If you were asked to write your development goal and don't know where to start, this guide is for you. A good development goal fits in two lines: it says which skill you will improve, how you will know you are making progress, what you will practice and by when. Here is how to choose what to improve, how to write and measure it, and 20 soft skills with the signs that you should work on them, what to practice and an example goal ready to adapt.
In this guide What a development goal is · How to choose what to improve · How to write it · How to measure a soft skill · 20 soft skills with examples · Technical skills · Common mistakes · How to move forward during the cycle · Template to copy
What a development goal is (and how it differs from a business goal)
Two kinds of goals live in a work plan. Business goals are the results your role delivers in the cycle: sales, response times, finished projects. A development goal is about you: a skill you want to improve to do your job better today or to grow toward what comes next.
The difference changes how you write it. A business goal measures a result. A development goal mostly measures your practice and how your way of working changes. In Vogata, a development goal also carries no weight and stays out of the score: it is followed through your progress and talked through with your manager in your 1:1s. That is why you can pick something that is genuinely hard for you, without fear of it counting against you.
Business: "Bring support's first response time down from 9 to 4 hours before the end of the cycle."
Development: "Give specific, timely feedback to the people on my team, at least 8 times in the cycle."
How to choose what to improve
The best skill to work on is not the one that sounds good on paper, it is the one that changes your week the most. Look for it in four places:
- What people tell you. Comments that keep coming back from your manager, the people you work with or your customers. If two different people told you the same thing, there is something there.
- What you avoid. Situations you put off or that cost you more than they should: presenting, saying no, an awkward conversation, asking for help.
- What your next step asks for. If you want to lead a team, handle bigger customers or become a go-to person in your area, which skill are you missing to get there?
- What helps your team most this cycle. If the team's goal depends on working with another area, collaborating better is worth more than any course.
These questions help you find it:
- At what point in the week do you feel you lose the most time or energy?
- What comment about your work have you heard more than once?
- What does someone you admire in your role do that you don't do yet?
- If you were given more responsibility tomorrow, what would be hardest for you?
- What does your manager ask you to improve? If you don't know, ask in your next 1:1: "Which skill would help me grow the most this cycle?"
Choose one skill per cycle, two at most. One skill you practice every week takes you further than five that nobody remembers by week six.
How to write it: four questions
A good development goal answers four questions. If someone on your team reads it and understands all four, it is ready:
- What you will achieve. The skill, brought down to something visible. Not "communicate better", but "my updates to the team are understood the first time".
- How you will know you are making progress. A simple measure. Below you will find four ways to measure a soft skill.
- How you will get there. What you will practice and how often.
- By when. A real date inside the cycle, not "during the year".
In practice it is written in two parts: a short title and a description with the rest.
Title: a verb and the skill, in a few words.
Description: what you will achieve, how you will know you are making progress, what you will practice and how often, and by when.
Here is how a vague goal changes when it answers the four questions:
- Vague: "Improve my communication."
Better: "Present 4 updates from my area at the monthly meeting before the end of the cycle, preparing each one with 3 key messages and asking 2 attendees for one specific observation after each presentation." - Vague: "Be a better leader."
Better: "Hold a 1:1 every two weeks with each person on my team during the cycle, with a shared agenda and actions agreed at the end of each one." - Vague: "Get more organized."
Better: "Set my 3 priorities every Monday and block 2 meeting-free mornings a week, completing at least 2 of the 3 priorities in 9 of the 12 weeks of the cycle." - Vague: "Take a negotiation course."
Better: "Apply what I learn in the negotiation course to the 5 contract renewals of the cycle, preparing each one with my margin and 2 alternatives, and reviewing how each one went in my 1:1."
The examples in this guide say "before the end of the cycle". In yours, write the exact date, for example "by March 31".
How to measure a soft skill (without making up numbers)
This is the hardest part and where most goals fall apart. "Improve my leadership by 30%" looks measurable, but nobody knows what that 30% is. Use one of these four ways, or combine two:
- Practice you can count. How many times you do the new behavior: "facilitate 24 stand-ups", "give 8 specific pieces of feedback". It depends on you and is easy to log.
- What other people see. Ask 3 people who work with you for their view at the start and at the end of the cycle, with the same question: "From 1 to 5, how clear are my presentations? What would you change?".
- A result you can notice. Something that changes as you improve: fewer clarifying questions, meetings that end with agreements, fewer cases sent back.
- Your own log. Write down every week what you practiced, what happened and what you will adjust. By the end of the cycle you have the full story of how you moved forward.
The combination that works best is a practice that depends on you plus a signal of effect. The practice keeps you moving and the signal tells you whether you are heading in the right direction.
And do the math before you set the number: a 12-week cycle with one practice a week is 12 times, not 20. Choose a pace you can keep in a hard week, not just in a good one.
20 soft skills, with signs and examples
Each skill comes with the signs that you should work on it, what to practice and an example goal with its title and description. Take it as a starting point and adjust it to your role, your numbers and your dates.
Communication Written communication · Presenting and public speaking · Active listening Feedback and relationships Giving feedback · Receiving feedback · Difficult conversations · Working with other areas · Influencing without authority · Customer empathy Organization and ways of working Priorities and time · Meeting deadlines and flagging early · Autonomy and initiative · Problem solving · Making decisions · Adapting to change · Handling stress and emotions Leading and growing others Facilitating meetings · Delegating · Teaching and supporting others · Supporting your team as a manager
Communication
Written communication
Writing so others understand the first time: emails, messages, documents and tickets.
Work on it if
- People reply with questions about something you already wrote.
- Your long messages go unanswered or get misread.
- You find it hard to sum up a topic in a few lines.
What to practice
- Put the important part in the first line: what you need and by when.
- Reread before sending and cut what is extra.
- Use a list when there are more than two ideas.
Title: Write updates that are understood the first time
Description: Write my weekly update to the team using the format "what happened, what's next, what I need", ask 2 people on the team to flag what wasn't clear, and reach the end of the cycle with 8 out of 10 updates that needed no clarifying questions.
Presenting and public speaking
Explaining an idea in front of others, clearly and in the time you have.
Work on it if
- You avoid presenting or hand the presentation to someone else.
- You run long and never get to the important part.
- Your presentations end without a decision or a next step.
What to practice
- Define 3 key messages before building the slides.
- Rehearse once out loud, timing yourself.
- Always close with what you need from your audience.
Title: Present my area's updates clearly
Description: Present 4 updates from my area at the monthly meeting before the end of the cycle, preparing each one with 3 key messages and a rehearsal, and ask 2 attendees for one specific observation after each presentation.
Active listening
Understanding what the other person needs before you answer.
Work on it if
- You interrupt, or have your answer ready before the other person finishes.
- You find out late that it wasn't what they asked for.
- Your customers or your team have to repeat things to you.
What to practice
- Sum up what you understood before answering: "So what you need is…".
- Ask one more question before proposing a solution.
- Close the laptop and put the phone away in 1:1 conversations.
Title: Listen before proposing
Description: Sum up and confirm what I understood before proposing a solution in at least 10 customer meetings during the cycle, note it in my log, and ask my manager to tell me what they saw in 3 of them, before the end of the cycle.
Feedback and relationships
Giving feedback
Telling someone what worked and what to change, specifically and on time. More in our guide on how to give feedback without it feeling like an evaluation.
Work on it if
- You hold on to what bothers you until it becomes big.
- Your feedback is only positive or very general ("good job").
- You avoid talking to someone on your team when something isn't working.
What to practice
- Use situation, behavior and impact: what happened, what the person did and what effect it had.
- Give it within 48 hours, while it is fresh.
- Count specific positive feedback too: it tells people what to repeat.
Title: Give specific, timely feedback
Description: Give 8 pieces of feedback using situation, behavior and impact to people on my team before the end of the cycle (at least 3 about something to improve), each within 48 hours of what happened, and note in my log what happened next.
Receiving feedback
Asking for input on your work and using it, without getting defensive.
Work on it if
- You start explaining yourself as soon as someone comments.
- You rarely ask for input on what you deliver.
- You find out late that something didn't work.
What to practice
- Ask for feedback with a specific question: "What would you change in this proposal?".
- Answer "thanks, I'll think about it" and decide later, calmly.
- Tell the person what you changed thanks to their comment.
Title: Ask for and use feedback on my work
Description: Ask for feedback with a specific question after 6 important deliveries of the cycle and apply at least one change in the next delivery, logging each case, before the end of the cycle.
Difficult conversations
Talking about uncomfortable things on time, without hurting the relationship.
Work on it if
- You put off uncomfortable topics until they grow.
- Disagreements turn personal.
- You keep the frustration instead of saying it.
What to practice
- Prepare the conversation: the facts, the impact and what you are asking for.
- Talk in private and soon, within the same week.
- Look for an agreement, not to win the argument.
Title: Address disagreements on time
Description: Have difficult conversations within the week the topic comes up, preparing each one with facts, impact and what I am asking for, and review them with my manager in our 1:1: at least 4 conversations handled this way before the end of the cycle.
Working with other areas
Working with other teams so work flows between areas instead of getting stuck in the middle.
Work on it if
- You find out late what other areas are doing.
- Work handed from one team to another comes back incomplete or with errors.
- You find it hard to ask for help or lend a hand outside your team.
What to practice
- Share progress before it is perfect.
- Agree with the other area on what each needs to receive the work.
- Offer specific help, not "let me know if you need anything".
Title: Coordinate with sales on the cases that move between our areas
Description: Keep a 30-minute meeting with sales every two weeks for the whole cycle (6 meetings) to review the cases that move between our areas, and bring the cases sent back for missing information down from 10 to 4 a month by the end of the cycle.
Influencing without authority
Getting others on board with your ideas when they don't report to you.
Work on it if
- Your proposals are good, but they don't move forward.
- You depend on other areas and can't get priority.
- You give in quickly when someone says no.
What to practice
- Understand what matters to the other side before you ask.
- Come with data about the problem, not just the idea.
- Propose two options instead of one.
Title: Get support for my improvement proposals
Description: Present 3 improvement proposals to other areas before the end of the cycle, each with the problem measured, the benefit for that area and 2 options, and get at least 2 of them up and running.
Customer empathy
Responding to what the person needs, not only to what the procedure says.
Work on it if
- Customers feel misunderstood, even when you solve their case.
- Some complaints escalate because of the tone more than the problem.
- You say no without explaining why.
What to practice
- Name what the person needs before you answer.
- Explain why when the answer is no, and offer an alternative.
- Close by confirming the problem is solved.
Title: Close every case with the customer on board
Description: Close every case by confirming with the customer that it is solved, and explain why and offer an alternative when the answer is no, to raise satisfaction on my cases from 80% to 90% by the end of the cycle.
Organization and ways of working
Priorities and time
Giving your best time to what matters most, not just to what shouts loudest.
Work on it if
- You end the day having done a lot, but not the important things.
- You say yes to everything you are asked.
- Urgent work eats your week again and again.
What to practice
- Choose 3 priorities at the start of every week.
- Block time with no meetings or notifications for what matters.
- Answer "I can look at it on Thursday" instead of an immediate yes.
Title: Protect time for what matters
Description: Set my 3 priorities every Monday and block 2 meeting-free mornings a week, completing at least 2 of the 3 priorities in 9 of the 12 weeks of the cycle, according to my Friday review.
Meeting deadlines and flagging early
Delivering on the agreed date and, when that isn't possible, saying so early and not on the day.
Work on it if
- Your deliveries slip without warning.
- You always estimate less time than it really takes.
- You realize on the last day that you won't make it.
What to practice
- Estimate and add a buffer for the unexpected.
- Split every delivery into milestones with dates.
- Flag a risk as soon as you see it, with a proposed new date.
Title: Deliver on the agreed date or flag it early
Description: Split every delivery of the cycle into weekly milestones and review them in my 1:1s, so that 9 out of 10 deliveries arrive on the agreed date and, for the ones that don't, flag it at least 2 days in advance, before the end of the cycle.
Autonomy and initiative
Moving forward without waiting for instructions, and raising your hand on time when you can't.
Work on it if
- You wait to be told the next step.
- You spend hours stuck before asking for help.
- You see problems in the process and don't mention them.
What to practice
- Propose the next step before you are asked.
- Ask for help after 30 minutes without progress.
- Bring one improvement idea to every 1:1.
Title: Propose improvements to the shipping process
Description: Bring one concrete improvement a month to my 1:1 (the problem, the idea and the first step) and have at least 2 of them working before the end of the cycle.
Problem solving
Getting to the root of a problem and proposing solutions, instead of just putting out fires.
Work on it if
- You fix the symptom and the problem comes back.
- You escalate problems without a proposal.
- You jump to the first solution that comes to mind.
What to practice
- Ask "why did this happen?" several times, until you reach the cause.
- Come with the problem and 2 possible solutions.
- Check afterwards whether the solution worked.
Title: Bring proposals, not just problems
Description: Bring the likely cause and 2 options every time I escalate a problem during the cycle, and dig into 3 recurring problems in my area, documenting their cause and solution before the end of the cycle.
Making decisions
Deciding with enough information, not perfect information, and owning what you decide.
Work on it if
- You put off decisions waiting for more information.
- You ask your manager about things you could decide yourself.
- You change your mind often and the team doesn't know what to expect.
What to practice
- Agree with your manager on which decisions are yours.
- Give yourself a deadline to decide, and keep it.
- Write down why you decided and review later how it went.
Title: Decide within my scope
Description: Agree with my manager in our first 1:1 on which decisions are mine, make them without escalating and log each one with its outcome, to go from about 8 to 3 or fewer escalated decisions a month by the end of the cycle.
Adapting to change
Adjusting quickly when priorities, tools or ways of working change.
Work on it if
- A change of priorities frustrates you for days.
- It is hard for you to drop a way of working you already know.
- You leave new tools for last.
What to practice
- Ask why the change is happening, to understand what it is for.
- Separate what you control from what you don't.
- Be one of the first to use something new and tell the team how it went.
Title: Adopt the new work management tool
Description: Use the new work management tool for all my tasks from the third week of the cycle, learn 2 advanced features and teach them to the team in a 20-minute session before the end of the cycle.
Handling stress and emotions
Responding calmly under pressure, instead of reacting in the heat of the moment.
Work on it if
- You answer messages or comments that bother you in the heat of the moment.
- Weeks with a heavy load overwhelm you.
- You find it hard to switch off at the end of the day.
What to practice
- Wait before answering something that bothered you.
- Recognize your signs of overload and say so on time.
- Take short breaks on intense days.
Title: Respond calmly under pressure
Description: Wait 30 minutes before answering messages that upset me and review every Friday, in 5 minutes, the moments in the week when I reacted in the heat of the moment, to go from about 3 a week to 1 or fewer by the end of the cycle.
If the stress comes from a workload that can't be sustained, that is not a development goal: talk to your manager about the workload.
Leading and growing others
These skills help people who lead a team and also people who want to get there.
Facilitating meetings
Making meetings start with a purpose and end with agreements.
Work on it if
- Your meetings run longer than planned.
- They end without agreements or owners.
- The same people always do the talking.
What to practice
- Send the agenda in advance, with the goal of the meeting.
- Close with agreements, owners and dates.
- Give the floor to whoever hasn't spoken yet.
Title: Facilitate the team stand-up
Description: Facilitate the team stand-up twice a week during the cycle (about 24 times), keeping it to 15 minutes and closing each one with the blockers and who will unblock them, and ask the team for feedback in week 6 and in the last week.
Delegating
Handing work to other people clearly, so the team moves forward without depending on you.
Work on it if
- You do things other people could do.
- The team waits for your answer to move forward.
- You have no time left for what only you can do.
What to practice
- Choose what to let go of: start with the tasks that repeat.
- Explain the expected result, not the step by step.
- Agree on checkpoints instead of reviewing everything.
Title: Delegate the weekly report and the order review
Description: Hand 2 tasks I do today (the weekly report and the order review) to people on the team before the middle of the cycle, with a handover session and 2 agreed checkpoints, so that by the end of the cycle they do them without me.
Teaching and supporting others
Helping other people learn what you know, instead of doing it for them.
Work on it if
- You are the only person who knows how to do something important.
- Every question on a topic lands on you.
- You want to grow toward a role where you support other people.
What to practice
- Write a guide for what only you know how to do.
- Accompany someone while they do the task, instead of doing it yourself.
- Ask before giving the answer.
Title: Train someone on the monthly accounting close
Description: Support one person on the team so they can do the monthly accounting close on their own, with a written guide and 3 sessions where they do it and I observe, so that they do the last close of the cycle without my help.
Supporting your team as a manager
Giving context, talking often with each person and helping them grow. More in our guides on how to run effective 1:1s and how to lead your first team.
Work on it if
- You started leading a team recently.
- Your team isn't clear on what is expected of each person.
- Your 1:1s get cancelled or turn into status meetings.
What to practice
- Hold regular 1:1s and never cancel one without rescheduling it.
- Agree on clear goals for the cycle with each person.
- Recognize in public and talk about what to improve in private.
Title: Support each person on my team with regular 1:1s
Description: Hold a 1:1 every two weeks with each of the 4 people on my team during the cycle (24 in total), with a shared agenda and actions agreed at the end of each one, never cancelling one without rescheduling it that same week.
A technical skill works too
A development goal doesn't have to be a soft skill. If what helps you most is a tool or a body of knowledge, the formula is the same: you learn it and apply it to your real work, with a measure and a date.
- Data: "Write the 6 data queries I ask the data team for every month myself, with 2 hours of practice a week, before the end of the cycle."
- Spreadsheets: "Build the monthly sales report on my own with pivot tables, instead of by hand, from the second month of the cycle."
- English: "Run 3 meetings with our US customer in English before the end of the cycle, with 2 classes a week and the script for each meeting prepared the day before."
- Documentation: "Write 5 guides for the tasks only I know how to do, one every two weeks, each reviewed by someone else on the team, before the end of the cycle."
- AI tools: "Use an AI assistant to draft my weekly reports from the second week of the cycle, and bring the time I spend on them down from 3 hours to 1 hour a week."
Common mistakes
- Too general. "Improve my communication" doesn't say in which situation or how it shows. Bring the skill down to a concrete moment in your week.
- Trying to improve everything at once. Four skills in one cycle end up as none. Choose one.
- Made-up numbers. "Improve my leadership by 30%" can't be measured. Count your practice or ask other people for their view.
- A course as the goal. The course is an action, not the goal. What matters is what you do differently afterwards: "apply what I learned in the 5 renewals of the cycle".
- Depending on others. "Being given more projects" isn't in your hands. Write what you will do.
- A business goal in disguise. "Finish project X" is a business result. The development goal is what you learn or change along the way.
- No date. "During the year" or "ongoing" never ends. Set a date inside the cycle.
How to move forward during the cycle
Writing it is the first step. What makes the difference is what happens in the weeks that follow:
- Break it into actions with dates. In week one, ask for the initial view. Every week, your practice. Halfway through the cycle, a review with your manager.
- Log your progress at a pace you can keep, every week or every two. Two lines are enough: what you practiced and what happened.
- Bring it to your 1:1s. Four questions are enough: what I practiced, what went well, what I will adjust and where I need help.
- Ask for feedback halfway through, not only at the end, so you can adjust in time.
- If the context changes, adjust it with your manager. Changing a development goal in time isn't failing: it is part of learning.
If you are a manager: how to support it
- Help choose, don't impose. Ask what is hard for the person and what they want to achieve, and share what you see.
- Create room to practice. If their goal is presenting, give them meetings where they can present.
- Ask about the practice in every 1:1, without judgment. Development moves forward when people can talk about what was hard.
- Recognize progress out loud. A "the way you closed that meeting really showed" weighs more than it seems.
Template to copy
Copy this and fill it in:
Skill I want to improve: (just one)
Title: (a verb and the skill, in a few words)
Description: I will (what you will achieve) and I will know I am making progress because (your measure). To get there I will (what you will practice and how often), by (a date inside the cycle).
Before you save it, check:
- Would someone on your team understand what you will achieve just by reading it?
- Do you know how you will measure your progress?
- Does it depend on you?
- Can you practice it every week, even in a hard week?
- Does it have a date inside the cycle?
If all five answers are yes, your goal is ready.
Your development goal in Vogata
In Vogata, your plan for each cycle has two parts: Business and Development. Development goals carry no weight and stay out of the score: they are followed through your progress and what you log, and talked through with your manager in your 1:1s.
When you create a goal, Vogata talks it through with you in a few questions until it is clear what you will achieve, how you will know you are making progress, how you will get there and by when. The questions come with options to choose from, but what you say or choose is what stays. And cycle after cycle, those options adapt to your pace and to what has worked for you. Then you break it into actions with dates, log your progress and talk it through in your 1:1s.
Your team isn't on Vogata yet? Join the waitlist and map out the next cycle together.
Frequently asked questions
What is a personal development goal?
It is a goal about you: a skill you want to improve during the cycle to do your job better or to grow toward what comes next. Unlike a business goal, which measures a result of the role, a development goal mostly measures your practice and how your way of working changes.
How many development goals should I have per cycle?
One, two at most. A skill you practice every week moves much further than several that get forgotten halfway through the cycle.
How do you measure a soft skill?
In four ways: counting your practice (how many times you do the new behavior), asking three people for their view at the start and at the end with the same question, watching a result that changes as you improve, or keeping a weekly log. What works best is combining a practice that depends on you with a signal that you are heading in the right direction.
Does my development goal count toward my review?
Not in Vogata. Development goals carry no weight and stay out of the score: they are followed through your progress and talked through in your 1:1s with your manager. That way you can work on what is genuinely hard for you, without fear of it counting against you.
What if I don't know which skill to improve?
Ask your manager and two people you work with which skill would help you grow the most this cycle, and notice the situations you avoid or put off. If two different people tell you the same thing, start there.