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The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. Link to Wikipedia
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
This is a training manual I want to show you
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Should you play to your strengths or shore-up your weaknesses? If you pose this question to a group of professionals some will answer play to your strengths, some will answer shore-up weaknesses and others will answer both.
The truth is that they are all correct to a degree. The real answer lies in understanding context, environment and priority. Continued professional growth leading to increased performance over time is what separates the good from the great.Rapidly evolving marketsdemand that successfulbusiness peoplehave afluidity in their approach to professional development.
However, many executives and entrepreneurs focus on the wrong areas, at the wrong times and for the wrong reasons in their efforts to refine and improve their skill sets.In this week's column I'll share insights on how to prioritize your professional development efforts.
Focus needs to be applied to areas that can have the greatest impact on your performance. It is nothing short of foolishness to waste time, energy or capital on improving weaknesses that don’t matter. Unless a weakness createsa barrier between you and the completion of your mission, or impedes you from utilizing your strengths it is not really a weakness that needs to be addressed.
As an example, if you are a CEO with poor interpersonal communication skills that prohibit you from being able toarticulately and persuasivelysell the corporate vision, you should immediately go to work on improving your communication. By way of contrast, if you're a CEO who has poor administrative skills, who cares? It is likely that as CEO you have unfettered access to administrative support to which you can delegate activities that are not highest and best use to begin with, so why worry about how fast you keyboard or work the scanner?
It is critical that you understandit takes much more dedication, determination and energy to go frompoor to mediocre thanit does to move from good to great.It is also important to check your motivation and interest level in determining which areas you desire to improve upon. If you’re not passionate about something itisdifficult to be motivated and without motivation it is virtually impossible to maintain any interest.As a busy executiveor entrepreneur you only have so much time in a day so don't waste it on areas thatdo not add value or create leverage.
Those of you who are familiarwith my philosophy understand the importance offocus. Howeveras important as focus is, of equal or greater importance is what you chooseto focus on.As mentioned above focus needs to be brought to bear on issues that stand between where you are and where you want to go.Understanding how to identify barriers is mission critical to your ability to succeed in business. Barriers are best identified as things that can be removed though acquiring knowledge through training, continuing education, self-learning, and such; by improving skills with training, practice, focus; and by gaining experience by broadening roles, having more tenure, being mentored, etc.
Bottom line, then, is that focused professional development requires:
1) Motivation to improve
2) the ability toidentifybarriers
3)determining the proper method of removing the barrierby improving skill sets, acquiring knowledge or gaining experience
4)Conducting a cost/benefit and risk/reward assessment to determine whether the barrier needs to be addressed immediately, over the mid-range or thelong-term.
If you wish to send a management question to Mr. Myatt, his email address is managementmatters.myatt@cpngroup.com. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not represent those of CPN.
