Access the essential membership for Modern Managers
This exercise helps you to decide whether or not you should undertake a development activity, by prompting you to consider the benefits it will deliver from an individual, team and organizational perspective. This will help you to determine whether you should propose the activity to your manager.
Completing the Exercise
1. Download the template, below. (A completed template is also shown at the end of this resource for your reference.)
2. Work through each of the sections, giving careful consideration to each.
3. When thinking about the types of development activities you might undertake, it is important to consider options other than simply going on a workshop or training course. For example, you might wish to think about:
- On-the-job training. This is where you learn through performing new tasks and activities, normally under the supervision of an experienced colleague.
- Job shadowing. Where you spend time with another member of staff to learn about their role and what it involves.
- Delegated work. An instance of 'learning by doing'; your line manager or another senior colleague gives you responsibility for delivering a particular project, task or output. This can be a great way to develop your planning, decision-making, problem-solving and leadership skills.
- Online learning and e-learning. Many topics can now be studied online, which can give you flexibility about when and where you study.
- Coaching. A form of one-to-one development, a coach will work with you, usually by having a focussed conversation, to find a solution to a problem, or to uncover the most effective way to build knowledge and skills in a particular area.
- Mentoring. Similar to coaching in that one-to-one support is offered. However, mentoring involves one individual giving direct advice to another based on their own experience.
- Secondments to other departments. This involves you working in a different area of the organization for a period of time to perform a job role relevant to that department. This can be a good way to acquire skills and knowledge that you might not get from working in your team.
Details of Development Activity
Join, and actively contribute to, the Best Marketing Practice learning community on LinkedIn.
Undertaking this activity will deliver the following benefits: (try to be as specific as possible).
To me individually
To my team
To my organization
- Networking opportunities.
- Source new ideas from outside parties.
- Get feedback on my own ideas.
- Find answers to questions and solutions to problems.
- Gain access to useful resources.
- Receive invitations to learning events, conferences etc.
- Suggest performance improvements to existing processes.
- Suggest new processes and techniques that will increase team productivity.
- Share helpful resources with team members.
- Introduce team members to useful contacts.
- Increased productivity that will result in efficiency improvements.
- Efficiency improvements will result in costs being saved.
- Increased external awareness of organization through communicating with outside parties.
- Opportunities to partner with relevant organizations may be created.
Follow-Up Activity
Repeat this exercise for each development activity that you are considering undertaking. If you are satisfied that a particular activity will produce sufficient benefits to yourself, your team and your organization, then propose it to your line manager. In advance of your discussion, you may wish to consider any potential objections your manager may have, and think about relevant points to overcome these.
