The business environment is challenging, with demands placed on you each and every day, presenting themselves in myriad forms. Whether it’s negotiating with clients, trying to meet hectic deadlines, managing the work-life balance, or handling conflict with colleagues, there will always be something that will test your patience and your resolve. Most importantly, though, there will always be opportunity for growth – professionally and personally. However, in order for this growth to transpire out of these challenges, a change of your inner narrative is required.
Tips on managing yourself (and growing yourself)
- Identify your role in creating or contributing towards the ‘problem’
What can you do to improve the situation, or how can you approach it the next time it occurs to ensure a better outcome?
- Don’t resist development opportunities
If there is one thing that human beings fear, it’s change. We seem to have an aversion to anything that pulls us out of our comfort zone. However, for self-growth, an ability to adapt to, and welcome, change is absolutely vital. So, when it comes to a new way of doing things, whether it be new business processes or a change in team structure, focus on the positives. Think about the ways that the situation can benefit you, and uncover the ways that you can contribute to your own self growth by welcoming a shift in perspective.
- Self-awareness is critical
This can be achieved by encouraging feedback from colleagues/managers so that you can gauge how others view you in the professional environment. Combining this with an accurate assessment of yourself is key to developing self-awareness. Being conscious of your own self biases and striving for more objectivity towards how you view yourself are fundamental aspects in paving the way to true self-awareness and fundamentally, growth.
- Put yourself to the test
Whether you are a professional who is happily employed, are looking to branch out, or have just started the job search, making use of self-management tools is key to ensuring your career growth and success. Online job search engines like Zigo open up a portal of impressive job opportunities, where you can find a position in an industry that inspires you, and where you can identify the environment that will facilitate and encourage your development and ultimately, contribute to the set of mental skills required for you to be at the top of your game, in everything you do.
