Stages involved in using a personal development plan
After you you have produced a personal development plan, you will you will need to review the progress at regular intervals to make sure you are on target to meet your personal development goals. You could use the following stages to make sure that you get the best out of a personal development plan.
- Self-evaluate your development needs
- Get a template or online tool to record the personal development plan
- Record initial developmental needs in PDP template
- Meet with manager to discuss your initial thoughts
- Agree what developmental needs are best suited to you progressing within the company
- Add developmental activities such as training courses etc. that will help you develop professionally
- Set first review date
- Update the plans with notes on progress in your own time
- Carry out a review with your line manager
- Agree and set new targets and update and agree on plan
- Set next review date and go back through the stages again to make sure that you get the most out of your PDP
Have a look at our article on how to produce a personal development plan for more help on what you can do to get the best out of training and developmental opportunities within the workplace.
Reviewing progress on a personal development plan
As part of following a personal development plan you will need to include regular review stages to properly review progress on a personal development plan. This can be a formal meeting with a line manager or an informal discussion but one thing that needs to be done when reviewing progress on a personal development plan is to continually identify areas for improvement so that the plan can be updated to get the most out of it. With regular reviews and identifying areas for improvement you can see how you have progressed and explore different areas that will help you progress within your current role or gain promotion to a more senior role. Using a personal development plan and having regular reviews may also help you look at how you can move into different roles with new skill sets within the business. Making the review progress a regular part of your job will help boost your CV and give the opportunity to get as many new qualifications on their to increase the chances of further employment opportunities in the future.
Identifying areas for improvement as part of personal development plan review
Reviewing progress on a personal development plan will automatically help you identify different directions that you can go within your current role. Specifically looking at how you have progressed against set targets will enable you to see what you are really good at and sometimes more importantly enable you to see what needs most improvement. Focusing on key communication skills needed within your job role and identify how you can improve on these can really help you progress in your job. You can also look at technical skills that you need to develop and you can work with others to see what training opportunities are available so that you can update your personal development plan with a solid focus on how to improve. Other areas that you can identify to be improve as part of a personal development plan review are general skills needed for your job role. Setting new targets and looking at additional training opportunities will help you get the best out of your personal development within the workplace.