SELF DEVELOPMENT & LEARNING
The intentional process or effort one makes to continuously develop one's own character, knowledge, skills and abilities.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Those who learn, grow and change continuously across their careers are the most successful. Whatever skills you have now are unlikely to be enough in the future. Acquiring new skills is the best insurance you can get for an uncertain future. Some of us won't face our limitations or we make excuses. Others are defensive and fight any corrective feedback. Some of us don't have time for development or simply don't know what to do.
Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance.Proverbs 1:5
Skilled Characteristics
Committed
Is personally committed to and actively works to continuously improve him/herself
Flexible
Understands that different situations and levels may call for different skills and approaches
Developer
Works to develop one’s strengths
Compensator
Works on compensating for one’s weakness and limitations
What is the most impactful book, workshop, person, scripture, article, etc, that you learned something significant from in the past 6 months?
Unskilled Characteristics
Lazy
Doesn’t put in the effort to grow and change
Lack Awareness
May not know what to work on or how
Hesitant
May know what to learn or develop but doesn’t act on it
Rigid
Doesn’t adjust approach to different audiences and situations
Dismissive
May be immune to negative feedback—arrogant or defensive
Fear Failure
May fear failure and the risk of admitting weaknesses
Doubt
May not believe people really change, therefore it’s not worth the effort
Fooled
May believe one’s current skills are good enough or sufficient
Busy
May believe in development but is always too busy – prioritizes other things before ongoing learning
What is your personal learning goal for the year?
Causes of Weakness
Arrogant
Believe you don’t have any weaknesses
Defensive
Protects oneself from negative feedback
Unaware
Don’t know what you should be developing
Unsure
Don’t know HOW to develop, learn or grow in an area
Negative
Don’t believe that it is really possible for people (or oneself) to change
Fear
Fear of failure or of admitting one’s weaknesses
Busy
Too busy focusing on other things such as work – doesn’t prioritize personal learning and development
What is holding you back from continuing to learn, develop and grow to your maximum?
Advice
Review the simple application steps below and choose 1 or 2 things you can do to spur yourself on to further growth.
Assessment
ASSESSMENT: find a good assessment, a 360° questionnaire, or poll 10 people who know you well to give you detailed feedback on what you do well and not well, what they’d like to see you keep doing, start doing and stop doing.
Categorize
CATEGORIZE YOUR SKILLS: Assess yourself in the following areas: Strengths, Overdone Strengths, Hidden Strengths, Blind Spots, Weaknesses, Untested Areas
What's Important
WHAT’S IMPORTANT? Find out what’s important for your current role and the two or three next roles you might have an opportunity to get. What might you need to be learning to prepare yourself?
Leverage Strengths
LEVERAGE STRENGTHS: How can you use your strengths more on the job, or to help others?
Develop Your Weaknesses
DEVELOP YOUR WEAKNESSES: Create a development plan with 4 main parts: (1) stretching tasks in which you develop the skill or fail at the task; (2) continued feedback to help you understand how you’re doing; (3) building skills through courses, books and workshops; (4) and thoughtfully transfer all your learning into your real life activities.
Compensate
COMPENSATE: Find others who do your weakness well, change roles or restructure your current role.
Untested Areas
UNTESTED AREAS: Look for real chances to develop in areas that you’ve never had a chance to try before. Find out what the core demands of performance in the unknown area are, then work on those before they are necessary. Get involved in small versions of your untested areas.
Blind Spots
BLIND SPOTS: Collect more feedback from people and be open to consider weaknesses you may have but have been unaware of. Study three people who are good at this and compare what you do with what they do.