Is Your Life Lacking This Key Ingredient to Growth?

This weekend we were blessed to be able to be a host for the Two Brain Business Regional event for business owners and Coaches at 925. The event was a focused morning spent learning about leadership and mindset from experts within the Two Brain community.

The first presentation from Per Mattson was on creating and nurturing a feedback culture to help teams thrive. Feedback is key for being able to instill a growth mindset within teams, as well as for helping those in leadership positions understand how they can best enable their teams to perform at their best.

The second presentation from Colm O’Reilly was about how a healthy, positive mindset can be nurtured and developed in small, simple steps in very little time (60 seconds each day, for some techniques). He not only provided deep insight on why spending focused effort on improving your mindset can have massive impacts on your health and wellness, but also on how it helps those around you deal with stress better and perform at their best. 2020 taught us all quite a bit about how we deal with stress and showed us where we excelled, but also where we need improvement.

As I was going through the day, taking notes, discussing ideas, wins and losses, areas I need to grow personally, and enjoying hearing about the experiences of other business owners and coaches, I reflected on how much I enjoy learning from others. The environment was open, honest, friendly, and we all were able to share and exchange ideas, which we all can take back to our own lives and businesses to help make our teams and cultures better. There’s something special about going through similar experiences and sharing what we’ve learned with humility and a genuine desire to improve and help those around us do the same.

We were built with an inherent need for human connection and it alarms me to reflect on how much of an effect losing that type of connection, even for a few months, has had on so many. As the verse many are familiar with says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” we are built to help each other. (Proverbs 27:17).

In our small communities, we have the opportunity to help others every day. When we spend time with each other, we can provide perspective on things we’ve learned through failures and successes, we can ask for input and gain wisdom from those with more experience in the same area. If we’re humble, and willing to receive criticism or feedback, which Per wisely calls “an act of love,” we can grow significantly as a community and individual.

Isolation, and not just during times of social distancing/lockdown policies, can have drastic negative effects for our personal growth, ability to maintain deep, positive relationships and advancement as a community. I would challenge you to make a self-assessment of the last few weeks and months and see where you have been isolating. Find areas where you can reasonably, safely (according to your comfort level) re-engage those relationships and feedback loops in your life.

I believe your mindset and attitude will massively improve, as well as your performance within those relationships or work places. Helping others and engaging in challenging conversations is foundational to growing, maturing, and advancing as a person and a culture. Take a few minutes to assess who and how you can reengage in your life and form an actionable plan to make it happen. I believe you’ll be very happy with the results.