The following excerpt is from my article with Beverly Kaye, “A Leader’s ‘Crashless’ Course: Helping Employees Drive Career Development,” that appears in Training Industry Quarterly.
The do-it-yourself trend has taken hold across industries and within organizations throughout the United States.
- The Home Depot concept enables people everywhere to engage in a hands-on fashion in their own home improvements.
- Grocery stores have been able to contain expenses by developing systems that allow shoppers to check themselves out without assistance.
- The internet should get the ‘teacher of the year’ award because users across generational divides turn to it for instruction on how to perform tasks they might previously have hired out.
- Systems and services that were previously ‘done for’ employees (like registering for benefits) are efficiently handled by employees themselves.
In many ways, we’ve turned into a do-it-yourself nation. We appreciate the autonomy, independence (and in some cases the cost-savings) of these self-directed approaches that have become part of the cadence of life for many.
So, why not career development? Taking on more responsibility for this critical and personal task is not anathema to most employees. They want to own it. They want to drive their development. They just don’t – in many cases – know how to get into the driver’s seat and start the ignition.
To learn how to help employees drive their own development, check out the full article.
What about you? What are you doing to drive your own development? What support do you need to hit the road?
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Julie,
That was so interesting, Finding yourself is a great concept.. exploring our ideas and implement on organization favor is good for both the employer & employee parallel grown.. which means this was will help our co-employee too for his growth. the matter is your ideas should be favorable for organization rather than only your self growth.. There is one more thing to focus.. how will my idea effect on organization growth. the question is what type of your idea is & intention of your idea.. being clear is good… This is how i think..