How to build expertise and stay relevant in your field

“The best yardstick for our progress is not other people, but ourselves. Am I better than I was yesterday? This is the only question worth asking. As long as you go to bed at night a better practitioner than the one who woke up that morning, you have succeeded. Your worth should have nothing to do with how your progress stacks up relative to another.”

???????????- Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu

Dear Professional,

It’s been a minute! Welcome to 2023! Better late than never, right? Right! We at Leonine Learning are wishing you an amazing year ahead.

We’ve got some vital information to share with you and I want you to pay attention. It’s about you and how you can position yourself for growth and opportunities this year.

Not to be a debby downer, but I am sure you already know about the negative economic projections, the massive layoffs and the rise of Artificial Intelligence (case in view chat GPT) which sources say might spell doom for employees.

Now while this should be of concern to you, I also advise that you do not make it so much of a concern that it gets you flustered. At every point, you should focus on what is within your control, and that is developing your own skills and relevance. The question you should be asking yourself is: even without the scare of AI, do you have the relevant skills needed to perform your chosen job role efficiently, to the best of your ability and enough to keep you relevant?

If you did not answer YES with total conviction, then we have a four-step process for you:

?P - Plan

A - Allocate time and Act

P - Practice

A - Amplify

Shall we say PAPA? ??

Let’s delve into this 4- step process quickly.

1. Plan:

As a forward-thinking professional, you must be strategic and intentional in your approach to your personal and professional development. What better time to develop a plan of action than at the start of a new season?

You want to re-assess your career goals, research the trends in your industry, shortlist resources, courses, certifications or training on topic areas that you need to study in order to bridge the gap between where you are now and your desired career goal.

After you have shortlisted the resources you need, then you want to think about how you are going to get access to them. Popular ways to access these resources are:

• for free
• by scholarships or sponsorships (this is particularly useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students)
• direct payment from your professional development budget ( spend this money!)
• using your company's employee training allocation. May I say that this is one of the sweetest routes for employees! (Employers do not come for us please). Yet, we find that many employees do not take advantage of their employers training budget.

This is your cue to not wait for your manager to decide what training is best for you. Go ahead and ask your company for the training you need. So long as you can prove that the training would ultimately help the company in some way, then you should ideally find it easier to have your request granted.

On this point, allow me to highlight here that if the training you need borders around finance, business or data analytics related topics, Leonine Learning is your plug, and we are more than happy to serve you and your colleagues with our corporate training solutions.

Let's move on....

2. Allocate time:

Now that we have given you tips on how to decide what courses you need for your skills upgrade and how to access them, the next thing you want to do is allocate time.

A common roadblock that we have noticed amongst students and working professionals who have previously taken our courses is a lack of time. We hear you and we empathise with you! It can be gruelling to make out time for extra study when all you want to do is just graduate so you can escape studying or go home to rest/ Netflix & chill after long work hours. But as someone who is intentional about their growth, that extra studying or training must be done for your future self.

Look at your day-to-day activities and see how you can schedule in even as little as 30 minutes of professional development time. Can you do some reading on your commute home? Can you log in to listen to that course during your workout? Can you study during a downtime at work? Take a detailed look at your routine and assign time for your skills upgrade.

Once you have found pockets of time to study, you want to act. It's not enough to assign time, you must do the actual work of studying and going through the courses or trainings. Priotising the most important subject areas will help you in taking action and preventing overwhelm.

3. Practice:

Anton Chekhov says – Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice. Ensure you practise your learnings, so you build capability. You can do this either through your personal projects or on your job. A big mistake professionals make is that they do not practice what they learn, thinking they would remember when the need arises. Yet we all know this never happens! This is particularly true for technical skills e.g., excel, programming etc. Another great tip is; you can try out working in groups as this may keep you accountable and encourage you to experiment with your new skills.

4. Amplify:

How do you build relevancy? First, it's by people positively experiencing your professionalism and ability at whatever role you are in. Secondly, by amplifying your skills, old or newly acquired via channels such as LinkedIn, your social media pages or blog.

Dear introverts, this process may make you cringe but derive courage from the fact that you are amplifying your truth. You are not sharing to brag but rather to show people what you are capable of and potentially provide your expertise to people or potential employers who will most benefit from your service.

P.s: Do not forget to celebrate your wins after each upgrade!

We have now come to the end of the 4-step framework to build expertise and relevance in your field. I hope this has been super useful for you. Feel free to share in the comments which tip stood out for you or any of your own tips to help other professionals build expertise and relevancy

To your success,

SOA

For Leonine Learning!

P.s: If you are in the finance industry and you are curious on how chat GPT might affect investment banking, you may want to read this article.

Leonine Learning is the training arm of Leonine Investment Services "Leonine" that helps individuals and businesses bridge their finance and business- related knowledge gap.

Who do we work with?

• ?Finance professionals
• Business owners
• Corporate teams in diverse industries
• Undergraduate and postgraduate students

How do we add value to you?

Our team of seasoned finance and investment professionals train individuals and teams on tools that enhance their productivity, finance, and data analysis skills via our:

• ?Financial modelling, Valuation, Financial analysis, and Financial Due Diligence etc. trainings
• ?Data analytics trainings (Basic and Advanced Data Analytics in Excel, Power BI (Business Intelligence))

How do we deliver our trainings?

1. Physical trainings

2. Virtual online trainings

3. Online courses via our learning platform; learning.leonine.com.ng

Want to make enquiries?

Reach out to us via email at [email protected]

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