Guidebook on How to Create Employee Development Plan

Extensive research into peak performers in all walks of life shows that they have very similar ways of thinking about themselves and others. They share other similar mindsets, too. Because of this, they operate in similar ways. This article explains what we know about peak performers, whether in business, public service, private life, school, athletics, or team pursuits. People who adopt these four mindsets and approaches to life become peak performers, too.

Peak performers have high self-esteem
As we've seen, high self-esteem leads to positive self-talk and an internal locus of control-the ability to choose our own thoughts, feelings, actions and communications. The body language of people with high self-esteem invites the respect of others, just as they treat others with respect.
High self-esteem allows us to take charge of our behavior and communications and direct them towards achieving the challenging goals we set for ourselves. When we have high self-esteem, we expect the best of and for ourselves. That's why peak performers are positive people with positive outlooks and positive attitudes.
They are optimists who see mistake as learning opportunities and problems as stepping They have the confidence to take responsibility and proactively make things happen.

Peak performers have high standards
Have you ever noticed that peak performers surround themselves with other peak performers? They have high expectations of those around them – the people they work with, their friends and associates, their family members. Not unrealistically high expectations, of course, but they certainly don't settle for 'second best'. Why should they?

When we have high standards, we set challenging goals and work hard to attain them. We expect the best of ourselves and for ourselves. We treat ourselves with respect and expect others to do the same.

Because of their high standards, peak performers constantly pursue improvement—to the way they do things, to the systems they work with—in fact, to everything around them. They continually ask themselves two key questions:
1. How can I do this better?
2. How else can I do this?

How can we introduce learning as an organizational property that extends to all managers? The answer lies in making learning arise from the work itself. Learning has to become natural, even fun. Unfortunately, we have become conditioned to a classroom model hat separates theory from practice, making learning seem impractical, irrelevant, and boring. But what if we make our worksite a perfectly acceptable location for learning?


This is where work-based learning comes in. Work-based learning expressly merges theory with practice, knowledge with experience. It recognizes that the workplace offers as many opportunities for learning as the classroom. Such learning, however, needs to be centered around reflection on work practices. It needs to offer managers faced with the relentless pace of pervasive change an opportunity to overcome time pressures by reflecting upon and learning from the artistry of their action.

It is no longer acceptable to offer the rationale, "We don't have a minute to think."
Work-based learning, then, differs from conventional training in that it involves conscious reflection on actual experience. Fundamental to the process is the concept of metacognition which means that one constantly thinks about one's problem-solving processes. It is not enough just to ask, "what did we learn"; we must also ask, "what does it mean or how does it square with what we already know?" Work-based learning, then, is mindful and situated learning in the sense that it does not view preexisting knowledge as fixed but rather as provisional until tried out in a given context or in practice. Further, it recognizes that learning can occur spontaneously in a given situation.

The following items describe the key elements of work-based learning:

• It is self-directed. The learner has substantial control over the purpose, content, form, pace, and evaluation of the learning.
• It is creative. There is no preset goal, nor are there preset methods in work-based learning. The learner is asked to create on the spot to find and solve problems.
• It is expressive. Learning occurs in the process of doing it and expressing it. All nuances of the experience, especially tacit performance, are engaged. Unlike classroom learning and even in some experiential learning, we do not know what will happen at the conclusion of our practice. Learning occurs in conjunction with experience, perhaps a little before, as long as we theorize about what we are about to do and compare our experience to it. Learning also occurs during and after the experience as we improve our often tacit behavior by reflecting on what we did, through peer advisement, or from instruction.
• It involves feeling. Work-based learning entails emotional involvement in the context itself. We care about what we do and what we have accomplished. We feel the learning as well as possess it intellectually.
• It is continual. Once work-based learning becomes natural to the learner, it becomes a never-ending process. We are always open to surprises, to new ways of doing things. Change is accepted as a given in life; hence, learning becomes part of our very being. • It is reflective. We become not just more aware of our own learning processes, but also more aware of (and more interested in publicly commenting on) the processes of others.

We've seen that, to generate more of what we want, we first need positive, empowering beliefs about ourselves and others. We need clear and specific goals to aim for. And we need to take action aimed at achieving the results we want.

Positive, uncomplicated goals
Keep your goals positive, short and uncomplicated. It's easy to keep clear goals constantly in the back of our minds. They become part of us. We will automatically focus our energies and our efforts on achieving them. We'll keep moving in the right direction.
Focus your attention on goals within your control or influence. See them clearly so it will be easier to achieve them. And easier to get feedback on how you're doing.

Measurable goals
Express your goals in specific, preferably measurable, terms. The more precise we can make our goals, the easier it is for our subconscious to get to work on them. Precise goals will help us identify all sorts of opportunities and sources of help to draw on. Specific goals fast-track our progress. Measurable goals are the most clear of all.

Results and activity
Focus on results and activity. Effective goals spell out both the end results and the activities needed to achieve them. Results Goals point us in the right direction. They often depend partly on outside factors that we can't fully influence or control. So they must be realistic enough to be achievable and challenging enough to be motivating.

Activity Goals without Results Goals are pointless. They'll keep us busy, but will scatter our energy. Activity Goals need to be pretty much within our control. They provide good feedback on our day-to-day achievements.

Reachable goal
Make your goals reachable-with effort. If a goal is too hard, what's the point in putting in a lot of effort? We know we'll never reach it! If it's too easy-we won't even bother trying. We probably won't even achieve the standard of performance we could have reached, had the goal been more demanding.

The best goals are realistic and, at the same time, challenging. They invite us to work at our 'cutting edge', where we continually strive to improve our performance. This often takes us out of our comfort zone, and this means we need high self-esteem.

Target dates
Set target dates. Target dates provide a sense urgency and increase the precision of our aim. They also help us to divide a large goal into smaller subgoals, each with its own target date. This gives us a way to track our progress. Deadlines can keep us 'on track' and propel us towards our goals.

Plan of action
Make an action plan. The first two letters of goal are go! Focused action will achieve results much better than aimless action! This is why we need action plans. Action plans don't need to be fancy-a list of activities or steps is usually enough. Even just the first three steps will get us moving in the right direction.

If you don't want to make an elaborate action plan, develop a rolling action plan listing three steps at a time. As long as you know clearly where you're headed and what you need to do, you'll make progress.

Thanks indeed

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Thanks for sharing

Really good one

Hi,

Thanks for sharing

It really helps

Desai, hope you can utilize this excellent tool to enhance your corporate performance....