Minisode 8: Is Personal Development Holding You Back?
1 Apr 2021 · 5 min
Amber McCue questions whether constant self-improvement is actually helping you. She argues for embracing your quirks and aligning your business strategy with who you are now, not who you think you should become.
I am a big fan of personal development, of growth and learning in our business and for us as humans overall. It was said to me by Ally Brown for the first time that running a business is the greatest personal development journey you will ever go on. And this has been true for me as well. But there is a point when personal growth and development can slow down the success and growth and the potential that your business has. Again and again I see entrepreneurs identifying areas where you need to improve. Where as a modern CEO, you want to do better. Yes, we will always be striving to get better, but you've got it going on right now and you need to leverage the strengths that you have right now and marry your business model, design up and your team building up with who you are and where you are right now. For example, if you've ever said that you need to do better, it's not working because I have to improve in this area. Yes, sometimes there's an improvement you need to make, but sometimes you need to adjust what you are doing to align with where you are right now because otherwise we are operating out of sync. Let's take for example, you may have someone on your team and it may not be going the way that you want. On the one hand, you could say I could do better. Here is where I've let my team down. Here's where I need to improve in communications and connection with my team and setting expectations. Okay, yeah, maybe there are areas where we can do better when it comes to working with our team. At the same time, we've all got our quirks, we've all got things going on that impact how we engage with our team and lead our team. For example, even my family knows that when I am focused, I don't hear anything my husband will say to the kids. Mom can't hear you right now. She is in outer space. Maybe you have something similar. In other instances, when I am in busy season, when it is go, go, go, when I'm thinking and processing a lot, sometimes I get quiet and less communicative proactively with my team. Is that great? No, not necessarily. That's not necessarily great. Can I do better? Yes, I can. I work to continually improve on that and stay connected even when I'm processing or when I'm. I don't even know quite what to say. I want to say something. I want to connect with my team in some way. However, I'm not going to hire someone who, with the intention in mind that I will be better at this in the future. Instead, I'M going to hire someone that can match up with who I am, that can understand my quirks and we can work together even when I get a little bit quiet, even when I can't quite hear because I am so focused right now. Give me a minute. I will come out of this zone of focus and then I will be able to fully listen. I need someone who can compliment and understand my quirks and. And so do you. Yes. Will we work to get better? Absolutely. We are constantly going to be working to improve and getting better. But if we hire someone, if we build the business for our future state, you are doing yourself a disservice because we have to then run to catch up with where we are. And you are pretty frickin awesome right now just as you are. Hire someone that can work with the person that you are and that can work with the person and the business that you are becoming. Does it always work out? Do we always grow step and step together? No. But we cannot predict the future. What we can do is we can plan for today and we can plan for where you are going and engage with a team, engage in strategies that align with both and then we figure out the rest as we go. I share an African proverb regularly. We know where we are and. And we know where we are going, everything in between. So I want to invite you to hire in line with where you are and where you are going. I want to invite you to design your business strategy with where you are and where you are going in mind. Because you are awesome. You have got it going on and you have to keep on keeping on right on time. I am so curious as you heard this conversation, did any of your quirks come up that you try and ignore, that you try and resist or operate against? It just is. Don't stress about those quirks. I say embrace them, acknowledge them, and everybody can be aligned on them. And the same thing goes for your team. Understand your team's quirks so you can better work together and support each other to get your clients to get your business to get things moving the way and the direction that you want them to be going. Keep me posted on your quirks and how this works for you. You're right on time.