My leadership at my company has been encouraging me to start taking leadership classes as part of my organization’s succession planning.  I typically shied away from leadership or advancement roles because I am at the point in my life where I want to be effective but free up my time to do and spend with family.  When I was younger I looked for opportunities for career advancements and leadership roles.  It’s funny how opportunities present themselves when you least expect them.

One of the reasons why I shied away from management and above type positions is because of the time required.  By no means am I afraid of working hard, I just don’t want to do with sacrificing time with family and friends.  I’ve previously held management and leadership positions and easily have spent 60-70+ hours a week.

Back to my point … I attended the initial seminar of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People training.  I’ve been given this publication before when I supported another organization.  At that point, I thumbed through it and had the initial impression it was for those type “A” personalities that wanted to succeed no matter what the cost.  I’ve always looked unfavorably at these folks as if they were selling their souls to the devil.  I felt these people were missing the finer and more important aspects and things in life – time with family, cultivating lasting relationships, spending the time to know one self, etc.  I had the impression that these success type classes and training only fed their inflated egos and narcissistic personalities.

After my 1st full day of training, I’ve been proven to be wrong.  At least for the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this book provides the tools to reframe your life and tackle fears, obstacles and pain we each face in our professional and personal lives.  I could not have been more wrong.  In my life’s journey, I’ve made it a point to continue to learn and grow to be better than I was the day before so this training is something up my alley.

In summary, the method for change begins with changing your paradigm or viewpoint, act accordingly and assess the results.  This is a repetitive process that continues to refine itself like the chicken before the egg or the Ouroborus (serpent eating it’s tail) analogies.  The focus is to define & build your character; it’s the things that are not easily seen but are the building blocks to a purposeful existence.  Integrity, family connection, moral conscience, honesty and community – are some blocks that build a strong & sound character.  The methods in the training are sculpted for personal growth which can be applied to your professional life or personal life.

I am happy to be wrong in this case.  If you are interested in personal growth, I definitely recommend looking into this further.  Happy reading!