1.3 Personal development planning

Whether working as an entrepreneur and owner–manager of an enterprise, or as an employee, understanding your personality and those of others around you is useful because it helps you to become self-aware, to know the situations when you need to be creative and/or productive working alone or as part of a team undertaking sustainable innovations in an organisation.

These considerations will in turn enhance your career development in sustainable enterprise and innovation.

Throughout this course you are encouraged to assess your knowledge and skills in relation to your career aspirations. This is called Personal Development Planning (PDP). Activity 3 introduces the idea of diagnostic self-assessment to help you to understand your own personality as well as the personalities of others, and to evaluate your personal strengths, knowledge, skills gaps, behaviour and performance.

Activity 3: Part 1 What does personal development planning mean to you?

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Watch this video interview in which Brian Tracy answers some interesting questions on personal development planning for entrepreneurs. Brian Tracy is an entrepreneur himself, specialising in the development and training of individuals and organisations.

While watching the video, consider the approach to personal development planning adopted by Brian Tracy. Think about whether there are any similarities or differences in your own approach to personal development planning (especially if you have experience of development planning).

Note your responses in the box below for your own future reference.

Download this video clip.Video player: b327_openlearn_vwr004-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Hi. I'm Hans-Peter then from Nordic Business Forum, and we are hear in Prague, the capital of Czech Republic, together with the legendary business coach and author Brian Tracy. Mr. Tracey.

BRIAN TRACY:

Nice to see you.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

I'm privileged to meet you.

BRIAN TRACY:

Me too.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Mr. Tracy, you have said that lifelong learning should be everyone's top priority.

BRIAN TRACY:

Yes.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Is it just a sales pitch of yours, or why is it so?

BRIAN TRACY:

Well, every person has turning points in their life. You have had your turning points when you discovered entrepreneurship, and then you established the Nordic Business Forum. Each person has a turning point.

My turning point was when I discovered that you can learn anything you needed to learn to be successful. And before that, I was working hard, and I was making no progress, and I worried about money. And then I discovered you can learn how to be successful.

Well, I practised these ideas, and then I began to tell other people, this is what I did. And they became successful. And then they told other people, and they became successful.

And just like you about entrepreneurship, I got so excited with this idea. So all my life, I learn. Even today, I spent two hours studying. I learn, and I try new ideas, and I learn and try new ideas. And if I find an idea that works, I turn around, I teach it to other people in my seminars.

And people say, your ideas changed my life. They changed my life, changed my life, changed my business. I hear this.

Like in Moscow yesterday, people came up to me over and over because I'm very popular in Russia. And they said, you changed my life. Your books changed my life.

I was in Ukraine three days ago. And the person who brought me into Ukraine, she said, I read your book when I was a small employee. Now I have a big business. Changed my life.

So that's why I encourage people to learn and grow. You can grow and grow, and it's under your control.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Correct. OK, if someone now who is watching would agree that lifelong learning is really important for him or her but thinks that, well, what should I then study, or how should I start? What would be your advice to him or her?

BRIAN TRACY:

Well, they've just finished about 25 years of research on this subject, is how people start from the bottom and go to the top. And they made a great discovery, which I think is very exciting. What they found was that, first of all, people decide on their goal.

Now, if you're in a business, you're working for a company, your goal is to make a great contribution to your business to get results that are important. Because if you get results, they will pay you more and promote you. And each time you get more results, you get promoted and paid more. And so therefore, they want to contribute to the business.

Then they ask this question, and this is the magic question. They ask this question. At this time, what one skill will help me the most to move ahead, to make a greater contribution?

And they go to their boss, and they say, what one skill do you think I should work on now? Or they ask other people, or they think about it, or they look around. And then they pick one skill, sort of like hunting. They pick one skill, and they work on that one skill for three months, six months, a year. They keep working on that skill until they have to learned the skill.

Then they say, now, what's the next skill? And they learn one skill at a time. But something wonderful happens when you're focused on the most important skill, is that you start to get better at all of your other skills, because your mind is into improvement. So you start to find ways to get to become better in each of these other areas.

So the people who go from the bottom to the top, they find ‘learn one skill at a time’ like climbing a ladder. And over the course of the years, they get way ahead of the average person who's just doing the same thing every day.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

What does success mean to you?

BRIAN TRACY:

Well, I believe passionately in freedom. And so success to me means that you have the freedom to do what you want to do. You have the freedom because you don't worry about money. You have enough money. You have enough time. You are completely in control of your own life.

And that is something that every human being desires. They desire to be free. And so if you achieve business success, you have tremendous freedom of choice. You can buy a car, you can take a vacation, you can go to a restaurant, you can spend time with your family.

So that's the most important part of success to me, is it gives you freedom, and it gives you choices.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

One question that interests me a lot. Mr. Tracy, what has been the latest significant lesson that you have learned yourself?

BRIAN TRACY:

Well, I have made some business mistakes in my life. I have made a lot of business mistakes in my life. And the one thing I finally learned was to do your homework. Do your research. You study every detail of a business before you invest time and money. And the deeper you go in your studies, the more likely it is that you will make the right decisions and you'll be successful.

My mistake is I see a good idea, and then I jump in. And that's what entrepreneurs do, is we jump in too soon. And if I had spent more time studying the business before I jumped into this or that, I would have made much better decisions.

So that's what I have learned. That's been my big lesson, is take the time to study the business carefully before you make a decision.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Who have been the most important teachers or mentors for yourself?

BRIAN TRACY:

Well, I have read more than 6,000 books on business, and success, and many other subjects. So my favourites, I very much like Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker, I have read all of his books, and some of his books several times, because I think he was the greatest thinker of all.

And then I've read many, many other business books, and sales books, and time management books. And I learn one thing from this, and I learn one thing from that. Sometimes I will read a complete book and learn one thing, but that one thing is very valuable.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Yeah, that's true many times. Brian Tracy, thank you for this possibility. And we'll see again in September in Finland.

BRIAN TRACY:

Thank you so much.

HANS-PETER SIEFEN:

Thank you very much.

End transcript

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Future leaders and enterprise managers need to be aware, and make the most of, their natural personality traits, in order to develop in their careers and to successfully manage their enterprises.

Admirable personality traits are the result of hard work, not just a gift of nature. The example of Estée Lauder, who built a cosmetics empire and became the wealthiest self-made woman in America in the process, is an example of a strong personality, an open creative mind and a self-disciplined, achievement-oriented entrepreneur.

Figure 1 Estée Lauder, a successful entrepreneur

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This is a picture of the entrepreneur Estée Lauder with a customer in 1966.

Figure 1 Estée Lauder, a successful entrepreneur

Next you will look at the Big Five Model.