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The Introvert's Guide to Professional Development

Jenn on October 10, 2018

Professional development can seem like a buzzword that companies just throw around. Some companies make budgets for their employees to go to confe...
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simonhaisz profile image
simonhaisz

Great article Jenn! Sadly there are too many in management who don't see this as the no-brainer that it is.

If you are not successful as an individual to get buy-in/setup time for this, one approach is to take a lesson from unions and try to do it as a group.

If the whole team comes together and says they need time for this you might have a better chance of convincing management than doing it on your own. In the coordinated 'learn time' the team could each be learning the same thing, or different things - learning individually or in groups. People focusing on different areas could be used as a 'divide and conquer' strategy where afterwards people can document/report back to the team on what they learned so that more people can gain the benefit of their learning. Having to document/report is also a great motivator to actually do it and treat it seriously too 😁

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Jenn

Thank you for bring up doing professional development in a group. I have been part of teams that have done that and it can be quite effective. The divide and conquer strategy is excellent and reporting back to the group can help with practicing public speaking!

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Kyllian Mobley

Awesome article. The only extra hurdle my management sees is that "professional development should be something the employee owns as part of their own initiative to grow their own career." They see it as my responsibility to use my own time to improve my performance at work.

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Araf Karim

Awesome and helpful article.

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Sandor Dargo

A really useful article, thank you.

I have a question though. What would you think if your doctor would give you a bill including charges for reading or going to conferences, etc?