At the end of the day, your employees are your greatest assets. In order to ensure your company is continuing to grow and succeed, you need your employees to do the same! That is why it is crucial that you have an employee development plan in place that satisfies the goals of both your employees and your overall organization.
But how can you build a plan that makes both parties happy? We had the same question. That is why we sat down with 11 small business leaders and asked them to share their tips and tricks with us. Keep reading to hear their insights, and have something to write with – trust us, you’ll want to take some notes.
Learning a New Language
Learning a new language is a personal development skill that always benefits your employer as well. Being able to speak more than one language allows you to become a more valuable employee because you are better able to communicate with a wider range of clients than those who only speak one language.
Court Will, Will & Will
A Personal Skill That Brings in a New Mindset
Any personal skill you want to perfect can benefit your employer because it encourages you to think differently and maintain a learning mindset. For example, if you work with computers and technology and you have a personal goal of learning how to draw, you develop a more creative technique that could lead to unique solutions in technology development and design.
Rex Murphy, American Pipeline Solutions
Become an Expert in Your Field
A good personal development goal that also benefits your employer is to strive to become an expert in your field. Continued learning and skill-building are excellent professional development goals that also benefit your employer because they will receive better work and results from you as you continue to grow.
Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional
Try Everything
As you progress in your career, you will slowly be given more and more opportunities! To accelerate that growth and your personal development, you should be willing to try everything to get a better sense of what you are truly strong at. Not only will this widen your skillset, but it will also be a huge help to your employer because they know they can rely on you to help out when needed.
Nikitha Lokareddy, Markitors
Active Listening
I made the goal this year to become an active listener. This will not only help me in my personal relationships with family, friends, and my husband, but will also help me better serve the partners I work with as a partner services manager. Active listening is a skill that you have to constantly be working on and improving. It is easier said than done! This goal has proven to be mutually beneficial to my personal life and work-life as I have watched my relationships improve.
Kayla Centeno, Terkel
Improving Productivity
Improving my own productivity is always a personal goal for me, and it certainly benefits my employer and anyone I do business with as well. I believe that any personal development goal will indirectly benefit both employers and anyone else you interact with in life. It doesn’t matter if it’s a goal related to business, spirituality, health, sports, or art for that matter. Spirituality – you might be working on becoming more present, which will enable you to enjoy the moment more. This might make result in more business because customers are more inclined to work with you. That’s good for your employer. Health – if you’re working on eating better and exercising more, you will probably be happier and sick less often. That’s good for your employer. Art – working on your passion might leave you happier and more fulfilled. That\’s good for your employer since happy people often are more productive. It’s all mutually beneficial!
Paw Vej, Financer.com
Reading and Running
I have recently tried implementing two personal development goals: run three miles every other day, and read for at least fifteen minutes every day. Though quite different, running and reading have been found to have similar benefits. They both reduce stress (which helps you better focus) and they have both been found to improve digestive health, among other health benefits. By having these healthy habits in my life, I am benefitting my employer, because I am ensuring that the best version of myself is showing up every day. Of course, I still get stressed and some days are harder to focus than others. However, I know that especially on those days, I am in a better position than I would be if I were not giving myself ways to cope with my stress and fatigue.
Karen Gordon, Goodshuffle Pro
Stay Up To Date on Industry Trends
When you do PR and outreach, you need to be on top of new trends and rules, constantly. It’s an ever-changing environment with Google rolling out new algorithms, journalists following what’s new and unheard of, and worldwide events calling for more “reactive PR.” There’s no course or a book that will stay evergreen and help you with that stuff, really. So I constantly read relevant blog posts, watch podcasts, and follow digital PR gurus online to develop my skills. We put together a reading list of useful items and share it with our team so that everyone can step up their game.
Nina Król, Zety
Improve Your Speaking Abilities
One great personal development goal that you should have for yourself that will benefit your employer, but your career as well as is-improve your speaking. Improving your speaking (meetings, one-on-one, at conferences, etc.) will not only allow your listener to really hear and understand what you are saying, but it will convey confidence and your employer will take notice of you and you could get promotions all due to your speaking ability. Many people attend Toastmaster meeting to eliminate all those filler words (ums, ahs, you know, so, etc.) that distracts from your message really being heard by your audience. You will be able to answer any question thrown at you. Improve your speaking and watch your career take off.
Steve Feld, Business Breakthrough Strategist
Improve 1% Of Yourself Every Day
When it comes to personal development, I try to keep it simple. I aim to improve myself by just 1% every day. This might look like improving my morning routine by 10 minutes or picking up a new book and focusing on one chapter a day. I started with calendar reminders to devote the time needed to make these improvements. The calendar reminders helped me keep on track, and now it’s part of my day. When I focus on growing my mind, body, and spirit just a little bit every day, my company grows alongside it.
Linda Scorzo, Hiring Indicators
Develop Leadership
Developing leadership skills is a solid personal development goal that can have an immediate impact on your employer. Often leadership is interpreted as just taking charge, however, most related skills empower anyone at any level to take the right initiative, best collaborate in teams, and contribute to overall company innovations by thinking creatively about solutions to problems. Whether or not taking on a leadership role formally is a short- or long-term goal, developing skills that make a strong leader can add value to overall team progress.
Nadine Mullings, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
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