- I remember when I created
my very first professional learning plan.
I had just taken on a new role as a corporate trainer,
but quickly realized that there was much to learn.
I was excited and ready for the challenge though.
So I made a list of all the skills I wanted to develop
and all I needed to do was to get to work on all of them.
Now, this presented a challenge for me.
I actually didn't really know how to prioritize anything.
Everything felt like a priority,
and there was no way that I could truly work on 10 things
at the same time,
I wound up feeling overwhelmed,
and I didn't make much progress.
So I eventually gave up
and just abandoned the plan altogether.
I'll never forget that experience.
I lost out on nearly an entire year of development
simply because I didn't know how to prioritize.
That's why I want to talk with you
about how to prioritize your skill development
so that you have a plan that truly sets you up for success.
Now, the strategy I'm going to share with you
comes from Stephen Covey's book
"7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
The technique is called Principles of Personal Management.
This helps you prioritize where to focus
by looking at two dimensions.
The first is the level of importance,
and the second is the level of urgency.
When you examine your skill development this way,
it will be broken down into four quadrants.
Let's talk about each.
The first quadrant is the important and urgent quadrant.
This area is for skills that you find are critical
and essential to helping you get to your end goal.
These are skills that you want to get working on right away.
Let's say, you know there's an opening for a leadership role
within the next six months.
This first quadrant is focused on improving
your influencing skills so that you can get prepared
to lead when the time comes.
The second quadrant is where you list the skills
that are also important to develop
but not necessarily urgent.
These could be skills that have a more long-term focus
that you feel you can have
a little bit more time to work on.
Let's say you're currently working in finance,
but your ultimate goal is to become a chief HR officer.
Earning a master's degree or certificate
in human resources may be important to you,
but you may also feel as though it can wait a while
before you begin.
An important tip for you here to note
is that these first two quadrants
are where you should focus your time
when it comes to prioritizing your skill development.
If you were to combine all of the skills in this area,
they should not be more than five.
If you have more than that, go back and reassess.
You may have too many skills listed.
Remember, everything can't be a priority.
The third quadrant is the not important
but urgent things to develop.
These may be the nice-to-have skills,
the things that aren't necessarily critical
to your overall growth and your overall vision of success.
Oftentimes, these are skills
that you can partner with others on to leverage their skills
by asking them to support you with the non-important tasks
that require an urgent focus.
By deprioritizing this in your development,
you create space to focus on the things that matter to you.
Perhaps you listed Excel as a skill that you lacked,
but when you looked at your overall goal
of becoming a teacher,
it didn't feel extremely important for you to develop.
Now, you may be feeling that it's urgent
because you just received an Excel document to review,
but in the grand scheme of things,
you could probably partner with someone else to help you
understand the report versus spending the next year
learning how to master it on your own.
Lastly, the fourth quadrant is called
the not important, not urgent category.
This is where you list the skills that are not aligned
to the vision that you have for yourself.
Maybe your goal is to become a music teacher.
Improving your business operations skill
is not at all related to your goal.
You can deprioritize these items and focus your energy
on the priority areas.
When you assess your skills and are intentional
about the level of importance and the level of urgency
that comes along with it, it helps you look
at this four quadrant grid much more objectively.
So let's reflect on your overall goals.
Review the list of skills you'd like to develop,
and let's create a plan that helps you identify
the critical few so that you can get right to work
without losing a year.
I know you can do this.