Individual Development Plan

An individual development plan is a document that YOU create and YOU own that documents how you'd like your career to progress. It's main purpose is to facilitate communication with your leaders on your career goals - both short term and long term - and the progress you are making on those goals. Once created, plan on reviewing its contents at least once per quarter in a one-on-one with you manager.

The IDP consists of three major sections: The vision and road map; the assessment, and the action plan. And then, it wraps up with the Successes section that tracks your progress on the action plan as well as your overall goals.

The first, and probably most important part of the IDP is the career vision. I like to call it the "What do you want to be when you grow up?" section. This part is a roadmap to your entire career. Start with the end goal in mind and think ahead as far as you can……when you retire from work, what sort of position will you hold…..where do you see yourself in 10 years……or maybe you can only see 2 or 3 years ahead? However far ahead that is, what sort of role will you have? Will you remain in an individual role or will you run a company or somewhere in between? Once you know the end goal, work backwards from that goal to your current position and determine what steps you need to take to get there. Sometimes those steps involve promotions, and others, it may involve lateral moves or job changes. That's really going to be dictated by where you are and where you want to be. This section is not about specific timelines, just about the stops along your journey how long you should be in each position before progressing to the next.

Once you have set the vision, the next section is an honest assessment of where you are in your current role and how that compares to the next stop on your journey. This assessment is different from your annual review, and is focused less on performance but more on ability. Look at the responsibilities from the job description of your current role. Identify your Strengths and Competencies as well as Weaknesses, and Opportunities for improvement against those responsibilities. It may be helpful to solicit feedback from your trusted peers and leaders to help with this assessment. Once you have made the assessment against your current role, do the same exercise for your next role. Pay close attention to any weakness or opportunity that continues to be so for the next position. Also look for strengths or competencies that, due to changes in responsibilities, become weaknesses or opportunities.

The third section is your action plan. After you have identified the areas of weakness and opportunity, create a set of actions to turn them into competencies or strengths. Focus on the areas that overlap between your current role and next role. Suggested actions would be trainings and types of assignments or participating in a mentoring relationship (either as a mentor or a mentee, depending on the skill being worked). Regardless, each action item should detail the activity to be performed, the weaknesses and opportunities that are being addressed, and a target timeline for completion. This would be a good time to speak with your manager about the items in your action plan to ensure that you are given time and assignments to progress on them. Any actions that do not align with your job duties may require you to seek opportunities outside of your working hours (such as attending night classes or volunteering for community projects in your area of interest).

At this point, your IDP is complete in terms of content, but there is one more important section. Your Successes section. As you complete items in your action plan, celebrate them and move them from the action plan to the success section. As you progress to your next role, document that, too. Your Successes section is a good way to reflect back on the progress you've made from when you started your plan to today. Use this section as a way to remind yourself that progress is a journey and doesn't happen "overnight" and without hard work.

Your IDP is a living document. You should revisit it at least once per quarter. Update your action plan and your successes often. As you progress through your career, reassess your strengths and weaknesses against your new responsibilities. If you decided to change your end goal either because you can see further ahead or you've changed your mind about where you want to go, that's perfectly fine, but update your vision. Nothing in this document is set in stone and you can update it whenever it's appropriate.

Now that your IDP is complete, review it with your leaders. Use the action plan to help set your annual goals. Use it to negotiate project assignments. Get the support of leadership to help you reach the next stop in your career journey.

If you would like a free IDP template, go to our website at ManagingACareer.com and fill out the contact form and mention the free IDP template in the notes. While you're there, feel free to ask career development questions or suggest show topics to be addressed in a future episode.

Are you looking for a career coach? If you reach out to me via the contact form, I will arrange an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and how I can help. If we're a good fit, we can schedule regular coaching sessions.