What has to come first

# Chapter 244

Personal growth first – then professional. - Masterminds

This is a demanding idea. One I really like and as I sit here thinking about it, I realize how difficult it is to actualize. That is probably why we see it done so infrequently. And personal growth can feel icky depending on how personal we are thinking. There are at least two different pieces to personal growth, and the first one is just as important as the second one, though we often discard the first one entirely. The first piece to personal growth is to make space for it. Your working mothers especially need this, the child care to have time for personal development, the costs covered for personal development, the accountability to make sure it is done well. Making space in people’s lives is critical. Watching my own kids and their careers and their child care needs alone is pretty overwhelming, and consequently they end up living at my house! The second piece to personal development is to provide actual personal development material or coaches to actually do it! If you can make this happen, then your people may well soar. Unfortunately I can count on one hand how many times I have seen this addressed at all. And the few times I have seen it attempted, they made no accommodations for the parents of small children to have the margin or space for the development to occur. (Hint here: if you really want to make a huge difference, make this a part of regular working hours instead of outside regular working hours!)

The professional development piece is way more straight forward, you know what needs to happen and all you have to do is incentivize it.