Purposeful Talent Development: Create a habit of learning

Don’t let reading and taking courses take a back seat to operations.

To keep pace with changing personal goals, technology and organizational initiatives, our knowledge and skills need to evolve and develop. The book you read, course you attended or degree you earned just last month or 10 years ago will not sustain you for the rest of your career. We need to continually build our knowledge and develop our skills to stay up-to-date in order to succeed in our roles and grow our careers.

The barrier that we encounter is that talent development often takes a back seat to daily operations. We need to get out of the mindset that learning is an indulgence that we devote time to when it is convenient. Learning supports productivity, interpersonal relationships, member experience and therefore organizational goals and strategy. Help yourself and others create space in the day for development by establishing a climate that supports a habit of learning and engages individuals in leveraging opportunities to learn every day.

As great as it can be to get off-site and engage in learning, you don’t always have to do it through a week-long or full-day event. You can gain a new perspective with a five-minute review of an article or a quick conversation with a colleague.

 

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