Posts Tagged: professional development

Professional Development on a Shoestring

When your workload grows and your budget shrinks, professional development often gets pushed to the back burner.  Here are some ideas about finding training and development opportunities despite the obstacles. Updating Your Individual Development Plan (IDP) – There are a variety of ways government employees make use of development plans, and not all processes are ofRead… Read more »

The Best Government Conferences of 2015

There are so many worthwhile education, learning, and networking events for government employees in 2015. How do you choose? This list of the best government conferences will help you pick the ones that provide the richest professional development opportunities. Since GovLoop’s last roundup of government conferences in 2013, there’s been quite a bit of turnover in events and conferences in theRead… Read more »

Soft Skills Learned Outside of the Office

It was October 2010, and I had a crazy morning at work.  I was out for a jog on the Trinity Trail during my lunch break when I saw two abandoned, skittish Basset Hounds that would forever change my life.  My original plan was to foster these two sweethearts, who we named Hank and Lucy.Read… Read more »

What’s Missing in Professional Development

When I look at plans for Professional Development, I think we are missing the point. We make it all about the individual shaping his or her future. There should be more to it if one takes the notion, professional development should involve the people who have a say in a person’s career. Organizations say, maybeRead… Read more »

Respect for Millennials

Our current generation of millennial professionals will make up the majority of the workplace in the next twenty years. Employers report millennials aren’t ready for work–that in management and leadership areas they only succeed because they are bright achievers. So far. We have the power to change that. It’s not anyone’s fault–everything is happening soRead… Read more »

My Leadership Sweet Spot

Leaders must be learners and last week I completed the Healthcare Leadership Development Program. It was great program focused on each of us as individual leaders, the healthcare environment we operate in and leadership in crisis. As a wrap-up, each participant was asked to share a three minute success story.  Not quite Ignite style (wouldn’tRead… Read more »

Surviving the Next Skill Wave as Public Employees

NPR recently posed the following question: Do we all need to learn how to code software? According to the article, both Democrat and Republican leaders have expressed a desire to make programming a core skillset, placing it on equal footing with reading, math, and foreign language training. “Becoming literate in code is as essential toRead… Read more »

Starting a Mentoring Relationship – Fall 2012 Mentors Kickoff

Last week marked the beginning of the GovLoop Fall 2012 Mentors Program, starting with the official kickoff on August 28th, 2012. At that event, Andrew Krzmarzick and I discussed the progression of GovLoop’s mentors program, goal setting for your mentoring relationship, and the characteristics of successful mentors and mentees. It was a great event, andRead… Read more »