Individual Development Plan – Part 2

Ify Nsoha

VSE Summer Semester 2023

Part 1

Value and Skills

My Values Current Strengths and Skills Current Barriers

Honesty Communication Time

Respect Adaptability/Learning/listening Resources

Engaging fairly with others Bringing people together Context/Circle

Odyssey Plan
How Do I Feel About This Odyssey Plan?

1. Honestly either plan makes some sense to me. Some of it is aspirational, but I think that

they accurately represent aspects of my personality and things I think would be incredibly

fun to delve into

2. I think that I’m not completely decided on which path is completely for me. Either

requires me sacrificing my comfort zone, so I know I would grow, but I’m seeking to

figure out which path is one that is most consistent with long-term goals.

3. There are clear trade-offs, in my opinion, between taking a more corporate business

direction (in the sales tech field) and a creative business direction. One is that the

corporate direction will likely provide much more job stability and consistency. As a

person who wants to begin the family building portion of my life somewhere around

27/28, I think that this would be the much wiser direction to take. It also doesn’t
 necessarily mean I couldn’t delve into the creative elements that are part of who I am, but

it is likely that I’d be a little too busy to ever get to that place.

4. Tech is an industry that has a very strong long-term benefit to those working in those

spaces. Realistically it is the wiser plan to follow, especially doing that role in a big city

somewhere or taking advantage of the remote work option and becoming a digital nomad

– which would be very outside the box for me to do but might not be the craziest idea.

5. Music, fashion, and creative ventures, however, can be a very fulfilling period to express

my skills and creativity. Nobody must have their life all figured out and ironed out in

their 20s and that’s why it’s a period where one can really take the time to explore and

expand on the skills and talents they have and find out how to utilize them to the best of

their ability.

Part 2

Two skills I need to practice getting into either situation for my future involves are

1. Networking

2. Confidence

Both skills require me to adapt, as networking means you must put yourself out there and

confidence requires you to take risks and be willing to experience discomfort on the path to your

goals. For me personally both paths require me to be confident and to practice networking, to put

myself out there among people who I may not initially know very well and develop relationships.

Develop a hypothesis for a specific behavior you want to try out, and remind yourself of the

outcome you are hoping the behavior will help you achieve. (If I do ___, then I will see

___ happen as a result.)

If I learn how to network well then I can put people around myself to lead to success

(business, music, fashion, etc.).

Based on your hypothesis, pick an intentional time and place to practice your new behaviors. (I

will practice ___ for one week during each of my project team meetings.)

First hypothesis, ‘I decided to do some sort of networking activity every week from the end of

March to the end of April, and to do some sort of decision that requires greater confidence every

other week as well.

Here’s what ended up happening:

 In the last week of march and first week and a half of April I decided to incorporate this

into my process with my masters’ thesis. I’ve had the opportunity to connect with people

for interviews to prepare for my thesis. I decided to apply this strategy to these

interviews. Now I have connections with a business consultant in India (Kanishka Sinha),

a former director of both O2 and Vodafone (David Duron), and Radek Vysoky, the

manager of Art Master, a music school in Prague.

 This was a practice of both networking and confidence, since messaging people for the

purpose of discussing thesis topics takes some confidence as it is a little nerve wracking,

and you never know whether people will communicate, respond, or help you in your

process of getting somewhere. It makes me nervous. So going out there and seeking to

communicate with all these people was something that, while initially not the easiest, was

something that genuinely helped me in many ways.

Solicit feedback from a trusted peer or colleague who has seen you in action and incorporate

insights into your next experiment cycle the following week.

Advice from Mike de Almeida: Mike said that when I’m networking with people I need to be

more focused on the end goal – trying to be meaningful with the way I interact with people and

be consistent in the way that I approach them. I think one of my issues is sometimes getting too

shy and not really spending the proper time to assert myself and to be confident in my

communication.

What I did to adjust – I tried to be more consistent in my approaches, asking more relevant and

complex questions, dealing with the various aspects that I had missed in the previous ones.

Second hypothesis – if I ask more pointed, bold questions I will learn more practical things that

can help me network better and learn way better.

In the past two weeks I got to speak with Lydia Warren, who is a Senior Director at the LEGO

Group. That one was awesome, as I got to talk to her about her experience (which is expensive)

and learn meaningful things about being a leader in contemporary business contexts that I think

were very practical and useful. I spoke with Kieron Gaffney, a manager in the accounting and

legal fields, learning about how to work with people within a company and to make the hard

decisions that are necessary when working in a corporation.

I learned a lot, and I think practicing my networking and seeking to be more confident helped me

be able to speak to these different people, which has been a major benefit for me. I was much

more focused and personable in my approach to speaking with others, learning how to glean

much more from my interactions with them. I think my interviews went much better as a result,

which has greatly benefitted me not just academically but personally.

Part 3 - After Action Review

1. What was expected to happen?

a. For me the expectation was that in adjusting my focus to the skills of networking

and being more confident (which, as someone who struggles with insecurity, is

something I’ve needed to work on), and that as I did so I would learn a lot more

about the subjects I was researching (for thesis and personal development).

2. What Actually Occurred

a. So, I decided to ask some very real questions in my discussions about

management and leadership about employee engagement, interactions between

colleagues, etc, that I think this definitely led to the outcome I expected – the

more narrow/focused my discussions about topics I was learning would be, the

more I would learn about the subjects at hand, even if the questions and

conversations involved controversial elements.

b. I’ve had a chronic problem with being really focused on my interactions with

people. I often don’t ask the harder questions, when necessary, cause I’m lacking

the confidence to do so, and I often skirt past the controversial in situations where

I need to. I talked about firings/hirings, appropriate forms of communication,

whether the current leadership structures in many modern businesses are even

effective, all topics that garner some level of controversy and debate. But as a

result, I got many honest answers from the people I spoke to that really helped

frame my thinking for the future.

 3. What Went Well

a. I think when I pressed into the more on the ground, practical, hard-nosed aspects

of business management I got honest answers from my interviewees that were

incredibly impactful. It’s one thing to learn theory in school, but to speak with

people with different levels of leadership/managerial roles within their respective

companies and to hear what it is like is a unique and different experience.

4. What can be improved and how?

a. I think for the future I need to also come up with a list of things I want to have

confidence “in”. Confidence is a broad term. Wanting to practice the skill of

confidence in networking is cool, but maybe being broader in the ways in which I

do that and applying that to different aspects could also be

Part 4 - Peer Review

I had a 2-hour conversation with Timi and Giti (a friend of ours) about the action plan and my

purpose in life. He first asked questions about why I’d want to be married at 2027. For me I’ve

always been a family-oriented sort of person. I am a “dating intentionally” type of person. For

me I’ve always wanted to have a family and to get married and be a dad and a husband. I think it

is natural, helps men mature and pass on what they’ve received in this life to another generation.

So for me that’s always been important, I think it’s a pretty natural age and I have a good amount

of time to mature, prepare, learn, and grow before that time.

Timi asked me about why I want to be a teacher on the first one, and this has to mainly do with

the fact that I’ve always had youth on my heart as a person. I have always cared about them,

about building up young people in a world that is constantly wanting to tear them down.

Leadership, Business, Public Speaking, Communication, you name it, those are the sorts of

courses I think I could eventually teach, and I would hope that I could use them to inspire the

next generation and instill in them a purpose and a goal in their lives.

I really have this on my heart as it is something I think is so often neglected in our world and

isn’t recognized as important. There is so much value in youth that is just not acknowledged and

that is a massive shame.

The consensus among us was, however, that plan 2 is much more interesting. Going to Cali for

half a year, traveling the world, writing music, forming a creative studio, networking, fashion,

etc, these all seem like things that are not impossible and would make the next five years a real

adventure. Are they feasible? We don’t know. But we agreed that this may be a path that, if I take

it, could be very rewarding to my life in the long run.

In our conversation I’d say I’m at a 6.5 regarding my development. I could get much farther and

be much better and I think that requires a lot of adjusting and maturity in the next few months,

transitioning to a new job position and finding that niche group of people that can help me

develop myself better, as growth never happens in a vacuum – we always need people to support

us and help us get where we need to go.

In our conversation I saw that what I need to do first is establish my short term (1 year) goals and

then put myself in that position to get there. Networking, the skill I wanted to practice, is

necessary for me to be able to make it farther along the Odyssey plan in the first place, and
putting this into practice practically (going to events and collaborating with others) is very

important.

I think another thing that is important in this path is cultivating virtue, and this is something I

gained through a conversation with my friend Daniel who talked to me about what it means to do

any role. He said this – who you are anywhere is who you are everywhere. And so for me I think

my plan is well thought out, seeking to build the person I am into who I want to become –

someone who leaves a lasting legacy

Part 5 New Action Plan

So for this aspect I think that what I want to do for July-September

1. Network – I think that which circles I’m able to break into (whether sales/business

oriented or artistic/creative oriented) will largely influence which odyssey plan I will

follow in the longterm, or whether I take a sort of combined path. Hypothesis: if I spend

considerable time networking with creatives, I can build a team of people interested in

forming the creative studio within the next 6 months.

2. For the fitness goals I need to budget my time and begin exercising/working out on the

regular, as it will help me reach where I want to be in 2024 much faster. I’d take a 3 day

full body split with 2 cardio days per week and 2 rest days. Hypothesis: If I spend a large

part of the summer intentionally working out and eating healthy I’ll reach my goal of

15% body fat by January 2024.

3. Communicate with family and supporters regarding potential (temporary) move to Cali to

pursue a short term venture that I believe will be rewarding in the long term. Hypothesis:
 If am able to build up support for the venture this summer among family and friends I

can move to Cali for the temporary period either this or next year.

Conclusion

I think that these 3 things give me a clear action plan that is not too ambitious but gives me a

clear road map for the immediate future. I have strong confidence in my ability and that of those

around me to be able to build this sort of life for myself. One of the main centering aspects of

this is God and my Christian faith. I believe that in all aspects of my life there is a divine plan

and purpose undergirding it. In Christian theology there’s this notion of the imago dei, of being

made in the image of God, which is often explained in ambiguous terms. Yet the original idea is

relating to vocation – we are to reflect something of who God is in the way that we express

ourselves. We are creative and are to be creative because God is creative. We are to take care of

others because God takes care of us. We have families because humanity is God’s family. We

sacrifice because Jesus, God in flesh, sacrificed his life for us. And so I believe that whichever

plan that happens my life will ultimately be one of purpose, one in which I am able to bring love,

joy, and peace into the lives of those around me. My confidence is that whichever path my life

takes it will be full of ups and downs that ultimately lead to an exciting adventure, and I’m ready

to see where the journey leads.