The Radical Case for Actually Investing in Professional Development

It’s typically standard practice for organizations to offer employees a budget for professional development opportunities. But seldom do teams, especially diverse ones, get the chance to actually utilize it. When the culture of a company dictates that teams have to work full steam ahead at all times, it can prove difficult to slow down, plan, strategize, and ultimately take action to place employees in the opportunities they need to grow.

What is professional development?

Professional development is the training that professionals undergo after entering the workforce. Whether a workshop, training, course, executive coaching, certification program, or conference, these opportunities provide participants the boost in skills and confidence necessary for advancing in their careers and contributing more strategically to their organizations. Professional development is essential for organizational growth and success. And yet, organizations treat it as an optional perk, placing it in a glass case that no one can break, while systematically creating environments where no one has the time or bandwidth to take advantage of it.

When you deny your team the space to develop, you’re holding them back as individuals and sabotaging your own organization’s success. You cannot expect innovation, loyalty, or excellence from people who are running on empty and locked into the same skill set they entered with five years ago.

Why professional development budgets alone are not enough 

On paper, your company may support professional development. They might even emphasize it during recruitment as part of your benefits package. However, if employees are made to feel guilty for stepping away from their daily tasks to attend training, if work isn't taken off people's plates while they participate in professional development, or if there’s no process for identifying relevant opportunities, those dollars are nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet. 

Professional development budgets could be a powerful tool for equity and uprooting White Supremacy Culture in the workplace, which creates a climate where egos are fragile and threatened by the thought of others (and especially a Black or Brown person) succeeding. It’s a fear-based mindset that is scared at the thought of employees leveling up and potentially wanting to explore other opportunities beyond their current role. The money is a resource and a means to an end, but it’s the intention and action put behind it that actually allows employees to get the support they need. 

Professional development as a tool for advancing equity 

If you’re not actively creating space for your team to grow, you’re complicit in stifling their growth. Leadership that fails to prioritize professional development is leadership that prioritizes control and maintaining order over growth. It’s leadership that says we want your output and productivity, but not your evolution. 

Treating professional development as a non-negotiable can look like: 

Blocking time on calendars for quarterly learning sessions.

Actively sourcing opportunities that align with employees’ career goals, and having regular and candid conversations with them about their short and long-term goals. 

Holding managers accountable for advocating for their team members’ growth.

Measuring success not just with data but by the skills employees have gained over time.

Reframing growth as strategy

When leaders invest in professional development, they aren’t doing their employees a favor — they’re ensuring the success of their organizations in the immediate and long term. Skills evolve. Industries change. The employees who feel most equipped and supported will be the ones who innovate, stay engaged, and want to stay with you. The alternative? You burn out your best people, and they leave for companies that do what you refused to.

Prioritizing professional development doesn’t just benefit individual careers. It strengthens teams. It sharpens organizational capacity. It embeds resilience into the culture because it says we want you to grow, and we’re going to invest in that journey. 

If you are in a position of power, push your team to invest in employees and build systems that normalize it. And if you’re an employee, advocate unapologetically for it. 

Growth shouldn’t be something you have to fight for. It should be embedded into the DNA of how organizations operate. When we disrupt this broken cycle of hoarding growth opportunities behind endless to-do lists, hustle culture, and veiled racism, we can build better teams and workplaces that are brave enough to evolve.