This week I’ve been delivering a course to help managers think about how to develop their staff and themselves.  I am often asked by people what courses they can go on to be a better person, to expand their horizons, to develop themselves.  But its not the right question to ask.

You don’t need to go on a course.  We all have opportunities to develop in our daily lives.

Taking on new tasks or projects at home or at work will help you develop, even if you are only finding better ways to do the same things.  Listening to what people have to say offers you opportunities for development.  Providing feedback to someone else is developmental for you as well as for them.  Being more aware and noticing more things around you helps your development.  Having ideas and also acting on them gives you development chances.  Reading books and magazines, meeting and talking to new people, surfing the web, pondering on something that you’ve read or heard, writing down your thoughts, sharing your ideas with others, planning the future, setting goals, simply observing how other people do things – all of these can be development activities if you approach them in that frame of mind.

So every day you could actually get better and better, in many different ways.

How are you developing yourself today?  How will you now use that new or improved behaviour, attitude, skill, knowledge or quality tomorrow for positive effect?  Who else benefits when you develop?