The Workshops
Growth for individual or Teams
Encouraging personal & professional development
Investing in Life
To invest on the Development of the Human beings that consist a Corporation is an act of outmost responsibility and wisdom. Companies should include a budget, relative to their profits for the Personal and Professional Growth of their employees.
I could write a thousand pages for the benefits of Human Development, to persuade you, reader, or make a column with a thousand advantages of Growth in the Workforce.
Instead I choose to address your spirit, your conscience:
Increasing Happiness in the Workforce
High-performers often experience tunnel vision when it comes to their professional development. They long to learn, grow their expertise and climb the ladder in their careers.
But something is often overlooked, and that’s the importance of implementing personal development as a means of developing professionally. In fact, personal development is essential to the highest levels of professional development.
If leaders and businesses want to see progress toward new levels of success, they need to start treating their employees as people outside of their professions. A Social Market Foundation survey revealed that happy employees are 20% more productive than employees who are unhappy. However, a 2017 Gallup Report revealed that 51% of employees are not engaged at work. It is clear that businesses have to make a change.
One way to increase happiness in the workforce is to invest in personal development, both for leaders and their teams. When leaders invest in the personal development of their employees, they’re investing in producing greatness within their companies.
Picture a company culture where everyone feels like their best interests matter, where employees know those in leadership care about their dreams, goals, health and overall well-being. When this happens, employees respond by being committed and engaged.
If leaders find themselves frustrated with a lack of interest in professional development, remember that disinterest is likely coming from employees not having a sense of direction. When people spend time understanding their personal values, needs and strengths, they’ll have better focus.
Sure, some people may not ever derive personal meaning from their work, but as long as they’re fulfilled in their personal lives, they are more likely to see greater focus.
Here are four ways:
1. Encourage self awareness.
Our well-being dictates our performance, and we cannot tend to our well-being if we don’t have an understanding of who we are. Consider offering your team members personality assessments, such as the CliftonStrengths assessment, Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram personality test.
These assessments increase a person’s awareness and provide a language for their unique personalities.
Encourage group discussions about assessment results so that employees can gain a better understanding of themselves and the coworkers.
Through self-discovery and increased awareness, people can create opportunities for themselves to use their strengths in the workplace. They can also answer why they feel the way they feel at work.
For example, if an employee is in a position where they work alone most of the day, but they discover that most of their strengths are relationally focused, this employee could speak to their manager and request opportunities for more connection in the workplace. This change is likely to increase an employee’s happiness and productivity.
2. Provide personal development resources
Just like there are professional development resources at employee’s fingertips, make tools available for personal development as well. Offer discount codes for your employees to take assessments.
Consider giving employees access to life coaches just as you would career coaches.
Provide an online database that employees can go to full of development resources that are constantly updated – this may include videos, articles, podcasts and more.
The more resources available, the more likely your team members will find something that resonates.
3. Encourage personal goals alongside professional goals
Employees are often encouraged to identify goals for themselves professionally. But if that’s the case, personal goals should be included as well.
Sit down with your employees individually to ask what skills they would like to develop both personally and professionally. Then, offer your support to help your team members reach them.
4. Schedule time for personal development
Build scheduled time for self-discovery and personal development into the workday.
If you claim personal development is important, but then don’t allow time for your team members to invest in themselves, then your words and actions are not aligning.
Each employee should be given a certain amount of time each day to dabble in personal development. Maybe this is first thing in the morning, or it could be the last few minutes of the day before transitioning into home life. This time is an important long-term investment.
Showing your team how much you care about them as people and not just as employees will transform the way they start to approach their work. So, next time you implement a professional development plan, prioritise personal development strategies as well.
(Kyle Goguen is the founder and president of Pawstruck.com, an online retailer and manufacturer of natural dog treats and chews.)
Courses and Workshops that have been developed out of personal training, curiosity, observation and “a calling”:
A 2 days workshop. A Course that combines meditation techniques with inner inquiry, based on the Socratic method, to gain deeper understanding and to allow new knowledge to arise.
A 3 days workshop based on the Philosophy of Louise L.Hay. Through a unique licensing agreement with Hay House, Inc., the world wide leader in self help and transformational book publishing organisation Heart Inspired Presentations, LLC is now the exclusive world wide provider of Heal Your Life® trainings.
A 5 part Course that gives a greater understanding on the spirit that abides in a Human Being and cultivates how to train the ego self to be a “servant” of one’s spirit. Course is spread in 5 meetings of 2 hours engagement.
A 2 days Course based on Voice Dialogue techniques, developing increased awareness.
The Voice Dialogue approach is believed to help participants increase self knowledge, rediscover lost skills and talents, and communicate with their entire being.
Instead of living in the manner encouraged by the primary selves, which may be habitual and/or reactive, individuals can often learn, through Voice Dialogue, how to develop a detached perspective. By doing so, people may not only become better able to make informed decisions in all areas of life, but might also gain insight on the many different aspects of self and how to balance them.
The heightened sense of awareness many experience is referred to as the Aware Ego or the Aware Ego process. This process helps participants come to know all of the different layers of consciousness in order to gain greater insight and take care of the selves, in a manner that attempts to contain tension rather than appease one particular self.
A 2 days workshop, Originated by Marshall Rosenberg Nonviolent communication (abbreviated NVC, also called compassionate communication or collaborative communication) is an approach to communication based on principles of nonviolence. It is not a technique to end disagreements, but rather a method designed to increase empathy and improve the quality of life of those who utilise the method and the people around them.
NVC focuses on effective strategies for meeting fundamental needs for all parties in a conversation.
The goal is interpersonal harmony and obtaining knowledge for future cooperation.
Notable concepts include rejecting coercive forms of discourse, gathering facts through observing without evaluating, genuinely and concretely expressing feelings and needs, and formulating effective and empathetic requests.
A 2 days workshop, or 10 hrs of engagement.
Originated by Dr. R. R. Hutzell & Dr. Mary D. Eggert. Much of “Increase Your MPGs” is based on the principles of the Viennese philosopher Dr. Viktor Frankl.
Participants of MPGs group sessions have considered the process of sharing thoughts and ideas to be very helpful. For that reason, you may wish to gather a few people to progress through this work at the same pace you do, regularly stopping and sharing ideas as an informal group. Although you will reveal personal things to this group through the MPGs process, the things you reveal are intended to be positive, not dark secrets you fear others learning about.
If this article touched you and wish to find out how Happiness can be invited in your Company!
Contact: elena.aroni@gmail.com