We
always think that the Personal Development Plan (PDP) or Individual Development
Plan (IDP) is the responsibility of employer. We have the basic postulation
that company is responsible for everything related to us, either development or
career because we think that companies hire & keep us because we are indispensable.
It is true that if company puts efforts in developing employees, their
productivity may increase. But at the end of the day, is it only employer’s responsibility?
It is also employee’s responsibility.
Someone
(perhaps me :-))
has rightly said that we are the driver of our own growth, our own career, our
own life and we should independently think on our own development. In this
process if organization is supporting, it is well and good. However first you
should be ready with your plan.
How
many times we are clear in life about ourselves?
Have
you challenge yourself?
What
is that time, when you ask yourself what you want to do in the life and what
you want to achieve within next 5 years, 10 years etc.
Second
question, how many time you have reflected on “where are you today?” you may
want to be the Vice President within next 5 years, but have you thought on your
current status of strength, development areas, situation, circumstance etc.?
Further
have you asked yourself, “How would you achieve your goals as asked in question
number 1? What are that efforts you would take to go there? Learning,
developing or just changing the job??
Frankly
speaking and after interacting with so many people, I have found very few people
who have such plans in place. Those few people may not call the plan as PDP or
IDP, but they have all answers on all
above questions. Rest of the people flow in life as per the organizational, society,
community flow…
If
you would like to reflect & want to make a PDP/IDP, just follow the process
of:
Thinking
about where you are now, what you like/dislike, reflecting on your strengths
and improvements you would like to achieve.
Planning
where you want to get to, what skills and knowledge you will need to develop
and how you will acquire them via learning opportunities open to you.
Doing
– putting your action plan into practice; recording the development you make;
identifying when you have reached a goal.
Reflecting
on your learning and achievement and, in the light of this, where you want to
go next (and so the cycle begins again)
It
is not so simple & easy, but just try…you will come to know your true
potential.
New year is approaching…may be good idea to work on… but don’t take
it as a resolution, take it as a commitment. Commitment to yourself.
Need
help? Just write….
13 comments:
fully agree
valuable to reflect on this in December; new challenge for end of year/start new year
rg
Pe B.
Nice article Mr.Vinod. The responsibility of IDP is of three entities i.e. employee, his superior and Company. The responsibility of PDP
The responsibility of PDP is entirely of employee. Thanks for good article
Nice advise. Could turn out to be an eye-opener for a lot of young HR professionals like me. But I feel (& pl pitch in if I am wrong) it is important to consider both side of thoughts, one of the employer and the other from the employee. Employer's Side: a) Any organization is definitely not a training institute to only cater to provide all the requisite "armoury". It is ultimately a place of commercials, with a larger objective of employing people at large. It is in itself a greater service. b) Managing all employees' expectations is not easy. Eventually (for Eg) all employees may believe they ought to be given some training & certifications, to take their careers forward, no matter how average their performance might be in a given year. This is not realistic from a Company's point of view. c) Lets face it head-on: Organizations will tend to cater more to it's superior performers and tend to take them a little ahead of others, as they foresee a "successor" in these performers (It's a different story that there may be some great silent workers). But then again, as rightly said by Mr Bidwaik, these are the same performers who have their plans in place, thereby instilling confidence in Management...
Employee's Side : a) At a larger level, employees expect a senior (wiser person) to guide them in PDP or IDP. And the expectation is not entirely wrong since, if they could manage this all by themselves, the relationship would have gone to a different level between superiors & subordinates. For Eg: it might become ruthlessly clear, i.e. to say that if senior is not suppose to advise on this, subordinates decides his course of action asap, say leaving the company since his senior is not able to have a positive influence... again & again & again. Not a good situation for any company. b) A lot of PDP or IDP may involve learning some new technique or course or certification or training program, which may involve cost that is beyond the reach of individual employee. Say Certification Course on Leadership from XLRI or IIM Lucknow. Employee expects to get this knowledge through company's sponsorship and in return he is ready to transfer this knowledge to his entire company, including all India branches. OR he promises to work with the same company for say one year post the training & use his knowledge so gained in his company. It becomes a WIN-WIN situation for both. So, what's wrong with this kind of PDP or IDP ? In the end, while we can help employees on their PDP, a larger responsibility of HR to be one step ahead and know all the nuances of Career Planning Exercise, is something that can't be ignored. Besides, all employees too can't just have a blank ambition but atleast some basic groundwork done on PDP, however vague it may be, an effort towards it should be there.
Excellent... Explanations @ how winners think differently..
Very nice presentation sir, but so many are facing problems at the step planning.
Srinivas Das
Interesting for me. Also has some similarities with the PDCA Cycle. I think you're right. Not many people are thinking and especially planning their career. What I enjoyed a lot about my career was being lucky enough to work in companies that are business schools themselves - COCA-COLA, Lafarge, Michelin. Lots of experiences and good learnings totally free of charge. You just need to open your eyes, your years and your mind, work hard and learn from every person, no matter how small or how important. And also from every meaningfull situation.
I like the pertinent questions raised in the post. To me, steps of process are as mentioned below, and coincidentally, they are quite similar to ones mentioned in the post: 1. Introspect: to understand your core-competencies which nature has bestowed upon you- self realization. 2. Explore: Identify current/future opportunities that fits well to your core-competencies. 3. Goal setting: Set goal in the identified domain of opportunities. 4. Identify gaps: Identify gaps between your existing competencies and required competencies to achieve your goal. You have divine powers if there are no gaps. 5. Fill gaps : Pat on your back if your organization supports you to fill these gaps otherwise help yourself. This is to be done urgently so that you can relish next round of cycle. Thanks.
Alok Mohan
very nice article Vinod Bidwaik . It accurately pinpoints unrealistic expectations of employees and shows the way to make better IDPs. Most IDPs I have seen suffer from another problem. They are not actionable. And despite the best intensions from all parties, no real development happens. Couple months back after finishing a large ADC project with an Engineering Consulting company, I wrote a post on "Why IDPs fail and what we can do about it" which I think extends your post. Thank you and looking forward to more experience sharing from you in future.
Thanks Ruxandra Manea!. Organizations are keen to support their employees. It is upto us how we take it or get benefited from the same. Few companies are really good in developing employees, even our own organization, Royal DSM.
Thanks Srinivas Das,! before planning once should be clear on his expectations from himself:-)
Fully agreed. This process is also co-owned by company, but according to me employee himself is the key person to decide about him. If he is clear then he can always take a support from employer. My experience says that most of the time, people are not clear on their next step and they even bothered to evaluate where they are today!
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