. Taking initiative is particularly effective if you have good deal of knowledge in that area or have ownership of a particular project and want to get things kickstarted.

That said, be sure to remember to honor the process and work in service of the team. If you are asked to own one part of the problem solving process and you don’t complete that task because your initiative leads you to work on something else, that’s not an effective method of solving business challenges.

15% Solutions   #action   #liberating structures   #remote-friendly   You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference.  15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change.  With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

Impartiality

A particularly useful problem solving skill for product owners or managers is the ability to remain impartial throughout much of the process. In practice, this means treating all points of view and ideas brought forward in a meeting equally and ensuring that your own areas of interest or ownership are not favored over others. 

There may be a stage in the process where a decision maker has to weigh the cost and ROI of possible solutions against the company roadmap though even then, ensuring that the decision made is based on merit and not personal opinion. 

Empathy map   #frame insights   #create   #design   #issue analysis   An empathy map is a tool to help a design team to empathize with the people they are designing for. You can make an empathy map for a group of people or for a persona. To be used after doing personas when more insights are needed.

Being a good leader means getting a team aligned, energized and focused around a common goal. In the problem solving process, strong leadership helps ensure that the process is efficient, that any conflicts are resolved and that a team is managed in the direction of success.

It’s common for managers or executives to assume this role in a problem solving workshop, though it’s important that the leader maintains impartiality and does not bulldoze the group in a particular direction. Remember that good leadership means working in service of the purpose and team and ensuring the workshop is a safe space for employees of any level to contribute. Take a look at our leadership games and activities post for more exercises and methods to help improve leadership in your organization.

Leadership Pizza   #leadership   #team   #remote-friendly   This leadership development activity offers a self-assessment framework for people to first identify what skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership, and then assess their own development and initiate goal setting.

In the context of problem solving, mediation is important in keeping a team engaged, happy and free of conflict. When leading or facilitating a problem solving workshop, you are likely to run into differences of opinion. Depending on the nature of the problem, certain issues may be brought up that are emotive in nature. 

Being an effective mediator means helping those people on either side of such a divide are heard, listen to one another and encouraged to find common ground and a resolution. Mediating skills are useful for leaders and managers in many situations and the problem solving process is no different.

Conflict Responses   #hyperisland   #team   #issue resolution   A workshop for a team to reflect on past conflicts, and use them to generate guidelines for effective conflict handling. The workshop uses the Thomas-Killman model of conflict responses to frame a reflective discussion. Use it to open up a discussion around conflict with a team.

Planning 

Solving organizational problems is much more effective when following a process or problem solving model. Planning skills are vital in order to structure, deliver and follow-through on a problem solving workshop and ensure your solutions are intelligently deployed.

Planning skills include the ability to organize tasks and a team, plan and design the process and take into account any potential challenges. Taking the time to plan carefully can save time and frustration later in the process and is valuable for ensuring a team is positioned for success.

3 Action Steps   #hyperisland   #action   #remote-friendly   This is a small-scale strategic planning session that helps groups and individuals to take action toward a desired change. It is often used at the end of a workshop or programme. The group discusses and agrees on a vision, then creates some action steps that will lead them towards that vision. The scope of the challenge is also defined, through discussion of the helpful and harmful factors influencing the group.

Prioritization

As organisations grow, the scale and variation of problems they face multiplies. Your team or is likely to face numerous challenges in different areas and so having the skills to analyze and prioritize becomes very important, particularly for those in leadership roles.

A thorough problem solving process is likely to deliver multiple solutions and you may have several different problems you wish to solve simultaneously. Prioritization is the ability to measure the importance, value, and effectiveness of those possible solutions and choose which to enact and in what order. The process of prioritization is integral in ensuring the biggest challenges are addressed with the most impactful solutions.

Impact and Effort Matrix   #gamestorming   #decision making   #action   #remote-friendly   In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

Project management

Some problem solving skills are utilized in a workshop or ideation phases, while others come in useful when it comes to decision making. Overseeing an entire problem solving process and ensuring its success requires strong project management skills. 

While project management incorporates many of the other skills listed here, it is important to note the distinction of considering all of the factors of a project and managing them successfully. Being able to negotiate with stakeholders, manage tasks, time and people, consider costs and ROI, and tie everything together is massively helpful when going through the problem solving process. 

Record keeping

Working out meaningful solutions to organizational challenges is only one part of the process.  Thoughtfully documenting and keeping records of each problem solving step for future consultation is important in ensuring efficiency and meaningful change. 

For example, some problems may be lower priority than others but can be revisited in the future. If the team has ideated on solutions and found some are not up to the task, record those so you can rule them out and avoiding repeating work. Keeping records of the process also helps you improve and refine your problem solving model next time around!

Personal Kanban   #gamestorming   #action   #agile   #project planning   Personal Kanban is a tool for organizing your work to be more efficient and productive. It is based on agile methods and principles.

Research skills

Conducting research to support both the identification of problems and the development of appropriate solutions is important for an effective process. Knowing where to go to collect research, how to conduct research efficiently, and identifying pieces of research are relevant are all things a good researcher can do well. 

In larger groups, not everyone has to demonstrate this ability in order for a problem solving workshop to be effective. That said, having people with research skills involved in the process, particularly if they have existing area knowledge, can help ensure the solutions that are developed with data that supports their intention. Remember that being able to deliver the results of research efficiently and in a way the team can easily understand is also important. The best data in the world is only as effective as how it is delivered and interpreted.

Customer experience map   #ideation   #concepts   #research   #design   #issue analysis   #remote-friendly   Customer experience mapping is a method of documenting and visualizing the experience a customer has as they use the product or service. It also maps out their responses to their experiences. To be used when there is a solution (even in a conceptual stage) that can be analyzed.

Risk management

Managing risk is an often overlooked part of the problem solving process. Solutions are often developed with the intention of reducing exposure to risk or solving issues that create risk but sometimes, great solutions are more experimental in nature and as such, deploying them needs to be carefully considered. 

Managing risk means acknowledging that there may be risks associated with more out of the box solutions or trying new things, but that this must be measured against the possible benefits and other organizational factors. 

Be informed, get the right data and stakeholders in the room and you can appropriately factor risk into your decision making process. 

Decisions, Decisions…   #communication   #decision making   #thiagi   #action   #issue analysis   When it comes to decision-making, why are some of us more prone to take risks while others are risk-averse? One explanation might be the way the decision and options were presented.  This exercise, based on Kahneman and Tversky’s classic study , illustrates how the framing effect influences our judgement and our ability to make decisions . The participants are divided into two groups. Both groups are presented with the same problem and two alternative programs for solving them. The two programs both have the same consequences but are presented differently. The debriefing discussion examines how the framing of the program impacted the participant’s decision.

Team-building 

No single person is as good at problem solving as a team. Building an effective team and helping them come together around a common purpose is one of the most important problem solving skills, doubly so for leaders. By bringing a team together and helping them work efficiently, you pave the way for team ownership of a problem and the development of effective solutions. 

In a problem solving workshop, it can be tempting to jump right into the deep end, though taking the time to break the ice, energize the team and align them with a game or exercise will pay off over the course of the day.

Remember that you will likely go through the problem solving process multiple times over an organization’s lifespan and building a strong team culture will make future problem solving more effective. It’s also great to work with people you know, trust and have fun with. Working on team building in and out of the problem solving process is a hallmark of successful teams that can work together to solve business problems.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity   #ice breaker   #teambuilding   #team   #remote-friendly   9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.

Time management 

The problem solving process is designed to lead a team from identifying a problem through to delivering a solution and evaluating its effectiveness. Without effective time management skills or timeboxing of tasks, it can be easy for a team to get bogged down or be inefficient.

By using a problem solving model and carefully designing your workshop, you can allocate time efficiently and trust that the process will deliver the results you need in a good timeframe.

Time management also comes into play when it comes to rolling out solutions, particularly those that are experimental in nature. Having a clear timeframe for implementing and evaluating solutions is vital for ensuring their success and being able to pivot if necessary.

Improving your skills at problem solving is often a career-long pursuit though there are methods you can use to make the learning process more efficient and to supercharge your problem solving skillset.

Remember that the skills you need to be a great problem solver have a large overlap with those skills you need to be effective in any role. Investing time and effort to develop your active listening or critical thinking skills is valuable in any context. Here are 7 ways to improve your problem solving skills.

Share best practices

Remember that your team is an excellent source of skills, wisdom, and techniques and that you should all take advantage of one another where possible. Best practices that one team has for solving problems, conducting research or making decisions should be shared across the organization. If you have in-house staff that have done active listening training or are data analysis pros, have them lead a training session. 

Your team is one of your best resources. Create space and internal processes for the sharing of skills so that you can all grow together. 

Ask for help and attend training

Once you’ve figured out you have a skills gap, the next step is to take action to fill that skills gap. That might be by asking your superior for training or coaching, or liaising with team members with that skill set. You might even attend specialized training for certain skills – active listening or critical thinking, for example, are business-critical skills that are regularly offered as part of a training scheme.

Whatever method you choose, remember that taking action of some description is necessary for growth. Whether that means practicing, getting help, attending training or doing some background reading, taking active steps to improve your skills is the way to go.

Learn a process 

Problem solving can be complicated, particularly when attempting to solve large problems for the first time. Using a problem solving process helps give structure to your problem solving efforts and focus on creating outcomes, rather than worrying about the format. 

Tools such as the seven-step problem solving process above are effective because not only do they feature steps that will help a team solve problems, they also develop skills along the way. Each step asks for people to engage with the process using different skills and in doing so, helps the team learn and grow together. Group processes of varying complexity and purpose can also be found in the SessionLab library of facilitation techniques . Using a tried and tested process and really help ease the learning curve for both those leading such a process, as well as those undergoing the purpose.

Effective teams make decisions about where they should and shouldn’t expend additional effort. By using a problem solving process, you can focus on the things that matter, rather than stumbling towards a solution haphazardly. 

Create a feedback loop

Some skills gaps are more obvious than others. It’s possible that your perception of your active listening skills differs from those of your colleagues. 

It’s valuable to create a system where team members can provide feedback in an ordered and friendly manner so they can all learn from one another. Only by identifying areas of improvement can you then work to improve them. 

Remember that feedback systems require oversight and consideration so that they don’t turn into a place to complain about colleagues. Design the system intelligently so that you encourage the creation of learning opportunities, rather than encouraging people to list their pet peeves.

While practice might not make perfect, it does make the problem solving process easier. If you are having trouble with critical thinking, don’t shy away from doing it. Get involved where you can and stretch those muscles as regularly as possible. 

Problem solving skills come more naturally to some than to others and that’s okay. Take opportunities to get involved and see where you can practice your skills in situations outside of a workshop context. Try collaborating in other circumstances at work or conduct data analysis on your own projects. You can often develop those skills you need for problem solving simply by doing them. Get involved!

Use expert exercises and methods

Learn from the best. Our library of 700+ facilitation techniques is full of activities and methods that help develop the skills you need to be an effective problem solver. Check out our templates to see how to approach problem solving and other organizational challenges in a structured and intelligent manner.

There is no single approach to improving problem solving skills, but by using the techniques employed by others you can learn from their example and develop processes that have seen proven results. 

Try new ways of thinking and change your mindset

Using tried and tested exercises that you know well can help deliver results, but you do run the risk of missing out on the learning opportunities offered by new approaches. As with the problem solving process, changing your mindset can remove blockages and be used to develop your problem solving skills.

Most teams have members with mixed skill sets and specialties. Mix people from different teams and share skills and different points of view. Teach your customer support team how to use design thinking methods or help your developers with conflict resolution techniques. Try switching perspectives with facilitation techniques like Flip It! or by using new problem solving methodologies or models. Give design thinking, liberating structures or lego serious play a try if you want to try a new approach. You will find that framing problems in new ways and using existing skills in new contexts can be hugely useful for personal development and improving your skillset. It’s also a lot of fun to try new things. Give it a go!

Encountering business challenges and needing to find appropriate solutions is not unique to your organization. Lots of very smart people have developed methods, theories and approaches to help develop problem solving skills and create effective solutions. Learn from them!

Books like The Art of Thinking Clearly , Think Smarter, or Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow are great places to start, though it’s also worth looking at blogs related to organizations facing similar problems to yours, or browsing for success stories. Seeing how Dropbox massively increased growth and working backward can help you see the skills or approach you might be lacking to solve that same problem. Learning from others by reading their stories or approaches can be time-consuming but ultimately rewarding.

A tired, distracted mind is not in the best position to learn new skills. It can be tempted to burn the candle at both ends and develop problem solving skills outside of work. Absolutely use your time effectively and take opportunities for self-improvement, though remember that rest is hugely important and that without letting your brain rest, you cannot be at your most effective. 

Creating distance between yourself and the problem you might be facing can also be useful. By letting an idea sit, you can find that a better one presents itself or you can develop it further. Take regular breaks when working and create a space for downtime. Remember that working smarter is preferable to working harder and that self-care is important for any effective learning or improvement process.

Want to design better group processes?

Over to you

Now we’ve explored some of the key problem solving skills and the problem solving steps necessary for an effective process, you’re ready to begin developing more effective solutions and leading problem solving workshops.

Need more inspiration? Check out our post on problem solving activities you can use when guiding a group towards a great solution in your next workshop or meeting. Have questions? Did you have a great problem solving technique you use with your team? Get in touch in the comments below. We’d love to chat!

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Coaching for Improvement: Using A3 Thinking For Problem-Solving and Personal Development (Part 1 – Overview from Lean Coaching Summit)

• August 25, 2016

A3 thinking for problem-solving is a well-known process in the Lean community, but did you realize that it can be a powerful process for personal development and leadership coaching as well?

Using Personal A3 thinking for problem-solving, and as a coaching tool for developing leaders was the topic of a breakout session I led at the 2016 5th annual Lean Coaching Summit.

  Click here to receive a free copy of A3 coaching guide to walk you through the Personal A3 framework!

You can also learn more about using A3 thinking for personal improvement, either as a coach or for your own development, by reading the other posts in this series:

• Coaching for Improvement: Using A3 thinking for personal development – Part 2 – Getting started on the left side
• Coaching for Improvement: Using A3 thinking for personal development – Part 3 – Moving to the “Right Side and Action 

This post is intended as an overview of the personal improvement A3 process.

Lean Summit 2016 Breakout Session Highlights

We shared how using A3 thinking can help you as a coach not only prepare for coaching sessions  but also how the process can better prepare your learner for improvement by increasing their awareness, intention, and ownership of their personal leadership development plan.

Sharing coaching tips with you

My intention in this point is to share some of the key points from our presentation so that you too can continue to practice and deeper your skills as a leader and coach by using A3 thinking for problem-solving, and also for personal development.

“Creating Focus and Intention for Coaching Using A3 Thinking”

A3 thinking for problem-solving.

There has been a lot of dialogue in the Lean community about A3 thinking in the past month following  two articles that John Shook wrote in the Lean Post with and about his first Toyota manager and mentor (and now mine), Mr. Isao Yoshino . I was inspired by these articles and shared some of my reflections based on prior conversations with Mr. Yoshino in this article – A3 Thinking history and Insights from john Shook and Isao Yoshino in the Lean post.

A3 flow for problem-solving

Made popular by Toyota in Japan as a way to concisely walk through the critical problem-solving steps required to identify and understand a problem and its root causes, and then identify countermeasures and experiments to close the gap between the target and what is happening today.

John Shook describes A3 reports in his book “Managing to Learn” as not just a problem-solving process, but a critical part of a management system. He writes that A3s are:

“… a visual manifestation of a problem-solving thought process involving continual dialogue between the owner of an issue and others in an organization. It is a foundational management  process that enables and encourages learning through the scientific method.”

A3 thinking is a skill that can help leaders solve organizational problems and create the foundation of a management system that develops a culture of coaching and problem solving through the structured conversations that occur as part of the A3 development process.

A3 thinking for personal improvement and professional leadership development

The same A3 thinking process is also one that can help leaders bring greater awareness to their own actions and habits in service to creating an organization filled with problem solvers.

Personal Improvement A3 Flow

When using A3 thinking for personal improvement, the process is the same as a typical problem-solving A3 flow, but the questions are focused inward on the individual.

If a leader is willing to accept the hypothesis that “I am a condition in my organization that requires improvement” , using A3 thinking as a process can be a powerful one.

The flow of thinking in an A3 focused on personal improvement should answer questions such as:

• Why should I improve myself as a leader/coach who creates an organization filled with problem solvers?
• What habits and actions do I currently take today (both strengths and limitations)?
• What are the outcomes of my actions?
• What does a little bit better look like for ME?
• What are the reasons for my current habits and actions?
• What experiments will I try on myself?
• How will I know I’m getting better?

Click here  to get a free copy of the personal A3 coaching guide to help you prepare for and coach your learners through the A3 process for leadership development.

Why should I improve myself as a leader or coach?

This image is often used as the “anchor” to what it means to be a Lean Leader: getting the job done and developing people – at the same time.

Get the job done

In my experience, many organizations find it easier (especially initially) to focus on the first aspect of the role of a Lean Leader: “getting the job done”.

Senior leaders may decide their organization should undergo a “Lean transformation” to achieve business goals, “to get the job done”. Perhaps they see Lean as a set of tools and production principles to improve processes – or this is easier to focus on initially.

And initially,  improvement is often done “off line” through “kaizen events” or other projects, outside of daily work, rather than embedded as part of daily improvement and leadership behaviors.

Develop your people

Achieving business objectives and delivering value to customers is an essential aspect of Lean, but it has to be coupled with developing people as problem solvers at all levels to achieve those business objectives – at the same time.

Leading daily improvement through people development is an essential skill and habit for leaders to develop.

It can be harder to figure out how to develop people – and certainly how to develop people as part of the actual daily work.

But without this critical aspect of Lean leadership practiced by all leaders, we really won’t see a successful Lean transformation of creating an organization filled with problem solvers.

Kaizen and people development in Japan

This emphasis on people development as a means to achieve daily business objectives is one that I saw across my visits to Lean thinking Japanese organizations over the past 18 months – not just Toyota or Toyota’s hospital , but many others (such as this electrical supply manufacturer and this office service manufacturer ).

Move from “they need to change” to “I need to change”

An organizational Lean transformation is all about how each of us shows up differently as leaders in service to this goal of “getting the job done” and “developing people” at the same time.

It can be easier to say: “everyone else out there needs to change”, but ultimately, the questions need to be:

• “how do I need to change and improve?” and
• “how do my current habits either support or inhibit the creation of a learning organization?”

The personal improvement A3 process is one way I have found success in helping leaders look at their own actions and help them create a clear plan for practice and improvement.

How do YOU show up as a leader?

We need to look at how we are creating strong habits that support our intention of how we want to lead and coach others. Are our actions and behaviors in line with the problem-solving and respectful culture we want to create?

Knowledge and skills are important…

Most of us, and the people we are coaching, have some knowledge of what it means to be a “Lean leader”. We could be new to Lean and just gaining knowledge, or have been practicing these skills for many years.

Some of these essential Lean leader skills include: asking effective questions , listening , and supporting daily improvement at all levels .

… but habits are about how we put knowledge and skills into practice every day.

While we might have knowledge of how we should behave as leaders, we might not always be in the habit of practicing these skills every day.

Or we may have some limiting habits that get in our way of putting our knowledge and skills of Lean leadership in place every day.

For example, a leader may know that asking open-ended questions of inquiry is important , and even demonstrate skill in asking questions in 1-1 meetings, but when going out to the workplace (e.g. for a “gemba” walk, for example) may have the habit of telling everyone what to do are what “I think you should do….”.

Focusing on how to create skills and develop habits is a critical part of leadership development.

Practice and model the skills to create habits

Going through an A3 process focused on yourself (or as a coach helping someone go through the process) can help accelerate the creation of better leadership habits by identifying gaps in skills and putting a plan in place for getting a little bit better every day.

Coaching someone through the A3 process to create their own personal improvement plan also allows an opportunity for you as the coach to model Lean leadership skills (asking effective questions, A3 dialogue, listening, etc.) for the learner while reviewing and advancing the A3.

My personal development

I want to acknowledge my own professional coach and friend Margie Hagene, who introduced the application of A3 thinking to leadership development to me.

Using this process personally has made me a better coach. By answering these questions deeply for myself, I have continued to hone in on what skills and habits I need to keep improving. I am more intentional about how I show up and how I am improving every day as a coach and leader. I use this process in a majority of my coaching relationships, as highlighted in Michelle’s story of improvement at the Coaching Summit.

In subsequent posts, I’ll share in more detail how you can coach your learner through each part of the A3 flow for personal development. You can also get the coaching guide we created to support the personal A3 process by clicking here .

Additional references

Interested in more tips and insights about coaching, Lean leadership, and A3 thinking for problem-solving and personal development? You can find more information in some previous articles that I’ve written, including:

On this blog:

• The Power of Practicing Personal Problem Solving
• Coaching for Improvement: not just Lean, Toyota, or Silicon Valley methods….Just good leadership
• Leading Daily Improvement: Creating New Habits and Practices to Support Continuous Improvement
• Effective Questions to Support Problem Solving Thinking
• “Live less out of habit and more out of intent” – Intentions for 2016

In the Lean Post:

• Be More than a Coach, Be a Coach Who Listens
• How To Get Out of the Habit of Telling
• Building Capability, Transforming Organizations

What thoughts do you have on A3 thinking for problem-solving and personal improvement?

Have you tried using a personal improvement A3 process as either a coach or for yourself personally? What has been your experience? Please share your thoughts and questions below.

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7 Common Obstacles to Personal Development (And How to Overcome Them!)

Attention : This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a referral fee if you make purchases through these links. It doesn’t cost you any extra money but it helps keep the blog running. For more information, please read the full disclosure .

Personal development obstacles are inevitable. No matter what path you’re on.

So if you’ve faced (or are currently facing) obstacles while attempting to improve your life, don’t worry, it’s completely normal and happens to all of us. 

If you’ve attempted personal development, personal growth, self improvement, or to better your life in any way, you know this to be true.

This means you have either:

• Bought programs
• Taken courses

And you’ve tried to integrate (and adapt) that information into your own life situation.

Throughout that process you’ve undoubtedly faced obstacles that have prevented you from making the changes and achieving the transformations that you were hoping for.

Those obstacles may have confused you, frustrated you, overwhelmed you, slowed your progress, or made you change directions altogether. 

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”    – Michael Jordan

The good news is that the obstacles you’ve faced are common and solvable. Meaning, they don’t have to be a deterrent or a road block.

Once you know how to overcome them, you’ll be able to use the same method to overcome them if they pop up again.

You care about reaching your goals and transforming your life. And I’m sure you already have an intimate ‘why’ behind those goals. 

This means you shouldn’t have to let obstacles stop you from making your dreams come true and getting what you want.

I wholeheartedly believe that.

We’re All in This Together

This is a topic that affects me too. As a matter of fact, I’m going through it right now. First it was the pandemic but lately it’s been a combination of digestive issues and anxiety attacks that interrupted my sleep, interfered with my daily plans, and caused me to lose about 10 pounds.

I chose to write this article because I need to solve these problems to move forwards in my own personal development journey. My hope is that the solutions I uncovered will help you out as much as they have helped me.

I get it that your problems are your own and can make you feel like you’re the only one who goes through them. And that may be true for some of them.

Those intensely personal obstacles could be a sign of inner resistance. A defense mechanism coming from within you. Causing you to slow down on purpose. If so, it’s usually an attempt to protect yourself from the risks and discomforts that come with change.

But lucky for you, most of the obstacles you encounter are common, meaning we’ll all face them at some point of our personal development journey. 

What are these common obstacles to personal development?

Keep reading to find out what they are. But first, let’s define personal development just to make sure we’re both on the same page.

What is Personal Development and Why is it Important?

“Personal development refers to those activities that improve a person’s talents, potential, employability, consciousness and ability to realize dreams and create wealth. In short, it’s what you do to improve yourself and your prospects in life.”   – The Importance of Personal Development

Personal development can also defined as:

“..the conscious pursuit of personal growth by expanding self-awareness and knowledge and improving personal skills.”   – What is Personal Development

So as you can see, personal development is any effort to better your life. It can mean:

• Reading books to learn new skills
• Changing your morning routine to get more done throughout the day
• Learning new job/career skills so you can make more money for your family
• Budgeting and improving your  financial literacy so you can have a better relationship with money
• Setting goals
• Working on your self-esteem and confidence 
• Improving your networking and relationship skills
• Working on your decision making skills
• Practicing meditation and mindfulness
• Improving your time management and organizational skills

What Personal Development Means to Me

For me, personal development is the next step after developing self-awareness .

Once you figure out why you are currently the way you are, why your life has been the way it has, and how you want  your life to change from here on out, you can move on to developing into the version of yourself that can make that future happen. 

 7 Common Obstacles to Personal Development (and how to overcome them!) 

Personal development obstacle 1 – which path to choose.

[ How do I decide which personal development strategy, system, or technique to follow?

Or should I combine the best parts of each?

How accurately can a beginner make these decisions?

Whose personal growth information is right for me and my unique situation? ]

Solution :   

You have to start somewhere. Getting stuck in analysis paralysis or decision paralysis will waste too much of your time.

It’s better to try something than sit still … even if it turns out to be the wrong choice in the long run. At least you took action and learned something by going through the process.

More often than not, what you learn from your first attempt will be able to be applied to future attempts. And they will go quicker since you’re not starting from the beginning. 

In this way, you will be combining the best parts of each. But not only by theory, you’ll have direct experience of which parts worked for you and which parts didn’t. 

Don’t let indecision or perfectionism keep you from taking calculated risk and educated guesses. You’ll never feel 100 percent ready or know everything you need to up front no matter how long you take to start.

Courageously move forward.  Learn and adjust as you go.

How can a beginner judge?

A beginner can’t confidently judge these things because they don’t have the experience yet. They haven’t learned by trial and error yet. This is why coaches are hired.

A coach does (should) have the experience and expertise that a beginner doesn’t have. So they can help you bypass some of the beginner mistakes that you’re likely to make. Due to lack of experience and novice judgement.

Have compassion for yourself. It’s ok if you don’t get it right the first time around. Try again. This is how you build confidence and resilience.

Feel out the situation as best as you can. Do some research on the creators and products. Read the reviews to see if any of the people who have benefited from the program or course sounds like they started from a similar place as you. Read their About Me page and see if you can relate to them. 

Personal Development Obstacle 2 – There’s Too Much Information Available  

[ As much as i want to read and buy it all, I have limited time and money to spend on their products and information.

How do I decide which products to choose, which order to read them in, and which ones to ignore completely? 

How do I find the time to read everything I want (and feel I need) to read to progress? ]

Follow your passion and curiosity. Let that inner excitement guide you. 

When you trust and nurture it, it’ll pull the right information to you at the right time. 

You’ll experience ah-ha moments and synchronicities. Meaning, everything will seem to just fall in place.

If you haven’t learned how to trust your intuition yet, you can start by developing your self-awareness skills .

How do you find time to read everything?  

You can’t! 

I mean, you can increase your reading speed, learn to speed read, or even photo read … learning to learn quicker is always a beneficial idea … but you still only have 24 hours a day. 

You have to let yourself off the hook. Accept that you won’t get to read everything you feel like you need to. Because that’s what it is … a feeling. Or more specifically, a belief.

The belief that you don’t know enough and won’t know enough until you read every book or blog post and complete every course on every personal development area that you feel you’re lacking in.

The truth is, you never know what you’re going to need to know until you need to know it. And you can’t prepare for everything. There will always be something that comes up that you’ve never even heard of … so how could you study it when you didn’t know it existed?

You couldn’t have! But I bet it’ll spark your curiosity when it does happen. That’s part of the mystery and excitement of learning.

Personal Development Obstacle 3 – Changing Too Much Too Fast

[ It feels like I’m trying to change too many areas of my life at the same time.

How do I decide which to focus the most effort on? How do I improve one area without letting the other areas fall behind from neglect? ]

You can prevent this by using a personal development plan. A plan will help you set which areas you’ll focus on, the order you plan to work on them, and measurable goals in each area.

“When you create a personal development plan, you create a clear path to achieving what you want. This type of clarity allows you to focus. Then, you can prioritize what’s essential and say no to the rest.”   – Life & Business Coach, Natalie Bacon

It’s ok for you to overlap certain areas. Just like you would with school subjects. You’d make small steps forward in each area. 

In other areas you’ll progress faster by working on one thing at a time. Especially if it’s something that will take a lot of your time or energy.

For example, if you choose to take classes, courses, go to conventions or retreats.

The same goes for things that take hours of daily practice.

Will some developmental areas fall behind? 

Maybe. But they’ll have their turn eventually. It’s up to you to decide which personal development areas will help you meet immediate needs and which are less urgent. 

Review your goals list and personal development plan to determine which skills you need to improve on first. Look at your end goals and work backwards. 

Do you believe you’ll be able to reach them just as you are now? Or are there additional skills you’ll need to develop or information you’ll need to learn? 

Start there.

Personal Development Obstacle 4 – The Personal Growth Process is Overwhelming 

[ What do you do when you get overwhelmed with personal development?

• By the amount of information.
• By decisions. 
• By slow progress. 
• By the obstacles that come up when you’re already taking action and trying to follow through on the steps or techniques that you’re learning about.

What do you do when obstacles come up that aren’t talked about in the original course or ‘how to’ post?

Obstacles that force you to stop all forward progress until you figure out how to solve those problems before getting back to what you were originally trying to do. ] 

Unexpected obstacles pop up while trying to learn almost anything new. Especially when you’re trying to follow instructions on how to do something you’ve never done before.

So naturally it applies to personal development books, programs, and to the courses you take (or blogs you read). New problems surprise you while you’re trying to accomplish the goals you’ve set for yourself.

But it doesn’t, does it?

There’s always at least one unexpected obstacle that creeps up. Usually right when you’re getting the hang of things and making steady progress.

The obstacle halts your personal growth progress and you have to spend time learning something else to solve that problem before you can go back to what you were originally working on.

Long story short, the entire process ends up taking way more time than you expected it to. Which slows down your progress and causes you to feel disappointed with yourself. 

For me this has happened more times than I can count.

It happened:

• while learning to meditate and do energy work,
• when I started using a daily/weekly planner,
• while trying to change my morning routine,
• while learning copywriting techniques,
• and most recently when I started building my website with Siteground ($3.95/mo. web hosting), WordPress (free), and the GeneratePress theme . 

Expect Obstacles  

Learn to accept that obstacles are a part of the personal development process, not just a distraction from the process.

Reframing it that way doesn’t stop personal development obstacles from being annoying … but it can stop you from expecting things to go as smoothly as in the books. 

Learn to expect (and accept):

• Unexpected problems that can take hours to resolve
• Extra steps that require Googling (or YouTubing) up even more tutorials 
• Problems that only a small percentage of people ever encounter (so it isn’t mentioned … anywhere). Meaning, back to Google.
• Times when the information just doesn’t seem to work with your particular situation and none of their examples apply to you. Think: square peg meets round hole. 
• Your ‘finished product’ not being a Pinterest perfect representation of the transformation that the book/course/article bragged about. 

Perfection only happens under perfect conditions.

Holding onto unrealistic expectations will slow your progress even further. Especially when it brings up self-judgement and negative self talk.

Go easy on yourself. Self-compassion serves you better than self-criticism when it comes to personal growth.

If you tried your best and pulled off some B+ work … then congrats, you nailed it.

Personal Development Obstacle 5 – Life Gets in the Way

[ Sometimes things come up that are so serious they put a halt on plans indefinitely or force you to change directions completely.

Things that take your development in a different direction (an unplanned direction).

World events, accidents, and surgeries for example. Having to deal with recovering from injuries, traumas, the quarantine, PTSD, panic attacks, mindset work, inner child work coming up, buried emotions coming up. Anything unexpected basically. ] 

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Some of the events that happen in our lives are unexpected and unavoidable. No one can control everything. So you have to learn to accept uncertainty and how to adapt when it happens.

That might mean taking a break from an online course you’re working through to research stress management techniques or productivity habits because your plate is too full. It could mean taking a break from the gym to deal with a family crisis or heal from an injury.

Flexibility takes practice. So don’t expect to be perfect at it right away. 

One thing to remember is that growth comes in many forms. Just because you can no longer grow in the direction you wanted to doesn’t mean that growth isn’t going to happen in some other way.

That’s where the adapting comes in. But first you have to get past the anger and reach the acceptance stage. Otherwise you won’t welcome new growth opportunities. You’ll most likely reject them because you won’t  be able to recognize them for what they are. 

What does the obstacle/opportunity process look like in real life?

It took me a month or so after my patellar tendon surgery (and being stuck on the couch) for me to accept my situation and new limitations. Once I was able to let go of the way I expected my life to be, I came across new opportunities which led to a different direction to grow in. 

An audio book reminded me of copywriting and internet marketing. They were passions I had in my early 20s but had set aside when I lost vision in one of my eyes and had to stay away from computer screens for months at a time.

I decided to spend my time reading and researching everything I could about those subjects. And finally get some sort of online writing business up and running.

Fast forward a year of studying copywriting, marketing, problem solving, psychology, human behavior, selling, communication related subjects and taking online courses .

I finally made my “ life purpose project “ a reality.

I did eventually make it back to the gym and within 4 months, I was stronger than I’d ever been in my life. But my new passions became a bigger priority in my life and where I’m most focused on growing. 

It just goes to show that some setbacks are a blessing in disguise.

Always ask yourself, “What else could this lead to?”

Personal Development Obstacle 6 – Trouble Following Through

[ How do you guarantee that you’ll follow through on what you say you’re going to do? 

How do you commit to the plan and process even when life gets in the way? 

What if you can’t trust yourself to do it no matter what comes up or how you feel? ]

“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.”    – Tony Robbins

This is one of the most difficult obstacles for me. During my research I’ve found (and tried) quite a few different techniques to help me stay motivated and committed. Here are a few of them.

■ Learn (and practice) self-discipline.  

 “Despite what many may think, self discipline is a learned behavior. It requires practice and repetition in your day-to-day life.” – 5 Proven Methods For Gaining Self Discipline

Self-discipline in this context is the ability to consistently do what you need to do to get where you’re trying to go. In other words, it means showing up and doing the work daily, even when you’d rather be doing something else.

A great side benefit of improving your self-discipline is it also builds up your self-confidence.

The more you trust yourself to solve problems, stick to your goals, and do what you say you’re going to do, the more you’ll grow to believe in yourself too.

■ Change your habits.

This one is easier said than done. As you know if you’ve ever tried to quit bad habits or adopt better habits before.

There are a lot of different opinions and approaches when it comes to changing habits. Most seem to agree that success requires addressing more than just the habit itself.

You have to take into account things like:

• Your environment
• The people around you and their habits
• Your mindset related to overcoming the habit
• Psychological triggers 
• Physical triggers
• How you feel the old habit benefits you

This is why trying to force yourself to change rarely works. You have to address your mindset, Psychological issues, and figure out ways to make the new habit more desirable to you than the old habit.

A great book that goes into depth on the subject of habits is Atomic Habits by James Clear . 

■ Find an accountability partner.

You can call, text, or email each other daily, weekly, or monthly to check in on the progress you’ve made towards your goals.

This motivates you to keep up with your work because you’ll want to have something positive to tell them when they contact you. Otherwise you’ll feel like you’ve let them down.

Just make sure your accountability partner is someone you can trust to do their part and is someone who won’t demotivate you by being judgemental or critical.

■ Set up a reward and punishment system for yourself.

This depends on your personal tastes and what motivates you. But some examples are:

• Rewarding yourself with a splurge purchase or a night out when you reach a certain number of words in a book you’re writing or when you’ve stuck with your new eating habits consistently for 2 weeks straight.
• Punishment could mean not letting yourself watch a Netflix show if you didn’t read, exercise, or meditate that day.

Whatever works best for you.

■ Break it down into smaller steps so you can track progress.

Small wins can help motivate you to keep moving forwards. This is another way to gain confidence and build self-belief. 

■ “Sell yourself” on what it means to you and why it’s important for your life.  

Remind yourself what problem it will solve and how your life will end up if you don’t solve it. Then paint a picture of how your life will change if you do. Using as many benefits and benefits of those benefits as you can.

Do this for as long as it takes for you to visualize it … feelings and all … as if you are living it in this moment.

Personal Development Obstacle 7 – The Information Didn’t Stick 

[ You’ve read the book, learned a lot, but never really put the information into practice.

Mainly because you forgot the exact details, steps, and techniques that were described in the book. So you only solve bits and pieces of your problems.

But never get the big changes or make the big leaps forward that you hoped for.

How do you get the benefits you were supposed to get out of the material? ]

■ Take notes throughout the entire book, course, etc. 

Write down everything that jumps out at you as important or interesting.

You can use a notebook , a binder, or simply start a Word/Google doc. The goal is to have it all organized in one easy to access place.

■ Highlight different parts with different colors.

This won’t work for every type of medium. But it will for books, other printed out materials, and for anything you can copy over to a google (or word) doc.

Select the words you want highlighted and use the highlight feature to change the color.

■ Write a summary (in your own words) after each chapter or section.

Write whatever you can remember. And then go back through the material to see how well you did and to fill in whatever you left out.

■ Practice using the information as you go … and before you move on to the next section. This is the same way you used to do homework in school.

In other words, treat each section/chapter/part as its own independent lesson. And do your best to master it before moving forward. 

■ Practice teaching the information to someone else.

It’s been proven that the process of teaching someone else improves your memory and your understanding of the material.

■ Read the book a second time.

You’ll see it differently and learn things that you didn’t learn the first time.

■ Commit to practicing the material for 30 days straight.  

The more you consistently use it the more likely it’ll become a part of you and feel habitual.

■ Pick only a handful of ideas from the book/course that you can implement into your life right now.

That way you won’t get overwhelmed by trying to do too much at once.

■ Make changes to your environment.

Place reminders related to the new habits in easy to see locations around your house, car, or workplace.

For example, putting healthier foods at eye level in the fridge so you’ll reach for them more often.

And you can move reminders of unwanted habits further out of sight, like hiding junk food in a cabinet (or in a different room).

For habits that revolve around ideas, you can look for posters or make print outs with reminders of the new thought processes and ideas you’re trying to adopt. Place them around your room or house so that you see them often.

You can also set alarms and reminders on your phone to remind you throughout the day. 

“Environment design is powerful not only because it influences how we engage with the world but also because we rarely do it. Most people live in a world others have created for them. But you can alter the spaces where you live and work to increase your exposure to positive cues and reduce your exposure to negative ones. Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.”   – James Clear, Atomic Habits , page 87

I hope that this list of common personal development obstacles (and their solutions) will help you reach your goals a little quicker and easier.

But keep in mind, these aren’t the only obstacles you might come across during your personal development journey.

Some other obstacles that might creep up are:

• A lack of support from the people around you. They might even try to discourage you.
• Negative self-talk that results in you talking yourself out of attempting positive changes. 
• Feeling directionless and goal-less as a result of not really knowing yourself or what you want out of life.
• Second guessing all of your decisions and never feeling “ready” to take the big steps.

So what do you do if obstacles that weren’t on the list do pop up? 

You can still use some of the strategies above and do your best to adapt them to your unexpected situations.

Accept your circumstances, remember that obstacles are a normal part of the journey, look for a bigger picture (hidden opportunities), and solve them one step at a time. 

As a recap, the obstacles we talked about in this post were:

1) Which path to choose?

2) There’s too much personal development information available

3) Changing too much too fast

4) The personal growth process is overwhelming

5) Life gets in the way

6) Trouble following through

7) The information didn’t stick

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2 thoughts on “7 Common Obstacles to Personal Development (And How to Overcome Them!)”

Great tips. Our way of thinking directly impacts our way of feeling. If we want to change how we feel, then we need to change how we think! Life can definitely throw curveballs. If you ask me, Dory on Finding Nemo says it best, “Just keep swimming!” 🙂

I agree completely agree and love that Dory quote. Thanks for visiting and commenting!

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