# Developing Professional Skills: Seven Steps From Finding Your Gaps to Real Progress Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/improve-skills/developing-professional-skills/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/improve-skills/developing-professional-skills.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving building self-awareness at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer Developing professional skills works best as a loop: find your gaps, check them with others, take stretch tasks, learn from feedback, and track real progress. ## Key facts - Title: Developing Professional Skills: Seven Steps From Finding Your Gaps to Real Progress - Category: Improve Your Skills - Primary skill: Building Self-Awareness - Related skills: Building Confidence, Professional Behaviors - Primary keyword: developing professional skills - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/improve-skills/developing-professional-skills/ ## What this page covers - Developing professional skills works best as a loop: find your gaps, check them with others, take stretch tasks, learn from feedback, and track real progress. - Practical guidance for developing professional skills - How this topic connects to Building Self-Awareness ## Detailed explanation Developing professional skills is less about collecting courses than about running a deliberate loop: find out which of your skills are weakest, check that picture with someone who sees you work, build one or two of them through stretch assignments, feedback and targeted training, then look for evidence of change before picking the next. It can look as if some colleagues simply arrived knowing how to take a [manager's criticism](/knowledge/self-awareness/how-to-take-criticism/) or keep a meeting on track. Most of them learned it the slow way, by trial and error, because these skills are rarely taught. They are behaviors, not talents, which means you can learn them on purpose, and faster once you know the order the steps come in. That order matters more than it seems, because the step most people start with belongs near the end. ## How to develop professional skills, step by step The Center for Creative Leadership describes where development comes from with a simple split: roughly 70 percent from challenging experiences, 20 percent from developmental relationships such as feedback and mentoring, and 10 percent from coursework and training. The model rests on the assumption that these capabilities are learned, not inborn. The percentages are a rule of thumb, drawn from what successful executives said had developed them rather than from precise measurement, so the useful part is the order of importance: the work itself first, other people second, courses third. That changes what a [plan for developing professional skills](/knowledge/improve-skills/skills-development-plan/) should look like. The first three steps below decide what you work on. The next three supply the practice, in roughly the proportions the model suggests. The last one tells you whether it is working and sends you around again. ### 1. Take stock of where you stand Start with an honest list rather than a general intention to improve. "Get better at professional skills" gives you nothing to practice on Monday morning; "speak up earlier in meetings" or "stop sending my manager half-finished drafts" does. Go through the skills that matter in your work one at a time and rate yourself on each, with a recent example behind every rating. The example is what keeps the score honest. A structured tool makes this easier than a blank page, because it asks about the same skills in the same way every time. The free Job Skills Test gives you [a structured starting picture](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) across the skills that matter at work, and a low score on one of them simply marks where to look first, since every one of them can be learned. Everything that follows depends on this step, so it comes first, and you can do it while still studying: it needs no job, only honesty about the situations you are already in. ### 2. Get an outside view A self-assessment on its own is less reliable than it feels. Research from NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, finds a clear and persistent gap between how students and employers see [new graduates' readiness](/knowledge/employability/career-readiness-competencies/): the two groups largely agree on which competencies matter, but students rate their own proficiency noticeably higher than employers do. The reason is not vanity. Students measure themselves against academic standards and limited time inside workplaces, so they are using a different yardstick. The correction is to put your list in front of someone who sees you work: a manager, a supervisor in a part-time job, a colleague you trust. NACE's Competency Assessment Tool is built on the same logic. Students and early-career professionals can use it to rate themselves, and employers can use it to evaluate growth on the same competencies, which turns a vague sense of "I should improve" into ratings that can be compared. You can do the same informally. Show the person your two or three weakest ratings and ask a specific, forward-looking question, such as which one they would most like to see you improve over the next few months. "How am I doing?" tends to get a polite answer; a narrow question gets a useful one. This step depends on the first. Someone can only correct your picture once you have one. ### 3. Choose one or two skills and plan concrete activities With the gaps confirmed, narrow down. The Bridgespan Group's guide to 70-20-10 development planning sets out the order plainly: first identify the specific competencies you want to grow, then get concrete about the experiences, relationships and learning activities that will build each one, ideally with your supervisor's support. Focus is what makes it work. One or two named skills give every later activity a purpose; ten skills give you a reading list. For each skill you choose, write down three things: an assignment where you will have to use it, a person who does it well and could give you feedback, and one piece of learning that would help. Then take the plan to your manager. Your manager often has a say in which assignments come your way, and one who knows what you are working on can put the right ones in your path. Notice that the course comes last on that list, not first. ### 4. Seek stretch experiences This is the largest share of development, and the one most often left to chance. The Center for Creative Leadership stresses that not all experiences are created equal: what develops people is the quality of an experience, not the hours spent in it. The experiences that build skills tend to involve something new or bigger than before, such as a responsibility you have never had, a significant increase in scope, a high-stakes project, fixing something that is not working, or starting something from scratch. Time in a job does not deliver these automatically, so ask for them. Volunteer to present the team's update, to take over a client email thread, or to organize the next project kickoff. Choose a stretch that is a step [beyond what you can do now](/knowledge/confidence/how-to-step-out-of-your-comfort-zone/) rather than a leap; an assignment far past your current skills mostly teaches you to dread the next one. If you are still studying, the same kinds of experience exist in part-time jobs, student organizations, research projects and internships, so development does not have to wait for a full-time contract. Steps 4 and 5 run side by side. The stretch assignment is what gives the feedback something real to be about. ### 5. Learn from people The second share of development comes from other people: feedback, coaching, mentoring, and simply watching and working alongside colleagues who do something well. It matters especially for professional skills because so many of them are unwritten. You usually see a difficult conversation handled well, or a tense meeting kept on track, long before anyone explains how it is done, and other people can tell you what you cannot see in your own behavior. This is also the share you have to ask for most directly. One of the young people we interviewed about starting work made exactly that point to us; what follows is our record of what she said rather than her exact words: > My worries didn't really come true. People are generally kind about helping — but it's something you have to seek out yourself. Nobody comes along and takes you by the hand. > > So you have to be very 'on' yourself and try to make things work — and mention it to someone if you can, because nothing happens by itself. In practice, that means asking for feedback right after a stretch assignment, while the details are fresh, and keeping the question narrow: what is one thing I could do differently next time? It also means choosing whom to learn from on purpose. If a colleague handles disagreement in meetings without anyone getting defensive, pay attention to what they actually say, and ask them about it afterward. ### 6. Add formal learning where it supports the work Courses, workshops and certifications have a place, but it is the smallest share and a supporting one. Good training gives you a vocabulary and a method, such as a way to structure feedback or a technique for running a meeting, which you then have to apply in real work before it becomes a skill. A course with no place to practice what it teaches gives you the smallest return of anything on this list. So time formal learning to the plan. Take the presentation workshop when you have a presentation coming up, or the course on writing reports in the month you are drafting your first one. The assignment from step 4 is what turns the course from information into practice. ### 7. Check the evidence and adjust Progress is easy to feel and hard to see, so judge it by observable evidence rather than mood. Three sources are enough: the quality of your work output, the feedback colleagues give you, and what comes up in your next review. If the person from step 2 now mentions a different weakness, that is progress. If nothing has changed, adjust the mix with a different assignment, a different person to learn from, or more practice and less reading. Do not drop the skill. Then go around again. Once a skill holds, return to step 1 with a fresh look, choose the next one or two, and repeat. Developing professional skills is not a project with an end date. It is a loop, and each round starts from a more accurate picture than the last. ## What keeps the loop running None of the seven steps runs on planning alone. Each one leans on something in you: whether you can see yourself clearly, whether you will try something before you are good at it, and whether people experience you as someone worth investing in. **Building Self-Awareness** is what steps 1, 2 and 7 depend on. Part of it is knowing your natural strengths, the things you are genuinely good at rather than merely competent at, judged by how you work, how the work makes you feel and the results it gets, so you know where to build as well as where to repair. The other part is feedback: understanding it first, adding your own view, then reflecting on what to change, and asking for specific advice about the future rather than a verdict on the past. That is how a vague wish to improve becomes a short list you can trust. **Building Confidence** is the engine of steps 4 and 5. Confidence here means believing you can do a specific thing, and it grows the same way the skill does: by doing it, in steps. Break a big goal into manageable pieces, step outside your comfort zone but not too far, and let the nerves come along instead of waiting for them to leave first. When a stretch assignment goes badly, look at what went wrong rather than who was wrong, and ask whether the setback really applies always and to everything, or just to this one time. **Professional Behaviors** decide whether people offer you stretch assignments and honest feedback in the first place. Treating everyone with respect, showing humility about what you do not know yet, taking a genuine interest in other people's work and staying open to change make a colleague willing to spend time on you. Being on time, keeping confidential information confidential and finishing administrative tasks without complaint make a manager comfortable handing you something bigger. You learn these behaviors by watching and practicing, not by memorizing rules, and none of them asks you to become someone else. The **free Job Skills Test** is a quick way to [find your weakest link](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) among these three, the one quietly slowing the whole loop down. It also reaches past them to **twelve work skills in all**, and every one of them can be learned, so whatever it flags is where your next round of practice should aim, not a verdict on you. ## You have probably started already There is a fair chance you have run this process before without calling it anything. If you have ever reread a comment a supervisor left on your work and quietly done the next piece differently, that was one small round of the loop: feedback, adjustment, a better result. The difference now is doing it on purpose, with a chosen skill and a person to check in with. None of it requires a different personality. Any gap you find is something you have not learned yet, and which skills you work on is your call. The higher the stakes of your work become, the more your results will turn on exactly these skills, which is a good reason to begin while mistakes are still cheap. What helps now is knowing which skills to choose. ## Start your first round this week Everything above depends on choosing well, and you can settle that today. The Job Skills Test is a **free** self-assessment of your work skills: it takes 7 minutes and shows where you stand across all twelve, and which ones would make the biggest difference to work on now. Pick one or two from your results, write down an assignment, a person and a piece of learning for each, and your first round has begun. ## Who this is for - Professionals building practical workplace skills - Readers looking for specific, usable work advice - Managers, educators, and coaches supporting career readiness ## Common questions ### What is this guide about? Developing professional skills works best as a loop: find your gaps, check them with others, take stretch tasks, learn from feedback, and track real progress. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Building Self-Awareness. It also relates to Building Confidence, Professional Behaviors. ### What is the recommended next step? Use the free Work Skills Test to reflect on which work skill to improve next. ## Related pages - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/improve-skills.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/self-awareness.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/confidence.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/professional-behaviors.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/improve-skills/developing-professional-skills/ Preferred summary: "Developing professional skills works best as a loop: find your gaps, check them with others, take stretch tasks, learn from feedback, and track real progress." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.