"Complete two LinkedIn Learning courses." "Attend a webinar." "Read a leadership book." These goals tick the box and change nothing. Development goals feel like busywork when they are written to satisfy a form rather than to build something you actually want. Here is how to write the other kind.
Start from a real gap or ambition
Useful development goals come from one of two places:
- A gap that is costing you now. A skill that slows you down, a task you avoid, feedback you keep hearing.
- A role you want next. Look at the job description one level up and pick the skill you are weakest in.
If a goal does not connect to either, it is likely busywork.
Focus on doing, not attending
The weakest development goals measure input: hours of training, courses completed. The strongest measure application. Compare:
- Input: "Complete a project management course."
- Application: "Use the project management course methods to plan and run the Q3 office move, including a risk log and weekly status updates."
The course is still there, but now it serves a result someone can see.
Did you know? The 70-20-10 model, which grew out of Center for Creative Leadership research and was popularised by Lombardo and Eichinger in 1996, suggests most development comes from on-the-job experience (70%), then from other people (20%), with formal training around 10%. The figures are a rule of thumb, but the point stands: goals built around real work tend to stick.
Keep the admin light
Goal setting feels like extra admin when the tracking is heavier than the work. Keep it simple:
- One line per goal in a document you already use.
- A monthly note of what you did and what you learned.
- A single piece of evidence per goal at review time.
If your organisation's system demands more, that is its problem. Your own tracking can stay lean. Our goal-setting template takes five minutes to fill in.
Examples that are not busywork
- "Lead one client workshop per quarter, using feedback after each to improve the next."
- "Build a reusable Excel model for our monthly forecast and train two colleagues to use it."
- "Shadow the finance team for two days to understand how our pricing is set, then propose one change."
More ideas are in professional development goals examples.
The bottom line
A development goal earns its place when it builds a skill you need, through work that matters, with light tracking. If it only exists for the form, rewrite it. If you want a structured way to plan your development alongside business goals, our Business Planning and Goal Setting course is built for exactly that.