Professional Development

For every type of job under the sun, there are many ways that a person can develop. Each job has a set of core competencies, certain skills, and tasks that one must be adept at performing to do the job well. One part of professional development is growing that skillset to become better at your work. If you’re in construction, for instance, an understanding of your building materials and knowing which tools to use in different situations are important to know and be good at.

Professional development is also about more than this. Being adept at your work also implies becoming more efficient at producing your deliverables without burning out, having the capacity to work well with others on teams and projects, interfacing well with clients or your end-user, as well as being able to present and defend your ideas to the people in your orbit.

Having these skills in hand helps an individual to be more effective at their work and in their work environment. In addition to this, professional development is also about advancing in your profession and knowing just how to go about it. Many professions have specific requirements for training, licensure, and accreditation, as well as defined routes for how to advance or achieve success.

The path to becoming a four-star general in the army does not look like what it takes to become a Michelin star chef; becoming a successful screenwriter won’t look similar to what’s required for you to become a neurosurgeon; becoming a stand-up comic might not look the same as starting and growing a successful YouTube channel; parenting your children takes a different trajectory and requires different metrics from being a good writer or academic. Having an awareness of a field and how it functions allows a person to chart a path toward success as they grow the required skills and find their niche.

In any work situation, there are a variety of areas one can focus on to grow toward their goals. There may be specific areas in which an individual is deficient, and sustained attention on those areas may improve opportunities for advancement and growth as a professional. Some of the areas that you can focus on in pursuing professional growth include:

Becoming more skilled at performing your tasks, managing others/teams. Not everyone has the skill to lead others and that is one thing that can stand in the way of advancing down their chosen career path. At some point, you may be asked to lead a group of people in performing their task and being able to do so successfully is an important skill.

Time management. With a finite amount of time each day, being able to perform your tasks effectively and deliver results on time is a precious skill. Being able to manage your time and be consistent with your performance to allow you to achieve your goals within a stated period builds confidence not only with your colleagues but with your clients as well.

Efficiency and motivation, avoiding procrastination. Being motivated to do your work can help you enjoy it more and get it done on time. Procrastination is when a person delays starting or finishing a task, and it can occur for a variety of reasons. This results in a failure to complete your work on time, or it can also lead to producing work of lower quality. All of this can imply a lack of enjoyment in doing the work itself and coupled with sub-quality work can be a recipe for hindering your growth as a professional and your advancement in whatever field you have chosen for yourself.

Effective communication. Being able to communicate well, whether it is with your colleagues or with a client puts you in good stead. Being able to persuade, listen with empathy, and being able to manage situations of conflict without it devolving into a protracted situation all help with fostering a productive work environment. This applies whether one is talking about a corporate environment or home life where a parent is trying to deal with their children.

Dealing with career/job setbacks, or friction with switching careers, restarting them. You will encounter challenges in your professional life, and part of professional development is having the tools and the skills to navigate these challenges successfully. Sometimes the challenges that you will face emerge from your work environment itself, and at other times they may emerge from your personal life.

A person may decide to give up one line of work to pursue another.Take, for example, a person deciding to step away from office work to work from home and become a stay-at-home parent. Making this change has complications and it’s important to have the skills to be able to transition well. The same goes for the reverse or in situations where a person decides to leave one career path to follow an entirely different one – having the ability to make this transition as seamlessly as possible goes a long way to reducing stress.

Being able to set goals that are meaningful for the path you have chosen and strategizing to get there is one way for a person to develop professionally. By setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely, you create a viable plan that will take you where you want to go in your professional life. You can learn to develop goal-setting skills as well as the other skills mentioned above by yourself or by seeing someone for career coaching who will help you on your way.

Our work doesn’t define who we are. Henri Nouwen once wrote that “in our production-oriented society, being busy, having an occupation, has become one of the main ways, if not the main way, of identifying ourselves. Without an occupation, not just our economic activity but our very identity is endangered.This explains the great fear with which many people face their retirement. After all, who are we when we no longer have an occupation?”

Our work is meaningful and deserves the effort we put into it, but it doesn’t make us who we are. Being able to have a healthy perspective on our work and our identity can help us avoid many issues that can result from confusion between the two.

While helping you set goals, process your professional journey, develop skills, and other things as noted above, one of the main benefits of going onthe journey of professional development with a Christian counselor is in getting help to maintain a healthy work-life balance, ensuring that work doesn’t become your source of ultimate value.

A Christian counselor can help you understand the place of work in human life. God placed Adam in the garden to work – before the Fall –and when God became a human being in Jesus, he worked a menial job as a carpenter. All work has dignity and value, and understanding that can help us value our work, whether it is well-paid, in an office, has great visibility and social recognition, or not.

Finding one’s niche can also be about finding more than just untapped market potential and developing your skills to meet that gap. To connect our work to something deeper, getting to grips with our sense of vocation and purpose in this work can bring joy and meaning to our work that can’t be replaced.

Whether you’re seeking to kick start your professional journey on the right footing or seeking to inject new life and find your bearings on a journey you’ve already begun, getting Christian counseling for professional development will place you on the right footing. Browse our counselor directory to find the right partner for you and make an appointment to begin this journey toward meeting your goals.