Personal and Professional Development - What's the Difference?
When people ask me about my business, I tell them I'm in the
learning business - that we help organizations, teams and
individuals reach their potential through learning. This is a
fine statement and it does describe the breadth of what we do,
but it often leads to the follow-up question like . . . "Do you
do personal development stuff or just business skills training?"
My answer is yes.
Because I don't believe there is a significant difference
between personal development and professional development.
Why do I say that?
The Reasons Why
Since my opinion might differ from yours, or perhaps you've
never thought about it this, it makes sense to explain myself.
There are at least five major reasons why I think personal and
professional development are the same thing.
Learning is Learning. We were granted an amazing
potential for learning at birth. Most of us haven't used very
much of that potential. It's like we are mowing our lawn with a
jet engine. Sure the jet engine has enough horsepower to turn
the blade, but it has virtually unlimited potential that isn't
being used. When we are learning we are increasing our capacity
to learn more because we are flexing and exercising our
"learning muscles." In other words whenever we are learning we
are increasing our capacity to learn even more.
All Experience Counts. One of the powerful ways that we
learn is by connecting new learning to what we already know. As
we continue to build our knowledge and experiences, it allows us
to make new connections faster. In other words, the more we
learn, the more successful we will be at learning new things and
in most situations; more quickly with deeper understanding.
We're a Whole Package. It isn't like we go to work and
don't use anything we know from our personal life to be more
effective professionally. And while we may not need to know how
to repair rotating drum equipment at home - those skills might
help you diagnose the problem with your washing machine. And
even though you don't have to back up the system database at
home, you might be able to deal with your home PC better because
of what you learned at work. And while you hope you'll never
need to follow the new Customer Service procedure at home, that
procedure might teach you something a following a process, or
being more understanding when you are the Customer.
The bottom line is that we are complete humans, and as such we
take our entire work knowledge home, and bring all of our
personal knowledge and experience to work. So any form of growth
or development will benefit you both personally and
professionally.
The Most Important Skills are Always the Most Important.
Where does being a better listener help you - at home or at
work? Both, of course. When you learn how to coach more
effectively at work does it make you a better parent? It sure
can!
We could make a long list of these valuable skills, from
communication to dealing with conflict, to learning how to
learn, to giving better feedback to being more creative... you
get the idea (and have probably thought of five other examples
yourself by now). There are many skills that we might learn as
"self improvement" that will help us at work, and vice versa. So
why label it one or the other?
Serendipity Rules. Because our learning grows based on
connections, you never know when something you learned on the
Discovery Channel might give you an 'aha' at work, or that the
insight shared by the seminar leader at work helps you solve a
vexing problem at home. Again, all development, all learning,
all growth helps us in all parts of our lives.
But Wait
Does all of this mean that as I become a better knitter or
bowler, I'll be more productive and successful at work? Yes, for
the reasons I described above (and some others too).
That doesn't mean that your organization should send everyone to
knitting class or bowling lessons, but it does mean that there
is substantial merit in supporting any form of learning
regardless of the content.
In the end, my goal is to help you view all skills more broadly
in their application - instead of classifying some things as
"personal development" and therefore they don't matter at work.
Learning is learning. Personal development is
professional development.
When you stop worrying about the distinctions, but rather think
about the applications, you serve yourself and others much
better.