In my last blog I offered a methodology in which we blend knowledge-based activities with structured coaching and action-based assessment. This tactical mix for leader development truly accelerates the growth curve, but I left something out.
Let’s get a little more strategic…let’s discuss the development path itself.
From a personal perspective, how does one grow and develop? What takes place in growing from ‘Don-Version 2.0’ to ‘Don-Version 2.5’? There is a linear sequence to effecting positive, lasting personal development and I’ll use my own higher calling of ‘helping people with people’.
To know others is wise, to know oneself is enlightened.” -Lao Tzu
Self-Knowledge: The first step in helping people with people, to becoming more effective at influencing others, is that of discovery…discovering self. Self-knowledge is what tells us where we are now; it gives us a starting point. Only with that current fix can we set a course to where we want to be.
“Always make your plan by considering the next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment…” -Eliel Saarinen, Finnish Architect
Organizational Context: Helping people with people. Simple right? Yet are we helping people with their children (parenting), with their students (education) or perhaps with employees, colleagues or customers (leadership, sales and service)? We make that happen through organizational context – helping them to understand their influence interactions within the setting that makes them unique.
“All things are ready if our mind be so.” -William Shakespeare
Self-Preparation: We’ve delivered an understanding of self and the professional arena in which we all practice. Self-knowledge and organizational context. Before jumping to mastery of behavioral change techniques, let’s take on the task of making ourselves ready – of Self Preparation.
A common question I get from leaders is, ‘What matters most to others, my attitude or my behavior?’ A comprehensive response would be your attitude affects you, and your behavior is what then affects others. For that reason, I continue on the path by working to make ourselves ready for growth.
“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.” - Thomas Jefferson
Behavior Change: We are busier than they’ve ever been in their lives. Productivity is at an all time high, but energy for many at an all time low. Stamina drops. Resilience suffers. Our competencies suffer. What ‘got us here no longer gets us there’. We’ve discovered self, defined the setting and gotten our mind right, it’s now time for change – real-world, behavioral change.
“Watch your habits; they become your character…” – Lao Tzu
Habit Affirmation: For over 100 years we’ve known that it takes many touches to buy or sell, to learn, to change and to grow. There’s an axiom in the basics of sales and marketing called ‘The Law of 29’; the idea is that we need to receive a message 29 times before acting upon or adopting the message.
Whether it’s really 29 or 26 is irrelevant, but I believe that lasting change takes affirmation of habit – positive confirmation of new behaviors. And there is general agreement that it takes some 3 to 8 weeks to do so, to affirm a new habit, to overcome inertia and ‘normalize’ new behavioral patterns.
Try this sequence on for size – chart your own development path. It’s there.
