What does personal and professional development involve?

Personal and professional development is the process of supporting your people to learn and share skills. New Zealand business that invest in the personal and professional development of their employees make their business stronger.

Personal and professional development is highly valuable to achieve results in your organisation. Leaders who support the growth of their team reap the benefits of greater staff engagement, increased productivity levels, and reduced turnover.

A significant part of personal and professional growth is developing a strong sense of self-awareness. This process includes identifying your unique personality and capability, your strengths and development areas, your aspirations and your talents. 

Personal and professional development is a valuable way to achieve results in your organisation. Leaders who invest in the growth of their team reap the benefits of greater staff engagement, higher productivity levels, and lower workforce turnover.

Extended DISC® Assessments help people in that long and fascinating journey to the inner self. We can all improve by understanding ourselves more effectively and by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of our behaviour. The Extended DISC® Grow & Develop Assessment equips you with the following tools to help you improve your relationships.

• Observing and analysing your behaviour and the behaviour others
• How to improve your interactions with others
• Motivate and manage people more effectively  
• Ensure effective communication

What are the benefits of personal and professional development

How to identify strengths and development areas?

Extended DISC® identifies your dominant behavioural style. This style takes the least energy and effort, requires the least amount of concentration, and is usually the most comfortable for you. It illustrates the mode that you typically use to react and is most frequently exhibited outwardly in your behaviour.

The Extended DISC® report also identifies your development areas and behavioural styles that require more conscious effort, concentration and energy to exhibit.

Knowing yourself and your capacities are vital to any role. An awareness of your strengths allows you to leverage attributes that can push you further and help you succeed. Identifying development areas enables you to take steps to improve them or ask for support where needed.

Examples of professional goals

Self-Awareness is essential to personal and professional growth. Self-Awareness leads to an understanding of our behaviour, allowing us to recognise how we come across to others and how to adjust our response to the people around us. Not only does this create positive interactions with others, but it also helps build tolerance of each other and develop a shared understanding.

There are two types of self-awareness, internal and external. Internal self-awareness represents how clearly you identify with your values, passions and your impact on others. The second type, external self-awareness, is defined as the ability to understand how others see you. A strong sense of external self-awareness correlates with greater empathy for others. Even though most individuals believe they are self-aware research suggests that only 10-15% of people truly fit the above criteria.  

Self-development is another essential professional goal and something you should focus on continually at any stage of life. Self-development encompasses activities that cultivate your identity, develop talents and potential, and help manage your emotions.

Personal and professional development tools

Psychometric tests and Open 360 feedback can successfully enhance self-awareness. Individuals who focus on cultivating both internal and external self-awareness, and welcome constructive feedback from colleagues and peers, experience rewards that increased self-perception provides. Those who truly become self-aware constantly make adjustments to their behaviour and interactions based on the knowledge gained from Behavioural Assessments and Open 360 Feedback.

An Open 360 is a great way to gain external self-awareness and understand how the people around you perceive you. 360 feedback will help you to highlight strengths and development in areas relevant to you in your current environment. An Open 360 evaluation is essential to growth, as most people are not aware of other's perception of them.

Understanding others' perception of you significantly improves your motivation to develop weaker areas. Awareness of gaps between your self-perception and the opinion of others, helps you to become aware of others expectations. The feedback will help you manage the consequence of your actions on others. You can then address these areas and make appropriate behavioural changes to enhance interactions and relationships.

DISC assessments for personal growth

We recommend including a self-assessment such as a DISC personality test in your growth plan. DISC assessments improve your internal self-awareness. The Extended DISC® questionnaire takes less than 10 minutes to answer, and the resulting report is emailed to the nominated email within minutes of completion.

The report explains in a clear, concise, and easy to read format, your natural behavioural style. The report compares your conscious behavioural style to your unconscious style. It can also identify expressed emotions such as stress, pressure, insecurity, or frustration. The report will also determine if you are adjusting to a position outside your usual comfort zone and expending a large amount of energy. Understanding these emotions can help you avoid burnout in the workplace.

A DISC profile will assess the following attributes.

• Situations in which you are comfortable or uncomfortable
• Why some tasks take more energy and others, seem easy taking much less energy
• Your preferred job content
• Your natural learning style
• How you are motivated
• Situations that cause stress or pressure
• As well as your strengths and development areas in a range of other soft skills

Open 360 for personal development

Open 360 degree feedback is a method that provides employees with the opportunity to receive performance feedback from their direct reports, colleagues, and managers. Open 360 feedback reviews assist individuals in increasing levels of self-awareness and understanding their strengths and weaknesses. Open 360 reviews help provide insights into aspects of an individual's work that may need professional development.

Ideally, the information gained from Open 360 should support ongoing development activities such as coaching or mentoring. These development activities will ensure the lasting change from the Open 360 assessment in your organisation.