How to be successful in your career 
PERSONAL MOTIVATIONAL PROFILE (PMP) & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
What has doing the PMP to do with Personal Development?
The PMP will quickly and effectively tell you what your top 3 Motivators at work are. Why is this important?
The beginning of all personal development is self-awareness; we cannot really begin the process of change within ourselves unless we know what it is we are trying to change! As the Greeks put it: Know Thyself.
There are two basic mechanisms for developing enhanced self-awareness. The first is through the feedback we receive from others. We self-adjust our thoughts and behaviours as, initially, our parents and then teachers and the wider community of others tell us (hopefully constructively!) how we are doing.
So far as ‘work’ is concerned there are formal mechanisms to ensure adequate is provided: briefings, de-briefings, appraisals and so on.
The second mechanism is through our own efforts to understand ourselves. Some of us are innately curious; others less so. And there are a variety of ways we can do this. A favourite technique throughout the ages has been the keeping of a journal or diary – the ability to be able to go back and see one’s own development as it occurred can be highly effective in facilitating self change. But there is also the use of various tools, like psychometric tests and self-perception inventories, which pinpoint aspects of our personality, behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, strengths (and so on) to huge advantage.
It is in this latter category that the PMP falls: it is a self-perception inventory that describes where your top three work energies are directed. Its commentary invites you to improve the quality of your life by feeding these motivators (or ‘energies’). We tend to be unhappy at work – and there is a spill off into the rest of our life of course – when our three top motivators are not fed or are being ignored or being deliberately blocked – either by us, or by our organisation.
Thus, the PMP contributes to our personal development by making us more aware of how we can become fulfilled in the workplace. We should try to activate all the points in the report where these are relevant. And we need to bear in mind as well: motivators can easily change over time. This is an exercise we should return to at least once every three years.