Personal development plan, November 2026 to October 2027, Lina Marsh
Personal development plan template with goals, actions and evidence
A personal development plan has to turn a career aim into a year of specific goals, dated actions, the support needed from an employer and the evidence that will show progress. This two page plan for a junior accountant sets four goals with measures, eight dated actions, five requests for support, an evidence table and monthly and quarterly reviews with a manager.
The document, page by page
Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.
Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Introduction
- Role, team, plan period and the three year aim.
- 1. Goals
- Four goals with why each matters and a measure of success.
- 2. Actions and dates
- Eight actions by goal with start and finish.
- 3. Support I need
- Five requests of the firm.
- 4 and 5. Evidence and review
- What shows progress for each goal, and the monthly and quarterly reviews.
How to adapt this document
First, write the three year aim in one sentence and choose only the goals that move you towards it this year. Second, swap the accounting goals for your field, such as a certification, a project you will lead or a skill your team will need, keeping a measure for each. Third, list the support you need even if it feels awkward to ask; it is easier for a manager to agree to a written request than to guess.
What makes this document work
Each goal has a measure
The four goals end in something checkable: two exams passed by October 2027, review time under 1.5 hours a file from 3 hours, six client meetings led with the manager present, and two analytics dashboards used by the team. Nobody has to argue at the review about whether a goal was met.
The asks of the firm are written down
Five requests, such as five study days before each exam, a senior assigned for shadowing from January and feedback on review notes within a week, put the support in the plan the manager signs. A goal that depends on support nobody agreed to is a goal set up to fail.
Reviews are dated, not vague
The plan names a 30 minute check on the first Monday of each month and four quarterly reviews on 1 February, 3 May, 2 August and 1 November 2027, each marking every goal as on track, behind or done. The November review closes this plan and starts the next.
Questions people ask
What should a personal development plan include?
A short statement of where you want to be, three to five goals with a measure of success for each, dated actions, the support you need, how progress will be evidenced and when the plan will be reviewed. Keep it to a page or two so it is used. A plan with ten goals usually means none of them gets done.
Who should write a personal development plan, the employee or the manager?
The employee should draft it, because the goals have to be theirs to be pursued, and then agree it with the manager, who can commit the firm's support and align it with the team's needs. This plan is written in the first person and agreed with the manager on a set date, which is noted in the footer.
How often should a personal development plan be reviewed?
A short check monthly keeps actions moving, and a fuller review every quarter is enough to change an action that is not working. Reviewing only once a year at the appraisal tends to turn the plan into a record of what did not happen. Put the review dates in the plan so they get booked.
How is a personal development plan different from a performance review?
A performance review looks back at how someone did against the expectations of their role. A personal development plan looks forward at how they will grow, including skills for a future role. The two often meet in the same conversation, but keeping the plan separate stops development being squeezed out by ratings.
What counts as evidence of progress in a development plan?
Anything someone else could check: exam results, practice scores, time records, certificates, finished work in use, meeting lists and feedback from clients or a manager. Choose the evidence when you set each goal, so progress is visible during the year rather than reconstructed from memory at the final review.
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