Kicking goals: Using a personal development plan
A personal development plan (PDP) can be a useful tool to help you achieve goals within your professional life and outside of it. It can be used at all stages of your career and can help you develop the skills and experience you need to achieve career growth as well as other goals.
Here we explain what a personal development plan is, explore the benefits it provides and give you tips on creating an effective plan.
What is a personal development plan?
A personal development plan (PDP) is a structured approach to setting goals and achieving them.
It involves reflecting on what you want to achieve, identifying the areas you need to build skills or gain experience in and creating an action plan to gain those skills or experience so you can achieve your goals.
Professionally, it can be used as a map to help you navigate your career path. You can use it to articulate your ambitions and as a tool for advancing your career or to focus on specific skills you want to build.
A personal development plan can also be used in various areas of your life including finances, education and personal interests.
A PDP reflects your strengths and goals while providing a focused way to address weaknesses with actions you can take within a specific timeframe.
Working out what you want – and how to get there – can help you achieve the professional and personal growth you’re looking for.
What are the steps to creating your personal development plan (with examples)?
For a personal development plan to provide you with the results you’re looking for you’ll need to reflect on your goals and areas for improvement and you’ll need to create an action plan with a workable timeline.
The four steps of a personal development plan involve:
- Self-assessment
- Goal setting
- Plan for action
- Review progress
Let’s break these four steps down.
Step 1: Self-assessment
A personal development plan is essentially about self-improvement and your goals. This means it’s critical to reflect on your objectives and honestly look at your strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.
In a PDP you’re reflecting on your own personal development. These three questions can be used as a foundation:
- ‘Where am I now?’
- ‘Where am I going?’
- ‘Where do I want to go next?’
Answering these three questions will help you to identify where there are gaps or if you’re heading in a direction that you don’t want to be heading in. Additionally, you can get specific and ask questions related to the areas you want to look at, for example:
- ‘What are my strengths at work?’
- ‘Am I overusing these strengths? Am I relying on them so much that I’m neglecting other areas to work on?’
- ‘What are the consistent themes across the feedback I receive at work?’
- ‘What are the areas I’ve been avoiding or delaying working on?’
- ‘What are my values?’
- ‘Is my current focus aligned with my interests/values?’
Various tools, including personality tests and feedback from peers, can be used in this process to help provide insights into areas you want to focus on.
While this can be challenging, remember that the focus of your personal development plan is YOU! You won’t need to share this with anyone and an honest self-assessment will help you to really focus on the areas that will make a difference.
Once you have a clear understanding of your current state, your next step is to focus on your personal development goals.
Step 2: Goal setting
What do you want to achieve? Your goals can be broad. You might want to focus on soft skills to support your career ambitions or lift your technical knowledge to put you ahead in the job market. Perhaps you’re looking at improving your financial planning so you can save for a house deposit or retirement. You may also have goals related to improving your personal relationships, taking up new interests, advancing your education, improving your wellbeing, or reducing stress and achieving a better work-life balance.
Whatever your personal goals are, make sure that they are realistic. If your goals are too large or overly ambitious consider breaking them down and prioritising the ones to achieve first.
Clearly defining your goal so that you’re able to say when it’s been achieved is also important. A great way to create goals is using the SMART method; that is, making sure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Time-bound, short-term and measurable goals are essential for maintaining focus and will help you to track your progress.
Regularly reviewing and adjusting your goals ensures that they remain relevant and aligned with your personal and professional aspirations.
Let’s look at a few examples:
- ‘I will improve my communication skills by attending a public-speaking course and volunteering to deliver three presentations at work within the next three months.’
- ‘I will learn how to use Monday by completing an online course and building a new project board for my team within the next six weeks, spending at least three hours a week on developing the board.’
- ‘I will reduce work-related stress and improve work-life balance by incorporating 30 minutes of daily exercise into my workday and setting a strict work cut-off time of 6pm every day for the next eight weeks.’
Breaking down your goals into smaller, actionable steps, and outlining the specific tasks and resources required is the next step.
Step 3: Plan for action
An effective action plan is a crucial component of a personal development plan. After all, how are you going to achieve your goal without outlining the specific actions you’ll need to take?
Your action plan will be relevant to the goals you have and may include the specific actions you’ll take, the routine changes you may need to make, or the unhelpful habits you’ll need to remove.
It should also outline the resources that you’ll need.
Including timelines and progress tracking will ensure accountability and momentum, helping you stay on course towards achieving your personal development goals.
When creating an action plan think about how it can be used as a road map. It should provide a clear structure and help you visualise what you’ll do to achieve your goal.
Let’s unpack what an action plan could look like for the goal of improving communication skills:
- Resources: Online platforms offering public-speaking courses (e.g., Toastmasters), presentation software (e.g, Canva), feedback from colleagues.
- Timeline: Weeks 1-6 complete the course; Weeks 7-12 deliver the presentations.
- Specific actions: Research and enrol in a course that fits my schedule, do the course and carve out time each week during a lunchtime to do any ‘homework’; let my manager know that I’m looking for opportunities to present to the team/organisation; identify opportunities to create a presentation; create a presentation after completing the course and seek feedback from colleagues; deliver the presentation incorporating feedback from colleagues.
- Evaluation: Get feedback from my audience on each presentation and assess where I can make improvements. Note my own thoughts about the experience, particularly evaluating any improvements in self-confidence.
Step 4: Review progress
The final step is to conduct a review and evaluate the impacts of the personal development plan. Was your goal achieved? Do you need to make adjustments and reset or is it time to move on to a new goal?
Establishing a system for tracking progress and regularly evaluating your progress will help you to recognise achievements and identify obstacles.
If adjustments are needed in your PDP that’s OK! Consider how you can update your goals or action plans to ensure that they’re on track.
Using a tracker to take notes and measure progress can provide clarity on how to adjust your plan over time. After achieving small steps in your PDP, you should update your plan to focus on your next moves.
Why you need a personal development plan
Personal development plans can help you in both your personal and professional life.
These plans provide a range of benefits, including:
- clarity – helping you to understand what you want to achieve so you can focus on critical areas
- continuous learning and development – facilitating ongoing personal and professional growth through learning and development
- accountability – holding you accountable for your growth
- career progression – helping you to identify and acquire the skills and experience you need so you can grow your career
- personal growth – encouraging self-reflection and self-awareness.
Personal development plans can be used in a wide range of areas and help you to make better decisions, giving you more control over your life and helping you to prepare for inevitable challenges.
Using personal development plans in the workplace
Within organisations, personal development plans can be used to help employees organise their goals and gain control over the goals they want to achieve. Personal development programs delivered by organisations can provide a structure and guidance to help employees achieve goals.
In the workplace, a personal development plan may differ from a professional development plan or employee development plan as it is directed by the employee more than the organisation. For example, an employee may want to focus on how they can get to the next step in their career rather than focusing on addressing a particular capability gap within their current role.
Engaging in personal development opportunities can contribute positively to employee retention and job satisfaction. By helping employees develop professionally, organisations will not only boost productivity but also strengthen loyalty and employee engagement, key components of a healthy workplace culture.
The role of leaders in personal development planning
Leaders can help employees to identify career goals and the skills they need to develop to achieve them. Leaders can play a crucial role in guiding employees in setting specific, measurable goals and creating an action plan. This plan may include professional development opportunities like formal training, mentorship or coaching offered by the organisation and new project opportunities that provide experience in different areas.
Personal development plans can be used as a basis for structuring coaching conversations with leaders providing feedback and guidance.
The role of learning journeys and technology
Technology can support the development of personal and professional goals. YakTrak helps you to set, track and meet goals. It allows you to:
- easily create behavioural goals – team members and leaders can see how they’re tracking against the goal on the YakTrak dashboard
- gain total visibility – leaders can monitor team member goals on their team dashboard
- ensure accountability – team members have ownership of their goals and leaders are provided with additional support to provide immediate, real-time feedback
- easily set reminders and notifications – so people don’t forget the goals they’re working towards.
Read more about employee development in the workplace: Back to basics: What is an employee development program? And how you can Improve employee experience by supporting learning.
Tips for successful personal development plans
These are our three top tips for once you’ve developed your PDP.
Stay motivated
Setting realistic and achievable goals is critical to staying motivated. It’s easy to lose motivation if your goal is too big and you can’t visualise how you’ll achieve it or if you face too many obstacles along the way.
Break down your goals into manageable actions and celebrate when you’ve learned new skills or hit a milestone. Celebrating small successes can keep you motivated throughout your personal development journey.
When challenges arise, consider them as opportunities to learn and grow, and don’t be afraid to adapt your plan if you need to.
While a positive attitude can help, remember to practise self-compassion and self-care along this journey, too.
Get support
Support can provide you with both encouragement and accountability. Seek out colleagues, friends and family with similar values and goals to you. Share your advice and listen to theirs.
If you have a mentor or coach, seek their perspectives and guidance.
Adapt to change
Anticipate that there will be change and a need for flexibility!
Flexibility allows for adjustments to goals and action plans as circumstances change. Remaining adaptable and open to change allows for continuous improvement and achievement of personal development goals.
Want to see YakTrak in action?
Frequently asked questions
Why is a personal development plan important?
A personal development plan (PDP) is essential because it gives you a clear road map to achieve your goals with actionable steps and a timeline. By following a PDP, you can significantly enhance your personal and professional growth!
How do I start creating my personal development plan?
To start creating your development plan, first assess your current skills and identify areas for improvement. Next, set clear, measurable goals and outline an action plan with deadlines to keep you on track! Make sure you follow up and evaluate your progress too!
What are SMART goals?
SMART goals are an effective way to set clear and focused objectives that guide your personal development journey. Embrace the framework of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound to achieve your aspirations!
How can I stay motivated while working on my personal development plan?
To stay motivated while working on your PDP, connect your goals to a deeper purpose and celebrate your small successes. Also, consider finding an accountability buddy to keep you inspired and engaged!
Photos by Damien Tait, Towfiqu barbhuiya and hello-i-m-nik-AsRAyHIkOHk on Unsplash