Practitioner viewpoint - June 24

DO YOU remember a favourite teacher from school? Or a sports coach, youth group leader, lecturer, or tutor who supported you in developing, or refining, a set of skills that you’re proud of?

Most of us can recall someone like this who has helped to shape the person that we are today, and we generally think of them fondly, even if we perhaps didn’t appreciate the full value of their input at the time!! But once we’re adults, established professionals shaping our careers, I think we’re less inclined to seek, and acknowledge, the input of others in our ongoing development.

At the beginning of our career journeys we tend to start by acquiring knowledge and developing technical skills in a supervised manner, but this is just one part of the competence equation. At this stage we might well become qualified in our chosen discipline, but we are a long way from securing the practical experience which will allow us to develop rounded competence. We head off into the world of work and begin an, often lonely, process of personal and professional development.

So why do we not engage the support of others more proactively during our career development?

I think it’s harder to know how to do this once we’re outside a structured learning environment. It’s very difficult to reach out proactively to seek the support of others without any context, direction or facilitation. How would you know who to contact? What to ask for? Or how the process might work?

Once in employment, our development discussions still tend to focus on knowledge acquisition and further technical qualification, but actually our non-technical skills are equally, if not more, important in setting us up to succeed, develop and progress into more senior roles. The challenge is that building these non-technical skills requires a different mode of learning – not a course or an online tutorial – but something far more interactive and specific to our needs.

I think mentoring and coaching have a huge role to play here. But to achieve real benefit from this sort of learning it’s essential to have a structured plan.

The first step is to undertake a review to help build a picture of your strengths and areas where there is room for development, then to compare these against the key requirements of your current role, and your career development aspirations. This should help to define the areas to be included in your development plan. There are various psychometric tools available to support this process. Many organisations can provide access to a preferred system, but you can also access them online, or though specialist recruiters and professional bodies.

Once you have a plan in place the challenge is identifying a mentor, or a coach, to support you. Professional bodies and trade organisations are increasingly offering programmes to assist with this, and some organisations have internal programmes too. But you don’t have to be limited to these. Why not consider approaching people within your network or organisation to seek their support? Chat with your manager in your development reviews and seek their assistance finding the right match.

Interestingly you can benefit just as much from being a mentor as you do from being a mentee! Constructive focussed conversations about non-technical skills are always developmental, and allow an opportunity to test and explore new ideas, and to challenge your standard thinking and approaches, in a safe and supportive environment. These conversations shouldn’t always be comfortable – it’s supposed to help develop your thinking not just be an echo chamber for similar ideas - but it should always be constructive and completely confidential. There’s lots of information available online to help shape a successful mentoring relationship, but the key foundations for me are trust, respect, authenticity and openness. 

Why not put the focus on non-technical skills development this year, and consider how you can get involved in a mentoring programme?

Louise Ward is safety & sustainability director at G&W UK- Safety. For more information, visit www.gwrr.co.uk