When I last thought about where my year was going, it was June. By some process I can’t explain, I woke up Monday morning to September, two thirds of what I still thought of as the new year gone already. I haven’t done all the things which I had planned for 2024. I doubt that many have. However, the “back-to-school” season gives us a chance to look again at our personal and professional priorities for the year. We can discard some of the more aspirational and put new focus on those that remain. What do you want to achieve by the year end, not just to tick the boxes on your own appraisal objectives, but by way of self-development, broadening skill-sets, building personal resilience, and gaining the confidence which comes with really knowing what you’re doing? How can you get to the year end a better practitioner, even a better person, than when opening the curtains on 2024? How can you call time on the year without seeing it as just another extended sprint on the hamster wheel?
Most employers will applaud, and some even pay for, measures taken to improve your relevant skills. But if you don’t ask, they will never know, so right or wrong, the burden is on you to make the first move here. To make that move a good one, you will need to have given it some thought. How does this particular piece of personal or professional development help me get where I want to be in my own life? What benefit is there to my employer in helping me? Bluntly, am I going to get there if I stay here?
Reframed in best mediation fashion, two thirds of the year gone still leaves us with a full four months to its end. They will be busy weeks in HR, with growing numbers of grievances and proposed changes to employment law which open the door to many more. There will be evaluations and comp rounds and somehow the organisation of the Christmas party will probably land on you as well. But before all that starts, find a quiet afternoon, book out a meeting room, take in a pen, a pad and some coffee, and spend some time on yourself.
By Caroline Sheridan, Founder & CEO, Sheridan Worldwide
