In a series of six blogs, I’m going to explore 5 top tips under each of the GROWTH headings, with the purpose of generating ideas on how we can be the best version of our leadership selves.  Some of you may be pausing at this point to say you are not a leader, however, we are all leaders of our lives and make choices every day to enable great outcomes for our personal growth and learning.

Intrigued… please do read on.

Personal growth

Resilience & agility

Optimisation of people & performance

Why: delivering results

Transformational change

Healthy teams

Today is the turn of Personal Growth

Whether you’re familiar with the beautiful work of Eckhart Tolle who refers to joy and enlightenment, or the lovely books by Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, every single one of us is in pursuit of something along the lines of fulfilment in our personal, work and home lives. This doesn’t come from somewhere externally to us but within. Through personal growth we can learn some great habits which will enable us to be the best version of ourselves.

As the beautiful quote from Marianne Williamson writes “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”.

Irrespective of our spiritual or religious views, this quote very simply recognises the joy of recognising our beauty, our fabulousness, our light… We do not need to find it through others, but through recognising it for ourselves and by letting that light shine, we’ll enable it in others, plus connect with those who project a similar energy.

Here are some ideas on finding our own light, or enabling it to shine even brighter..

1. Find your why

This is about establishing your purpose. As Mark Twain says – “the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why”. This will not be found by following the paths of others or doing what someone else says you should do. It is your life and your purpose is yours and yours only.

Simon Sinek in his book ‘Start with Why’ explains that when organisations have a clear purpose, workers are motivated at this level, people buy products by connecting at the same level too. By the same token, if we ‘Find your Why, another book by Simon Sinek, we’ll establish our purpose. The day I obtained the clarity on my why, was a day I can remember vividly – everything seemed to fall into place. It was absolutely clear why I made certain decisions, fallen into things which felt good and was motivated by great pieces of work or activities.

My purpose is ‘To energise and enthuse others so that they may realise their potential and opportunity for personal growth’. The organisations I work with, the jobs I undertake, the people I coach, my partner, my friends, my hobbies – they are connected by energy, enthusiasm and personal growth. So finding your ‘why’ will be a very important day of your life. Ways to do this are through coaching, self-development, reading, conversations, reflection….

2. Live your values

Establishing and having absolute clarity on your values will make life so easy – they are like your decision making tools and if you’re ever feeling slightly uncomfortable about something, it is probably because one of your values has been compromised.  They represent everything which important to you and have been shaped during your life from your learning and experiences – they are like the words which run through a stick of the pink and white rock we buy from seaside towns, and they run through the very heart of us.  To highlight what I mean by this, by sharing my values and what they mean to me, you’ll be able to see how they play out in my everyday life:

• Self worth – everything I do needs to add to my learning and personal growth
• Adventure – work projects have to be a ‘little bit difficult’ so I can learn as a result
• Creativity – particularly with training projects, I like to be given an overall outcome to work towards and to be creative in how I devise new material and ways to address learning needs
• Fun – learning and development must always be fun and enjoyable – both for me and learners
• Freedom – most importantly, I like to be free to choose the clients and people I wish to work with and they need to have similar values to my own – to quote Simon Sinek “do business with people who believe in what you believe”

Coupled with the establishment of your purpose, having clarity on your values will shine a light on the reasons why you do the things that you do, especially the things which enrich your life and give you great joy.  You can then choose not to do the things which don’t and focus your energy on those things which you love.  The best way of establishing your values is through coaching and is probably one of the most powerful session clients have – like a lightbulb moment!  For more reading, see my blog on The Importance of Values

3. Work on your self awareness

‘Everyday is a school day’!  Each day presents an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and thankfully we are all so different and by celebrating these differences we’ll function resourcefully as individuals and in teams.  My favourite tool is Insights Discovery and by making just a small investment in a profile and some accompanying coaching, we can find out more on our preferences, how we tend to communicate and work.  Through developing our own self awareness we can learn to play to our strengths, connect more effectively with others and know when we need to either dial up or down, certain ways of behaving.  Any personal development has to commence with an awareness of ‘self’ so we can become enlightened around our strengths and the areas we need to work on.

4. Be proactive

Personal growth, like all good habits, needs constant work and practice.  Putting personal growth down your list of priorities is simply reinforcing a lack of self worth and this will become self-perpetuating.  By raising it right to the top of your priorities, you will perpetuate a positive and enriching level of self worth, learning and growing each day.  And as your own light shines, you will enable others to do the same.  Life is about evolution and if we stand still, we know what happened to the dinosaurs!  If you don’t like reading books, Audible could be your way to go.  Or perhaps podcasts, YouTube or TED talks.

5. Ask for feedback

None of us are perfect…. By sharing our vulnerabilities gives us the opportunities to ask for help, receive learning from others and will strengthen our relationships in teams.  Conversely if we don’t, it will feed the ‘false ego’ or the ‘false’ way we like to portray ourselves to others.  In order to facilitate personal growth, we have to ask for feedback and practise the receipt of that feedback as an opportunity to learn.  As we recognise through Insights Discovery, some personality types receive feedback more easily than others but just because we find feedback difficult and not asking for it, simply denies us the opportunity for personal growth.  Ask those who we trust, those who respect kindness and who we know will have your personal growth at the heart of their feedback intentions.