In a brief audio clip featured by Success Video, world-renowned speaker and author John Maxwell shares his insights from creating a healthy growth environment early in his career.
Maxwell explains that as a young leader he was not in an environment conducive to growth, and he realized that he needed to create his own growth environment. He began to ask himself, “What does it mean to put myself in a place where I can have conducive growth in my life, where I can develop myself?”
As a result of that thought-process, Maxwell developed a list describing what he feels is a healthy growth environment for himself and other leaders:
“A growth environment should be a place where:
1. Others are ahead of me
2. I am continually challenged
3. My focus is forward
4. The atmosphere is affirming
5. I am often out of my comfort zone
6. I wake up excited
7. Failure is not the enemy
8. Others are growing too
9. People desire to change and improve
10. Growth is modeled and growth is expected.”
As a young leader in his mid-twenties, Maxwell came to the understanding that leadership was going to be a lifetime learning experience for him, and that he needed to develop an environment in which he could grow and thrive as a leader. He encourages every leader – especially those new to the world of leadership – to do the same; “If you’re starting out in leadership, it’s a good time to define a growth environment and begin to create that environment in your life so that you will be able to really take off and be successful.”
How about you? As a leader, do you find yourself in a healthy leadership growth environment? If your answer is “no,” or your environment could use some improvement, carefully reflect on and implement Maxwell’s list – I guarantee the benefits will be priceless!
To listen to the full audio clip from Success Video, please click here.
