So, by our title you can assume that we mean the vast majority of PDPs don't achieve anything, quite right. In my experience most PDPs end up as highly aspirational, one-sided documents which do little to move anything forward. Why is this so? It is because the vast majority of managers still don't believe in the value of them, pay little attention to them once the annual appraisal review is out of the way and therefore reduce them to one-sided "some day" pieces of paper full of courses and coaching that often fails to materialize.
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I have also met many management teams who claim that they take personal development very seriously but who can do little to substantiate this claim without calling on cohorts of HR staff.
So why bother?
Why, because it's one of the best motivators of employee performance you can get and one of the best business improvement tools available and it's free!
Let me be clear firstly what I mean by a PDP or Personal Development Plan as they are commonly known. I do not mean those soft and fluffy, nicey nicey, lots and lots of courses type PDPs. I mean the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, trackable PDPs that link the development of an employee to improving themselves and the business. What do I mean by improving the business? Pounds and pence! Improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality or good old hard cash.
Yes, it really is one of the best mechanisms available for improving your business. But, you need to get it right. Creating a PDP in ten minutes flat probably won't do much to change anything.
So what are the ingredients of a good PDP?
It is not difficult to create a really good PDP. What tends to be difficult is differentiating between good and bad PDPs. So let us get to the point of making a good PDP. Below we have outlined the key aspects of a PDP and what turns each section into a good element.
Objective Setting
This is the crux of any good PDP, get the objective right and your half way to building an effective PDP. When creating a development objective remember the following key points:
Make it relevant to the business. I have experienced many attempts to enhance PDPs by adding lots of nice to do things like courses in French, Tai Chi, Yoga, Cooking which rarely do anything to build motivation or enhance the business. What is far more valuable is to set a development objective that is geared to helping an individual stretch their personal development training ability to do their job much more effectively. Better still, stretch them to be able to do more than their current job and voila you grow your talent organically.
Make the objective specific. The example below is a real copy of an objective taken from a PDP of a middle manager in a FTSE100 company. See if you can guess what's wrong with it.
"Improve my influencing skills"
Yes, it is lacking in a few areas. Firstly, one could assume from this objective that the manager needs to improve their ability to influence people in all aspects of their role which isn't actually true. This manager is very effective at influencing her direct reports and within her peer group. The problem area lies more in influencing senior managers. Secondly, the objective doesn't describe the context of the problem. Is the cause of the development a lack of confidence in verbal communication or is it a lack of evidence and facts supporting the influencing process that's the problem. Finally, this objective is so broad it has the potential to overwhelm. The individual may not really know where to focus first and may therefore struggle to commit to action.
So the key to making the objective a good one is to ensure that:
Apply the above and see what it does to our example objective.
"To influence senior managers more effectively by ensuring I have sufficient data and evidence to support my proposals and presentations"
At this stage we are only interested in making the objective give us the best possible start. We have still yet to develop actions and timelines etc.
Creating Actions from Objectives
The next thing to do is create the actions that will lead to the achievement of the overall objective or goal. These actions are in essence are mini objectives. Each should be a step along the path to achieving the major objective. Again these should be SMART in their make up. For a PDP objective you should expect to have around 4-5 actions.
Setting the Timeline
Once you have your objectives and actions in place you should commit them to a timescale. There are a few things to be wary of when setting timescales for your PDP. Don't create them in isolation of each other. There is a bit of a tendency to end up with timescales that all converge at the same point. Once you've set each of the dates go back over them and sense check that they fit together and make it still realistically achievable. Also, take into account any known pieces of work or projects that may have an impact on the individual's ability to achieve the objectives. There is nothing worse than setting someone objectives that can't be achieved. Thirdly, you need to diarise regular reviews with the individual. Ideally these should be monthly. Each review gives you the opportunity to check that the PDP objectives are still achievable against the current workload. The PDP is a work in progress and, just as with other business objectives should be reviewed and adapted when needed.
Measures of Success
Now, the most crucial part of all; the measures of success. There is a saying that I have come to love over the years because even though it is simple, it holds the key to great achievement. "Start with the end in mind".
To produce or build something we must first create the prototype. Our prototype becomes our measure of success. It is the thing we know to be a correct and true representation of what we want to ultimately achieve. It is the end.
So, start with the end for each objective. Define what success will look like. How will the individual be doing things differently once they have developed? Where possible make the measures as tangible as possible. Think of the improvements to targets, efficiency, quality and examine how these can be shown in financial terms. Good, tangible measures help to show that the development is making a difference.
If you implement the above, whether it be on a crude sheet of paper or with the aid of a computer software package, you will see aspects of your business improve. Imagine everyone in your business going into work tomorrow and doing their jobs just 10 mins quicker and getting things 10% more correct the first time. How much would that be worth to your business? Well, you can easily achieve more than this with good well written PDPs.
If you are keen to have a go at implementing the above but are unsure where to start or have some questions that need answering please do give us a call. We'll be only too pleased help you.
For any business to be successful and sell, the people involved must believe in their product or service and believe in themselves. Your selling skills depend, in a big way, on your level of self confidence. Other people can sense it if you don't believe in yourself, and from this they gather that you don't believe in what you are doing. Obvious belief in the product is what persuades your customer or client to buy from you. Hence, improving your self-confidence will enhance your selling skills.
Everybody has worries that they are not good at selling every once in a while; it doesn't mean that you can't sell successfully. Self confidence can be learned and you can boost your self confidence through practice and thus increase your selling skills. We are surrounded by negative influences, but more often than not, they exist only in our own heads. Whether awake or asleep, our minds produce a constant succession of image and thoughts. For many, these images and thoughts are an endless torrent of destructive messages. Using self-praise is a self-confidence building technique for fighting these negative messages. Try to reverse negative thoughts with positive praise about what you do well. For example, say to yourself "you really handled that difficult situation well last week..." Your self confidence will thrive faster in a positive mental climate.
Personal development courses teach that it can sometimes help to physically confront your self when performing a self-praise session, although it can sometimes feel silly. Ignore these feelings and keep at it, nobody has to hear you and over time these feelings of silliness will disappear as your self-confidence grows. Make your self-praise specific and it will be more powerful. The more you use this routine, the more your inner confidence will grow.
It can also help to adjust your body language and tone of voice to suit certain situations, feigning self-confidence can be as effective as actually having it. And, as your confidence grows, you won't have to pretend anymore. 30% of communication has to do with your tone of voice. Ask yourself, what changes could you make to your voice to make it sound more confident? Perhaps listen to others whom you admire, how do their tones convey confidence to you?
Improved self confidence can greatly improve the success of your business experiences and activities. Practicing some of the techniques mentioned above will help you on the road to self-belief.