“There are no maps to the future” – P.J Taylor

A picture is worth a thousand words. One can write so much about great men in history but few are great achievers like – a Napoléon, a da Vinci, a Mozart and Greathead – however, one thing is common to all these great achievers, they’ve always managed themselves.

The supply of any goods and services greatly depends on factors of production and the technology of production. Recognising the rate of technological changes in our industry, it is important that we strategically and proactively manage our professional and personal development activities to stay ahead and lead these changes.

It is fair to say that professional services are subject to the economic law of demand which quantity of supply is dependent on the wages incurred in the production of the goods and services supplied. In other words, as knowledge workers, we must manage ourselves effectively in order to stay productive throughout our professional lifecycle which in reality, on average is about 40 – 50 years.

There are several tools that are available to move our Continuous Professional Development(CPD) from a sub-conscious state to a more efficient, effective and strategic state. Out of these many tools, I have select three (figure 1, 2 & 3) that are fundamental to strategic CPD development.

Understanding your industry, market position and company strategy can help you to chart your CPD plans so they are more focused and relevant to current and future skills that will be required. Also your competency develops faster.

The tools above can be used as follows:

1. Map out your understanding of the current and potential growth of services and product of your industry or company relative to your current and potential market share using the BCG matrix in figure 1;
2. Map out your competency to deliver using SWOT quadrant(Figure 2) with reference to the BCG Matrix in figure 1; and then
3. Use the Professional Development Cycle shown in figure 3 to maximise your strength & opportunities and address your weaknesses and threats you have mapped out in figure 2.
4. Review your performance, at least quarterly, by redoing 1, 2 and 3.

Bibliography

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