Are you investing in yourself ?

I had written a piece in “my ascent” a publication of times of India. It was published as a winning entry in “Voice of HR” in March 2013. It was a satisfying moment with messages and compliments from people around. However my big moment came up when I got a call from an ex- colleague of mine around 4 weeks back. He shared that he was inspired by one of the thoughts I had put forward, not a new one though. I had suggested that professionals should start investing in themselves through training. They should allocate a certain percentage of their salary towards their own training, wherever and whenever they assess they need new skills & competencies & their organizations are not planning or proposing to provide him with that. My ex Colleague, to improve his chances at an aspirational company and role, enrolled himself in a 6 month program to improve his knowledge & skills.

Since that call, I have been for long thinking about writing my thoughts on learning & training by professionals. For long I thought about how to structure it. I searched for quotes on “learning” on Google and a website link gave me a list of 797 quotes. These are just in English. I am sure there are many more in different languages.  I particularly like this one by Mahatma Gandhi.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Employers & in particular HR heads in most organizations are striving to develop “learning organizations”. They wish to build leadership pipeline. To create career paths and succession planning. HR wishes to nurture & groom talent to take on new challenges and growth plans.

There seems to be a dis-connect as most professionals at mid to senior level do not seem to get these opportunities of help in form of training, mentoring or coaching at workplace. To be fair large companies, very few though, today have plans in this area and they execute it well. Even in these large organizations the coverage is not high and inconsistent. However there is large no. of organizations that do not create definitive plans and yet whine the fact that their employees are not smart enough to manage market challenges.

It leaves me wondering where the problem is or challenge in marrying these objectives, people and organization development. In my view the answer would lie in responses to following questions, by professionals who have had minimum 15 years of work experience.

Q .In the organizations we have worked with, how many and which ones really prepared you well to take on new roles & invested in you through the process of new skills, learning’s and knowledge?

Q. Which organizations supported you with help in form of training (mentors, coaches) when you were asked to take on a new challenges  which demands you to stretch , explore more & learn new behaviours?

Q. When choosing a new job, do you specifically check on how the organization helps employees grow their learning’s and development of new skills?

Please do not be surprised by your own responses to these questions.  Do not feel discouraged too. Perhaps ask yourself something you have not yet asked yourself.

Q. What do you need to do about our own growth in next 3-5 years to be in your aspirational role and / or company? Does this “need to do list” account for new and better skills and competencies?  

Q. Are we thinking or planning to invest in ourselves in absence of investment from our employers?

Q. Have we identified the areas in which we should be improving our skills to be more successful in future?

Laurence J. peter said -- Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.  The challenge therefore to rise & improve further, professionals have to raise his level of incompetency.  If the company does not and you do not as well , one can be consigned to a level and role which may outgrow importance and criticalness and the professional may be left stranded in his career.

So go out and invest in yourself. Do not wait for your employer. 

Train yourself. Learn more.  Invest time & money on yourself.