The Professional Development Fiction That’s Ruining Australian Businesses
A few months back, I was sitting in a Perth boardroom watching a CEO explain why their star performer just left. “Look at all the training we provided,” he insisted, scratching his head. “Management programs, skill-building sessions, you name it.””
I swear I have this identical same discussion with executives monthly. Organisation pours money into development programs. Star player walks out the door. Leadership teams sit there confused about where they messed up.
Having spent nearly two decades working with organisations from Perth to Brisbane on development strategies, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat itself like a scratched record. Professional development has become this compliance activity that makes managers feel good but achieves nothing meaningful.
Here’s what nobody wants to admit: professional development is more about corporate image than real employee growth.
What drives me totally mental is how professional development gets treated as a optional benefit. A token gesture that appears magically when someone asks about career progression.
Wrong. Dead wrong.
Professional growth should be basic to business success. Yet it’s treated as extra, something that can wait until next quarter.
I remember working with a building company in Adelaide where the foremen were technical experts but people management disasters. Rather than tackling the genuine issue, they enrolled everyone in some standard leadership course that set them back nearly fifty grand. Months later, the supervisors were still having the same same issues with their crews.
Professional development works fine when done properly. We’re just approaching it arse-about.
Companies guess at what their staff should learn rather than discovering what employees are desperate to master. This disconnect is the reason so much development spending produces zilch results.
Effective development begins by asking: what barriers prevent you from doing your best work?
Forget what management assumes you require. Ignore what the learning menu recommends. What you personally understand as the obstacles to your peak performance.
I think about Sarah, a marketing professional I coached at a Brisbane business. The organisation constantly enrolled her in online marketing programs because management assumed that was the gap. Sarah’s genuine struggle was handling her unpredictable boss who shifted direction constantly.
Digital marketing workshops had zilch relevance to her genuine workplace obstacle. One chat with a mentor who understood tricky boss dynamics? Complete transformation.
Here’s where businesses fail in the most complete fashion. They target functional expertise when the genuine challenges are people-related. When they finally tackle people skills, they use classroom-style training rather than practical guidance and support.
Presentations won’t develop your ability to navigate challenging interpersonal situations. You learn by having difficult conversations with someone experienced guiding you through the process.
The most effective development occurs during real work, with instant coaching and guidance. Everything else is just pricey entertainment.
Something else that makes me furious: the fixation on degrees and professional credentials. Look, I understand some jobs demand particular formal training. But the majority of roles need skills that no certificate can validate.
There are marketing executives with no formal training who understand their market better than qualified consultants. There are project leaders who developed their skills in the field and deliver better results than accredited specialists.
But we continue promoting structured courses because they’re simpler to track and explain to executives. It’s equivalent to evaluating a mechanic by their qualifications rather than whether they can fix your car.
Organisations that excel at development understand it’s not about training schedules or qualification frameworks. It’s about creating environments where people can learn, experiment, and grow while doing meaningful work.
Google does this well with their 20% time policy. Atlassian supports creative sessions where employees explore opportunities outside their typical role. These companies understand that the best learning happens when people are solving genuine problems they care about.
Small businesses can establish these development opportunities without massive budgets. Some of the most effective development I’ve seen happens in small businesses where people wear many hats and learn by necessity.
The vital element is approaching it with clear purpose. Rather than hoping development happens naturally, intelligent companies design challenging projects, collaborative opportunities, and coaching relationships that push people appropriately.
This is what delivers results: combining people with varied backgrounds on genuine business initiatives. The newer team member learns about different problems and how decisions get made. The experienced individual builds mentoring and team leadership capabilities. Everyone learns something valuable.
The approach is straightforward, cost-effective, and connected to real business results. Though it needs leaders who can mentor and grow people instead of only distributing responsibilities. Here’s where nearly all businesses absolutely fail.
We promote people to management positions based on their technical skills, then expect them to magically know how to develop others. It’s like advancing your strongest accountant to accounting supervisor and being shocked when they struggle with team management.
To create development that genuinely grows people, you must first invest in growing your supervisors. Not via management seminars, but through continuous mentoring and assistance that improves their ability to develop others.
The paradox is that effective professional development rarely resembles traditional training. It looks like interesting work, challenging projects, and managers who care about helping their people succeed.
I remember a Canberra accounting business where the principal partner ensured every staff member tackled something new and tough each year. No official training, no credentials, merely challenging work that expanded people’s abilities.
People rarely left that organisation. Employees remained because they were developing, discovering, and being pushed in personally meaningful directions.
Here’s the winning approach: development linked to important work and personal motivations rather than standard capability structures.
The majority of professional development fails because it tries to be everything to everyone. Better to focus on a few key areas that matter to your particular people in your particular context.
Which brings me to my biggest bugbear: generic development programs. These generic solutions overlook how people learn distinctively, carry different inspirations, and confront different barriers.
Certain individuals learn through action. Others like to watch and contemplate. Some individuals excel with open praise. Others prefer discreet guidance. Nevertheless we channel everyone through uniform programs and puzzle over inconsistent results.
Smart companies personalise development the same way they customise customer experiences. They know that successful methods for certain people might be entirely unsuitable for different personalities.
This does not require building numerous separate initiatives. It means staying adaptable about how people engage with development options and what those options involve.
Perhaps it’s role variety for someone who develops through action. It might be a study circle for someone who understands concepts better through dialogue. Perhaps it’s a public speaking opportunity for someone who requires outside recognition to develop self-assurance.
The objective is aligning the development method with the individual, not making the individual conform to the method.
My forecast: within five years, organisations with top talent will be those that learned to make development individual, applicable, and directly linked to meaningful work.
The others will keep shipping people to uniform programs and puzzling over why their star performers move to rivals who appreciate that outstanding people want to advance, not simply gather credentials.
Professional development isn’t about checking boxes or fulfilling training quotas. It’s about establishing cultures where people can achieve their highest capabilities while engaging in purposeful activities.
Get that right, and everything else – retention, engagement, performance – takes care of itself.
Mess it up, and you’ll continue those executive discussions about why your top talent leaves despite your major development investments.
Your choice.
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