5 Tips to Professional Development & Career Advancement

Professional development is critical to career advancements in the form of promotions, raises and new opportunities. A continuous quest to learn new skills and techniques is important, because it is through these new abilities that you will position yourself for offers of greater responsibilities and leadership tasks in the workplace. For example, since most advanced leadership positions come with profit and loss responsibility (if you’re in marketing), you would benefit greatly if you became familiar with financial forecasting and planning. Armed with some financial acumen, you may be able to manage an entire marketing campaign — not only in relation to leads and sales, but also in relation to the overall profitability of a project.

So, how does someone go about learning these new skills and developing professionally? Well, the default answer — and it’s usually a good one — is to visit your human resources officer and explore any professional development paths offered at your company. Certainly, this is a great place to look, but if access to this professional development knowledge were simple, everyone would be in charge — right? Additionally, what about smaller organizations in which HR departments are not as advanced or even available? Follow these suggestions for seeking out viable professional development opportunities and take matters into your own hands.

I. Business Networking Events

Before you rush out to sign up for all the big industry conferences and seminars, consider a look in your own backyard, as you will often find an array of networking and business development events. Local chamber of commerce functions, for instance, are great places to meet new contacts who can help expand your business horizons and knowledge base or provide prospective leads for your organization.

Special-interest venues, such as venture capital forums, provide opportunities to meet new people and foster new business knowledge and skills. These avenues are also far more convenient and may be more attractive to your employer than it would be to send you to the big out-of-town national workshop. If your organization has not suggested that you attend one of the bigger out-of-town deals, asking for a four-figure budget (registration, plane ticket, hotel, meals, etc.) may be met with some doubt, particularly if it seems like an excuse to party on the company’s dime rather than to build new relationships and business skills. Your organization may have a more flexible budget for the occasional luncheon and could be more receptive to you being away from the office for two hours than for two days.

Even if your employer will not front the bill for these events, they are affordable enough for an individual and can be well worth the investment. Of course, if some real professional development arises from these smaller local events, it may be easier to get the company to send you out to Las Vegas for a national session.

II. Hit the Books

Bookshelves are teeming with books and periodicals that can help your professional development. More often than not, you simply have to look to the New York Times’ best-seller list to find a handful of the most current business and professionally focused reading material to peruse. Another idea is to specifically identify an area you would like to work on and select a book that addresses that subject. Reading one book per month will greatly improve your knowledge and your professional skills. Many of these books are relatively easy reading, and don’t feel discouraged if some of the material is not immediately processing or if you are struggling to apply the new techniques at work. Situations will arise, weeks or months after reading the book, to trigger the knowledge.

It’s also wise to not force your new knowledge into work situations. In most cases, even though you are excited to apply the fruits of your reading, when the application is forced, you may take actions that you don’t fully understand, which is bad. Additionally, it may bother people, especially when they see you reading a book and a week later you are spewing quotes as if you are the new master of all. Finally, consider subscribing to a couple of special-interest trade magazines or journals that fit the bill — they often provide consistent reading and are a great source for professional development ideas.

III. Back to School
Going back to school to get your master’s degree is certainly not a bad idea, but it may not be the answer for many of us. To save some money and to remain employed, visit the local universities or community colleges in your area — many offer evening or weekend courses that cover many topics, from business management to web site development or check Online MBA Schools.
Read more

5 Reasons to Abandon Television

by Ron Haynes @ The Wisdom Journal

Abandoning television is a serious step in today’s society. Television is both a fantastic resource and a faceless attacker of wealth. It has the ability to inspire and the ability to depress. It can make you happy and scare you to death, it can inform and educate, but it can also help you waste your most precious resource: time. That’s just one reason I’ve decided to abandon most television shows.

Before I discuss why I am choosing to abandon television, let me say that not all television shows are bad. I don’t disparage anyone who choses to use their time watching parents change the diapers of their youngest child (of 27), or watching someone completely disrespect another person because of the t-shirts she chooses to wear, or watching a talk show host give marriage advice to a couple when the host has never been married. There are some great shows on various channels that help you better understand the world and help you learn valuable information that will improve your life. But those shows are the exceptions. What passes as entertainment and enlightenment today is an utter joke. So, I’ve made the decision to severely restrict the amount of time I waste in front of “the tube.” TV has abandoned most of what I think is important so here’s 5 reasons I have decided to return the favor and abandon television:

Reason #1. Television has abandoned understanding. Though there is a wealth of information available via the tube, for the most part, the information you gather via television is devoid of deep understanding. What is more important is drama, excitement, and the illusion that it projects. If you want to get a completely skewed view of the world, do nothing but watch television and form your opinions only based on its shallow information. Where else can someone get shot 14 times, fall off a building from 3 stories, get up and drive in a car chase, crash the car, then jump into a helicopter and fly it to some exotic island with an Italian supermodel?

Reason #2. Television has abandoned responsibility. News programs depict the crying children of famines and wars, the bodies that lie exposed to the elements and wild animals, the human devastation of a terrible natural disaster, then cut away to a commercial. “Now this.” Now that we took you to the edge of an emotional cliff, now that we’ve exposed the most horrible of human conditions, now that we’ve talked (briefly) about an intense tragedy, we want to make sure you see our commercials! Then we’ll just go merrily along to the next story after briefly shaking our heads. Now on to sports. Read more

Time Is Money – Budget It Carefully

by Napoleon Hill

All of us have a single denominator in our fight for success. All of us have an equal amount of time in which to achieve it. Simple rules of health demand that eight hours of every day be spent in sleep. Eight hours more taken up in earning at least the bare necessities of life. That leaves us eight hours more of free time that can be used for whatever purpose we desire.

This is the period you can use to achieve success. Since you work so hard eight hours for the boss, why not put in a few hours more working for yourself instead of spending it idly? Benjamin Franklin once said, “Show me what a man does with his free time and I will tell you accurately whether he will be a success or failure in life.”

The man or woman who doesn’t need to hold down a regular job is doubly blessed for they have twice as much time to devote to their own ends.

Richard Monot found himself in that position. For more than a year, he spent his days in idleness and found—as so many have—that it really isn’t fun to loaf continually. Being a lover of flowers, he bought a tract of land and began growing peonies. His gardens soon became a showplace. More important, they began making more money for him than he’d ever been able to earn in his regular work hour labors.

You should constantly try to “go the extra mile” during the period of the day the boss pays for your service. This brings promotions and pay raises. But it’s even more important that you go the extra mile for yourself during your free time. How are you spending these hours now? Do you fritter them away or do you use them to achieve success?

First, of course, you must decide upon a definite goal in life and lay out a plan for achieving it. Then use your free time to put your plan into action. Remember, whenever you waste time, you are wasting your life.”

Source: Success Unlimited. August 1963. Page 31.

Personal Time Management: Is it Time to Stop and Evaluate Where You’re Headed?

By Cheryl A. Clausen

Are you really struggling with time management? I mean really struggling. The kind of struggling that ends up in extreme stress because you’re missing deadlines, losing important pieces of information, scheduling yourself to the point you don’t have a free 15 minute period in your day. I can’t tell you how many of my clients find themselves in this very situation. They’re so time stressed they’re about ready to crack, and they think it’s all about finding some technique or trick so they can do even more. If this sounds like you I want you to stop whatever you’re doing right now because I know you’re doing something else while you’re reading this, get a refreshment, come back, and do absolutely nothing else while you read this article.

This is the personal time management message you need to read. You’ve created a life, a business, a career that you can’t live in. Unless you admit that now and make a commitment to yourself here and now to change your direction, you’re like a freight train headed for a concrete wall. It will be a devastating experience when the impact hits and your world crumbles around you, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re reading this before your train wreck you’ve got time to make the changes you need to make to keep this from happening to you.
Read more

Next Page »