Organizations, departments, and jobs often change.
Keeping an eye on what you need to know for your current role as well as future responsibilities is essential to managing career and professional development.
Depending on what is available in your department, here are some techniques for assessing your learning needs:
- Performance Development Process is a common way to obtain feedback about your strengths and development needs. In addition to reviewing current goals and accomplishments, performance management discussions can also focus on the future. The development planning aspect of the conversation typically includes three categories: knowledge, skills, and personal attributes necessary for success.
- Role-Based Assessment is a process of comparing your knowledge, skills, and attributes to the specific requirements of a current role or future job role. Assessing yourself in reference to job role requirements can be done conversationally with colleagues and your manager. It can also be accomplished as a written exercise in which you evaluate yourself against a specific list of skills, knowledge, and competencies for a job role.
- 360-Degree Feedback is a structured process in which you get feedback from managers, peers, and individuals who work in your team or department. This process provides feedback about strengths that you can continue to use, as well as gaps in knowledge or skills that you need to address. 360-degree feedback can done as part of a coaching process, or as part of the performance management process in which your manager gets input from different colleagues with whom you work.
