It’s not very often that someone consciously chooses to stop growing. Yet we all know people whose influence on growth has leveled off or gone into decline. Why do hard-working, well-intentioned leaders plateau? How can people keep their levels of influence throughout their life, but then suddenly stop climbing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At my company Atlas Outdoor, we essentially run two separate sets of operations. Landscape(Spring\/Summer\/Fall about 7.5 months of the year and makes up 2\/3 of our annual revenue), and snow (about 1\/3 of our annual revenue). We go through this very “tricky” transition time from where we’ve went 100 miles per hour during the landscape season, to 70mph as we wind out the Fall season, to all of a sudden we have to switch gears into our other operating manual at which sometimes can start right out at 100mph. It’s easy to sometimes let the slowing down of the landscape season get us into a hard start for the snow season. If we are not properly prepared, mother nature will sneak right up on us when we least expect it. That is why for us it is important to not plateau our growth mindsets during our prime landscape season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, I have discovered that goal-conscious people plateau more often and for longer stretches than people who are growth-conscious. I\u2019m certainly not saying, \u201cdon\u2019t have goals.\u201d I have my goals, you have your goals, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with goals. Goals are great growth drivers. But I am saying that there is something more important than setting goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re goal-conscious, then you focus on a destination. Where goal-conscious people lock onto a destination, growth-conscious people focus on the journey. They see the big picture, and they understand that success comes through a process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re goal conscious, you motivate people. You put a target in front of your team and drive them to achieve it. If you\u2019re growth-conscious, then you\u2019re more concerned about maturing your people. Outcomes, while important, become the sole determining factor of success to a growth-conscious leader. He or she is more concerned with improvement, progress, and learning the right lessons over time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re goal-conscious then your measures of success are seasonal. In other words, you have a time period during which you\u2019re focused on reaching the next level. If you fail, it\u2019s easy to get discouraged and to derail temporarily as a result of the setback. If you succeed, it\u2019s tempting to coast on your recent accomplishment. However, when you\u2019re growth-conscious, you\u2019re a lifelong learner. Win or lose, rain or shine, growth-conscious leaders press on toward their potential all of the time-not just in quick spurts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growth occurs during a process, not by arriving at a destination. In the book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, John Maxwell talks about the Law of Process, which says, \u201cLeaders develop daily, not in a day.\u201d It\u2019s human nature to overestimate the event and underestimate the process. We want instant results, but instead of focusing our attention on the endpoint, we would be wise to make the most of the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bringing it home: Influence and personal growth are laced together. When you quit growing, you give up the privilege of leadership. You simply can\u2019t take others to a place you\u2019ve never been yourself. To keep your influence growing, trade a “goals-oriented” mindset for a “growth-conscious” way of thinking. Goal-conscious people get wrapped up in a destination, and consequently are in danger of reaching a plateau in personal development. Hitting goals causes you to coast, while missing targets causes you to mope around. In contrast, growth-conscious individuals put goals into proper perspective. The path you’re traveling matters more than the place where you’re going!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are there any certain areas of your life where you may have plateaued?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s not very often that someone consciously chooses to stop growing. Yet we all know people whose influence on growth has leveled off or gone into decline. Why do hard-working, well-intentioned leaders plateau? How can people keep their levels of influence throughout their life, but then suddenly stop climbing? At my company Atlas Outdoor, we … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/86"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}