New ways to plan your professional development

New courses have been added, popular favorites return and all are STAP-eligible. Plus, use the new tool and free learning apps to help you plan for your short- and long-term goals.

It may sometimes feel like the world is a bit chaotic. One thing you have total control over is your own professional development—what you learn, how you apply your skills, and deciding which skills and competencies to strengthen.

In the winter quarter, new courses as well as back-by-popular-demand courses are available for enrollment now, and all are STAP-eligible. Also, new this quarter is a unique way to think about which courses are the most valuable for you by identifying the competencies you are seeking to strengthen. Competencies reflect the way we achieve work success, as they define the key knowledge, skills, and behaviors. They are often referred to as the “how” we do our work as opposed to “what” we do in our work and are the “intangibles” that hiring managers typically seek out.

Get started: Create your own roadmap

Your development depends on your planning, whether your short-term or long-term goal is to increase your effectiveness in your current role or to prepare yourself for a new role. A new tool to help you get started is the Professional Development Success Plan. The PDSP is used to help you identify your professional goals and aspirations, strengths, and areas of opportunity, ultimately leading to the creation of a plan of action to prepare for your next opportunity or role. The tool prompts you to do some self-reflection of your professional and personal aspirations and helps you align your role and goals with the organization’s objectives. Along with the tool, a template to have a discussion with your manager is provided. View or download the PDSP and the discussion template on the Cardinal at Work website.

Winter quarter courses to help you achieve your development goals

New courses in winter quarter include:

Crucial Conversations for Accountability
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Foundations
Managing Innovation
Strategic Thinking
Speed of Trust Foundations
Intelligent Risk-taking
Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager
The Mindfulness Meditation to Reduce Stress & Anxiety

Back-by-popular demand courses include:

Accomplishing More Leadership Program
Design Thinking in Action
21 Practices for Happiness and Accomplishment at Work
Process Improvement Basics
Exercising Influence
Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue
The Power of Habit
Thrive at Work

View Winter Quarter courses and enroll today!

NEW! Review courses based on the competencies you seek to strengthen

A new tool, the “Courses by Competency” webpage, identifies the competencies that are strengthened by participating in specific courses. All winter quarter courses are listed and their associated primary and secondary competencies are also listed.

Example: Want to strengthen your positivity and resilience in the workplace? Courses that help you advance that competency include 21 Practices for Happiness and Accomplishment @Work; Process Improvement Basics; and Intelligent Risk-taking.

You may wish to review the full descriptions of the competencies identified by Stanford leaders as the most valuable, which are posted on the Grow and Perform at Stanford website.

Free learning applications that also help you develop

LinkedIn Learning is available online 24/7 and free to employees; get to the application using Axess. With over 16,000 courses on various business and creative topics, along with thousands of podcasts, you can learn no matter where you are over winter closure and anytime. To see details about this application and sign up for an upcoming demo, visit the LinkedIn Learning webpage on the Cardinal at Work website.

Also, we are excited to share that employees now have free access to Coursera, which offers online degrees from accredited universities, professional certifications, and a deep library of learning courses. Coursera partners with more than 275 leading universities and companies to bring flexible, affordable, job-relevant online learning to individuals and organizations worldwide. Visit the Coursera webpage in the Cardinal at Work website to log in.

Your professional development matters and is in your control; commit to making time for yourself this year. These new tools and new courses, as well as tried-and-true courses, offered during the winter quarter, will help you get started.