Fortnightly Gripes & Hacks: 'personal development training' edition

Christine P. Dela Rosa

Inspired by a comment from @John Funk, II started thinking about all the different ways we grow as professionals.

Sure, there's lived experience--from on-the-job lessons learned to mentorship via managers. Then, there's passive learning--from online articles to recaps via coworkers or conference sessions.

What about the land of formal training? There are free and paid courses, like at Atlassian University, or on-demand tutorials, like through learning platforms. For me, I tend not to seek out classes unless something prompts them. I don't know how to tell a story from a certain perspective? I might listen to a podcast told in that way.. I've never run a certain type of program before? I might sign up for a class with an interactive instructor who I think is patient enough to answer all my questions. But to develop yourself personally, to truly try to grow continuously through training opportunities, I'm curious what everyone here does? Especially since I'm lacking in that department.

• Gripe: it's not easy for me to know where I might need to grow professionally. Besides performance reviews, where my growth areas aren't necessarily things I find easy to learn without practice in an engaged environment. In fact, I find that the best ways that I learn are from real-life experience, but I can't simulate that in classes...or maybe that's something the classes should be trying to do for us through exercises.
  
  
• Hack: when I admire someone's skill--for being a particularly good workshop facilitator, for knowing how to respectfully but sternly provide feedback, for being known for fair judgment--I've asked how they got so good in skill XYZ. Either due to the ego boost, their genuine love for knowledge-sharing, or because they're a helpful person, they often lead me to something I hadn't known about. "Oh, you went through a program?" "Ah, you didn't get good at facilitating until your 20th time?" "Oh, you employ an executive coach to improve your language skills around diplomacy?" So, instead of thinking of tried and true resources, asking others how they developed works for me.

All that said, how do y'all intentionally engage in personal development training? What works or doesn't work?

Mel Policicchio

Love this question! For me it really depends on if I'm trying to develop a hard skill or a soft skill. When trying to learn how to use new software, for example, I want to be left alone to watch some videos, read some how-to articles, and play around in it myself for a while and then talk to someone on my team who is more familiar with the tool about how they use it. This way I already know the lingo a bit and can have a real conversation rather than a show and tell, plus this helps with the "you don't know what you don't know" issue that pops up when building brand new hard skills.

For soft skills like running a meeting or giving a presentation, I love when I can be in as many meetings as possible with someone who demonstrates that skill in a way I admire. I don't want to learn how to give a presentation like anyone, I want to learn how to give a presentation like Jane, because I've noticed she really grabs my attention in meetings. This helps me pick up on the little nuances that make them really good at speaking to customers/giving a presentation/etc. I don't typically ask them about what they're doing because I think it can get in their head a bit ("I noticed you talk with your hands a lot" could lead to them becoming hyper-aware of their hands) but if it comes up naturally I love talking to people about how they've built their own soft skills! (I once had a manager who kept a post-it near his webcam that said "talk less, smile more" which I also try to embody!)