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Individual development plan template

An individual development plan with strengths, direction, a table of three development goals and a review rhythm, to fill in, copy or print.

TemplateWhat you type stays in your browser.

Where I am now
Where I want to go
Development goals

Two or three goals are enough.

Columns: Goal, Action, Support needed, By when, How we will know. 3 rows.

Review

How often will we review this plan?

Last updated

A development plan turns a career aim into dated steps.

An individual development plan, often shortened to IDP, is a one-page agreement between an employee and their manager about what the employee will learn over the next six to twelve months, and how. It is the written result of a career conversation.

The plan belongs to the employee, and the manager's part is to supply support: time, a project, an introduction, a budget. This template covers where the person is now, where they want to go, three development goals with an action and a date for each, and how often the two of you will review it.

Here is how to use the individual development plan template in five steps.

  1. Hold the career conversation first. The plan records what was agreed in a conversation about direction. Do not start with the form.

  2. Let the employee write the first draft. They fill in the strengths, the direction and the goals, and bring the draft to a meeting with the manager.

  3. Keep to three goals. Three goals with real actions get done. Ten goals become a list of wishes.

  4. Favor doing over courses. Most skills are built on a real project with feedback. Use a course or a mentor to support the project, not to replace it.

  5. Review it on a schedule. Look at the plan every month or every quarter in a one-on-one, and update the dates openly when things change.

Here is a worked example with invented names.

Take an invented company, Marlowick Studio. Devi Anand, a senior designer, tells her manager, Greta Olsen, in a career conversation that she wants to lead client projects within a year.

Devi drafts the plan. Her strengths are visual systems and presenting work to clients. The skill she wants to build is running a project budget, which she has never done. She sets three goals: co-lead one project with a budget by June, present a quarterly review to a client alone by September, and mentor a junior designer through one full project.

Greta supplies the support: a co-lead place on the next mid-sized project, and an hour a month with the finance manager. They review the plan each quarter. By the June review Devi has co-led the project and delivered it 4% under budget.

These mistakes spoil a development plan.

  • The manager writing the plan for the employee, who then feels no ownership of it.
  • Listing courses with no project to apply them to.
  • Setting goals with no date and no way to tell whether they were met.
  • Tying the plan to a promotion the manager cannot promise.
  • Writing it in January and opening it again in December.

People ask these questions about individual development plans.

An individual development plan is a short written plan that sets out an employee's strengths, the direction they want to grow in, a few specific development goals and the actions and support needed to reach them. The employee and the manager agree it together and review it regularly.

These glossary terms explain the ideas behind it.

  • Internal mobility

    Internal mobility is people moving into new roles inside the company, sideways or upward, instead of leaving to get the same move elsewhere.

  • Employee value proposition (EVP)

    An EVP is the whole deal an employer offers in exchange for work: pay, growth, flexibility, the work itself, the people and the mission.

  • One-on-one

    A one-on-one is a recurring private conversation between a manager and a direct report about the work, the obstacles and the person's growth.

  • Employee retention

    Employee retention is a company's ability to keep the people it wants to keep, for as long as the business needs them.

  • Succession planning

    Succession planning is identifying who could step into critical roles, and closing the gaps before the seat is empty.

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