Reflection for a New 2011

We live in the now, not in the past or future. Yet the moment is fleeting so living in the now means acknowledging and accepting the flow of time, that the past is past and the future hypothetical. That “now” is where we are grounded. You cannot count for sure on tomorrow coming. Today, this moment, is all you can rely on.

Living in the now, for a mature human being, is about appreciating the passing moment as a fundamental of existence, accepting whatever comes our way, whatever we cannot change, including our own aging. It’s about not clinging to things, possessions, people, habits and past times. It’s about being positive and not being overwhelmed by nostalgia or regrets on the one hand, nor anxieties or delusional hopes, on the other.

It’s also about “awareness”, an important word, which many people use these days in preference to “mindfulness”. Awareness means being fully present, and awake or alert. These are obviously qualities for experiencing life to the full.

None of us is alone, and to live fully and richly, we need relationships. We all have relationships, but not necessary healthy ones.  From a core of love we can make our relationships part of what it means to be fully alive. Living in the moment means attentiveness to us, to other people, and to the wonderful things that make our planet a special place.

This is the most important moment, to be here now is as close as you can get to fulfillment. A great piece of advice for this new 2011 is: “Act as if you won’t remember tomorrow what you did today. Have a beginner’s mind, forgetting what you think you know and letting the world take you by surprise”.  What a refreshing way to start 2011!

Happy New Year!

What is Employee Development?

The research on development highlights the importance of learning from all types of experiences such as courses, readings, projects, feedback, assignments, or on-the-job experience. No one type does the job alone, but in concert they are all important and powerful.

Development generally begins with a realization of a current or future need and the motivation to do something about it. This might come from feedback, a mistake, watching other people’s reactions, failing at or not being up to a task — in other words, from experience.

The odds are that 60% of development will be from on-the-job experiences and working on tasks and problems, about 20% from feedback or working around good and bad examples of the need, 10% from courses and reading, and 10% from teaching or mentoring others.

Employee development is a joint, on-going effort on the part of an employee and the organization for which he or she works to upgrade the employee's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Successful employee development requires a balance between an individual's career needs and goals and the organization's need to get work done. Employee development programs make positive contributions to organizational performance. A more highly-skilled workforce can accomplish more and a supervisor's group can accomplish more as employees gain in experience and knowledge.

Why should employee skills and abilities be developed?

Employee development programs make positive contributions to organizational performance. A more highly skilled workforce can accomplish more as the individuals gain in experience and knowledge. In addition, retaining an employee saves the organization a great deal of money. One method of retention is to provide opportunities to develop new skills. In research conducted to assess what retained employees, development was one of the top three retention items.

 Adapted from the Center for Creative Leadership

About Professional And Personal Development...

“Personal and professional growth can be viewed as making new connections in any of several directions: UPWARD to achieve one's full potential; OUTWARD to make contact and encounter others; INWARD to increase our awareness of who we are, and what we want, need, sense, feel, think, and do; and DOWNWARD to touch earth, to be grounded, and to connect." (Giges and Rosenfeld, 1976).

Indeed, professional growth and development is one of many boundless things about life and a choice that is sometimes challenging to make. For whatever reasons, we may ignore it; postpone it or proactively pursuing it. Whatever it is, if we want any progress, we need to create a personal professional growth and development plan.

It is all about us initiating things that are directed towards self-improvements, as a professional, as a decision maker and as someone that make a huge impact. As interested as we are in our own development, we know what are the areas that we lack and need further improvements in order to contribute more to those that work alongside with us.

Let’s get motivated to start taking our professional growth and development to the next level. Here are some best practices to help us get started.
If we feel that now is indeed a high time to get motivate and excited about taking your professional growth and development to the next level.

Here are 5-steps to help you get started:

1. FOCUS on priorities: Identify your critical issues and development objectives.

2. IMPLEMENT something every day: Stretch your comfort zone.

3. REFLECT on what happens: Extract maximum learning from your experiences.

4. SEEK feedback and support: Learn from other’s ideas and perspectives.

5.TRANSFER learning into next steps: Adapt and plan for continued learning.