QUOTATION 15

MOLLY SARGENT ON INVESTING IN YOUR GREATEST ASSET – YOURSELF

Use this to remind you of the need to continue learning and developing as a person and manager.

Molly Sargent, management consultant and founder of ProImpress, is interested in organisational and personal development. Therefore, it’s not surprising that she is concerned with asking managers, at all levels, how much they spend on personal development. But she has a unique way of phrasing the question:

Have you invested as much this year in your career as your car?

Molly Sargent

Well – did you?

My future

WHAT TO DO

  • Our greatest asset is ourselves, but assets will become dilapidated unless they are constantly maintained and improved. For us, maintenance requires us to stay abreast of the latest changes in our professional field while improvement requires that we learn new skills. To do this properly, you need to undertake an annual training needs analysis.
  • A training needs analysis involves:
    • listing the skills and abilities that you have and the level at which you can deploy them, e.g. beginner, intermediate and expert level;
    • listing the skills that you require to continue doing your job to a high level;
    • comparing the two lists and identifying any shortfalls in skills required or level;
    • drawing up a plan of action to eliminate any shortfalls.
  • While you can undertake your own training needs analysis, it is better to get an expert to help you. They will be able to probe and challenge your ideas and suggest ways to move forward. Use someone from your training department or a friend who works in human resources to help you.
  • The solutions to your problem may involve doing a bit of reading, learning from an expert on how they do a particular job, shadowing a member of staff or undertaking a training session at the offices/factory of a supplier. This simple low-cost approach may improve your productivity considerably as it’s likely that you’ll find you are using only a small percentage of the facilities available on the new computer system/machine. Don’t believe me? What percentage of Excel, PowerPoint or Word can you/your staff use?
  • More formal arrangement might require going on a short course or undertaking a further qualification.
  • Once you’ve identified what is required, you must be willing to invest the time and money required to undertake the training. Yes, by all means try and get your organisation to pay some or all of the fees. But if they say no, pay for it yourself! After all, it’s you who will gain the greatest benefit from the training.
  • Look to enhance your skills in an area where your organisation has little or no expertise. For example, accountants might look to obtain a qualification in cyber security. This will give you a competitive advantage when seeking promotion or applying for jobs and increase your expert power (see Quotation 71).
  • Every year, identify a sum of money that you will set aside for your own professional development and then spend it.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

  • How many hours did I spend on professional development last year?
  • How much did I spend on my professional development last year?
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