INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN: SAMPLE
Name: Sample
Date:
Section I: Defining Your Strengths
Identify your top 3 strengths. Think through the different career successes you’ve had, feedback
you’ve received from peers or managers, and your assessment results to reflect on and identify your
career strengths:
1. Networking – I am good at connecting with people and helping others connect based on
their interests
2. Research – I enjoy researching additional tools, resources, podcasts, etc. that can help me
learn new skills or help others around me
3. Active Listening – I am great at asking questions when others approach me with ideas or
concerns
Reflection Point: How have these strengths helped you achieve success in your career already?
Which strengths will you leverage moving forward?
My networking skills have helped me connect with others across the University and
understand opportunities for collaboration. My research skills help me to continue to learn,
and my active listening strength allows me to build trust with others and be an
approachable colleague. I would like to leverage my networking strength and research skills
to aid in my developmental goal.
Section II: Setting Professional Development Goals and Action Planning
DEVELOPMENT GOAL 1:
To learn how to give effective feedback to my team members
Connection to overall career goals or career development How does this goal connect to your
other aspirations you might have for your career progression, development, or passions?
I want to learn how to give effective feedback because I aspire to become a manager in the
next two years. I currently do not feel comfortable giving feedback, but I see it as a core
skill for managers.
Action Plan
What actions will you take to work towards this goal? Which actions are short term (30-90 days), and
which actions are long term (6-12 months)?
As you create your action plan, think about the strengths you identified in Section I and identify how
you might leverage these strengths to accomplish your actions.
Short Term Action Steps:
- Take a LinkedIn Learning class on how to deliver effective feedback
(this action
step leverages my research strength)
- Research and purchase 2 books about delivering effective feedback
- Ask my manager and peers for their best practices for delivering effective feedback
(this action step leverages my networking strength)
Long Term Action Steps:
- Read both books about feedback and identify skills that I will try. Ask for feedback
on these skills as I put them into practice
- Provide feedback to one team member each week
Accountability: Who can you involve with helping you stay accountable or supporting you with this
goal? How can they help you? How can your manager help you?
My teammates – let them know I am working on this skill and that I am open to feedback
on how I am doing
My manager – ask for feedback as they observe me working on my goal and ask about
resources that have worked for them
My friend – grab a coffee and share an update about what I am learning (quarterly)
Appendix A: Example Action Steps
Short-Term Actions (30-90 Day Projects)
• Volunteer to lead a new project or team initiative
• Identify and champion a process improvement
• Lead a post-project assessment and summarize lessons learned for future
initiatives
• Assemble and lead a cross-functional team to solve a business problem
Long-Term Actions (6-12 months)
• Transition to a new role to expand skills, leadership responsibilities, or broaden
professional experience
• If changing roles is not reasonable or desirable, job crafting may be another
avenue to explore for longer term actions. Job crafting actions could include
making small or large changes to how you spend your time at work in order to
more closely align with your motivations, passions, and interests.
Developmental Relationships
• Seek out a mentoring relationship
• Identify a role model - observe behavior relative to a particular strength and
adopt 2-3 behaviors in your own day to day practices
• Actively build a broader network – seek out individuals with relevant desired
skills/expertise inside and outside of Northwestern
• Join and actively engage in a professional association to learn more about
specific areas or broaden your knowledge, skills, and experience base
360 Degree Feedback & Assessment
• Solicit 360-degree feedback from your manager, direct reports, superiors, and
peers to enhance self-awareness
• Solicit feedback from a trusted colleague/faculty member
• Practice a new skill (e.g., speak up 2 x in every meeting or review calendar
weekly to check for over-scheduling) and ask for feedback or take time to
reflect on this new practice
Education
• Attend a conference to broaden industry knowledge
• Attend a course to improve a particular skill or strengthen knowledge (e.g.,
presentation skills)
• Identify books or resources and apply learnings from these sources to your
daily work
• Pursue a college degree
Community Involvement
• Assume a leadership position, lead a project, or drive a campaign in a
volunteer organization, professional association, religious institution, non-for-
profit organization, etc. to build and strengthen leadership capabilities
