For me, this year will be a change. I will be responsible for helping a few colleagues with their own development plans so I need to become better at picking my own manager's and senior colleagues' brains for ideas. I'm also doing some reading about how to approach one-on-one meetings. I was not a fan of one-on-one meetings as they are quite long and require actual planning to attend one. It will also be interesting for me as I am not a manager by role, so while there may be some limits on how much I can do for them it is also going to challenge me to make things happen (Empower Yourself is an "immutable" at my company).
As a starter I think I will take some ideas from http://jasonevanish.com/2014/05/29/101-questions-to-ask-in-1-on-1s/ and bring some beginning action items to the table. Some things that I will find out about are:
- any existing career goals,
- technical strengths and weaknesses,
- ideas about personal/professional development.
Some actions that I might recommend:
- technical reading (blogs, podcasts),
- technical writing (blog about personal experiences or expertise),
- prepare some medium term goals.
As a novice in this field I want to read about the experience from others but also don't want to rely too much on it. Like anything else hopefully I will get better at this through experience. Keep up with me on my own professional journey through this blog!