Professional development is an essential—but often neglected—aspect of career growth. Burnout, mounting personal commitments, and shifting organizational needs are common reasons you might ignore your professional development goals.
Despite those barriers, many have taken measures to obtain the support they need to advance their careers. According to a report by Tandym Group, 86 percent of employees would change jobs if it meant more opportunities for professional development. A 2022 LinkedIn Global Talent Trends report found that most employees believe professional development is the best way to improve company culture.
If you want to advance your career, here’s a primer on what professional development goals are, why they’re important to your career growth, and how you can achieve them.
Free E-Book: A Guide to Advancing Your Career with Essential Business Skills
Access your free e-book today.
Professional development goals are short- and long-term benchmarks that encourage career growth, increase productivity, and support your personal and professional interests. Identifying your goals provides a career roadmap and outlines metrics you can use to measure your progress.
While your goals should revolve around workplace development, consider your personal interests when drafting them. Doing so can ensure you’ll be motivated and stick to them long term.
You can set numerous professional development goals, including:
Don’t be afraid to go too big or small with your goals. While many can lead to career advancement, setting smaller, more attainable benchmarks—like developing a new skill—can also benefit your career.
Outlining your professional development goals is an essential step that can provide clarity and direction in your career. Understanding what you want and the benchmarks you need to reach is vital.
For example, if you want to become a specialist in your field, explore what certifications and skills you need to achieve that. Communicating your professional development plan to your manager and team can potentially help you access resources such as:
In addition to garnering support, setting professional development goals can motivate you to better yourself, giving you more purpose and increasing your job satisfaction.
According to Lorman Education Services, 41 percent of employees consider their organization’s career advancement opportunities very important to their job satisfaction. If you’re feeling unmotivated or overwhelmed in your career, professional development goals could be the missing link.
To achieve your professional development goals, do the following seven things to ensure you’re on the right track.
Taking initiative in your professional development is crucial to advancing your career. Achieving your goals requires self-motivation.
Initiative comes in many forms, such as:
According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, proactive people are more likely to be better performers, contributors, and innovators in the workplace. The article suggests taking initiative at work once you complete the following:
Taking initiative at work is fundamental to developing professionally. Try to capitalize on any opportunities that come your way and step outside your comfort zone.
Building a strong professional network is essential to furthering your career. Networking’s benefits include:
Yet, there are several barriers you may encounter. One of the most common is understanding who holds the most value within your organization. Creating a power map—a visualization of who has more or less power to help navigate your work environment’s politics and gain influence—is one way to overcome this.
According to the Harvard Business School Online course Power and Influence for Positive Impact, those with the most power in your organization are called “central individuals.” They’re often the primary sources of information, resources, and industry advice.
Through power mapping, you can identify those individuals and what resources they control to ensure your network serves your professional development needs.
Feedback can be controversial in the workplace. Research shows that 44 percent of managers are stressed about delivering negative feedback, and 21 percent admit they try to avoid it altogether.
Although many managers fear feedback’s effects on employees and team morale, it’s vital to professional development. According to Zippia, 65 percent of employees desire more feedback at work. Therefore, it’s important to take an active role in receiving feedback.
You must also understand how to process feedback in a way that benefits your career growth.
According to the Harvard Business Review, processing feedback is more than just implementation; it requires continuous reflection, conversation, and practice. Feedback can help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement and directly influence your professional goals.
Continually assess your time commitments to ensure you can realistically achieve your professional development goals.
For example, while learning a new technical skill can reap several professional benefits, it can also take up a lot of personal time. Maintaining work-life balance can help you better understand how your goals fit into your schedule.
By practicing effective time management skills, you can work toward your goals without impeding other commitments.
Beyond building a strong professional network, reach out to members of other departments or teams to learn different skills, processes, and organizational dynamics.
There are several benefits to learning from your colleagues. For one, it can help keep open lines of communication. This is particularly important when working remotely.
You can also gain a holistic view of your company. By connecting with people who have different priorities, challenges, and resources, you can understand the bigger picture when it comes to organizational needs. This is particularly valuable if you want to become an effective leader.
Furthering your education is another way to achieve your professional development goals. Earning a master’s degree—such as an MBA—or a professional certificate are just a couple of options.
If, at first glance, it doesn’t seem like pursuing additional education will fit into your schedule, online options can provide the flexibility you need as a working professional.
Specialized online courses—like HBS Online’s offerings—can take only a few weeks and help you learn new business skills and strategies that enable you to achieve your professional development goals.
Reviewing your progress toward your professional development goals is often referred to as self-assessment, which is closely related to self-awareness in the workplace.
“Self-awareness is about developing your capacity to sense how you’re coming across,” says HBS Professor Joshua Margolis in the online course Leadership Principles. “To have undistorted visibility into your own strengths and weaknesses—and to be able to gauge the emotions you’re personally experiencing.”
Create a document that tracks your weekly or monthly progress to help gauge how long it will take to achieve your goals. You can also use it to record achievements that help you advocate for yourself during performance reviews.
Advancing your education is one of the most effective ways to develop professionally.
For instance, HBS Online’s certificate courses can help you gain applicable business skills, build your confidence, and jumpstart your career advancement—no matter your goals.
Do you want to start working toward your professional development goals? Explore our online course catalog—featuring programs ranging from leadership training to financial accounting—and download our free guide on how to advance your career with essential business skills.
We offer self-paced programs (with weekly deadlines) on the HBS Online course platform.
Our platform features short, highly produced videos of HBS faculty and guest business experts, interactive graphs and exercises, cold calls to keep you engaged, and opportunities to contribute to a vibrant online community.
We expect to offer our courses in additional languages in the future but, at this time, HBS Online can only be provided in English.
All course content is delivered in written English. Closed captioning in English is available for all videos. There are no live interactions during the course that requires the learner to speak English. Coursework must be completed in English.
No, all of our programs are 100 percent online, and available to participants regardless of their location.
Certificate Programs
HBS Online welcomes committed learners wherever they are—in the world and their careers—irrespective of their professional experience or academic background. To extend the reach of HBS Online, we no longer require an application for our certificate programs. (Applications are still required for our credential programs: CORe and CLIMB.) You can now immediately enroll and start taking the next step in your career.
All programs require the completion of a brief online enrollment form before payment. If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before enrolling in the program of your choice.
Our easy online enrollment form is free, and no special documentation is required. All participants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.
Updates to your enrollment status will be shown on your account page. HBS Online does not use race, gender, ethnicity, or any protected class as criteria for enrollment for any HBS Online program.
Credential Programs
HBS Online's CORe and CLIMB programs require the completion of a brief application. The applications vary slightly, but all ask for some personal background information. You can apply for and enroll in programs here. If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before starting an application for the program of your choice.
Our easy online application is free, and no special documentation is required. All participants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.
Updates to your application and enrollment status will be shown on your account page. We confirm enrollment eligibility within one week of your application for CORe and three weeks for CLIMB. HBS Online does not use race, gender, ethnicity, or any protected class as criteria for admissions for any HBS Online program.
