Building a Professional Development Plan

Hey y'all, so if you are feeling a little bit stagnant in your career, and let's be honest with 2020, who isn't? Today we're going to be talking about how you can write a professional development plan so you can crush it next year. So let's get into it y'all. I am so excited to be back doing another collab video with ASAP. For those of you that are new to me, my name is Melissa Peoples. I'm an executive assistant coach and trainer. I'm the executive operations advisor to the CEO at the New York Times, and I'm a productivity coach. And today we are going to be talking about how you can level up your career and take it to the next level. I don't know about you, but we have all had a really challenging year, and this is the perfect opportunity for us to think through what we want to do with the career and how we want to get there. So today that's what we're going to be focusing on, and I'm so excited that we get to go on this journey together. So let's get to it y'all. Okay, so let's address the question I get all the time on this topic, which is what the mess is a professional development plan, and why do I need it in my life? So for me, a professional development plan, also known as a PDP, is a living document that I use to help me identify the next steps in my career, my short term, midterm, and long-term goals. What do I want to do? What are the obstacles? What kind of partnerships do I want? How do I identify my goals? And honestly, to be truthful, it is a 100% work in progress. It is something that I refer back to all the time, but it has helped me get to where I am today, and today we're going to talk about all the secrets and the tips and tricks and how I've used it to help me in my career. So the four things that I think are really important for me personally, which is step one, which is my self-assessment. Step two is my strategy. Step three is really how do I do the thing, and step four is being accountable and how do I make it all happen all over again. So let's get into it. We're going to be talking about step one and self-assessment. So I hope that the next 20 minutes or however long that we are together, that this feels like me and you in a room just hanging out. I really want to share with you how I've used it in my career and what I think some of the best practices are. So way back in the day when I started, I was a receptionist, and I had no idea what it meant to be an administrative professional. I didn't even know that you could do this as a career, and today I am working at the New York Times and supporting some of the most amazing people on the planet, and I'm also training some incredible administrative professionals. I love what I do, but if it wasn't for a professional development plan, I don't think honestly I would have had any idea what career trajectory that I wanted to have. My professional development plan helped me really understand what is it that I wanted in my career, what did I like, what did I really enjoy, what did I back away from, when was I empowered, and for me I wanted to tap into those things. I also spent a lot of time figuring out what is it, what kind of partnerships did I want, what kind of role and organization was I interested in, and it was a lot of reflection and thought work for me, and as you can guess with my very quiet personality, reflection is not an easy thing for me. So I needed a tool like this to really be able to help me, and I have coached other administrative professionals who are very quiet and introspective, and they really enjoy this. So wherever you are, whatever your personality type is, I think that this is a document and a practice that you should 100% add into your professional plan so that you can make sure you're getting to where you want to go and not where everybody else wants you to go. So I think we should talk a little bit about 2020 and where we are. Our roles have so completely changed. I think most of us would never expect it. Last year we probably would have said, hey, I'm always needed in the office. I cannot be separated from my executive. It just, everything that we do has completely changed. So I think now is a really good time to think through what is that going to look like going forward. If you're going to be able to go back to the office, if you're not, what does that look like with your partnership? Has your role changed? Has the number of people that you're supporting? All of those things really do shift and change this past year, and I think it's really important now to think about what do you want to do going forward. The majority of our career is helping someone else succeed in what they do and be really good in helping them drive forward the business and all of those wonderful things. However, it kind of can leave a gap in our own careers because generally we're helping someone else, and so we're not always focused on what we want to do and how do we grow in our career and, you know, really what do we want out of it. A lot of times, as the administrative profession is dictated by other people, so this is really an opportunity to think outside of the box, kind of get those winders off from what other people and the pressures that other people are putting on you and deciding for yourself what do you want and how are you going to get there. So let's talk about our self-assessment. So I just want to highlight that everybody's pinnacle of what they want in the administrative profession is going to be unique to them. I really hate the idea that we sort of say that to hit the pinnacle of a career as an administrative professional, you have to be an EA supporting someone in the C-suite, because that's just simply not the case. To me, what was really important was finding the right partnerships. It was partnering with someone who was willing to give me a seat at the table, who wanted to hear my voice, and I started really actively looking for areas where an executive was interested in letting me change some things. They were willing to listen to my voice. They wanted to hear what my opinion was and then activate it and empower me to do so. That was more important to me than getting to a certain spot. I also have coached so many administrative professionals who are like, you know what, I have zero desire to go to the C-suite. I don't want to support an executive. I really like supporting a team. I'm an activator. I'm a doer, and I really enjoy that, and I think that that is 100% okay. So I say all that to say that your professional development plan will be unique to you. It'll be unique to your goals and your objectives and really what do you want out of your career, and don't ever let anyone else tell you that just because you're an administrative professional, you have to do this one thing, because that's just simply not the case. Okay, so if you're still wondering how in the world you do self-assessment, here are some questions to get you started. All right, so let's go on to the second topic, which is strategize. So the thing that I really highlight when I think about where it is I want to go in my career, I have to think about not only the opportunities for development and areas of success, but I also have to really think about the obstacles. Now all of us are in different places in our life, and especially now in this new like way that we're all living, we have different demands, and I think now is the opportunity for us to think through what does that actually look like? Can I reach those goals? So let's just say if you are someone that you are supporting a team and you now want to level up and you want to, I don't know, manage a bunch of other assistants, okay, how are you going to get there? If you are supporting three executives and you want to get to the point and your long-term goal is that you want to only support one and you want to have one-on-one direct support, you want the support from going horizontal to vertical, okay great, how are you going to get there? So part of getting there is understanding what are the obstacles, right? So whether it be your time, whether it be your family demands, whether it be lack of skill or network, whatever those things are, you kind of have to spend some time and really think through what is going to stop me from reaching my goals and how much time am I willing to invest? Because let's just be honest, this is going to take time, investment, energy, mental energy, focus, this is not something that you're going to wake up tomorrow and suddenly have the career of your dreams, right? You have to chase after it, you have to make it happen and part of that is understanding how much you are going to be able to invest both with your time, your energy, your family demands, all of that stuff you kind of have to figure out. So later on as we talk about setting your goals for your professional development plan, part of that is understanding how much time can I realistically reach my goal. If I say by the end of Q1, I want to, I don't know, become a Microsoft office specialist. Well, if you've only ever been in the Google environment and you've got a family and you're doing hashtag all the things, may not be realistic for you. Maybe that's the end of Q4 and not Q1. So understanding what your personal demands are really going to help drive realistic goals so that you can make sure that they actually happen. Okay, so we're going to talk about execution, mental energy, focus, and productivity and I know that those are all really hot topics right now within our industry. So I'm going to say something and if you follow me at all, you probably already know this about me but I don't actually believe in multitasking. Sorry guys, I know that this is a topic that so many people out there in our industry are really passionate about, that they're excited, that they have mastered it, but for me I just honestly think and studies show that you get more done when you can focus in on one task, whether it be for 10 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever that looks like for you. But I will say that execution and focus and mental energy is really going to be key to making sure that you're reaching your own goals. One of my executive clients says this all the time and I have stolen it from him and I tell him all the time like this is my new mantra but it says, I don't like you more than I love myself and the first time he said it I was like, yes friend, yes, I need that in my life. I think for us as administrative professionals sometimes we do that way too often and the thing about focus and execution specifically to our industry is that we our whole job is supporting someone else. So this is an opportunity for you to do some self-care, to focus in on yourself and really kind of focus in on how do I make time for myself, focus the time, the energy and make that investment to actually do it so that you can take the steps in your career that you want to take. Okay, so repeat after me, I don't like them more than I love myself. Feel free to use that as your mantra too. So reassessment, that's always the fun part. So for me, I've done all the things right. So I've done the self-assessment, I have figured out what I'm good at, where do I want to go, what kind of partnerships do I want to have, what are the goals whether it be short-term, mid-term and long-term and then I've done the strategy so that I know how I'm going to do it. Now I have like executed on it to the best of my ability and now all that's left is the self-assessment. Now this is going to be completely open to you. I have done this so many times that I actually do this quite often but if you are new to this then maybe you want to do it, I don't know, once a quarter, once a month, once a week, however you need to stay accountable to yourself then make that plan but for me, I'm always making these little tweaks and these little adjustments. You know, especially with this past year, I think most of us would say that our goals and our professional plan has probably changed a little bit. I will say specifically for me, the plan that I had in January of 2020 is certainly not the plan that I have for my business now. It's completely different and that's okay. I think that it's important to always make those adjustments and not hold yourself to the one thing and not be flexible. So for me, I look through like did I actually do what I said I was going to do? Did I make the time investment? Did I focus in on you know having that success or was I kind of preoccupied by other things and let's just be honest this past year like who hasn't been? All of us. So as you're going forward thinking and being really honest and being kind to yourself on how really you're executing and not executing and it's not about did I check this off my list but it's really like how far towards my goal have I gone? Am I close to it? Do I need to make some readjustments? It's really not an opportunity. I don't think that you should beat yourself up but it's more of an opportunity for you to just spend some time with yourself and reflect and really figure out is this still the way I want to go? Do I still want to make some changes? Am I reaching those goals or do I need to make a little bit of a different shift to make sure that I'm actually attaining the things that I set out to do? Okay guys, so if you have ever attended a workshop with me, this will feel familiar to you which is our fast and furious moments. So I wanted to save this part into the last because I think that most of us retain this information the actual how-to piece towards the end. So we're going to go through a couple things. If you have a pen grab it, write this down or you know like grab a tool just think about it. So I wrote some things down that I'm going to ask you and I want you to think this through so that you can have a little bit of a jump start for your professional development plan. All right guys, okay so I want you to think about what are your biggest areas of need. Whether that be your you need to speak better in like public speaking, whether it be productivity, negotiation skills, tech tools, being more present, having an executive presence, whatever that thing is. Okay so let's think about those. Then you want to think about how can they be addressed, right? So like if my if my thing is I want to have better executive presence or if I want to be more productive with my time, whatever that is, then how are you going to address it? So think through what is working, what's not working, and what steps that you think that you need to to do to overcome them. Whether that be take a class or read online or you know whatever the thing is. Okay so now that you've thought through what that thing is, I want you to think about it a little bit like a road map, right? So how are you starting like what's your start point and what's your end point and what are the steps and the thoughts and the ways that you're going to get there. Now I will say don't forget these are not necessarily short-term goals. So a short-term goal can be something that is like within the next few months or within the next year. A mid-term goal is usually two to three years and a long-term goal is like five years. So you want to think this through. If my long-term goal is to go from being an administrative assistant to being an executive assistant in the c-suite, that's a pretty big jump. So what is that going to look like for you and how are your goals going to differentiate between that end goal and the beginning goal, right? And then you kind of build in that plan to get you there. And the whole point about that is really motivation because I truly believe that motivation is one of those things that's like a snowball. Like once you get it started and you start seeing success on the same hand, if you've had a little bit of failure, you have to be really protective of that motivation. Sometimes it can be hard to get back in the saddle, but I promise you these are all things that are really going to help you with that big picture thinking. Okay. All right. So the next thing I want you to think about is, hold on one second. I forgot my paper. Okay. So the next thing that I want you to think about is I wrote down some of the goals that people have sent me and I wanted to kind of identify why I don't think that they're SMART goals. And I do, and when I say SMART, I mean the acronym. So SMART goals are number one is they are specific. Number two, they are measurable. Number three, they are attainable. Number four, they're relevant. And number five, they are time bound. Okay. So I wanted to give you some examples that people have written me and I just want to show you why I think that they are not necessarily SMART goals and how you can make the shift to make them SMART goals. So let's just say that, I'll just read them. So one of them is build and improve professional relationships. Great goal. How are you going to do that? Right? So it's not really specific and it's not really saying like, what is the end goal of that? So you want to build and improve professional relationships with whom and how and why. So let's do another one. So improve my emotional intelligence. Great goal. How are you going to do that? So you might say, I'm going to improve my emotional intelligence by reading, you know, three books about it by the end of Q2. Right? That's very specific. It's time bound, all those things. Let's just say, I want to develop a growth mindset. Amazing goal. Love it. How are you going to do that? So what is the growth one? I think it's important to identify. What does a growth mindset mean to you? So maybe it is, I want to develop a growth mindset so that I can level up in my career and I'm going to do that by A, B and C and then give yourself a timeframe. Okay. So once you're thinking through how, how much time you're going to invest, you're going to think through what am I going to invest? So this is going to be, so for example, if one of your goals is going to be, Hey, listen, I want to get a different type of a job. I want to enter into a new industry. Well, you're going to have to probably network with people that you are maybe not networking with right now. And what is that going to look like for you? How are you separating the time to do that? How are you going to engage with people that you may not be connected with? Are you going to use LinkedIn? Are you going to, you know, ask your coworkers to connect you? Like what's the plan and how are you going to take those steps to get there? Okay guys, I hope that you've had fun with me today. I hope that I have encouraged you a little bit to explore a professional development plan and a career roadmap. If you have any questions, I would love to connect with you. You can reach out and find me literally anywhere on LinkedIn or Instagram, or you can see me over on my channel here on YouTube at admin gurus. But you guys, this is such an exciting topic for us. I think that we all have an opportunity to really take control of our career and make it be what we want and stop allowing other people to dictate the when, the how, and the why of our career. So if you need some encouragement, I hope that I've empowered you to do that today, and let's all go crush it in 2021. Bye y'all!