Professional development: Seven steps to turn learning into earning

Of all the vital skills that you must have to perform your work excellently, which is your weakest? Have you ever considered that it’s the weakest of all your vital skills that sets your level of professional development?

It’s your weakest skill that limits your income, effectiveness and success levels. It’s what holds you back and it can prevent you from reaching your goals and objectives.

What's your biggest weakness? You can’t move things to the next level, until you strengthen this skill.

So how do you strengthen it?

Simply put, you need a focused and controlled combination of both learning and applying what you’ve learned.

Learning is one of the most vital actions you can take as a soloist. Professional development is also one of the areas that’s given the least attention. Imagine what your progress would be like if you stopped learning right now! Imagine the effect on your value as an individual, the value you provide to your customers, and as a result, the value you get back.

Learning comes before almost any other improvement to your performance and results. Your learning power, is directly related to your earning power.

The good news is, that learning itself is a skill. You can learn how to learn fast, more easily, and more enjoyably. Doing so will put you on the fast track to improving almost any other area of your business and performance. Being able to learn and use new knowledge, skills and behaviours increases your value to your customers. As a result, your self-respect and confidence in your abilities rockets.

“Okay”, I hear you say, “how can I begin to turn better learning into better earning?” Well, you need a controlled and purposeful approach to professional development.

Start with these seven steps:

1. Write out your key important skills that you need in order to acquire and serve your customers in an excellent fashion. Circle your weakest.

2. Rate your skill level for this on a scale of 1 to 10. Be honest!

3. Set a ‘learning goal’. Commit a certain amount of time each day towards learning to improve this skill. One hour a day of focused studying will make a huge difference. Set a goal, in writing, to move yourself up a few notches on your 1 to 10 skills scale, by a certain date. Keep it realistic. Decide exactly what results you must achieve in order to reach this skill level. Write them down.

4. Schedule blocks of time in your diary to practice and apply what you have learned as you go along. Create real business situations to test your skill. Allow time to feedback and reflect.

5. Find out how you learn best. Ensure that you learn in this way. If you read well, then read. If reading isn’t much fun for you, try listening to audio products.

6. Research and locate learning content from credible sources. Prioritise the order in which you will learn your materials.

7. Investigate and actively develop your learning ability. Anyone can improve how they learn. It could be one of the most important investments in your development and performance.

Professional development and learning what it takes in order to do your job well can pose many problems for business owners.

Why not tap into the power of ‘social learning’ right now by sharing below your thoughts or frustrations on learning as a soloist?

Mark Moore is the Director of Excelerated Performance International. He helps people to close the skills and knowledge gaps that they face, much faster, and manage themselves more effectively in order to achieve their business goals.

4 comments | Add your own

Thanks Mark for this great article. I really relate to it. Marketing is my weakness only because I've done quite some research and completed a marketing plan but haven't put it into action yet. That's the way to get to the next level and is blocking success. Got staffing issues so hesitant in doing so but will sort it out. Jo from Brisbane
It is true, our weakest trait limits us. But identifying it clearly enough to improve it can be difficult. It takes patience and time. Peter Norman from Brisbane Australia
That's certainly true for many - but I wouldn't recommend that people take too long to find out! (I'm aware of certain business failures where they've acknowledged their big weakness once it's too late!) I'd suggest sitting down with pen and paper, and noting your thoughts on where your weaknesses might be and you'll end up with a fair idea. Then, circle the one which feels that it could be your weakest, and start working on that. You can always adjust once you have more certainty. Mark Moore from Sydney | Read my articles
Hi Mark, the quote on your profile page is so apt - as is the quote "any chain is only as strong as its weakest link". I believe the biggest hindrance to success is 'analysis paralysis' and so never stop trying to learn, with the web making it easy. But really, when its all said and done, action speaks louder than words for soloists, so whilst we continually discover weaknesses, we must continually address them and so we grow through experience and specialist help. Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles

4 comments | Add your own

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