As a manager, I’m constantly focused on my team’s development. But when it comes to my own professional development, it often falls to the bottom of the list. Between meetings, deadlines, and day-to-day team needs, I struggle to carve out time for courses or even reflection. Recently, I started dedicating one hour a week to reading leadership books, but it feels like a drop in the bucket. How do you prioritize your growth with everything else on your plate? Any systems or habits that have worked for you?

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Even a little bit is better than nothing at all! I do think it is difficult to prioritize your own personal development when you are focused on everyone else's. I haven’t really done much of anything this year, already working on some new year goals and taking courses will probably be on the list.

1 hour a day is a lot dude. I hardly get 10 mins per day to focus on my learning

That hour will add up. Keep after it. I would also recommend rotating out of management for a while unless you're trying to develop your leadership skills. For that, I would communicate your desire to grow to your own supervisor and connect with HR. Leadership development is a central concern for many companies, and they will often have in-house programs for developing their future leaders.

I would also recommend working with a trusted mentor on how to cut back on some of the meetings, deadlines, and day-to-day team needs. This may indicate an opportunity to learn the fine art of pushing back on out-of-scope work, delegation, and teaching your team to fish.

One of the biggest drains on my time used to be trained deference -- small issues that my team could solve on their own but were looking to me to make a decision, call a peer, etc. My "open door" policy actually made them less productive until I set clear guidance on what they can (and should) be doing themselves.

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