You want to focus of your organization’s professional development. You’re thinking about focusing it on 1 of 3 things: job-related skills, improvement plans, or the results you need to achieve your mission.

Question: What do you want to focus your professional development on?

Answer: Personally speaking, I want to focus professional development on the results my organization needs to achieve its mission. And I recommend that you focus your organization’s professional development on the results you need to achieve your mission, not on improvement plans or job-related skills. Why?

1. Because the bottom line is getting the results needed to achieve the mission, not achieving improvement plans or having a staff that is proficient in job-related skills.
2. Because you want your staff primarily focused on achieving the mission, not on completing improvement plans or improving in job-related skills.
3. Because your staff is more passionate about the mission than they are about improvement plans or job-related skills.
4. Because improvement plans and job-embedded skills are means to an end—achieving the mission. Focus on end, not means.
5. Because it’s easier to use results you need to achieve your mission than job-related skills. The list of results you want usually takes less than 1/2 a page, while the list of job-related skills take more than 1/2 a page (and possibly pages and pages and pages). Trust me—shorter is better.
6. Because focusing on job-related skills increases the likelihood that you’ll focus on a given skill at the wrong time.
7. Finally, because the bottom line is getting the results needed to achieve the mission, not achieving improvement plans or having a staff that is proficient in job-related skills. (Yes, I know. I repeated this line. It bears repeating.)

Need more convincing? OK. Which of the 3 sets of questions do you want your staff to primarily focus on?

1. Achieving the mission: What’s the mission? What results do we need to achieve the mission? What level of results do we have right now? What professional development do staff need to achieve the mission?
2. Improvement plans: What’s the improvement plan? What’s it take to complete the improvement plan? What progress have we made on the improvement plan? What professional development do staff need to complete the improvement plan?
3. Job-related skills: What kind of employees do we want? What skills does a model employee have? What level of these skills do staff have right now? What professional development do staff need to become model employees?

Answer: I want staff to primarily focus on the first set, the set that focuses on achieving the mission.

Final question: What will you focus your organization’s professional development on?

Pursue excellence. Focus your professional development on the results your organization needs to achieve its mission.


*This blog entry is part of a 6-part series:

1. What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
2. What are the components of a professional development plan?
3. What do you believe about professional development?
4. How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
5. How can you increase the impact of professional development?
6. What are your organization's professional development needs?