Self-development: why wouldn’t you?!

I’ve been privileged to work with a great group of people over the last 4 weeks; two cohorts from a client-company which have given everything in pursuit of self-development and personal advancement (in a capability sense, rather than career). Why is it that this particular group have been so engaging? – well, apart from the facilitation of my colleague, Sarah Cave, and myself 😊, there are a few things that have come together to create a learning experience.

1. The particular corporate circumstances have probably heightened the importance of looking after oneself and of seeking an opportunity for development. Without going into details, the participants have recognised that learning is an important vehicle toward excellence and personal progress at a time of some uncertainty and ambiguity corporately.
2. The global business environment generally demands that manager-leaders are as well networked, appropriately skilled and interpersonally adept as possible. Rapidly-changing commercial situations in a VUCA world, the growth in virtual teams and ever-demanding shareholders create the need for great decision-making throughout the organisation. Since SLT members cannot be everywhere within their business, investment in great managers is a fundamental organisational imperative.
3. Most people we meet in development programmes accept that the world of work seems to be getting tougher by the year. And, this leads to an increasing focus on building personal resilience. The core of this lies in one’s thinking, since work-challenges trigger the emotions which accordingly influence behaviour. Many people faced with increasing pressures may feel hopeless or helpless. The prevailing view should be that we have choice about our thoughts and consequently our attitude and behaviour.
4. There’s a general recognition that interpersonal skills are more important than ever; particularly in the realm of rapport. Rapport-building – a key element in being influential – is the ability to relate to others in a way that creates a climate of trust and understanding. It is the ability to see each other's point of view (not necessarily to agree with it), to be on the same wavelength and to appreciate each other's feelings.
5. Furthermore, there is clear evidence that managing performance remains a key managerial challenge. Experienced leaders still seemingly struggle to provide authentic and constructive advice in the form of feedback, electing to allow mediocre performance to continue rather than calling it out in the most effective way and consequently addressing issues that might expand into future problems.
6. In almost every case, participants have ‘given themselves’ wholly to the learning process. One could describe this as ‘being present’ (“presence is a feeling state and one of the characteristics is that the experience feels spontaneous. There is no power play, posturing or self-consciousness and past experience is not interfering with the interaction. There is also an element of energy” – Jan Hills). Being present enables our mind to open to new possibilities and new learning, without preconception or bias.

Ultimately, of course, we were lucky to have two great cohorts of people! So, big thanks to them!

 Learning builds personal commitment and capability, which means that organisations benefit massively from pursuing ongoing L&D programmes. The commitments and actions made by our recent participants demonstrated significant, measurable and quantified business outcomes representing a substantial multiple of ROI on the learning programme investment. In addition, the culture that develops from being a learning organisation means that companies build continuous improvement and innovation into their DNA, attract the best new recruits and manage their way effectively out of challenging times.

 All this can’t be bad, can it?!