How will you know when you arrive if you don’t know where you are going?
Begin with the end in mind. Whether you are just starting your career or fervently building it, determining your destination is the key to success—and understanding which skills you need to get there is essential. While we might not always have immediate access to hands-on learning, we can create a roadmap to face obstacles head-on.
First, establish what experience is missing from your resume then seek ways to find it. There’s a school of thought that suggests 70% of learning is through experience, 20% is through coaching, and 10% happens in the classroom. Using this 70-20-10 rule, you can focus on specific opportunities to develop the talents you need.
1. Taking a course or reading a book (or twenty) can help you gain insightful knowledge. Experts say this is about 10% of the time needed to skill-build.
2. Finding a coach or mentor to be your Sherpa will help, but they can’t do it for you. 20% of your time should be spent soaking up guidance from those who can show the way. This may be one person or many, one hour or several.
3. The last 70% of your personal development should be experiential learning, hands-on, doing. Experience may be gained through your current employment, a part-time job or internship, or volunteering with local charitable organizations. Start small. It takes time to build to 70%. And when you get there, you will know you’ve arrived!
When you know where you are headed, it’s easy to plan. Understanding the 70-20-10 rule helps keep your eyes on the prize. You can learn to fly by reading a book, but without an additional 20% coaching and 70% practicing, you will definitely have a difficult landing.
Professor, speaker, and author Alison Nissen is the executive director of Branded Interviews, a platform that creates video business cards, webinars, and courses for authors, coaches, and entrepreneurs. She is also the co-founder and president of Revel Coach, a career growth platform and author of the 2016 RPLA Unpublished Memoir of the Year Resolve, Courage, Hope. Follow her Tales from the Laundry Room @ alisonnissen.com.
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