56 | AUGUST 2009 | qw www.thecqi.org

❱❱ I carry out continuing professional development, but how can I develop myself more personally?

Careersyour questions answered

people on the move ❱❱ Graham talbotGraham Talbot, UKAS technical and external affairs manager, has been elected chair of the European Co-operation for Accreditation. Graham is also a member of the International Accreditation Forum’s Executive Committee.

❱❱ Sharon JohnSon Catalent Pharma Solutions has ap-pointed Sharon Johnson as its new senior vice-president of quality and regulatory affairs. Sharon is a quality professional with more than 25 years’ of experience in pharmaceuticals.

❱❱ li ShironGProfessor Li Shirong has become the first woman to head the Chartered Institute of Building. She believes the “new revolution” of the construction industry is sustainability and strong international communication. She plans to help the UK construction industry recover from the recession.

❱❱ mary ChapmanThe Institute of Customer Service has appointed the former chief executive of the Chartered Manage-ment Institute, Mary Chapman, as its chairman. Mary holds several appointments as a non-executive director, including commissioner to the board of the National Lottery Committee.

❱❱ walt havenSteinWalt Havenstein has stepped down as director and CEO of BAE Systems plc and president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc. General Anthony Zinni will be acting president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc until a permanent successor is appointed.

Personal development has a greater scope than continuing professional development, covered in April QW, because it involves everything that you do as an individual. It is some-times summarised as “becoming the

person that you really want to be”.

To effectively do this you first need to take

stock of where you are person-ally and decide what is needed to bridge the gap to the “ideal” you. This involves an

honest assess-ment of strengths

and weaknesses, particularly in areas

such as: • Dealing with people

• Personal ethics • Personal competencies

As well as taking the opportunity to ask those whose judgement and honesty you trust, you can look back over your own performance in recent months. Ask how many of your objec-tives you have met and how well you have worked with others in meeting these objectives, including the bal-ance between how you are perform-ing both at work and at home. There is no point in hiding faults or failings at this stage – this is your personal as-sessment, after all.

The next stage obviously depends on what you discover during your

self-assessment, but typical areas you might choose to work on are issues such as:• Reliability – do you over-promise

and under-deliver on tasks?• Team working – do you support

colleagues in their work or are you single-minded in achieving individu-al objectives rather than team goals?

• Communication – how well do you pass information to others and how good are you at picking up verbal and non-verbal communication?

• Planning – are you often surprised by events and then think that you could have anticipated things?

Wherever you identify an area to im-prove, you need to consider next how to go about improving. Areas that can be considered are:• Time management – we need pe-

riodically to establish our priorities and manage the time available to deliver the desired result

• Assertiveness – it is often easier to say “yes” when we want to say “no”, but these additional bits of work often prevent us from doing what is important

• Communication – we can all im-prove at this and spend time testing how well we communicate in the various media we use, considering both giving and receiving

Whatever you decide to do in order to develop yourself, there are always learning techniques or methods that can help you gain an understanding of your own competencies, help you im-prove your personal and professional life and grow as a person.

please email your career questions and job moves toeditorial@thecqi.org

useful links www.personal-development.info www.cipd.co.uk

56 Careers August 2009.indd 56 22/7/09 12:57:52