Phil Cooke a Christian Leader writes “Growth is what we do with knowledge. Growth is where we take our knowledge, how we apply it and how we use it in our everyday lives”. John Maxwell an Inspiration Leader suggests we consciously choose our orientation as leaders from goals to growth. This resonates with me personally and professionally because after 52 years of living and 22 years as a leader I have experienced repeatedly a sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction despite accomplishing a goal!
Goals motivate some people. I am not one of them. As leaders, we must know what motivates us so that we can in turn motivate and inspire our followers. In the last year I have focused my attention on growth. This has included stepping back from a CEO pathway in my industry to focus on a lower level leadership role, with less responsibility but greater capacity for professional and personal development and more time to invest in supporting my direct reports lead and grow their teams. Ironically, it also pays me more than the Director level role I previously filled.
Goals can help us keep focused but when we accomplish our goal, it is finished. We automatically turn our focus to “what’s next?” and often fail to savour and celebrate the victory. Growth is a never ending process, we are always learning, refining, developing and moving forward. What is the difference in our success as leaders between these two choices? In my opinion, when I look around at the people who I see consistently succeeding and moving to higher levels of achievement (while others seem to stagnate) is because those who are succeeding are growth focused. Their very approach to life is different and this allows them to tackle and overcome nearly any obstacle and barrier with greater and greater ease and success. Equally, they are often calmer, more focused, more flexible and more generous with their time. They have space in their lives for others. They mentor and help others learn and grow too. Isn’t that what every leader should aspire to?