We can all agree that an effective leader never stops learning.  In fact, when learning stops stagnation begins and that’s not good for the leader or for their organization. But just how effective is

your professional development (PD) from the odd webinar, networking opportunity, or conference?  Some are better than others, mainly due to how interesting and knowledgeable the presenter or how relevant the information is.  But we often find ourselves “multi-tasking” behind the anonymity of the webinar or working through emails during presentations and not getting the full value of our time spent on professional development.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to participate in two structured professional development opportunities – one on the receiving end and the other on the delivery end.  Both have reinforced the value of structure to professional development, even for a seasoned leader.

First, on the receiving end, I made a commitment (time and financial) to participate in a group which would require me to disconnect 6 – 8 days in quarterly sessions.  That’s a significant commitment for us working folks.  With work and life being as busy as it is I realized after the fact that if I hadn’t made the commitment to follow this structure I would have easily made excuses and not attended parts of the program.  I’m glad I didn’t miss anything – the commitment meant I was “forced” (internally by my own commitment) to fully engage.

On the delivery side of things, I serve as faculty for a multi-course program leading to Certified Education Foundation Leaders.  Again, this is a structured professional development opportunity which requires a commitment (time and financial).  Being on the delivery end required thinking through how to make it worth the time and financial commitment and a top-notch learning experience, i.e. to infuse the necessary structure.  The design tenets included:

  • The time commitment should be flexible – professionals need to be able to complete the work on their schedule and around their “day job”.
  • Learning needs to be delivered in a variety of ways, e.g. various learning assets as well as peer learning through a cohort structure to the training.
  • Assignments need to be pertinent to their jobs and immediately applicable. Relevancy is critical for the time investment.
  • The structure of sequential topics forces accountability and assures individuals progress through all topics without missing anything.

I realized from my own experience that these are all factors which should be included in structured PD.

If we agree that professional development is important to busy leaders, then we should be looking at how to maximize the experience for the time and expense invested.  This is where participating in structured development, if done right, has the ability payback this investment many fold.