A few weeks back, PASS launched a slew of new virtual chapters, one of which is based on Professional Development. In it’s inaugural webinar, Andy Warren (Blog | @SQLAndy) was invited to speak on having a plan for your own professional development.

And that’s why I’m doing this.

Too simple? I agree.

Andy’s development plan is based around writing as a quantifier for existence. Goals, milestones, books you’ve read, webinars you’ve seen: write it all down. Decide on a budget, figure out how much time you’ve got to spend and write it down. And get on Twitter or start a blog. It was a really great talk, and if you’re finding yourself at a place where you really aren’t sure what to do, I’d highly suggest that you give the LiveMeeting recording a view.

The point of it all is simple: if it hasn’t been written into your plan, then it doesn’t exist. If it doesn’t exist, then you can’t hold yourself accountable to it. There will be no progression or growth, or it might happen at a hindered rate. But who’ll know? Not you certainly…

Aside from the tracking purposes, the ability to communicate effectively is a soft skill for an IT professional. Let’s face it, the stereotype about the hyper-introverted, uber-awkward IT guy didn’t come from thin air, but it’s still something that has to be overcome during the work day. In fact, I don’t have to think back too far to remember when an idea that I’ve proposed has been ignored or put aside simply because I’m in support. Becoming more effective in your communication won’t necessarily change these instances, but it can help to make them occur with less frequency. And one route to help your wordsmithing skill is by blogging.

It’s not really about blogging, but about writing. And it’s not even about writing as much as it is about practicing writing. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but for a long while, I never thought that I was particularly good at it. Most days I still don’t. But there was an event that gave me a chance to really hone my style and simply practice. The event is a yearly occurrance, and if you ever find yourself with free time in November, I’d suggest you give it a try. The event I’m speaking about is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to write a novel of 50,000 word length during the month of November. I like to accomplish this task on a typewriter, including the Smith-Corona Galaxie 12 and the Olympia SM4 featured in this post.

NaNoWriMo is fun and at the same time it’s cruddy. I spend a lot of November hating myself for doing it, because it can become tortuous at times. And despite having never written anything remotely publishable, it is useful for honing the skill. But it’s not the only thing that good for honing that skill, any writing will do, including blogging and terrible blogging about professional development and SQL Server.

And the real secret is this: good writing isn’t in the writing, it’s in the editing. So don’t worry about how it sounds or feels when your putting your pen to the paper, you just have to practice getting your ideas out. If you can’t get your ideas out, then you’ll never be able to grow into an effective communicator.