The Unusual Bottom Line Factor: Personal & Professional Development

By Jacquette Timmons

When it comes to talking about money, the discourse is typically centered on growing one’s earnings, savings, and investments, while reducing debt and careless spending. Rarely do we make a correlation between these aspirations and our own growth in terms of personal and professional development.

Yet, I believe a strong case can be made for this oft overlooked connection – especially for those of us who are not professional athletes and therefore not “trained” to see the connection between improved performance and one’s level of wealth.

Consider the small business owner who hires a coach because her business is faltering; or, the physician who attends the annual medical conference to obtain CMEs (Continuing Medical Education); or the middle manager taking firm-provided training to improve his chances for a promotion; or the artist who works for an arts-based non-profit and participates in an artist fellowship program; or the person who annually attends a yoga retreat. These are just some examples of how people invest in their personal or professional well-being.

But personal and professional development (P/PD) is about more than acquiring skills or knowledge in an absolute sense. It’s about the transformation you experience as a result of your newfound skill-set and expanded awareness and how you apply that to your career and life. And sometimes the line between what constitutes “personal” vs. “professional” development is so blurred it warrants an important question: “Who should pay for my development?”

The short answer: it depends. Sometimes your employer will pay for your training, whether that training is offered by the firm or by an external vendor, because it directly ties into your job function. At other times, you’ll need to pay for it. But whether you or your employer pays for your P/PD, you cannot underestimate the ripple effect of said investment beyond your expanded awareness, increased potential, and sharpened skills to your wallet! So from now on think of personal and professional development not only as a tool to manage your career and life, but to manage your wealth as well. It’s an unusual bottom line factor, but one to which everyone should pay more attention.