​Given my background and because a number of our members are investment professionals (including Chartered Financial Analysts), I tend to write about investment-related topics fairly often. My perspective on the world is to some extent coloured by my investment training, and I think a number of investment topics have applicability more broadly too – including the focus of this post: our own growth rates.

I also wrote about models (such as financial models) being representations of reality in our post on Professional & Personal Development Cycles. One of the central models in investments is the Dividend Discount Model. It is used, along with other more complex techniques, to value the shares of a company. It is based on the theory that a share is worth the sum of all the company’s future dividend payments, discounted back to today i.e. the net present value of the future earnings that holders of the shares actually receive as dividend payouts.

Read more to explore this valuation model, think about intercepts, slopes and reinvestment, and consider with us a thought experiment on our own professional growth rates and future earnings. Please do build on the ideas mooted in the comments.

We trust that the experiences and suggestions shared by each of our prestigious panelists are helpful to you in actively managing your career, allowing you to march forward with confidence as a professional, whether you are newly qualified, mid-career, or phasing into retirement. A wide range of professions was represented at #ProWeek, including accounting, asset/investment management, banking, risk management, actuarial, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, psychology and more...

For those who missed the virtual conference, or specific panel discussions you wanted to attend, become a Protagion subscriber to access the recordings of our panel discussions on-demand (in addition to a suite of other subscriber benefits like our private LinkedIn professional community, and subscriber exclusive Q&A sessions hosted by specific Protagion mentors or coaches).

Topics we explored over the course of our #ProWeek Professional Development conference were broad, and designed to address common career questions our proteges face, while showcasing the backgrounds and specialities of our professional mentors and career coaches. For each of the topics, we’ve also prepared a post-panel page sharing additional resources Protagion offers to help you, either on-your-own, in a group, or one-to-one with our mentors and coaches. Every post-panel page (each including links to some of our related free career articles) can be reached by clicking on the panel topic below: 

• Continuing Professional Development & Reflective Practice with Bradley, Tumisang (Lebo) & Julian
• Taking on a New Challenge with Xerxes, Errol & Nikki
• Financial Independence & Diversifying Income with Abdallah, Mashudu & Trevor
• Consulting or Contracting as a Career with David, Rishi & Valerie
• Further Study: MBA, CFA, postgrad? with Natasha, Tanja & Bradley
• Power/Soft Skills: Lead, Collaborate, Influence with Margaret, Nina & Greg
• Personal Brand & Reputation with Lusani, Richard & Vumi
• Non-Executive Director (NED) Roles with Marjorie, Isaac & Sheelagh
• Managing a Business with David, Niven & Marius
• Working in Insurtech / Fintech with Sean, Gerisha & Sumit
• Personal Mastery with Serge, Boniswa & Marjorie
• Purpose & Meaning with Anne, Soshan & Gretha
• Career Transitions (Session One) with Joey, Nikki & Lee
• Career Transitions (Session Two) with Divya, Lance & Stanley
• Career Breaks & Returning to Work with Grace, Andrew & Rumbi
• Work Life Balance with Hafsa, Jen & Peter

In addition to the open panel discussions, we held some subscriber exclusive sessions too, each hosted by a Protagion mentor or coach, offering our subscribers an audience with them on a group basis. These subscriber exclusive sessions were:

• Philosophy: Lessons for Professional Development, hosted by Michael
• Financial Yoga: Stilling the Waves of Money Anxiety, hosted by Trevor
• Support Squads: Building your Board of Mentors, hosted by Bradley

Please do share your feedback on #ProWeek with us – we’d love to hear your thoughts on what you enjoyed or what you didn’t, and how we can make our career management and professional development resources even more helpful in future.

Like me, a number of our mentors have benefited from rotation programmes during their careers i.e. changing roles every few years. And, the main purpose behind these changes is broader development as a professional, including building new skills from fresh experiences. In my own career, I’ve moved roles both within companies and outside, including shifting countries and responsibilities for different experiences, especially as learning something new greatly appeals to me – I find it a fantastic way to ride the learning curve.

Read more on my career experiences (as an example of rotation) in this next article, which concludes with suggestions on how to create your own growth opportunities by rotating during your career. It follows on from the first rotation-themed article which concentrated on the corporate and managerial perspectives.