From one wise man to five golden nuggets

Now, far be it from me to compare myself to a wise man, but I am on a journey this Christmas and I may not be following a star (although Pro-Development have just won Small Business of the Year at the York Press Business Awards…) but there does happen to be a new king. That said, with prices as they are, I may not be able to afford a room at the inn if I want to go and visit him.

Sorry, I digress.  Journeys.  We’re all on them, and whether we travel by camel on a sea of sand or car through the chaos of a school run, there’s always something unexpected around the next bend. I started 2022 as a seasoned production manager in a touring theatre company.  I was the one who ‘knew where stuff was’ and had been around long enough to be confident that I could come up with a solution to most of the practical challenges that we faced.  The road was clear and the sky was blue…

Roll on to July 2022 and my journey took a turn into Pro-Development HQ and it might be said that I turned onto the mountain road with a whole load of steep climbs, tight bends and occasional trouble with my brakes!  Far from being the go-to problem solver, I am now the new boy with LOADS to learn.  But one of the many good things about working for a company whose focus is learning and development is that they are really good at helping their new staff with their learning and development.

I have been enrolled on courses, been out shadowing trainers as they deliver and next year I shall be setting off on a Learning and Development Apprenticeship.  I couldn’t have my 12 days of Christmas journey (getting wiser every day?) without 5 gold nuggets to recommend to any other travellers on their journeys

• Develop training skills – my first encounter with Pro-Development before I had even started at the company. A brilliant 2 day Train the Trainer course covering everything from ‘what makes a good learning facilitator’, through learning styles and behaviours to structuring and delivering your presentation. A third day, a week later, enables you to put into practice what you have learnt with honest, constructive feedback from your trainer and fellow delegates.
• Learn to delegate – The Art of Delegation, a one day practical workshop looking at what, how and when to delegate. Watch out for the Matrix, monkeys and frogs.
• Be an authentic and inspiring leader – I don’t even know where to start with our experiential Leadership Development Programme! So much to say!  Seven months of developing you as a leader. I’m not even halfway through the programme and am learning huge amounts about what makes me tick and how that affects the way I lead. There are personal coaching sessions between the workshop days to help embed the learning.  We’ve been hiking, cooking and next we’re off to the horses – no riding or gambling involved apparently…
• Say, ”Yes”! Now, I know you can get into trouble if you say it too much but starting a new job and embracing every opportunity has been a great way to get to know my colleagues, see more of the business and have FUN!
• Coach and be coached (the start of my journey to Pro-Development) – It was through coaching that I had the opportunity to look at my skills and career and had my eyes opened to the benefits of coaching, both personally and professionally. It also led directly to me setting off on this Pro-Development leg of my journey. As a company that offer coaching now, I can’t recommend it enough – if you’ve not tried it, it can really help your career.

There should be a line in here somewhere about having an epiphany, but maybe that should wait til 6^th January…

Happy Christmas