4 Professional Development Ideas

Professional development is a key skill for any employee to learn. Whether it's advancing in the ranks at your current job or taking your talents elsewhere, it's important to never to be satisfied staying in one position.

While it's always preferable to advance within your current organization, sometimes that's not in the cards. The current job market is incredibly competitive which means you will have to present yourself as a unique talent should you decide it's time to start somewhere new.

During the Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits in National Harbor, Md., William F. Bartolini, associate vice president for development at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., offered advice on how to make yourself look unique to employers.

• Find Your Passion: Sit down and figure out what your best attributes are. Test your list with a trusted friend along with a trusted co-worker.
• Create A List: Use the list to describe your accomplishments, challenges you’ve faced and experiences you want to have.
• Elevator Speech: Prepare a short speech that encapsulates your experiences and advantages. These types of speeches should last 30 seconds. Make them brief.
• Where Will You Go?: Outline what the ins and outs to your work are. Do you want to be involved in fundraising or do a little of everything? Do you want to work in a small shop or big shop? These are all questions you should be asking yourself.

Professional Development Guide 2013: Don't Rest On Your Laurels

What makes a nonprofit successful? More often than not, it's a strong leadership team that is willing to make the tough decisions. This makes it easy for managers to rest on their laurels but, if they are not careful, that one-time strength can quickly disappear.

The NonProfit Times' Professional Development Guide, which appears in the newly released June 1 issue, is a white pages for services that will help potential nonprofit leaders hone their skills. From nonprofit management degrees at leading universities to leadership seminars, organizations should consider all of these services for their employees so there are worthy successors when it comes time to pick a new CEO or executive director.

There are other things nonprofits can do to develop new leaders. In the Bridgespan Group's Plan A: How

Successful Nonprofits Develop Their Future Leaders, Kirk Kramer and Preeta Nayak detailed five steps that can be taken that will get your organization on the path to a brighter future. Those steps are:

• Engage Your Senior Leaders: If you are a CEO just launching your leadership development efforts, begin by telling your senior team that it is important that they develop as individuals and that you’ll help each of them to do so.
• Understand Your Future Needs: Gather your senior team for a once-a-year offsite meeting to discuss where your organization is going and the potential of their direct reports to move into more senior roles.
• Develop Your Future Leaders: Meet twice a year with each of your direct reports to discuss their progress against their leadership development goals.
• Hire Externally to Fill Gaps:Identify the areas where you will likely need to hire externally to meet your future needs and those where you should aim to build capacity from within.
• Monitor and Improve Your Practices: Set targets for accomplishing the work of the previous items on this list. Next, report on your organization’s progress against those targets to your senior team and the board. Finally, determine leadership development priorities for the coming year.

Follow these steps and check out NPT's Professional Development Guide, and your nonprofit will be on the path to a more sustainable future.

Nonprofits Falling Short In Leadership Development

Most nonprofit managers would agree that developing new leaders is one of the most important ways to ensure the success of the mission. Yet, according to a recent survey, many of these same leaders admit that they are falling short when it comes to taking a systematic approach to leadership development.

The findings from a Bridgespan Group leadership development diagnostic survey of more than 225 nonprofit leaders indicated that many organizations are still lagging behind when it comes to developing new leaders. Some of the results from the study include:

• Leaders are engaged but struggle to act. Only 36 percent say leaders are held accountable for leadership development and only 38 percent engage their boards in the process.
• Future needs are not well understood. Fewer than 30 percent say they have plans to address leadership gaps and only 37 percent have successions plans.
• Development of future leaders is not being linked to organizational needs. Only 50 percent evaluate employee potential as well as performance, and fewer than 29 percent say they have development plans for individuals.
• Leadership vacancies tend to be filled by external candidates. Only 25 percent are filled by internal candidates.
• Efforts to monitor and improve are relatively weak. Fewer than 30 percent have organization-wide goals for leadership development and only 23 percent are tracking progress.

Professional Development For Volunteers

While nonprofit volunteers will often move on to different opportunities once their work is done, that doesn't mean you don't have an obligation to help them out with their future careers.

Helping your volunteers with their professional development is a good way to show how much you appreciate their work.  And, as John L. Lipp writes in "The Idiot's Guide to Recruiting and Managing Volunteers," it's also a great strategy to keep them motivated.  While this training will help volunteers develop career skills for later in their life, it can also lead to promotions within the organization.

In order to keep things fresh, Lipp recommends bringing in special guest speakers to speak on specific topics.  You may also want to schedule webinars that your volunteers can attend.  Either of these choices provide a level of interaction that will enable your volunteer workers to better enhance their skills.

So how often should you offer these professional development courses?  While Lipp acknowledges there is ongoing debate on how much is necessary, most agree that some follow-up training should be offered at least once a year. 

Nonprofit Management Tip: Moving To The Next Stage Of Your Career

Turnover is a big part of jobs these days.  Whereas it was not uncommon for people to stick with their work for 20+ years in the past, these days the average stay at a job is much shorter.  With more people moving on from their careers, how can you distinguish yourself from the past?  The NonProfit Times just put up a new management tip about that very topic:

* Find Your Passion: Sit down and figure out your best attributes. Test your list with a trusted friend, along with a trusted co-worker.


* Create A List: Use the list to describe your accomplishments; challenges you’ve faced; and, experiences you want to have during your career.


* Elevator Speech: Prepare a short speech that encapsulates your experiences and advantages. These types of speeches should last 30 seconds.


* Where Will You Go?: Outline ins and outs to your work. Do you want to be involved in fundraising or do a little of everything? Do you want to work in a small shop or big shop? These are all questions you should be asking yourself.

Want to learn more about professional development?  Check out our devoted page on that topic for even more tips.