Professional goals are targets you create for yourself that are aimed at growing your career and enhancing your skills and competencies in the workplace.

Setting professional development goals is a key aspect of moving forward in your career. Setting actionable goals, you can work on every day is the best way to achieve your goals, whether they are to be more productive at work or to become the leader of a firm.

Importance of Professional Development Goals:

• Give you a vision of what you want your future to be like.
• Assist you in honing your existing job skills
• Increase your productivity
• Motivate you to improve as an employee

How to set Professional Development Goals?

1. Decide what your end goal is
2. Use the SMART goal method*
3. Break your larger goals into smaller tasks
4. Regularly review your progress
5. Review your most recent performance appraisal

*SMART Goal Method stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  This approach implies that your goals are actionable, realistic, and measurable, keeping you on track and motivated to achieve your goal.

It’s now time to set your goals so you can start developing both personally and professionally. Whatever your goals are, feedback is essential for continuous improvement.