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Individual development plan template

An individual development plan your manager can use when decisions are made.

The template

The template
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN — [name], [date]

Developing toward:        [role, level or kind of work]
Who decides that:         [name or group]
When they decide:         [date]

GOAL 1
Development goal:
Why the business cares:
What my manager needs to see:
What I will do:
Proof it happened:
By when:

GOAL 2
(same six lines)

GOAL 3
(same six lines)

MONTHLY CHECK
Month | Goal | Done | Proof | Next

Copy it into a document, or use the free workbook.

What an individual development plan is

An individual development plan, or IDP, is a short written plan of what you will learn or improve this year and how. Most companies give you a form for it.

What most templates leave out

Most IDP templates have four columns: goal, action, resources and deadline. Filled in that way, the plan lists courses, and nobody opens it again until the next review.

Three more lines make it usable:

  • Why the business cares. One line that links the goal to something your department is trying to do. A goal with no such line is a hobby. It may still be worth doing, but your manager cannot argue for it.
  • What my manager needs to see. Ask, and write the answer in their words. This is the test your goal will be judged by.
  • Proof it happened. A document, a result or a person who can confirm it. "Completed the course" is weak proof. "Used it to rebuild the forecast" is strong.

The three lines at the top matter too. They say what the plan is for, who decides, and when.

How to fill it in

  1. Start from the year you want. Write what you want to have changed twelve months from now. The plan serves that.
  2. Choose two or three goals. With ten goals, few get done.
  3. Ask your manager one question for each goal. "What would you need to see to say I can do this?"
  4. Make the action a piece of work. A course is an action only when you apply it. Write where you will apply it.
  5. Decide the proof before you start.
  6. Set dates that fall before the decision date, not at the end of the year.

An example, filled in

Example

Developing toward: senior analyst. Who decides that: the department head, on my manager's proposal. When they decide: March.

Goal 1: own a forecast from start to finish.

  • Why the business cares: the department's margin target depends on a forecast that sales trusts.
  • What my manager needs to see: "One quarter where you run it without me."
  • What I will do: take over the monthly forecast from November, and present it to sales in January.
  • Proof: the three forecasts, and the sales lead's reply.
  • By when: 31 January.

Goal 2: explain numbers to people outside finance.

  • Why the business cares: sales acts on the figures only when they follow them.
  • What my manager needs to see: "You present at the sales meeting and they ask you, not me."
  • What I will do: present at two sales meetings, and write a one-page guide to the model.
  • Proof: the guide, and questions from sales sent to me directly.
  • By when: 28 February.

Review it every month

Once a month, write one line for each goal: what you did, the proof, and what comes next. Bring it to your one-on-one. A plan you look at every month stays alive. A plan you look at once a year does not.

If your company gives you its own form

Fill in theirs. Keep the three extra lines in your own copy, and say them aloud when you discuss the form with your manager.

When it goes wrong

  • Your manager says "we will do it at the review". Send the plan by email and ask one question: "What would you need to see for goal 1?"
  • A goal stops mattering. Strike it, date the change and say why. Do not delete it.
  • There is no training budget. Choose actions that are work: take over a task, shadow a colleague, present a result.

Questions

Who owns the individual development plan? You do. Your manager agrees it and helps. HR keeps the form.

How many goals should it have? Two or three.

How is it different from a career development plan? The IDP covers what you will learn this year. A career development plan covers where you want to be in two to three years, and who decides.

Should it include my pay or promotion goal? Put it in the first line, "developing toward". The request itself has its own date. See how to ask for a raise.

The whole year, free

The development plan is one page of a year-long routine. The full method is free: Start your annual review on day one. The free workbook holds your objectives, the dates and the monthly check.

If you would rather have it kept for you, a coach that runs it is planned.