We’re all looking for ways to improve ourselves—at least that’s what the thriving $10 billion self-help industry seems to imply. But as popular and alluring as the principles of personal development may be, many of us still have only a fuzzy understanding of it. Even fuzzier: How to turn personal growth into professional gains.
At the same time, there’s an undeniable overlap between the two—after all, our personal strengths and weaknesses affect us at work, too. Also, there are ways in which growing personally and working on ourselves can make us more effective at work.
If that still feels a little murky, we get it—and we have some advice that might help. Read on to learn exactly what personal growth is and get concrete ways to leverage it in your career.
What is personal growth anyway?
Personal growth or development is difficult to define, in part because it’s, well, personal. Broadly speaking, personal development is an effort to improve yourself, the outcomes in your life, or how you experience life, explains Sumayya Essack, a career-change coach and founder and owner of Curate the Future.
“Personal growth is the process of growing stronger, more confident, and more effective as a person and an agent of change for your own life,” says Kathy Caprino, a career and personal growth coach. More specifically, it relates to “how you see and perceive yourself, interact with others, engage with the world, and envision your future and your possibilities.”
It affects you in both concrete and more abstract ways, including emotional regulation, communication abilities, well-defined boundaries, decision-making, and personal satisfaction and positivity.
Where personal and professional development meet
At first glance, personal growth can seem a little vague compared to professional development goals. “Career growth tends to focus on tangible performance-related goals, such as raises and promotions,” Essack explains. It may also emphasize hard skills, which depending on your field could include things like data analysis or proficiency in a certain language or type of software.
However, if you think of personal and professional growth as two circles of a Venn diagram, there’s a healthy overlap between them. “Your career success and enjoyment of your career aren’t just the result of domain-related skills and knowledge; it’s also a result of what you bring to the table as a person,” Essack says.
Things we think of as soft skills—such as communication style, self-motivation, and how you relate to other people—fall into the area of overlap. These skills greatly impact our ability to get things done at work. Developing them can help you become more effective in your career, and maybe even nab a promotion.
Personal development goals for work: Examples
Even if you’re sold on the benefits of personal growth for your career—where do you start? In large part, it’s up to you.
“The root of all personal development is becoming aware of what’s happening in your own mind and becoming aware of how the thoughts you’re thinking affect your emotions, behaviors, and results,” Essack says.
If you can identify a result you’re unhappy with or, conversely, one you want to achieve, you can work backwards from there to determine the underlying thoughts, emotions, and behaviors you should address to make the change you desire.
For example, are you constantly struggling to get tasks done? Maybe you need to work on your focus in order to become more efficient. Eager for a promotion? Perhaps you need to build better relationships to get there. Whatever area you choose, work on it in small doses.
While there are many ways you might implement personal growth into your career development, here are 10 examples of areas to improve, as well as advice for tackling them:
1. Build emotional intelligence
Solid emotional intelligence can help you forge strong working relationships with colleagues and clients, which in turn promote productivity and strengthen your professional reputation.
The ability to deal with people and conflict is important in most any job, but especially so when you take on a management or leadership role. “Emotional intelligence means being able to understand where someone else is coming from,” Essack says. “People want to work for someone who understands them.”
How to tackle it
Focus on becoming a better active listener, which helps others feel heard and understood. “We get caught up in saying what we want to say, but communicating effectively is also about being a great listener,” Essack says.
First, show the speaker that you’re paying attention. “Put away your devices, make eye contact, and fully concentrate on them rather than mentally preparing what you will say next,” Essack says. “Then, show that you're listening with verbal cues such as ‘uh huh’ and body language, such as nodding, smiling, and leaning forward.”
Finally, ask clarifying questions or reflect back with paraphrasing. Try starting with “So what you're saying is...,” or “What do you mean by...?”
2. Feel confident in your talents
Building confidence is a common goal of personal development, and one that has a clear line to career gains. Developing your confidence can help you land a better job, negotiate for a raise or promotion, earn credit for your contributions, and be seen as a leader, Caprino says. But confidence isn’t something that’s easy to just switch on.
Instead, look for a path to confidence by working on recognizing your talents. If you don’t fully grasp what you’re amazing at and aren’t able to speak confidently about these talents, you won’t be able to fully leverage your unique abilities, Caprino adds.
How to tackle it
Many people struggle to look inward to discover where they shine—especially if they grew up hearing that they shouldn’t brag. So instead, look outward to colleagues and mentors for help identifying your unique talents. Ask them to name any contributions that have stood out to them as well as elements of your approach to work they consider particularly effective.
3. Grow your motivation
Wouldn’t it be great if we could bottle up motivation and consume it like we do our morning coffee? Imagine the benefits! At work, being more motivated can of course make you more productive, but it can also help you be seen as more driven and ambitious.
How to tackle it
Until motivation is sold by the bottle, you can work on building it little by little, Essack says. Think of motivation not as a mindset or mood that randomly descends on you outside of your control, but as a behavior.
We tend to assume that when we’re motivated, we’ll take action—but the reverse can be true. “First you do the behavior and have a mini success, and that’s what makes you feel motivated again,” Essack explains. “Success builds on itself.”
For example, if you're intimidated by holding performance conversations with employees, you might be tempted to avoid them until the last minute. But when you successfully commit to a small action, such as holding shorter, less formal performance check-ins, you may find more motivation to improve your skills and take on longer talks.
Instead of waiting for motivation to strike, try structuring your big goals into small achievable tasks to build momentum. This way you’ll help yourself experience each one you complete as an invigorating success and feel motivated to take the next step toward where you want to be.
4. Become more mindful
Mindfulness is a term that’s thrown around a lot today, and its meaning can be as blurry as the concept of personal growth as a whole. Essentially, mindfulness is the act of training your brain to focus on the present moment, rather than racing ahead to the future, or drifting to the past.
Research has linked mindfulness to reduced stress, improved focus, and better working memory. At work it could help you zero in on the task at hand and filter out some of the surrounding noise, allowing you to become more efficient.
Mindfulness has emotional benefits too. It can help you respond more thoughtfully to someone instead of having a knee-jerk reaction or snapping, Essack says. “You become more aware of what’s happening in the moment, so you choose a conscious response.” Building this skill can help keep you from burning bridges with clients or colleagues when tension rises or tempers flare.
Let’s say you receive some criticism that you don’t agree with or that injures your ego. “The tendency is often to react automatically because we feel defensive, but when we cultivate mindfulness, we're able to take a step back in the moment and respond intentionally,” Essack says. In this instance, a more mindful approach could help to de-escalate conflict and make feedback discussions more productive.
How to tackle it
Develop a daily mindfulness meditation practice, which over time, can help you become more mindful throughout the day. Set aside five or 10 minutes a day to do a guided meditation, with help from an app like Calm or Headspace that will talk you through the process.
As difficult as personal development may be to define, investing in it can help lay the groundwork for professional success. As Caprino says, “If we don't do the work to strengthen ourselves as people first, our careers will be a dismal disappointment.”
5. Become a social person
Not everybody is a social butterfly, but being able to socialize is a precious skill that can help advance your career. You create connections with coworkers, get to know people in different hierarchy levels in your industry, which can lead to new job or business opportunities in the future. But for introverted people, this could be a hard task—especially if you get out of your comfort zone too abruptly.
How to tackle it
Start putting yourself out there slowly. If you tend to skip your coworkers' invitations for a happy hour, show up once—it's easier to socialize with people you already know. If your goal is to network, you can start networking from home, either by inviting a colleague for a virtual coffee or by joining a remote coworking space on platforms like Focusmate.
You can also enlist in live online courses, where you can chat with other students, or even Discord chat rooms related to what you do for work—it's branded like a game community, but you can find anything in there. Once you're more comfortable and secure in your social skills, consider going to an industry event, like a summit or conference, and try to interact with people.
6. Become more knowledgeable
Not feeling knowledgeable enough is a killer to anyone's self-confidence. Some may feel that their opinions don't matter, their ideas aren't good enough, or simply that they're not smart enough. Since this feeling can transfer to work and affect how you contribute to your job, becoming more knowledgeable is a personal development goal that can also do wonders for your career.
How to tackle it
The good thing about learning is that it's a journey and there are multiple ways to do it. Maybe it's been a while since you read a book or anything that wasn't social media posts, so try creating a habit of reading the newspaper (you can do it online!) every morning.
Or a blog that's dedicated to discussing work-related topics. For example, Creative Boom is a blog for designers and creative workers, while the CFA Institute blog focuses on finance. Podcasts are also an option and, luckily, they're abundant these days.
If your problem is that you feel underqualified to do your job, make a list of skills you need to develop and search for online certifications, workshops, or training. There are a lot of free courses available, so even if you're short on money you can still get the knowledge you need.
7. Improve time management
Good time management skills are key to being more productive. Meeting deadlines within the eight hours of work you have is not only great for your career, but also for your mental health as you won't take work home—ensuring a good work-life balance—or be always catching up on what you couldn't finish the day before.
How to tackle it
Create the habit of planning your day before starting to work. List tasks from most to least priority—learning how to prioritize is key for time management—and follow this least to a tee, unless something more urgent comes up. For people who struggle with procrastination, the key is to reduce distractions—especially if you work from home.
Put your phone away and use noise-canceling headphones if office or neighborhood noise distracts you. Lastly, consider trying the Pomodoro technique, which consists of fixed intervals (usually 25 minutes) of focused work followed by a short break.
8. Reduce stress
With stress levels higher than ever in the U.S., many people may have “reducing stress” in their New Years resolutions list. Becoming better at managing stress or having a less stressful life helps both your health and your career. The more stressed you are, the worse symptoms like headaches, sweaty hands, anxiety, and that crazy stomachache before a work presentation can get. According to the American Psychology Association (APA), it can also cause long-term health issues, such as high blood pressure and depression.
How to tackle it
The APA recommends identifying what's causing stress, writing down the cause, your thoughts, and your mood when you feel stressed. If you have a disagreement at work, walk away before you become angry and address the situation again once you're able to call your nerves. Meditation, exercising, cutting down caffeine, and developing a better sleep routine is also recommended. Finally, if nothing works, consider seeking professional help from a therapist.
9. Be more productive
Productive people always stand out in any setting, but especially in the workplace. Bonus points if you're in a fast-paced or highly competitive environment. Of course, you shouldn't confuse being productive with being a workaholic. It's all about doing what needs to be done timely and with efficiency.
How to tackle it
A big part of productivity is time management and prioritizing. So, follow our time management tips by writing down what you need to do, from most important to least. Then, set a timeline to tackle each task.
Another important aspect of productivity is having clear goals and a structured plan to achieve them. Let's say you want to start exercising: this term alone is too broad and doesn't say much. Do you want to practice long-distance running? Do you want to workout at the gym? Or perhaps you want to do pilates.
Sit down and figure out what you want to do, then write down your goal. Have you decided that the gym is the best option for you? Write down “Working out x days a week.” Then, list what you need to do to achieve it, like a list of chores. For example, “1. Buying a gym membership near work; 2. Buying workout clothes; 3. Figuring out a workout plan.”
Use the same logic for your professional life. Do you want to make more money? Figure out whether you want a promotion and move on to a better opportunity somewhere else. Once you've decided, lay out the steps to get there and tackle them one by one.
10. Develop courage
Being a courageous person can take you to places and opportunities that you never thought before—including professionally. You may finally ask for your overdue and deserved promotion, take the lead on a project, or propose a new idea to the higher up.
How to tackle it
Some people are born fearless and confident, while others might take a while to get there. If related to the latter, start building courage with small, low stakes activities.
For instance, let's say there's this film you're dying to watch but none of your friends are interested in it. Instead of letting your fear of going to the movies alone and looking lonely and pathetic overcome you, put on a cute outfit and take yourself on a solo date. Trust us—the worst that can happen is the film being bad.
Keep doing these small acts that push you out of your comfort zone and directly challenge your fears until you build the courage to take bolder, high-stakes moves in both your personal and professional life.
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Amanda Cardoso contributed to the latest version of this article.