Einstein stressed that lifelong learning should be a focus because personal growth stops where there’s no learning.
Continuous personal development is a necessity for top professionals, but failure rates are alarmingly high, Harvard Business Review states.[i] When a survey was conducted of over 1,000 people who worked on personal development, as many as 96% of them failed to achieve any results.[ii] Research concludes that the reason for it is that personal development should be a group activity, not something to be learnt in isolation.[i]
August Turak, author of Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity, points out that life-work balance, punctuality, and the integration of personal development in life are key factors for successful personal development.[iii]
Here are top 10 personal development skills that leaders and professionals can integrate in their life and work:
| Work-Life Balance | 1 | Maintain a healthy balance between work and life |
| Time Management | 2 | Prioritise, delegate and use resources to manage time better |
| Active Listening | 3 | Listen to understand and respond appropriately |
| Self-Confidence | 4 | Manage your emotions and fears, and deal with others’ negative behaviours positively |
| Communication Skills | 5 | Use the right tone and voice for communicating clearly and confidently |
| Emotional Intelligence | 6 | Stay aware of your and others’ emotions to build healthy work relationships |
| Leadership | 7 | Have the vision, communication ability, and management skills to influence and direct others |
| Problem-Solving Ability | 8 | Recognise problems, consider options, and make the best possible decision |
| Organising | 9 | Use ways to organise tasks, time and materials |
| Body Language | 10 | Use correct body language to communicate suitably |
Sources
[i] https://hbr.org/2017/02/why-self-improvement-should-be-a-group-activity