Personal Capacity Building
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 3:14PM Our topic today is personal capacity building. It seems to me that personal leadership is the umbrella for our personal capacity building. Specifically, under the rubric of one's own leadership of self, one can examine whether muscles need to be strengthened in the areas of:
personal finance
relationship dynamics
life work balance
career issues
health/wellness
parenting
cultural adaptability
Many programs and organizations encourage folks to just jump into one of these areas and strengthen the chosen one. At the Personal Leadership Institute, we advocate a holistic approach whereby we deconstruct who you are and what your life is like and then build it to your specifications with your existing strengths and passions. Usually what emerges from this process are areas where individuals want to build more capacity and thus from that organic process we are able to do very targeted, SUSTAINABLE work! I put the word sustainable in caps because we feel this is the missing element to personal growth work and leadership development work. How often have you attended a great training, workshop or even more extensive learning situation and yet within days, months or years, you have not retained what seemed so important at the time. We find that happens all too often. Yet, if you build your personal capacity and you have a plan that is tailored to your guiding values and passions, then it is ingrained in you. And, in fact, we advocate that you have a plan for constantly revising and revisiting your personal leadership plan.
It's your life. Are you going to just live it, or LEAD it?!!
Thoughts?
Ann
Ann Dinan, Ph.D., M.S.S.A., C.P.C.C.
The Deeper Leadership Institute
Reader Comments (3)
Great idea to do the complete life examination thing and concentrate on the areas that need work in the appropriate amounts, because who's life is so compartmentalized that work and life are not intertwined along with money and relationships?
My 2¢...
Sustainability is a concept that most workshops and consultants from my own personal experience, do not address. They present their information, you leave revved up to conquer the world, or at the very least your own little world, and the distractions of everyday life take over. What you have not been given, are the tools needed to maintain direction. I am all for Ann's suggestion that sustainability is an extremely important and critical piece to personal work.
Personal capacity is a new term for me. I like the fact that Ann is addressing the many facets of our lives, and how to identify which areas need strength building, while maintaining a liveable balance. It seems that personal work of the past concentrated on areas that we were lacking, in other words, our weaknesses. Identifying strengths and passions and letting them lead our lives makes so much more sense! Having a coach like Ann to help us sift through all of the many pieces of our lives to target our passions and strengths, and to get us going on a solid, yet organic path, is a must!