Own Your Development

Many people in organizations today feel limited in their ability to exercise real power or meaningful control over their own professional and career development, so they react to circumstances instead of creating their own futures. Consider the following story of one person who turned things around for himself and his team by taking accountability for his own personal development and holding others accountable in a positive, principled way.

A midlevel leader with a large manufacturing company took his direct reports through an Accountability Training and Executive Coaching process. During an Executive Coaching session a few weeks after starting the process, the leader admitted that he was allowing “pressing circumstances” to distract him. He was no longer modeling Focused Feedback or “Solve It” behavior when it came to his own professional and career development. He resolved, once again, to take ownership for his development and asked his direct reports to do the same. This time he modeled the behavior and attitude he wanted to see in his direct reports. After a few months, he and his team had moved to a whole new level of development and performance. The leader described the transformation this way: “Once I decided that seeking feedback, owning my development, and coaching others had to become an integral part of my daily leadership, I began seeing real movement in the team. It made me realize that I had to become the change I wanted to see in my team. Not only did I become a better leader in the process, but everyone on the team also became better.” Today, every member of the team has moved on to positions of greater responsibility and leadership.

The first step to helping others own their development is always to make sure that you are modeling and practicing the powerful principles of ownership and accountability relative to your own development. To learn more about owning your development and holding others accountable in a positive, principled way, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review actual client case studies.

Accountability Training, Focused Feedback, Solve It, and Accountability Community are all registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership, Inc.