Personal Growth in a Team

Our environment has become so dynamic that sometimes we can’t even comprehend how much do things and circumstances change in a very short period of time. Our feelings about what is going on around us, about the work we do, and how we see our near or distant future change just as fast. In this dynamic world, we can quickly forget or even lose the goal we are moving towards as well as our motivation. Personal growth is the cornerstone of both your well-being and business growth. Read more: Boosting Engagement through Learning and Personal Growth.

On average, each inhabitant spends a total of 90,000 hours at work during a lifetime. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the growth of your employees, both professionally in terms of work and personal development, thus promoting your employee’s satisfaction both inside and outside the workplace. It will definitely pay off in business as well.

What is personal growth?

This concept is widely used today. This can range from leadership training or learning new skills to the enthusiasm to do something that inspires employees inside and outside the workplace. Personal growth is an investment in yourself so that you can successfully cope with various situations. Benjamin Franklin has said, “We may make these times better if we better ourselves.” In other words, self-improvement means being proactive, not waiting for something good to happen to you, but starting to create good events for yourself.

We can distinguish 3 aspects of personal growth

1. The spiritual aspect. Some people believe that we are just extensions and improved forms of the animal species, but there is a view that our spiritual qualities make us different from other life forms. Spiritual and ethical values will help build a strong foundation for your quest for wealth and happiness. Strengthen them and cultivate them!
2. Physical aspect. In order for the mind to perform its functions, the body must be in the best possible position. This is one of the preconditions for moving forward with a high sense of self-confidence in your personal life as well as in your work environment. In business, your appearance is very important: how you appear to other people has a direct connection with how people will receive you in this environment.
3. Mental aspect. The third aspect of personal growth is your mind – train your mind, learn positive thinking and productive learning habits, generate new ideas, and try to use them in your behavior and business. It is important to look at things from the other side and accept them. Inevitably, in dialogues, meetings, business negotiations, or social events, you will find yourself in situations where your opinion will not coincide with another opinion. If you are mentally strong, then understanding and accepting another point of view will not cause any difficulties.

Benefits of personal growth

Investing in self-improvement requires a lot of energy and effort throughout life, as it sometimes forces you to step out of your comfort zone and overcome various difficulties. But remember, there are no victories without challenges. Listed below are some of the key benefits of personal growth.

Self-awareness

Personal growth begins with self-confidence. It allows you to understand who you really are, what your values, beliefs, and goals are. If you want to achieve true fulfillment, build your life based on your values. The path you have to take to reach your goal is much more rewarding than chasing after other people’s dreams. Self-confidence is the first fundamental step in the process of personal growth.

If you are not focused on personal growth, you will simply give in to any problem. But if you are motivated, use the empty space in your experience to define the direction in which to improve your life.

Awareness of your goal

Once you have revealed your self-confidence, you will have a much clearer vision of what you want to achieve. Decision making will become much easier. Many tasks that used to take up a lot of your time will no longer be so important to include in your to-do list at all. It will be easier for you to decide which tasks will help you move closer to your goals and which are not worth it. At this point, a large proportion of people make the biggest mistakes in achieving their goals. Often we define the goal as an additional thing to work on when all the other work is done. In this way, we think we are making our lives more valuable and better, but in reality, we are simply doing things that are not moving us in the right direction.

Ability to focus and use resources efficiently

With personal growth, the clarity of things and circumstances will strengthen. Even with direct progress towards your goals, you will always have to deal with several tasks at the same time. Personal growth will also make it easier to set priorities. It will be much easier for you to identify which task will yield the most results, using the resources currently available.

One of the biggest distractions is the constant focus on other things. Commitment to personal growth and development helps to strengthen the ability to focus and resist the temptation to move away from important tasks. Personal growth is a continuous journey. With each subsequent step, it becomes easier to assess the true value of each activity.

More motivation

Once you know what you want to achieve, it’s easier to see the point. Even if this work does not bring any pleasure, but you know the benefits of doing it, you will be much more motivated to complete the work or start a new one. If you have a definite goal and a desire to achieve it, then you will always find a way to reach it.

You don’t really need as much motivation as you think at first. Instead of focusing on the destination, you just need enough motivation to take every next step when the previous one is done. Personal growth is what gives you this ability and motivation.

Filled relationships

As a result of your personal growth, you will be able to see in which relationships it is worth investing your time and energy and which will drain all the energy from you. You also develop skills that help you get the most out of this relationship, which in turn will have a positive impact on your life. People around you are very important. Choose to build a society around you from people who are positive, motivated, help each other, give advice and suggestions, and generally have a desire to grow and develop. It’s a relationship that is worth nurturing.

How to encourage and motivate your employees to improve?

Growth will look different and will mean something different for each person. It is important for everyone to understand how to invest in themselves. Nowadays, as this factor becomes more and more important, your organization can promote the team’s desire to improve by providing support and motivation. For example, if an employee shows a desire to learn or improve their job skills, your company could offer to pay for courses or add study time to paid hours.

Some suggestions on how to promote employee growth

• Make an employee growth plan

At the very beginning of the year or when hiring a new employee to your team, create an employee growth plan. It is important to find out which direction he wants to improve and support him. It can also be something as simple as reading three books a year or being a shadow for a colleague in another department.

• Set 90-day improvement goals

Encourage everyone to define shorter-term goals and share the results. Arrange a meeting on a specific day and discuss what has been done. Read more: Why Setting Goals is Important.

• Ask questions and listen to the answers

When you have an appointment with an employee, listen to him carefully and with interest. Give him time to pay full attention without turning away and forgetting what you wanted to say to him. Ask two simple questions: 1) What skills would you like to develop? 2) How can I help you in this situation?

• Create a learning culture

Any kind of development is the result of learning. To effectively support continuous personal growth, create and strengthen company learning culture. If a strong learning culture is embedded in the company’s core values, then employees will see the importance of continuous growth and be more motivated. There are various mechanisms, tools, and approaches that an organization can use to encourage employees to learn, but the introduction of a learning culture is one to start with. Read more: Microlearning: an Effective Tool for Employee Development.

The company’s environment in itself is an important factor in employee well-being. When equipping an office, it is necessary to think not only about its ergonomic aspects but also that it’s creative and motivates employees. A comfortable and open feeling in the office, while maintaining privacy, will make the employee happy to be there. When leaving home, the employee will not feel like he has escaped the 8-hour trap and will not come to work the next day with displeasure. Such an environment will be motivating for personal growth both inside and outside the company.