HerbEly

A Tribute to my Teacher

When my agency moved to Charlottesville in August 1970 we found ourselves in a new city with two small children and few friends. We were blessed to become members of Holy Comforter parish. Msgr. Chester P. Michael was pastor. At the time, “Fr. Chet” was spending part of each summer at Notre Dame studying psychology and spirituality. We have been blessed to be his students ever since.

Fr. Chet’s book on Myers-Briggs personality types and prayer, Prayer and Temperament has sold over 100,000 copie – with no advertising other than word of mouth.

New Years’ Resolutions and Individual Development Plans: They Can Work!

During my career as a federal supervisor, I made many new years resolutions, wrote my own Individual Development Plans (IDP) and approved plans for my employees. As a retiree, I no longer have to deal with performance appraisals and IDP’s. Still I feel that mixture of hope and frustration as I think about the New Year and that desire for change and improvement.

The IDP and the new years resolution come from the same impulse: to improve performance during the coming year. In my experience the IDP tends to focus on technical skills. If the job requires establishing a web presence the employee will include a course in HTML in the IDP. The employer will pay for the course and both will view the exercise as a success.

I never saw an IDP that helped an employee develop the core competencies necessary for executive success.