10 Inspiring professional development goals examples

Whether in a job interview or during self-reflection, this question is pivotal for career growth. From personal goals to formal training programs, setting goals for your professional life is a roadmap to success.

Professional development goals keep you competitive, help you excel in your current role, and unlock a growth mindset.

But what do these professional goals look like in practice? Join us as we explore concrete examples of professional development goals and discover how Marlee can support your career journey.

What are some general professional development goals examples?

Let's begin with some common examples of career development goals. Remember, we'll start broad and get more specific later in the article.

Sharpen my technical skills

According to the World Economic Forum,¹ technological literacy is the #3 top skill on the rise. This makes sense as technology becomes more advanced and increasingly important for business operations.

If you've identified that strong technical skills could enhance your professional development, sharpening your technical skills is a great example of a professional development goal.

Polish my public speaking

Brushing up your presentation skills and public speaking will contribute to professional growth. There's no way around it! When you work in a team, it's very likely you'll need to present something at some point.

Does this make you nervous? You're far from alone. As recently as 2017, 64% of college students reported a fear of public speaking.² As this cohort enters senior or leadership positions, it's likely many of these fears are still present.

So, if you're among the many who fear public speaking, developing your public speaking skills (or other communication skills) will be essential for career growth.

Enhance my systems thinking

Those who are highly motivated by Systems Thinking are masters at optimization. They like to zoom out and take a holistic view of processes, seeing how each part and person interrelates with another, affecting the entire system.

Systems Thinkers have excellent problem-solving skills and are a valuable asset to any company.

But far from an inbuilt trait, systems thinking can be honed and developed.

For example, you could take our free Big Picture Thinker online coaching program. In this, you'll learn the power of asking the right questions, how to grasp abstract concepts, and how to avoid getting bogged down by details.

Grow my analytical thinking

Related but distinct from systems thinking is its close cousin, analytical thinking.

Analytical thinking enables you to pause and reflect on the facts before making a decision in a professional setting. It mitigates risk because you're not prone to jumping into anything without due diligence, making it a highly valuable skill.

Again, analysis skills are a trait that can be developed with the right coaching and training, so before you count yourself out as "not an analytical person," check out Marlee’s free Reflection & Patience course for mastering strategic and analytical thinking if your chosen career path requires it.

What are some workplace-specific professional development goals?

Drilling down further, let's look at some real-world examples of workplace-specific professional development goals.

These achievable goals are specific to a workplace. They include how to excel in a current role or advance through the ranks.

Take Alex, for example. Alex's professional development plan is to excel in her current position and prepare for promotion to a technical lead role. This is how she plans to achieve these measurable goals:

Increasing current role performance

Improve code quality and reduce bugs by 20% within the next 6 months by:

• Attending coding workshops and conferences to learn best practices and new technologies.
• Implementing improved code review processes and collaborating with colleagues to share knowledge and expertise.
• Creating and maintaining a personal coding blog to document learnings and share with the team.
• Improving time management skills by using a project management tool

Enhance system architecture knowledge by:

• Taking online courses on system design and architecture.
• Participating in design discussions and contributing to the development of new system architectures.
• Collaborating with senior engineers to gain insight into their design decisions and approaches.

Improve communication skills by:

• Attending workshops on effective communication and presentation.
• Volunteering to lead code reviews and provide constructive feedback to colleagues.
• Creating and presenting technical talks on new technologies and trends to the team.

By doing these things, Alex will have done enough to boost her job performance and excel within her job description. To get promoted to technical lead, she sets the following relevant goals:

Career Advancement

Develop leadership skills by:

• Giving junior engineers constructive feedback and guidance on coding best practices and system design.
• Developing interpersonal skills such as active listening, negotiating, and building professional relationships.
• Participating in leadership training programs and networking opportunities to boost her leadership abilities in areas such as effective project management, employee engagement and how to foster team collaboration.

Expand knowledge of industry trends and technologies by:

• Attending industry conferences and meetups to stay up-to-date on the latest developments.
• Participating in online forums and discussion groups to stay informed and share knowledge.
• Experimenting with new technologies and tools to identify potential applications and benefits.
  

Build relationships with senior management and other departments by:

• Volunteering for cross-functional projects that involve collaboration with other teams.
• Attending company-wide events and networking events with colleagues from other departments.
• Seeking feedback and guidance from senior management on career development and opportunities for growth.

Alex has created a clear roadmap for professional growth by breaking these meaningful goals into a series of steps with concrete actions.

This approach allows Alex to track progress and make adjustments, taking ownership of her current role and setting herself up for career advancement opportunities in the future.

Real-life case studies

Need some inspiration? Here is some advice from 2 people with different backgrounds and their take on the dos and don'ts of career development plan goals.

Ali: From Mechanical Engineer to Software Developer

Ali was a Mechanical Engineer who hit a roadblock. He was dissatisfied with the job roles in his local area, so he set a new career goal of becoming a Software Engineer3³.

He set a roadmap toward becoming a Software Engineer by listing all the industry-related knowledge, tools, technologies, and programming languages he'd need to learn.

Once he'd learned the topics, he practiced what he learned by building basic software, then more complicated software until he had mastered the process.

Once he was confident in his current skills, he researched common industry interview questions and practiced answering them on the spot.

While technical skills were undoubtedly necessary to making the pivot successfully, they weren't all that was needed. Ali noted that soft skills played a major part. Specifically, he credits his love of the craft of software development as a major boon for his successful career.

Katie: The power of engaging professional development

Katie Novak⁴ is an Educational Consultant, and to people who say teachers "don't value professional development," she has this story to tell:

"I’ll always remember one professional development session I attended, not in a good way. The presenter, who was physically there, decided it was a great idea to play a 15-minute video of herself lecturing. No closed captions were provided for accessibility, and the video was neither concise nor clear. To add insult to injury, we were required to stash away our devices, leaving us unable to take digital notes (or do some online shopping as a coping mechanism!)."

The key takeaway here is that student engagement is essential in any professional development!

Whether you're attending industry events or undertaking professional development in your own time, Katie says the key to keeping it engaging is improving the quality, relevance, and usefulness of the sessions you attend.

With this in mind, let's examine how to write and set professional goals that matter.

The evidence-based approach to professional development goals

If you're looking for a systematic, evidence-based approach to tackling your professional development goals, check out AI Coach Marlee.

Here's how it works:

Step 1: Uncover what motivates you at work

Instead of guessing or asking others, answer questions on what motivates you and access an in-depth report of the 48 motivations that influence your work. You'll also learn how you score on each trait.

This will provide deep insights, and actionable feedback, into your strengths and blind spots, backed by world-first research into work motivation.

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F4S dashboard

Step 2: See how you compare to high performers in your role

Once you receive your motivation analysis, click on the XFactors tab to benchmark your results against our sample of Entrepreneurs and Business Builders globally (with more roles to come as our research grows!).

To see your blind spots (areas for growth), click on "Red Zone." This will show you where you fall outside the scores we've found align with success in these roles.

Think of these as areas for personal development and opportunities to gain new workplace skills.

Step 3: Turn blind spots into career development opportunities through coaching

At Marlee, we believe in a growth mindset. The best way to set and achieve meaningful professional goals is to identify opportunities for improvement and receive targeted coaching to strengthen those areas.

Our AI-powered Coach Marlee allows you to do professional coaching at your own pace.

Coach Marlee even has a Goal Catcher program, where you set a goal, and it holds you to it!

Step 4: Develop an action plan

Create a written document outlining how you will achieve your professional goals. This professional development plan should include:

• A specific goal statement

What is it that you're trying to do? Unless you can say it in one sentence, you might not have the clarity you need. An example of a goal statement is, "Within 12 months, I will find a mentor who has experience working at an ad agency as a Creative Director."

• Long-term goals

Start with long-term goals, which is those you'll aim to achieve in the next year to 10 years.

• Short-term goals

To keep motivation high, break those long-term goals into smaller short-term goals. These are the goal setting objectives you'll achieve in the next weeks and months.

• A time frame and due dates

Assign specific due dates for each milestone to hold yourself accountable. Add these dates to your calendar so you don't miss them!

• Metrics

How will you know you've succeeded? Assign metrics if you can. For example, it's not enough to say, "I want to be more creative." Instead, find ways to know you've achieved that goal in a quantifiable way.

We recommend keeping a journal as part of your written documentation.

The F4S dashboard makes it easy to journal about your professional development progress right inside the platform. You can even set up reminders so you never forget to write an entry.

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How to write and set professional development goals

Now that you've seen how others have set their developmental goals, it's time to write your own.

As you might have noticed, the professional development plans described above have a few things in common. The goal-setters are clear on what they want to accomplish and how they plan to do it.

This isn't an accident, it's a key part of setting yourself up for success when setting professional development goals.

Be sure that your goals are:

• Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound (aka SMART goals)
• Followed up with a realistic action plan
• Supported by the people around you
• Regularly reviewed and adjusted when necessary

Read our in-depth guide on how to write professional development goals.