Individual Development Plan

Owned by Shalini Neelakantan
Last updated: Aug 09, 2023 by Michael Cannon (Unlicensed)
3 min read

The Individual Development Plan (IDP) helps team members align their career aspirations and Being Axelerant | Our Strategic Goals & Organizational Objectives.

Kinds of Individual Development Plans

Every team member relationship is bidirectional; it should be clear how the team member and employer benefit. Reid Hoffman, The Alliance

Role-focussed

A role-focused Individual Development Plan focuses on a team member’s career progression. For example, a team member role-focused IDP would grow from L2 to L3 in the next three years or from an early L2 to mid L2 within twelve months.

Transformational

A Transformational IDP is personalized with the central premise that team member can remake their careers and Axelerant. E.g., How might we develop ourselves to foster Axelerant’s growth?

The transformational IDP is an option specifically for L5 roles and up because it requires more thought, work, planning, and implementation time.

How to create my IDP?

1. Build Alignment

While creating your Individual Development Plan, seek a connection between Axelerant’s purpose and values, peer and role expectations, and what you would like to accomplish.

There must be sufficient alignment to make the IDP meaningful and impactful for Axelerant. You can introduce alignment independently or with your career/reporting managers, peer mentors, and performance coach.

  • Think about your life’s journey: your accomplishments, struggles, failures, wins, plateaus, your values.

  • How do you see yourself doing your work six months and two years from now?

  • What does the story tell you about where you need to grow?

2. Document your IDP

We recommend using the Development Frameworks and goals in Leapsome to maintain & track your IDP.

What is the Overall Objective of the IDP?

You should define a clear, good enough objective such as role promotion, program management, or corporate initiative ownership. This objective must allow you to grow and further your career.

Further, the Individual Development Plan duration should be long enough to successfully achieve that objective, whether in months or years. Depending on their goals, some people may have many short IDPs or a few long ones.

What Do the Results of a Successful IDP Look Like for team members?

A successful Individual Development Plan should positively impact you and Axelerant. An alternative perspective might be asking how Axelerant will transform you.

The IDP offers you the opportunity to come out ahead by gaining marketable experience via projects, learning new skills, and earning the recommendation of others.

What aspects must one consider when reviewing an IDP?

  • Assess the current and desired state differences by behavior, skills, experiences, expectations, etc.

  • Ensure the IDP reflects the journey you want to take with clearly defined action items.

  • Specify start and end dates.

  • Include relevant reference information around research, courses, etc., to be considered.

  • Validate goals via SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Realistic, and Time-bound.

What about Mentors, Training, and More?

You must ask for, research proactively, and suggest means to complete your Individual Development Plans. Support systems like mentoring, training programs, and other skills development opportunities can be made available to you

3. Recurring Check-Ins with relevant managers

The key to a successful Individual Development Plan is frequent, transparent conversations about the following IDP aspects.

  • Objectives to be accomplished.

  • Timeline for the IDP.

  • Progress checks.

  • Support required.

You can schedule and track these conversations in Leapsome using the Check-In–Goals meeting template.

4. As One IDP Concludes, Begin Defining the Next

At least a quarter before considering the current Individual Development Plan completed, you should start on the follow-on IDP.

Resources

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