The SmartEngineer Xmas Special
Squeezing a little more out of the Christmas holiday
The Christmas break is typically 2 weeks long and is the ideal time to reflect and energise for the following year. Here is a list of items that you may wish to consider as part of a smart professional development approach:
Access the FULL Xmas special here
- Reflect
Consider how the year just past has gone and reflect on the good and bad points in terms of your professional growth.
Try to put together some numbers around how much time you spent on certain activities, how much money you invested in yourself and ….this is important … what you observed in others who are successful.
2. Plan
Create a 1-3years plan trying to use insights from your reflection to set different goals specifically for the next 12month period. Create a way to monitor your progress on important items.
“you have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better.” John Wooden
Regarding those people you view as successful – Arrange a coffee/ lunch with them.
3. Take the challenge – Complete the 6in6 – (Read 6 books in 6 Months)
The man who does not need good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them – Mark Twain
The SmartEngineer website and SmartEngineerUK twitter will recommend books that engineers should be familiar with or may find useful as part of managing their professional development. December update will have 2 books – ***Available now below***
For book 3 see post.
Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim & Mauborgne
Why: It’s a best seller for a reason and it has the simplest but most powerful model for unlocking value.
Quote: The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition – you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value
Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
Why: If you want to be inspired to look at yourself, your organisation, the Construction Industry from a new point of view….
Quote: If I want to become a great tennis player I must first lose lots of tennis games. If I want to become a top commercial architect known for energy efficient, minimalist designs, I must first design inefficient, clunky buildings.
