Design Your Whole Brain? Professional Development Plan
Your career growth isn’t one-size-fits-all—so why should your development plan be? Your HBDI? profile reveals how you naturally think and learn, giving you a blueprint for building skills in a way that plays to your strengths while also challenging you to grow in new areas.
By leveraging these insights, you can create a personalized professional development plan that keeps you engaged, maximizes your potential, and helps you push past roadblocks in ways that make sense for you.
Start With Self-Awareness
Before setting goals, reflect on how you think and learn best. Some people thrive on structure and logic, while others prefer intuition and creativity. Consider how you approach problem-solving, how you absorb new information, and what types of work energize you. Your HBDI? profile gives you a clear snapshot of these tendencies, helping you identify both your strengths and areas that may need more focus.
Choose Learning Methods That Work Best for You
Once you understand your Thinking preferences, align your development approach with how you naturally engage with new concepts. If you prefer structure, traditional courses, certifications, or step-by-step guides might be the best fit. If you learn best through experience, hands-on projects or experimentation may be more effective. Some people grow most through collaboration, benefiting from mentorship, coaching, or team-based learning. The key is to find approaches that keep you engaged and motivated while ensuring you’re making real progress.
Address Your Blind Spots Through Stretch Exercises
While it’s tempting to focus only on what you’re already good at, real growth comes from stretching into areas that challenge you. If you tend to rely on logic and data, consider developing more interpersonal or creative skills. If you’re comfortable with big-picture thinking, you might benefit from strengthening your ability to plan and execute details. Recognizing and actively working on these gaps will make you a more well-rounded professional and open new opportunities in your career.
Leverage Pair Profiles for Greater Team Impact
Professional growth isn’t just about individual learning—it’s also about how you collaborate with others. The HBDI? Pair Profile compares your thinking preferences with those of a colleague, mentor, or manager, highlighting where your strengths complement each other and where you may need to bridge gaps.
By understanding how you and a key colleague think differently, you can develop strategies to improve communication, decision-making, and learning. If you tend to focus on strategy while your colleague is more detail-oriented, you can work together to balance vision with execution. If one of you is highly analytical and the other more relational, you can practice adapting your communication style to be more effective.
Using your HBDI? profile as a guide allows you to create a professional development plan that is both effective and personalized. By leveraging your strengths while also stretching into new areas, you ensure that your growth is intentional and well-rounded. The key is to stay engaged, challenge yourself, and continuously refine your approach to learning and career advancement. With a Whole Brain? mindset, professional development becomes a strategic and fulfilling journey rather than a rigid checklist.
Your Whole Brain? Reading List:
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About This Newsletter
Are you bringing your Whole Brain? to work?
We created this newsletter to help employees at all levels decode and harness their cognitive diversity through the Whole Brain? Thinking Model. Each issue highlights actionable tips for better understanding your thinking preferences — and other people’s preferences — so you can unlock better thinking, performance, and results in your flow of work.
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Sales Leadership | Growth Strategy | Enterprise Excellence | Whole Brain? Thinking Advocate
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