How to ensure your professional development efforts have an impact

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Too often we make the mistake of thinking that attending a workshop or earning a certification is professional development. In reality, it's only one part of the equation. This is important to understand if you're developing your own career and trying to get the company you work for to invest in your professional growth and development. It's equally important if you're the people manager or senior executive developing others.

To understand all the elements of the professional rcs data morocco equation and ensure you're making the most of your efforts, you can refer to the 70:20:10 model created in the 1980s by Morgan McCall, Michael M. Lombardo and Robert A. Eichinger, researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro.

They asked 191 executives to report on how they thought they had learned: “Please identify at least three key events in your career – things that made a difference to the way you manage now.” The results suggested that 70% of learning came from challenging work tasks or on-the-job experience. 20% came from developmental relationships or exposure to how others do things or feedback on their performance. These two types of learning are often labeled informal learning.

The surprising result was that the remaining 10% was a result of what we generally consider formal learning or structured professional development programs. All the workshops, certifications, and learning series you may have attended or sent your employees to attend played a small part in developing a person's new skills or capabilities.

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Does this mean that we should all stop participating in formal learning and education? Absolutely not. In fact, many have criticized this model and have analyzed whether these percentages are the correct figures.

Rather than getting too hung up on percentages and their accuracy, it may be more important to understand what role each part of the 70:20:10 model plays in development and how to use them to develop your skills or those of others.

To use this model to effectively plan professional development, you'll need to change the order a bit and focus on building to impact the company or organization that is investing in development.