It is strange that the action plans for development and performance are implemented weeks or days prior to when the review will take place. According to our experience, some individuals (the managers as well as the manager) start thinking about their next steps when they arrive at the meeting. There is no time to prepare for the meeting, and there is no consideration of what the priorities might be for the next year.

There are times when you'll have an easy strategy to tackle every weakness when you let it be your manager. If you plan ahead before the meeting, you can bring up issues during the days or weeks leading up to the meeting, or, at worst, you can be ready to address them during the meeting itself.

The outcome of this is that you will end up with a PDP which is focused on the things you want to develop instead of just the list of problems that your manager wants you to solve. Continue to read this self improvement tips and develop yourself.

Here are a few tips to self improvement

Focus on the things you're skilled at. Instead of trying to develop your weaknesses, include some of your strengths (work on things you are "quite" good at), which you'd be looking to improve.

Check to see if you're able to improve your weaknesses. Consider how long you have worked on every weakness and how much it has progressed. Sometimes it is more beneficial to be able to live with it and work out how to handle it rather than repair it. For instance, is there someone you could exchange that piece of work with, or an arrangement you can set up to assist you?

Be particular

This is the most important tips to self improvement. We all know that objectives must be SMART, however the "S" for "Specific" in development terms must be very specific. Most development plans don't work because they are too general. For example, instead of saying you need to "develop your communication skills", focus on the real challenge - for example, maybe you're looking to improve your grammar or you need to work on the way you speak.

Do not make your plan the entire on a single course

Courses in training are extremely helpful to gain knowledge quickly, as they allow you to pick the brains of experts. But if you're already good at something, chances are that the course will only give you a few extras. Do you think it's a worthwhile decision to invest in a day (and the budget of your manager) just to get the few additional things you need?

Consider how you would like to learn

Your personal learning style will determine your plan of development. Do you enjoy speaking to people? If yes, set up a meeting with someone you can learn from. Are you a fan of reading or internet research? Listen to an iTunes university lecture. Or do you simply like being thrown into the deep end to face the issue? What could you do to translate your enthusiasm for learning into development activities that you have planned?