Learning Opportunities

I am trying to consciously structure these next months for me so that they are full of learning opportunities. Reading others work, writing as a means of introspection and discovery, and there is nothing like taking a good old fashioned class. Ok, maybe not so old fashioned all the time.

While I'm signing up for traditional classes such as resume writing, I'm also pursuing other opportunities. Part of a leadership class offered at my job includes a 360 degree evaluation. I did mine a few years ago now, and have partnered with some colleagues who have also done this more recently in a group setting to review our results, analyze them in a supportive environment, and challenge each other to set appropriate and achievable goals.

(One of mine should probably be to do a better job of tracking articles I read, as you will see . . .) I read an somewhere that managers/people should focus on getting even better at things they do well, rather than putting a lot of time and energy into the things they do poorly. The theory was, if you naturally do it poorly, chances are, even with a ton of effort, the best you will do is get to mediocre. So putting your energy into doing even better at things you are good at or do well so you excel at those things is more valuable to you and your colleagues in the long run.

So as our group meets, we discussed focusing on improving what feeds us long term goals. A great example is one of my colleagues got feedback to focus on excelling at budgeting. She is good at analyzing her units needs, and has no long term career plans to be in a role that requires extensive budgeting depth of knowledge. So, we advised her to take that particular piece of advice with a grain of salt, and to focus elsewhere. We had our kick-off meeting this week, and for the next time we plan on bringing a set of goals we want to work on. In another article I read about new year's resolutions, those most successful both had made some kind of public accountability with family/friends or through signing up on a website AND put down money. I think this group will be the kind of public accountability we need. Maybe cocktails at the end purchased by the person who achieved the fewest of their goals? I have a hard time imagining this group thriving in that kind of competitive spirit but maybe we will surprise each other.

Finally, I signed up for Code Year. Code Academy offers lessons on how to code. I am pretty excited about this-even if I don't end up as a programmer at the end, I think it will be good to learn more about the process that goes on behind creating the tools I love to use.