Why Personal Development Is Business Development

Research & Sources / Personal & Career Development

An apple tree can only grow as many apples as its roots can feed. You can paint the apples, polish them, put a beautiful sign next to the tree. But if the roots are thin and the soil is dry, the harvest stays small. In a business, the roots are the people who lead it. That is why personal development is not a hobby next to the business. It is the soil the business grows in.

The ceiling nobody talks about

Every company eventually meets a ceiling. Revenue stops growing, the team stops getting better, decisions start to repeat. Most leaders look for the cause outside: the market, the competition, the staff, the economy.

Sometimes that is right. But very often, the ceiling of the business is the current ceiling of the person at the top. How clearly they think. How well they listen. How they handle conflict, pressure and uncertainty. How honestly they see themselves. A company rarely grows far beyond the people leading it.

That sounds hard. It is actually good news. Markets are hard to change. You can change yourself.

Most of us see ourselves less clearly than we think

Organisational psychologist Tasha Eurich and her research team studied self-awareness with thousands of people. Their finding, which she described in Harvard Business Review: about 95 percent of people believe they are self-aware, but only around 10 to 15 percent really are, by her team’s estimate.¹

Eurich also describes two kinds of self-awareness. Internal self-awareness is how clearly you see your own values, strengths, reactions and wishes. External self-awareness is how well you understand how others see you. Both matter for leaders, and they do not automatically come together. Some people know themselves deeply and still have no idea how they come across in a meeting.

One of her more surprising findings is about how we reflect. Asking yourself “why” (“why did I react like that?”) often leads to circles and excuses. Asking “what” (“what situations bring out the worst in me?”, “what can I do differently next time?”) tends to lead to clearer, more useful answers.¹

Strengths are a business asset

Personal development is not only about fixing weaknesses. Often the bigger lever is understanding your strengths and using them on purpose.

Gallup has studied strengths at work for decades. One of its clearest findings: people who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their work.² Engaged people do better work, stay longer and take better care of customers.

This applies to leaders too. An entrepreneur who is brilliant at building relationships but spends most of the week on spreadsheets is a polished apple on a thirsty tree. Understanding where you create the most value, and arranging your work around it, is personal development and business strategy at the same time.

Does development actually change anything?

A fair question. Reading a book over the holidays is nice, but does it change results?

The research on structured development is encouraging. A review that combined many studies of coaching in organisations found positive effects on performance, well-being, the ability to cope with pressure, attitudes towards work, and especially on what researchers call goal-directed self-regulation: the ability to set goals, notice progress and adjust.³

That last one is worth a moment. Goal-directed self-regulation is basically the skill of steering yourself. For an entrepreneur or executive whose job is largely to steer, that is not a soft side effect. It is the core of the role.

What real development looks like

Personal development has a reputation problem. It sounds like motivational posters and weekend seminars. Real development is quieter and more practical:

• Getting honest feedback from people who see you work, and listening without defending.
• Noticing patterns: the kinds of decisions you avoid, the situations that drain you, the conversations you postpone.
• Practising one thing at a time, for example asking more questions in meetings, or saying no more clearly.
• Reflecting regularly, with “what” questions, not only when something goes wrong.
• Having someone to reflect with, because it is hard to see your own roots from the branches.

For entrepreneurs and executives

For entrepreneurs, the link is direct. Your patterns become the company’s patterns. If you avoid conflict, the company will avoid hard conversations. If you jump between ideas, the team will jump too.

For senior executives, the link is about reach. The bigger your role, the more people feel the effect of your habits, good and bad. A small blind spot in a team leader affects ten people. The same blind spot at the top affects a thousand.

What this means for you this week

• Ask three people one question: “What is one thing I do that helps the team, and one thing that gets in the way?”
• Write down your top three strengths and check how many hours last week actually used them.
• Swap one “why” for a “what” in your reflection: “What do I want to do differently next time?”
• Block thirty minutes at the end of the week for reflection, and protect it like a client meeting.

Water the roots, and the apples follow.

Sources

1. Eurich, T. (2018). What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It). Harvard Business Review, January 2018. hbr.orgAbout 95 percent of people think they are self-aware, but only an estimated 10 to 15 percent are; internal versus external self-awareness; why “what” questions work better than “why”.
2. Sorenson, S. How Employees’ Strengths Make Your Company Stronger. Gallup. gallup.comPeople who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job.
3. Theeboom, T., Beersma, B. & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1-18. doi.orgCoaching improves performance, well-being, coping, work attitudes and especially goal-directed self-regulation.