Everyone talks about Self-Development (SD) – now and then. But that seems to be about all that most people do i.e. talk about it.They never seem to actually do much of the self-development they talk about. At least not in a self-sustaining way that will yield them lasting benefits.
Now, you must avoid thinking activities you engage in outside your workplace, have little or no bearing on your job – and how well you can do it.
In my personal experience, if you channel your personal interests and hobbies properly, they can become invaluable to you in delivering exceptional performances on the job.
Let me illustrate with an example from my workplace, back when I worked – as a high performing manager – in a corporate multinational.
Between July and August 2001, we had to prepare for the visit by auditors from the Standards Organization of Nigeria as part of ISO 9002 certification requirements.
About two weeks to the audits, I was forced to use my (self-developed)knowledge of Excel Visual Basic programming, to develop an online Training Records database management software package for the brewery.
This was due to our inability to secure a suitable off-the-shelf application package – on time – through the Information Systems department.
Many departments in the brewery had been marked down by the auditors, for lacking easily retrievable training records. What most had was on paper, and rarely well archived. That situation would have meant our failure, if it remained that way into the final audits.
During this period, I was acting as Training and Technical Development Manager(TTDM) for the first time (I was 28, and barely 4 years old in the company).
Knowing that I possessed the skills to do develop a viable solution, I decided to produce a custom database package as a temporary alternative.
You will agree with me that this would have been a major challenge since I was not formally trained as a computer programmer, but in my case I was “lucky” because computer programming – especially spreadsheet based automation – had always been a hobby.
It was a skill I had initially picked up from Richard Chambers during my trainee days.
Below: 1995 Photo of me (as a Graduate Trainee in the Technical Function) sitting next to Richard Chambers, Training Coordinator, – taken in the Training Department, Guinness Nigeria, Ikeja Brewery.
I subsequently used it to develop custom software packages to successfully solve major user problems. This was done mainly via automation of data recording and report generation for departments I was opportune to work in.
Also, I never stopped working to stay up-to-date with trends in that area either. This enabled me easily shift from writing Lotus spreadsheet macro programs(which Richard introduced me to), to events managed Visual Basic for Applications(Excel)programs.
It is worth noting that I “taught” myself to write Excel-VB code. My invaluable companion at the time, was a Microsoft Developer’s Self-Study Guide written by Reed Jacobson. I attended no formal classes or training.
I began working long hours daily – and sometimes overnight – over the course of those two weeks.
During that period, I tasked my Training Instructors to prepare complete training records of ALL departments, in MS Excel formats matching the application’s database records table.
When the time was right, I imported the staff training records into it, and hosted it on the internal network server, to check that it worked as desired.
On the morning of the day scheduled for final audits, I went round and installed shortcuts to launch the app on each departmental head’s PC.
I also showed each person how to navigate the app’s mostly graphic user interface, to generate a training report (on screen or in print) for a member of his/her team.
By the time the auditors arrived, every departmental head could competently use the app.
Like I mentioned earlier, in order to achieve my objective within the short time available, I had to spend a good number of nights in the brewery. Without that, I could never have achieved the result I did.
That’s called “Going The Extra Mile(GTEM)”.
You can imagine how relived everybody was – including myself! – that we eventually scaled the audits without incident, and got certified.
I did not get a medal for what I did. But I drew great personal satisfaction from knowing I helped solve a problem that threatened to thwart our collective ambition. And that was more than adequate compensation for me.
Final Words: The Rewards Seldom Come Immediately…But They Eventually Do, If You Don’t Stop!
If you’re going to use your hobbies and personal interests to succeed at work, you’ll most likely need to GTEM a lot!
That implies making personal sacrifices to make a noticeable difference in your workplace, to the benefit of the company.
And you will often have to do this with absolutely no expectation of reward (be it immediate or remote) in your mind. Otherwise, you’ll get tired of doing it sooner than is required to reap the rewards that are bound to come.
Think about this before you start. Or you could make yourself look bad before workplace colleagues – if you start doing great things and suddenly stop for no obvious reason!
Oh…by the way…I should also add that in my case, I never stopped: I just kept doing more…and eventually, many useful career advancement opportunities subsequently came my way.
They included excellent appraisal ratings, a subsequent longer stint of 3 months as TTDM, then a promotion to the position of TTDM. These would be followed by nomination to a 6 week overseas training course across the UK. And on my return from the UK, I went on secondment to act as a head of my former department (brewing)!
So you see, smart thinking decision makers DO take note of those team members who make a difference. Just don’t expect them to tell you directly, or reward you instantly. It rarely happens that way.
Remember: Working in paid employment is not like going to the Olympic games, where you get a medal immediately after you “win” 