Peer Career Coaching: Investing in Your Professional Development

How many of you have actually taken the time to create a strategy for your own professional development? Have you considered what you would like to achieve professionally over the next year or the next five? So many of us discuss the need to professionalize volunteer management so that our organizations will value volunteers and the work we do, leading to greater investment in volunteerism and viewing us as internal experts. But for that to occur it must start with each of us. 

According to Sheri Wilensky Burke and Gerald (Jerry) Pannozzo, it's important for each individual to invest in professional development. There are many strategies out there to accomplish this: subscriptions to publications such as this one; memberships in professional associations, attending conferences and workshops; mentoring; and the strategy Burke and Pannozzo describe as peer career coaching. In this feature article, read how these long-time colleagues used peer career coaching to collaborate on a mutual support plan to increase their professional skills and opportunities. After reading, perhaps you can, too.