Tick-Tock! Your development needs are changing...
#TLDR: It is rare to find a professional whose development needs haven't changed over time. Let's see some drivers for such dynamism.
As we grow, our needs change. When I was 7 years old first grader, my biggest need was the pursuit of a particularly colorful and scented eraser. When I was 25 years old graduate student, my biggest need was for a partner to study stochastics. When I was 35 years old professional, my biggest need was for a coach who could show me how to present my ideas and outputs effectively. Now, as a co-founder of an exciting tech start-up, my needs are different again.
I am sure, you have similar experiences in terms of your development needs. In fact, it is one of the first things that we reflect upon at #PBJAM to understand what would help you to engage, grow and thrive at work. So, let's look at some of the key drivers for changing development needs.
- Experience level: As time goes by, your experience keeps accumulating and drives changes to your development needs
- Job requirements: Each job has certain soft skill requirements (e.g. a job that requires you to work with an existing team Vs. a job that requires you to build a new team)
- Transient environmental factors: Even when you are in the same job and the same function, the transient factors change your development needs. As an example, one of our early participants shared a story. At the start of 2021, he was given a new project, and hence all his energies were spent on assembling a good team. In mid-2021, as the team was getting in the thick of that project, two of the team members left the company which made our participant change focus to delegation and organization. In late 2021, the project got into a bad patch and the focus changed to communication and collaboration. In each of these times, the developmental needs were different and the participant leveraged the #PBJAM platform to get help for each time period.
#PBJAM has found through research and experience, that such changing developmental needs are more the norm than an exception in the #modernworkplace. This is also the reason that many canned courses and available professional development resources have lower effectiveness and lack sustainability of learning. What has been your experience? How have your needs changed over time? How have you addressed them? What helped you? We love to hear from you, so put your comments below.