How To Get Your Professional Development Training Approved

If it's part of your job to deliver and improve outcomes, then it's part of your job to solve problems and motivate others to contribute. Employees who proactively address problems and help teams adopt better practices are often perceived as and groomed to become leaders.

Don’t wait for the powers that be to see you as a leader.

Take the initiative: show you’re ready (and once you’ve completed your training, know you’re ready) to lead people and be a force for positive change.

Your future self – and potentially your performance-reviewed salary – will thank you.

Apply this email template to get your boss to approve Leadership Development Training to support your professional development and better outcomes for the team (and your boss).

Replace all italicised text.

— email begins —

Hi Boss,

I appreciate that our company has a culture of supporting continuing education, professional development and a more diverse pool of future leaders.

To that end, you've outlined in the past that the company will cover attendance at events or professional development, such as Conference X that Coworker attended, as long as they benefit our team.

I'd like to complete training in training course name, an experiential workshop for professionals on key (insert core skill from course, ie: communication) skills for (key outcome from course ie: leading people and change). I know that strengthening these skills will help me grow and enable me to contribute to the team in a bigger way.

At our recent one-on-one, you shared with me how you'd like me to step up in my role as (your job title) and be more (insert desired attribute/capability, ie: effective in impact assessment and planning change programs). I've wanted to do exactly that but wasn't sure how to go about (insert key area you’re unsure of, ie: assessing and mitigating risk in change programs and communicating those to stakeholders).

Attending this training is the perfect opportunity for me to learn exactly how to do that in a win-win approach, so that we can build on and generate more value from innovation and best practices. I'm hoping to gain the confidence and skill to become more proactive and vocal in my day-to-day interactions with team members and stakeholders.

Here's the breakdown of the info for the training:

Date:

Cost:

Event link:

Is this something that I can pursue through our department?

Please let me know if you have any concerns. I'd be happy to schedule a time for us to chat next week and figure out where to go from here.

Thank you for being open to these kinds of suggestions and for supporting my growth and development here.

Best,

(Your name)