So you know the key capabilities that you should be working on to reach and perform well in a future role that you wish to target.  And beyond the training resources that your company is able to provide, you recognize that developing these capabilities is most affected by your ability to take advantage of the situations offered in your workplace.  But the big challenge still remains.  What specific actions can you take to improve in these key areas?

For many mainland professionals who are used to learning through structured situations and lessons, this is indeed a big challenge.  But if you are working in a multinational company, it is likely that you have exposure to a variety of opportunities and resources that can help you to learn and improve.  Benefiting from them, however, requires a proactive effort on your part.  Actually, that level of effort is not as time consuming or difficult as you might think.  It mainly involves pursuing your development objectives within the situations that, for the most part, are already available to you.

Engage And Participate More In Daily Situations
For instance, early in my career, I sat in on a lot of planning and project update meetings attended by people from various departments across the company.  During most of these meetings, I was a passive participant, where I would sit there in silence unless called upon for some reason.  Being at a junior level at the time, I was rarely the main person that others were coming to hear speak, so I did not feel that I needed to know much more beyond my responsibilities for the project.  As a result, I was pretty detached from what was taking place in these meetings and looked at them as just an unavoidable part of my job.  The main question running through my mind in those meetings was usually, “When is this going to end?”

When I began working in my next job, however, I was in a much more ambitious frame of mind for my career.  One of my development goals then was to gain a greater perspective and understanding of business.  And still uncomfortable speaking in front of others, I also wanted to build my confidence in speaking out in group situations.  As such, my basic approach to the meetings that I attended became much different.  Rather than just sit passively in attendance, I wanted to involve myself to a greater degree, even if just mentally. 

To help me pursue these two objectives, I came up with the idea of raising at least one question in any meeting that I was a part of.  My thinking was that it is a lot easier to speak out by raising a question than by sharing an idea or opinion.  If it was a good question, then it could help clarify things for everyone else and even open up the discussion for others to share their thoughts.

The result of this approach was that I started getting a lot more out of the meetings that I was sitting in on.  The biggest difference that it made was that I began viewing myself as a participant, rather than just an attendee.  The intention to ask a question at some point forced me to pay greater attention to what was being said.  Even though my objective was to only raise a question, I wanted to make sure that it was a good one.  The benefit to me was that, by listening more closely, I caught more details and was more in tune with what was going on. 

This simple habit helped me to improve in both of my development objectives of gaining a better understanding of many aspects of business and expressing myself in front of others.  Just the effort to ask a single question will help you get more out of the meetings that you are a part of.

Observe And Copy The Excellent Habits Of Those Around You
To give another example, I also still remember the words of one executive when I asked him what he felt was the best way for young professionals to improve themselves.  His response was, “Observe and copy the habits of those excellent people that you come in contact with.”

In fact, many successful executives that I speak with point to people that they have had the chance to work with early in their career as having a major impact on their professional development.  If you work in a multinational company, there are likely to be many outstanding people in the organization who demonstrate highly professional habits and qualities that are relevant to your own growth.  Those whom you can learn from do not have to be people that you interact with each day.  They can be colleagues or managers from other departments, clients or customers, or even senior executives that you have the chance to interact with. 

Before his current role as the regional vice president of leading office products, one of our candidates described how throughout his career he has been fortunate to work for good bosses.  When I asked him which ones have helped him most in his career, his reply was, “I’ve learned something from every one of them.”

“From my first boss, I learned how important it is to trust those on your team,” he begins.  “I watched him display this trust to develop a sense of ownership among his staff and to generate greater activity and ideas.  As a result, in my own management style today, I also trust my guys and give them the authority to do things.

Another boss’ strength was finding common ground among different parties, particularly when it came to resolving issues and potential conflicts.  Another was all about showing others how by example.  Whenever there was a new, challenging objective, he would demonstrate to the team that the result was possible through his energy and positive approach, which helped motivate us to take on the challenge as well.  His motto was, “‘Why not just try?’  Because of his encouragement, we always did.”

These are just two simple, self-development examples that do not require a big financial investment on your part or considerable time that takes you away from your ability to handle your job.  Mostly, they occur in the course of what is already going on in your daily work environment.  The key point is that the time and effort that you put into your learning and improvement does not need to happen exclusive of the time and effort that you need to put into performing your job. 

In your own situation, there are sure to be many ways for you to practice and improve in those areas that get you closer to your future objectives.  Essentially, anything that involves engaging people more, paying greater attention to situations, participating more, or taking greater initiative and accountability is going to be good for your professional development.  To receive those benefits, you just need to be proactive in engaging those situations that are available to you.