Personal Development vs. Professional Development

[mschaefer14]

Someone brought up the topic of differentiating Personal Development from Professional Development at work this morning and I was wondering what thoughts you all might have on the topic.


Thanks,
Mike

[Shamou]

Hello and welcome aboard mschaefer14...

Your question could require quite an extensive amount of information however basically it could be said that 'Professional Development" is focused on one's profession or area of expertise whereas "Personal Development" focuses on the individual himself...

With Personal Development you seek to learn information that will help you become more efficient, successful and happy...

However, the two are closely related due to the fact you perform as you are... therefore by heightening your Personal Development you also increase your Professional skill and efficiency...

.

[JohnPlace]

I agree with everything Shamou just said.

Personal and professional development are deeply intertwined. It's hard to discuss where one ends and the other begins without first clarifying terms.

If a definition is what you're looking for, here's mine: It could be said that professional development is a subset of personal development -- that "personal" focuses on your entire life and "professional" only on the subset dealing with work/career. For example "personal development" might involve sharpening your people skills, whereas the more granular category of "professional development" might involve using your people skills to negotiate a raise or navigate office politics.

Subset or not, professional development deals with elements of the work life: job, salary, office politics, navigating organizations, raises, promotions, etc.