Personal development, continual growth and training are often talked about, but what I have found is that a lot of people are unsure where to start. They want to develop but that don’t have a strategy or plan on the when/where to grow. This can often lead to them either standing still (and not growing) or waiting for someone else to guide them in where to develop.
In my opinion you should take control of your own growth, have a strategy and align your growth to where you want to go. I break my own development into what I call ‘Growth Buckets’.
These ‘Growth Buckets’ are areas where I focus my development to achieve my ‘why’, my goals and align with my identity both at work or personally.
So what are the areas I focus on?
1) Leadership Leadership is influence and I think it is vital for the majority of people, professions and roles. Even if you are not a leader by title there is great value to demonstrate leadership skills and influence. Influence is a key to success and therefore leadership should form a part of your growth buckets.
“True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned. The only thing a title can buy is a little time-either to increase your level of influence with others or to undermine it.” – John Maxwell
Every week I focus on this growth bucket as it is essential to my performance, my teams performance and our organisation as a whole. I have a thirst for growth – for myself, others and our organisation that drives me to constantly look to raise the bar!
I love this article on leadership and influence - http://training.hr.ufl.edu/resources/LeadershipToolkit/job_aids/LeadingbyInfluence.pdf
‘Influence is not to be confused with power or control. It’s not about manipulating others to get your way. It’s about noticing what motivates employee commitment and using that knowledge to leverage performance and positive results. A leader’s ability to have influence with others is based on trust; in fact, our influence expands in proportion to the amount of trust that exists in a relationship.’
2) Strength Areas I am a big believer in harnessing your strengths for success. What are the top skills that you have? What makes you stand out and how can you take these to world class? You should be consistently building on your strength areas! Evidence shows that ‘a focus on strength not only improves organisational performance – particularly employee engagement – but also personal happiness. Research by the UK’s Corporate Leadership Council found that when managers focus on the weaknesses of an employee, the person’s performance declines by 27 per cent. When a manager focuses on the strengths of an employee, the person’s performance improves by 36 per cent.’
That’s a huge difference in performance! On top of this Gallup, in its 2015 Strengths Meta-Analysis which gathered research covering 1.2 million people and 49,495 business/work units, found that a strength focus boosted performance in everything from customer engagement (3.4–6.9 per cent increase), profit (14.4–29.4 per cent increase) and work safety (22–59 per cent decrease in workplace incidents) and other factors.
On top of this people surveyed who use their strengths have less stress, feel more energy, are more engaged at work, were happier and smiled more.
So how can you begin to understand your strengths?
Testing - The two tests I recommend are:
Gallup - https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253715/34-cliftonstrengths-themes.aspx – the Clifton Strengths 34 is an insightful product. I have used this individually and our team have also completed this so that we look at themes and how to harness the strength of our team. Gallup is a paid test however. If you prefer to start your journey for free then I recommend VIA.
VIA – https://www.viacharacter.org/ - I was interested to VIA when completing a course on Positive Psychology at Melbourne Business School. This is a great free resource and place to get started.
The resources above are great but I also believe that you should never let a piece of paper or a test define who you are. You are in control and you can build new strengths. Testing however can give you insight to build from.
On top of testing you should also reflect and consider:
What do you do well?
What do you enjoy doing and use a lot?
What brings you alive?
Strengths however should be a sweet spot, it’s not just about something you are good at. If you are good at it but it drains you then it’s a learned behaviour not a strength. A true strength should also energise you!
You can also ask people around you, your direct manager, you peers and close friends as they may point the areas where you excel.
3) Core Business Areas What are the key areas of your craft? I say craft as once you have found or decided what this is you should make a concerted effort to become the best in your sector, industry and sphere of influence. You should continually look to develop in these areas. The core areas of my craft include but are not limited to Sales, Recruitment, Relationships, Negotiation, Customer Experience, Marketing. I regularly look to build in this area and consider what new skills I can learn or develop in this area. I look at leaders in this area and consider how I can harness their experiences. Remember success leaves clues! I look both within and outside my industry for learning and inspiration and new tools to apply to what and how I do things.
4) Attributes You Want To Improve In The Business As a leader I am always thinking about attributes I want to build further in our business, change that I can drive, and improvements I can make to take the team to the next level. Part of my growth plan is to consider attributes I want to build into our business to drive our success either internally or externally. As a leader I set the tone and example and people look to what I do, not what I say. Any change starts with me. This also gives me the chance to experiment personally before rolling out a new concept or change with the team. Let’s take this a little further. Internal Some of the attributes I look at internally include:
Habits / Rituals / Schedule – show me your habits, rituals and schedule and I know what is important to you. I am always looking at these areas both personally and for our team. This is a great way to shift performance. Subtle changes in a schedule or routine can make a huge difference.
Mindset – this is key! How do you show up at work? For your clients? Candidates? How do you build resilience? How do you harness your best self? Bring energy? Mindset might sound fluffy to those who haven’t considered it fully. It’s not about self talk or positive thinking – if there are weeds in the garden you need to pull them out (no self talk will help that) but building a strong mind is key.
Triggers – in line with mindset this can change the way you go about your day
Communication / Teamwork – this is a core to our business success, we are all about people
Culture – how do we build our culture and drive high performance. What teams can we look to as an example of high performance? How can we leverage this further?
Values – these are our DNA. We constantly look at our values and how we live them. We have taken this further to look at our ‘Why’ of Deliver Transformation, Drive Success and Empower Careers.
Standards – recently as we have navigated through COVID our team has come up with new standards and 4 Words that will drive us for the next 6 months. The words of Quality, Advisory, Dominate and Team all have measurable outcomes that we will hold each other accountable for as we move through the next 6-12 months.
External Externally the key areas we consider include:
Customer Experience – we are constantly looking at how we can improve our customer experience for both our candidates and clients. How can we set ourselves apart and raise the standards in our industry. How can we provide a world class and personalized customer experience?
NPS – what drives this, what can we look at above and beyond our customer experience?
Brand Positioning – how can we assist our clients with their brand positioning? Their story to the market and assist them to achieve their goals and outcomes?
Insights – how can we continue to bring new insights and knowledge to our candidates and clients and truly consult? What do they want from us? How do we continue to add value and achieve our goal of overpromise and overdeliver?
5) Weaknesses if it holds you back……
As already discussed I am a believer in harnessing strengths. I believe you can delegate, hire or harness other people’s strengths in areas of your weakness. However, there may be times where depending on where you wish to head from a career perspective that you need to focus on a weakness to bring it up to an acceptable level. This depends on your role, where your career is heading and how key particular skills are to your future plan. Don’t lie to yourself though, if you need to address a weakness then do it head on. You are capable so much more than you think! Don’t let a perceived weakness hold you back, give 150% and see where you can take yourself. Most people give up to easily and hold onto a weakness that is only in their mind. If you truly gave your all, would that weakness still exist?
Where to from here? I reflect regularly on my Growth Buckets and ensure that I am constantly moving between these areas. This keeps things fresh, brings variety and drives me to do more. Like a muscle you need to have your development aligned in a way that each area is constantly worked. Consistency is key, discipline is a must! Growth should be a part of your daily routine as a bare minimum. The above list may look intimidating but what you find is when you have defined your development you will start to find common themes, trends and the dots begin to connect between the different areas. You start to see new ways of working and patterns that can get you ahead of the game. All the small areas over time build separation between you and your competitors. I change up the way that I develop – I regularly read, consume content online (podcasts, YouTube, video series), check out articles and stay in tune with those around me. I believe in the power of learning from others, modelling successful people and being open to and looking for growth opportunities. Growth for me is habitual and hardwired into my daily routine. I spend approximately 1 hour per day focused on my growth buckets. What are your growth buckets? How do you learn and develop?
Share your thoughts and feedback below.
#growthbuckets #growth #personaldevelopment #development #leadership #success #learning #morningwithMC
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