Are You Relying On Your Boss For Your Personal Development?

I’ve had some amazing bosses – inspiring, kickass women at the top of their game. They’ve been incredible at coaching, mentoring and training me and I’ve learnt so much from them.

I’ve also had some terrible bosses. Bosses who shouted, dictated and didn’t care about me at all as long as the basic job got done.

I hope that you’ve experienced an amazing boss and that you’ll never have to cope with a terrible one! Though no matter what type of boss you have it’s important to ask yourself this question: are you relying on them for your personal development?

In this article I want to convince you that the answer should be no! No matter how great your boss is you’ll benefit from taking responsibility for your own development. (And if they’re awful, then you know you need to look out for yourself!) I’m also going to be showing you exactly how to start taking charge of your own personal development today.

First up, here are the five biggest reasons why you shouldn’t rely on your boss for your personal development:

Reason #1: You won’t be with the same company or in the same role forever.

Obviously your employer is only going to offer you personal development opportunities that are going to benefit them as well. This is awesome for developing you in your role, but if you’ve got plans to switch jobs in the future you need to do more.

Start thinking about what your next career move is going to be. Once you’re clear on it, definitely keep making the most out of all the opportunities your current employer provides- whether they’re related to your goals or not. But, also start creating your own opportunities so that when that inevitable career move comes along, your CV is all set.

Reason #2: You’ll learn more about yourself.

Training and development opportunities at work might push you a little bit outside of your comfort zone but they probably won’t be exposing you to anything drastically different to what you do, see and learn day-in-day-out.

On the other hand, pushing yourself to take up development opportunities outside of work will make you try completely new things. You might be exposed to ideas that you’ve never heard of before, be braver than you ever thought you could be and learn skills that are nothing to do with your current job. You’ll learn so much about your capabilities, interests and passions this way.

Reason #3: You’ll stand out

Even if you decide your next career move is going to be to a similar role or a promotion within the same company, taking charge of your personal development is going to make you stand out.

Imagine going for a promotion at work where all of the other candidates have very similar resumes. They’ve all been on the same training programmes, been given similar advice from their mentors and have got the exact same experiences to talk about. Then you come along.

Your sparkling resume adorned with unique conferences and advanced qualifications complemented by your eloquent interview answers packed full of innovative ideas will make you stand out. Who do you think the interviewers are going to recruit?

Reason #4: Become a pro at self-directed learning

In 2014, the UK government wrote a report called “The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030.” They came up with four different scenarios of how work might be in 2030. Alongside this they also came up with some general advice for employees, no matter which scenario we end up with. One of the key pieces of advice is, “Take greater personal responsibility for acquiring and continuously updating skills for progression and success.”
Getting really good at teaching yourself now is something your future self will thank you for!

Reason #5: Prepare for the future of work

As “The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030” predicts, things are going to be changing up around here. By 2030 jobs are going to be more project-based and employers will have less money to spend on employee personal development.

To cope with these changes, here are two more pieces of the report’s advice that you’d be following by taking responsibility for your personal development:

● “Be open to and take advantage of new and different approaches to learning, for instance self-directed, bite-sized learning, peer-to-peer learning and technology enabled training opportunities.
● Focus on development of key skills and attributes that will be at a premium in future, including resilience, adaptability, resourcefulness, enterprise, cognitive skills (such as problem solving), and the core business skills for project based employment.”
The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030” UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Feb 2014.

Now I reckon that I’ve got you suitably convinced that you shouldn’t be relying on your boss for your personal development, it’s time to take charge of it!

Your first step is to create your own personal development plan. Here’s how:

Step One: Get clear on your next career goal

Step Two: Research the skills and experience you’ll need to make it happen. Looking at current job descriptions will help you out with this.

Step Three: What can you do to get the skills and experience you’ve identified that you need?

Step Four: When are you going to do it?

If you’re stuck on Step Three, here’s a list of personal development opportunities you can select from:

● Apply for any relevant opportunities, projects and training you can get in your current job.
● Invest in a qualification
● Go to a conference – I felt so inspired last month after speaking to two colleagues who’d been to conferences in their free time. They’d met and networked with top influencers in their areas of interest who they would never, ever have met otherwise, built their confidence and communication skills and came away buzzing with ideas!
● Take an online course (free or paid). There are so many to choose from! You could take something academic, learn a practical skill or develop your soft skills.
● Start a side hustle – now this is a personal development opportunity and half! From experience I can tell you that it’s amazing for personal growth and learning new, marketable skills with tangible proof of how great you are at them!
● Read a book
● Listen a podcast
● Watch a video

You can also get creative and think of some more ideas of your own!

Now that you’ve created your personal development plan,it’s time to put it into action! I hope you’ll find taking charge of your personal development a fun, rewarding experience. Good luck!