075: How to Design Your Professional Growth Plan

Summary:

Do you know where you want to be in the next five years? How about one year? How about next quarter? If you re listening to this podcast, chances are you’re serious about your professional growth; but how do you actually plan for it?

On today’s podcast, David and Kevin talk about designing your professional growth plan. Your growth track isn’t something that a leader will magically hand to you one day. You need to do the work to figure out where you want to be and the skills you’ll need to acquire to take you there. David and Kevin are here to walk you through the how.

Welcome to Episode 75 of The Executive Minds Podcast.

Links + Resources:

Ask A Question! Do you have a question about launching an idea, leading a project, or growing your career? We d love to help! Submit your question to the Executive Minds team.

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

Three Takeaways:

What’s a tangible way to see personal and professional growth? Do your REPs. Here’s what that stands for:

1. Relationships

Ask: Who can I be connecting with?

Connect with potential mentors or peers in your industry. Or, consider connecting with people who have complementary skills. For example: Get to know a web designer if you re a graphic designer.

2. Education

Ask: What can I be learning?

Take a course in person or online. There are plenty of free resources to be found with a quick Google search. Create an educational experience by attending a workshop or an event. Reading is a huge part of education, too. Here are a few of our favorite books:

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

Good to Great by Jim Collins

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman

The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Pat Lencioni

Linchpin by Seth Godin

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

3. Practice

Ask: Where can I become an expert?

As Kevin s music teacher once said, If you sound good in practice, you re not practicing. Practicing means you re learning a new skill and refining it in real time, which means whatever you re doing isn t going to look perfect for a while; and that s the point.