Professional Growth Based on Personal Passions  ## Metadata - Author: [[Nelida Velazquez]] - Full Title: Professional Growth Based on Personal Passions - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #career - #professional_growth - #mentorship - #skills - #values - #strengths - #passions - #delegation - #reflection - #opensource - #wordpress - #education Author: Nelida Velazquez Source: Article (LeadDev) Reference: https://leaddev.com/personal-development/professional-growth-based-personal-passions date created: 2025-08-23 00:00 --- # Title: Professional growth based on personal passions ## Table of Contents: - [🔎 Introduction](#-introduction) - [🧭 Uncovering Skills and Values](#-uncovering-skills-and-values) - [💫 Finding Your Superpowers](#-finding-your-superpowers) - [🌱 Nurturing and Developing Superpowers](#-nurturing-and-developing-superpowers) - [🤝 Mentorship: Giving and Receiving](#-mentorship-giving-and-receiving) - [🧩 Delegation for Team Flow](#-delegation-for-team-flow) - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items (Developer Advocate/OSPO Alignment)](#-action-items-developer-advocateospo-alignment) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### References: Include a list of sources consulted and cited in the article. - LeadDev: Professional growth based on personal passions — https://leaddev.com/personal-development/professional-growth-based-personal-passions - Ikigai concept overview (contextual reference): The idea referenced resembles the “Ikigai” framework. ## 🔎 Introduction Career development is framed as a personal, values-led journey. The author proposes a simple, Ikigai-like diagram to focus on strengths, enjoyment, and caring—what she calls “superpowers”—and offers practical steps: identify, nurture, learn, mentor, and delegate. ## 🧭 Uncovering Skills and Values - Emphasizes grounding choices in values to avoid aimless career drift. - Introduces an adapted Ikigai-style diagram to categorize skills by: - Natural gift - Current proficiency - Interest/enjoyment - Goal: find overlap = “superpowers.” ## 💫 Finding Your Superpowers - Keep a living list of skills you’re confident in or recognized for. - Rate each skill: - Enjoyment (1–5) - Caring/meaning (1–5) - Reinvest in skills that score high on both; reconsider time spent on skills you’re good at but don’t enjoy or care about. ## 🌱 Nurturing and Developing Superpowers - Apply strengths deliberately (e.g., present company-wide if public speaking is a superpower). - To develop new superpowers: - Internal: ask what you want to improve, how much you care, and why. - External: model colleagues you admire; seek mentoring with business context. ## 🤝 Mentorship: Giving and Receiving - Mentorship can be formal or informal; direct your mentoring where you both excel and enjoy. - Use team agreements and project goals to align mentoring with others’ aspirations. ## 🧩 Delegation for Team Flow - Delegate tasks you’re good at and care about to some degree but do not enjoy. - Activity: inventory team tasks; have teammates rate interest; delegate accordingly; rotate low-interest chores. ## 📝 Summary: This article is a practical guide to aligning career growth with personal values by identifying “superpowers” at the intersection of ability, enjoyment, and caring. It offers reflective prompts, pathways for skill development, guidance on mentoring relationships, and a structured approach to delegation that benefits both individuals and teams. ## 📖 Main Content: - Values-first framing reduces indecision around role choices and projects. - Superpowers are not static; they evolve through application and feedback. - Internal reflection prevents pursuing skills due to external pressure alone. - Mentorship amplifies growth by pairing skill with organizational context. - Delegation is positioned as a caring act that grows others and restores your focus on meaningful work. ### 🗒️ Notes - Personal journey of growth - Ground decisions in values to avoid aimlessness. - Revisit frequently as interests and context change. - Identify superpowers - Build a list of recognized strengths; keep it updated. - Dual-rating model: enjoyment and caring/meaning. - High-skill/low-enjoyment: limit investment or delegate. - Nurture strengths - Seek stage-appropriate stretch (presentations, strategy input, coaching). - Pair practice with diverse perspectives for depth. - Learn new skills - Internal prompts: What, how much do I care (1–5), why? - Avoid “shoulds” driven by status or pressure. - External support - Map admired colleagues → target skills → ask for mentoring. - If not available, pursue alternative channels. - Mentorship - Align with areas you enjoy and are gifted in. - Use team meetings to surface mentees’ goals; tailor opportunities. - Delegation - Inventory tasks across the team; rate interest; delegate/rotate. - Normalize shared ownership of low-interest tasks. - Emotional note: fear of losing control is normal; “sharing is caring.” ## 📖 References: - LeadDev: Professional growth based on personal passions — https://leaddev.com/personal-development/professional-growth-based-personal-passions - Background concept: Ikigai (for context on overlapping purpose frameworks) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: - Original idea: Focus career choices on values to channel open-ended questions. - Paraphrase: When work decisions feel vague, anchor them in what matters to you. By aligning choices with your principles and passions, you transform ambiguous options into a focused, fulfilling path. - Original idea: Rate strengths by enjoyment and caring to prioritize investment. - Paraphrase: After listing abilities you’re acknowledged for, score each by how much you like doing it and how much it matters to you. Double down on the ones you both relish and value; reconsider time spent on those you don’t. ## 📰 Newsletter: This week in web dev: Learning paths that stick. We’re doubling down on the sweet spot where skill meets joy. If you’ve ever asked “Should I go deeper into JS tooling or try my hand at backend architecture?”—start by rating your skills for enjoyment and meaning (1–5). Then invest where both scores soar. In WordPress land, Core continues iterating on performance and Interactivity API patterns, and the plugin scene is buzzing with smarter build tools and block-first workflows. New creators are finding traction by pairing hands-on tutorials (hello, Git and GitHub workflows) with community mentoring; if you’ve got knowledge, share it—mentorship multiplies impact. Pro tip: audit your weekly tasks with your team and delegate by interest; rotate the chores nobody loves. It’s sustainable and kind. Keep learning, keep shipping, and remember: your superpower is the intersection of “good at,” “enjoy,” and “care about.” Useful reads: the Ikigai-adjacent approach to career focus and contributor onboarding checklists for open source. Want your project featured? Reply with a link and a one-liner about your latest release. ## ✅ Action Items (Developer Advocate/OSPO Alignment): - Prompt to use with each article you read: - Purpose: Map insights to open-source advocacy, contributor engagement, and education while tracking progress toward an OSPO leadership path. - Instructions: - Values alignment: Identify 3 principles from the piece that support transparency, inclusivity, or sustainability in the WordPress ecosystem. - Contributor journey: Extract 3 tactics that improve onboarding, mentoring, or recognition of contributors. Translate each into a repeatable playbook step. - Education design: Derive 2–3 actionable learning activities (e.g., workshops, tutorials, contributor sprints) with objectives, prerequisites, and assessment. - OSPO relevance: Specify how the a - Summary: Professional growth is a personal journey that requires self-reflection and alignment with one's values and passions. By identifying skills and strengths, individuals can focus on what they are already good at and enjoy, leading to more fulfillment in their careers. Seeking mentorship and learning from others can also contribute to professional development. Additionally, delegating tasks that are not enjoyable or aligned with one's interests can free up time and energy for more meaningful work. Ultimately, by understanding oneself and taking intentional steps, individuals can create a fulfilling and successful career. - URL: https://leaddev.com/personal-development/professional-growth-based-personal-passions [Nelida Velazquez](https://leaddev.com/community/nelida-velazquez) [Career development](https://leaddev.com/personal-development/learning-enjoy-career-progression-journeyhttps://leaddev.com/professional-development/career-development-engineering-managers) is a deeply personal journey for everyone. Throughout our careers, we often find ourselves asking: * What skills do I need to become X? * Do I want to continue working on this project or try something new? These are all important questions that circle our professional growth but can be so open-ended we often don’t know where to start. In these situations it is helpful for us to [ground ourselves to our values](https://leaddev.com/personal-development/values-runbook-leadership), to make sure that our careers are based on our strengths and passions. This article will act as a guiding compass in finding the path to your next career opportunity while keeping aligned with what makes you happy. #### Uncovering your skills and values It has been said before that by focusing on what we are already good at, we can become more effective and feel more fulfilled. The diagram I created below might remind you of the [Ikigai](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/is-this-japanese-concept-the-secret-to-a-long-life/) diagram that explores finding your purpose. I use the one I adapted to help me determine what I should do when thinking about any given topic, how much time to invest in it, or even if I should invest in it at all. The diagram should also help you pinpoint areas which you are interested in, naturally gifted at, or already good at – the goal being to find the skills you possess that encapsulate all three i.e., your superpower. diagram for finding your superpower #### Finding your superpowers Take some time to reflect on the skills that you feel confident about, skills that perhaps you have received recognition or compliments on, and write them down, no matter how small you think they are. Keep this list of abilities to hand, always; not only will this help you focus on your strengths instead of your flaws, but it will be a handy tracking tool that you can use to showcase your value throughout your career. After you have identified your strengths, rate how much you enjoy them. On occasions, we are good at something that we don’t necessarily enjoy or care about as much. If you notice this about a certain skill, re-evaluate how much time you really want to invest in it. On the contrary, if it is something that you keep coming back to that you’re talented in and excited about, note it down as an area you want to expand on. To guide yourself on this, ask the below questions: * What am I good at? * From one to five, how much do I enjoy it? * From one to five, how much do I care about it? **Tip**: If you are struggling to come up with a list here, you can [ask your teammates for feedback](https://leaddev.com/continuous-learning/how-get-helpful-actionable-feedback-your-colleague) to help you identify things you are good at. Once you have pinpointed your superpowers it’s time to nurture. For instance, if you’re naturally gifted at public speaking or [hosting meetings](https://leaddev.com/culture-engagement-motivation/how-have-meetings-dont-suck-much), pitch yourself to your line manager for opportunities to present to the wider company. If you are a [talented mentor](https://leaddev.com/mentoring-coaching-feedback/maximize-your-mentorship-establish-absorb-and-connect), elect yourself to coach and upskill a junior engineer. If you have an excellent technical eye, try and involve yourself in [conversations about the wider technical strategy](https://leaddev.com/technical-direction-strategy/executing-and-evaluating-technical-strategy-scale). Continue to learn about your skills by applying them and digesting different perspectives to your work. #### Developing superpowers Sharpening a skillset that has naturally been unearthed throughout your career or in your role is one thing, but what if you would like to learn about a superpower that currently isn’t in your arsenal? Learning new things in our industry is often a given, whether that be a new coding language, database, or process. But there is a big difference between *wanting* to learn something and *having* to. **Internally pinpoint** There are probably natural areas of interest you have identified that you would like to work on. What are they? Look back at *Figure. 1* and spend some time thinking about the things which you would file under “I care about this” and “I enjoy this”. Ask yourself: * What things would I like to get better at? * From one to five, how much do I care about this topic? * Why do I want to learn about this? These questions will help you to reveal more about your values and the reason behind wanting to learn a new skill. They might also help you steer away from situations in which you may feel obliged to learn something because of the influence certain people have on your career or your esteem. **External support** Sometimes, inspiration doesn’t come from within, but from the people that surround you. Take a moment to think about the colleagues that you admire, this can be peers in any role. Ask yourself: * What are the skills I admire in them? * Why do I think these skills are important? * What made me think about this person and skill in particular? If you spot an opportunity and identify a colleague who you would like to learn from, [ask them for mentoring](https://leaddev.com/mentoring-coaching-feedback/how-find-and-become-great-engineering-mentor). They’ll have the added benefit of business context to help you apply your newfound knowledge correctly. If that avenue doesn’t prove to be as fruitful, think about other channels you could pursue. ##### Mentor As with anything, there will be tasks and skills you have to take on throughout your career that you don’t really align with. These elements are part and parcel of a lot of positions, but they don’t have to be clouded in dread and negativity. Referring back to *Fig. 1*, cases where you enjoy things and find you are gifted at completing them may [qualify you for being a great mentor.](https://leaddev.com/continuous-learning/why-being-mentor-benefits-you-too) Discerning where to focus those mentoring efforts can be tricky, especially as mentorship can take on many forms. There might be formal avenues you can explore at your company, and there may be more informal paths you can take. As a team leader, you may be able to get a clearer picture of your reports’ career aspirations through team agreeance meetings. For instance, if the team is working collectively on a project, you can ask if anyone has any personal goals they would like to achieve while working on it. Don’t forget to reflect on how your expertise, alongside the wider team’s support, can nurture their growing skill. ##### Delegate Finally, there will be skills that you'll find you’re good at and that you care about – at least to some degree – but that you don’t find yourself enjoying. When this occurs, [it’s time to delegate](https://leaddev.com/professional-development/tools-effective-delegation-engineering-management). This is one of the topics I have struggled with the most in my career. The fear of losing something is a hard emotion to navigate, but this reaction is normal. It just shows that you deeply care. And as people say: sharing is caring. Understanding your team and [identifying members whom you can delegate to is important](https://leaddev.com/team/delegating-right-tasks-right-people). The following activity I’ve used can be helpful in pinpointing these individuals. Make a list of all the day-to-day tasks you need to get done, from code reviews to running retros, breaking down tasks to driving technical decisions; track every task you can think of and ask your team to help you with this list. Once you have this list, ask everyone to rate how much they are interested in the topics, with any scale of your choosing. Then, delegate to the appropriate individuals. There might be situations where no one in the team particularly enjoys a task, in those cases, sharing the responsibility (by rotating, for example) makes a lot of sense. Remember that this exercise is a collective effort, the point is to benefit everyone in the team. #### Final thoughts Professional journeys are deeply personal. By identifying your strengths, nurturing your superpowers, seeking mentorship, and embracing delegation, you can craft a fulfilling career aligned with your principles., Professional Growth Based on Personal Passions, Nelida Velazquez, 01hb6d4003qrrmpgwfr6hcdhxa.