Filling the Holes in Your Professional Periodic Table

The periodic table allows us to categorize all known elements. It also gives us the ability to predict where unknown elements should be. In other words, it gives us a lens that allows us to see the holes in our current understanding.

What if you had something like that for your career? A tool that would show you where you have gaps in your skills and experience? What follows is my attempt to create a kind of “periodic table” for project professionals.

My project professional periodic table follows a similar structure.

These are the major domains you need to be familiar with and develop skills in as a project professional:

Each vertical column represents one school of thought within a given block. For instance, in the “Process and Quality Improvement” Block there are four columns:

Horizontal rows represent levels of understanding and mastery within a given knowledge area.

At least every six months, pull this out and take an honest assessment of where you stand. Place a date in pencil (or a grey font) in the box when you feel you’ve completed it. At the same time, give a blank version of this to a trusted boss or colleague. Ask them to assess where you are from their perspective. Then, buy them a cup of coffee and compare notes. Talk through areas where there are deltas. If you and your feedback partner both feel like you’ve achieved a working competency in a given area, write the date in pen (or a black font). If only one of you have a given cell filled in, leave it blank.

Next, discuss what holes you should concentrate on filling in the next six months. This is a bit harder.

It is natural for us to want to pursue the professional path (or block) where we’re most comfortable. Naturally-technical people want to become more technical. That’s where their interests lie, and it’s an area where they are likely to be successful. Developing their emotional intelligence might be the hardest area to venture into.

That’s a sign.

The area we are NOT drawn to is where we should focus next. Usually co-workers and supervisors already know.

Let’s say you have several cells of your periodic table filled in. With pen, no less! You stand back with pride and survey what good shape you’re in.

Not so fast. Our skills depreciate over time.

For instance, let’s say you know the syntax for the programming language in vouge right now. How in-demand will that be in six years? No one knows, but chances are, another language will be popular then. Knowing the mental models of programming (like loops or functions) will still be a valuable. How to implement the models will change.

Then, do your first assessment! Also, pencil in a date on the calendar six months from now for your next one.

With this tool in play, you will think about your career in a different way. You will be playing a measurable game, making consistent progress, and looking for how to be more well-rounded. You might even take that “lateral” move to fill in a gap when you wouldn’t have given it a second thought before.

But be patient. Filling in every cell in your professional periodic table takes an entire career.

Related posts:

Our most requested feature is finally here. Today we’re extremely thrilled to announce Music News!

As technology advances and new improvements come to fruition it leaves us wondering, what will be next? Since the advancement from flip phones to smart phones we as a species have done what we do…

I hear from a lot of women that they really struggle with staying focused. I think that lack of focus can be exacerbated by the wealth of distraction at our fingertips. Our phones are constantly in…