8 professional development goals for creating a bright PR future

You should never stop enhancing your skills—and professional development should be at the top of your list.

Everyone has a slightly different learning style, but whether you gain understanding from reading or watching or doing, once you have the basics down, you need to practice again and again and again to become more proficient.

So here are eight suggestions for what you should learn in order to develop and progress in your PR career:

1. Learn to network.

Go to events, meet people for meals or drinks, engage on social media, and join groups and associations. This is important for business growth, generally, but extra important for those who hate networking, or don’t like talking to strangers.

Just like anything else, it gets easier if you do it a lot.

As an introvert, it’s not my favorite thing to do, but every time I force myself to get out there, I think, “I should do that more often.” I almost always get content ideas, too.

2. Develop your financial acumen.

A lot of us got into communications with liberal arts degrees, but that’s no excuse to not understand the financials.

IF you feel don’t have a seat at the proverbial table, it might be because you don’t understand how a business makes money. Even if you’re not the leader, you must understand financials.