I ask this question in the context of your personal development. This is a key question when working with clients to help them create personal development plans. I have noticed a theme in their development plans. They are full of things to change and usually these are things around them. It might be improve processes or meet with my team more often. I rarely hear a client say I am going to change my own behavior.
Good enough?
Is this because we believe we are perfect? Knowing my clients, I am very confident this isn’t the case. They are open to learning and improving themselves. As leaders, we in habit a world where we are expected to know what to do, to show up as competent. It is hard to say, I am working to improve myself because I am not good enough. Good enough infers a required level of competence, a destination. In contrast, I prefer a quote I heard recently, “Better has no finish line”.
What will I change?
Coming back to the topic of personal development, what are you going to change about yourself? What personal behavior, if changed, will have the biggest impact on your success? This is another tricky question. Fortunately there is a large group of people who know the answer. They are the people you interact with on a day to day basis. Take a few moments in your next conversations to surprise those around you. Let them know you are creating your personal development plan and sk them, “if I could change one of my behaviors to help you, what would that be?” Some people will give you platitudes, and sooner or later you will get some serious answers. Some of them you might not like but this is where the gold resides.
Development planning
Once you have some ideas, go back to the goal planner I shared in my last post (see link below). Create a few development goals with corresponding development actions. You will now have much clearer measures of results and outcomes because you know what others want you to change. One of your measures should be feedback from those people I interact with. They will help you know if you have changed or not.
If you are hesitant to do this, I completely understand, my clients are as well. When they ask for development feedback, they are invariably surprised by the generosity of the people around them. And those people view them in a more positive light.