By Benedict Morais
Opportunities for career success spring up from time to time. To be able to make the best of these opportunities one must be ready and adequately prepared. Many successful business executives and professionals have benefited greatly by regularly topping up their knowledge base.
They understand all too well that those who carelessly neglect to regularly update their corporate and professional tool-kit will flounder in tomorrow’s business and professional environment.
Mainly self-development
Senior vice-president of communications at United Technologies Corporation, is spot on when he says:
“Terms like career development or leadership development can encourage wrong thinking. Career development is mainly self-development. No one is ‘developed’ as a leader or manager or professional. They developed themselves. They may require a corporate structure that’s open to development.”
One has, therefore, to look at continuing professional education and development at a life-long process. It is also a function of energy, dedication, ambition and intelligence.
Many believe that people who wish to develop can do so under almost circumstances. People who are not so inclined will not be developed under any circumstances.
Structured and unstructured development
A corporation or a professional institute for that matter can offer opportunities, chart courses, measure performance and open doors.
It is, however, up to the individual to make the best of the opportunities offered. Commitment to personal management and professional development will, of course, depend on workload, time management and personal career goals.
The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for instance, believes that a professionally qualified management accountant should aim to devote a minimum of 32 hours per annum to structured development such as attending short courses, seminars and workshops.
Structured activities might also include undertaking academic study, utilizing open learning programmes, developing and delivering of training materials as a trainer, as well as participating in conferences, briefing and meetings.
CIMA also believes that a member should spend two to three hours per week on unstructured development, such as reading technical articles.
Keeping abreast of trends and developments
One should remember that technical competence alone will not suffice in the hectic and demanding business and professional world. The well-rounded business leader or professional is the kind of person who will be able to critically appraise business situations and cope with a range of problems and issues.
In addition, the potential corporate leader must develop the capacity to approach complex issues drawing on several strands of learning, coupled with an understanding of the wider business, economic and political environment.
Meeting the changing needs of employers
Those who wisely invest in continuing professional education, will stand to gain, in addition, the following competitive advantages:
* Enhance the added value of their qualifications.
* Add to their intellectual capital in a structured and effective way
* Meet the changing needs of corporate employers and a dynamic business environment
In planning and deciding on the type, range and frequency of continuing professional education, one should give due attention to the following factors:
* The stage you are now at in the management and professional hierarchy
* The need to build on cumulative knowledge and practical experience gained thus far
* The desirability to focus on specific key result areas
For this process to be truly effective, each person should carry out a realistic personal audit on his relative strengths and weaknesses. This will enable him to pick and choose those programmes or courses relevant to his personal needs at that particular point in his career.
An attitude of expectancy
In an increasingly competitive business and professional world, those with a positive mental attitude, high energy levels and infectious enthusiasm will stand out. Employers will turn to these individuals because, in addition to sheer competence, their pro-active approach to self-development has prepared them for increasing responsibilities and challenges. Furthermore, their approach to these matters has enabled them to enhance their competitiveness by strengthening their transferable competence.
These people have, in short, cultivated an attitude of expectancy. Achievers, in particular, have such an attitude. They do not grieve over failures, rather achievers look around the corner in anticipation of the good things that await them. They are able to open more doors, strike better deals and attract energetic and resourceful people to work with them. They also set higher standards and get others to help them meet these standards.
These winners realize that when combined with desire and preparation, expectancy produces hope. And as we are aware, hope makes all things possible. It is, therefore, simply an act of good judgement to invest in continuing professional education.
Those who are always learning are those who can ride the waves of change and who see a changing world as full of opportunities rather than dangers. They are the ones most likely to be the survivors in a time of discontinuity. They are also the enthusiasts and the architects of new ways and forms and ideas. If you want to change, try learning, or more precisely, if you want to
be in control of your change, take learning more seriously
- by Charles Handy
(The Age of Unreason, 1990)