How I transformed into a Professional Athlete through self-studying

So, when I was approached by APMG’s CEO Richard Pharro with a challenge last year, it immediately piqued my interest.

The mission: self-study an entire level of one our certifications (of which admittedly I had very little knowledge of prior to the conversation) and pass the exam (no pressure).

The brief: source online documents that I felt provided enough educational value and knowledge to self-study for the Rainmaker, Athlete, Authority and Executive levels of the PS Professional certification (my colleague also researched Rainmaker, Athlete and Catalyst)

The desired outcome: successfully demonstrate it was possible to self-study for a PS Professional exam using free online resources and Primary References.

PS Professional is the world’s only dedicated certification scheme designed to develop and recognise your technical, commercial and personal strengths.

Whilst acknowledging existing technical certifications, PS Professional aims to shape the consultant of tomorrow, expanding upon their technical expertise to offer greater commercial insight and personal effectiveness through a practical and respected training and certification programme.

Each module offers different learning outcomes. To give a brief overview:

• Rainmaker: Enhancing your commercial awareness and sales orientation.
• Athlete: Maximising your effectiveness and productivity.
• Executive: Mastering the business landscape, going beyond technical expertise.
• Catalyst: Master the principles of effective client & stakeholder engagements.
• Authority: Understanding the six distinct categories of disruptive technology and their impact on adoption.

You can read more on the certification and learning outcomes here.

I’ve always enjoyed researching. In University, I opted to write a 10,000-word academic journal on the history of Motion Capture technology which was exactly how it sounds: a lot of research.

Richard stated very few controls for the self-study experiment as the intention was to remain as authentic as possible; reflecting the time constraints many of us face in the modern working world. As a result, the total time I spent researching the Rainmaker, Athlete, Executive and Authority modules totalled 37 hours, and after, 33 hours for studying for the Athlete exam. It’s worth noting that the research occurred amongst my daily employment duties, with studying ensuing in both my personal time and working hours.

Combined, my colleague and I sourced 27 distinguished and free sources of information for Athlete including videos, blogs, websites, quizzes and presentations. All told, we located over 200 resources covering content from all modules of the PS Professional certification.

The Athlete module references 3 publications as source material: How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age (Dale Carnegie & Associate), The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R Covey) and How to be a Productivity Ninja (Graham Allcott). The online resources we located were used as supplementary learning material offering additional insight from an alternative perspective; delving deeper into certain theories, or just used as another learning method.

The research itself was stress-free and dare I say, enjoyable. We searched Google using terms, phrases, referenced books, documents and overall theories, with results in abundance. Most were listed on the first or second page, rarely beyond, and were generally easy to locate.

I would also argue that self-study greatly assisted in the retaining of information. Scanning the internet for all things PS Professional meant even if the quality of the content wasn’t fantastic, I was still progressively absorbing information. Through repetition alone I was familiarising myself with the concepts and practices of PS Professional and subconsciously building my knowledge base.

It felt autonomous and as though I was genuinely practicing independence. With no supervision – other than the occasional email exchange with my colleague comparing notes - from colleagues or subject matter experts, my entire training relied on Me, Myself and I. Upon reflection, I would say it both expanded and nurtured my professional confidence;

1.    Exams are naturally terrifying to me, so to pass it was a huge relief

2.    I feel more comfortable communicating with colleagues and stakeholders

3.    The reassurance that my methods of working - before the training and exam - were valid and recognised as an industry standard.

Overall, I found the act of self-study strangely cathartic; the pressure of sourcing my own knowledge in preparation for an exam initially seemed like a daunting and intimidating task, but my mindset quickly adjusted to viewing this as a captivating challenge. Focusing my attentions on the process of learning as opposed to the desired outcome allowed me to strip back the expectations I had on myself and the demand to succeed.

Interestingly, I already had knowledge of the Athlete module before even knowing it.

At the end of researching I’d decided to sit the Athlete exam; my choice mostly lies in the ease of which I understood the training content and quite simply, it was applicable.

The key foundations of Athlete are:

• Maximising your effectiveness and productivity.
• Building and maintaining trust and effective relationships with colleagues and clients.
• How to learn and benefit from concepts for efficiency and productivity.
• Enhancing your influencing skills for more productive and profitable outcomes.
• How to become a productivity ninja!

As a self-identified perfectionist, I often find myself obsessing over the small things. The Athlete training doesn’t just cover the above; it provides applicable practices, tools and techniques to encourage those good habits you already possess, and educate you on those you don’t.

The essential focus of the Fourth Generation of Time Management can be presented in the Time Management Matrix. It explores how to define actions as a combination of the following: Urgent, Not Urgent, Important or Not Important.

As you can imagine, the stark realization that many of those small, seemingly important things I spent combined hours finessing were – wait for it – actually Not Important and Not Urgent, was a tough lesson learned. The Athlete training and exam immediately helped me re-evaluate where I can improve my productivity, time management and overall objective evaluation of those (seemingly) enormously important things on my To Do list.

Yes.

The fantastic thing about PS Professional is that you can pick and choose which modules to take. If you’re like me, for example, and want to polish your productivity and effectiveness skills, Athlete comes recommended. If you’re pursuing a career which is heavily client-based, check out Rainmaker.

Today, many organisations aren’t just looking for the technical skills. They want to ensure you as a person are a right ‘fit’ for the business (whether they admit it or not.) The PS Professional certification recognises your technical, personal and commercial strengths and helps you construct, develop and polish them – into a PS Professional Powerhouse.

And if that doesn’t sound commendable enough, just think: as a successful candidate you can tell people you’re a Professional Athlete (and Productivity Ninja!).