LET'S TALK LEADERSHIP

Does anyone else love Brené Brown? I love her. Actually, I just love listening to podcasts about leadership or reading books that expand my professional and personal growth. So what can you do to improve and advance your professional and personal growth? Learn and reflect. It really is that simple. Seek out learning opportunities via books or podcasts. We are also fortunate to have some talented members who are skilled in teaching principles of leadership and professional development (list of members). In addition, capitalize on moments to self-reflect on the past day, the day to come and focus on opportunities and goals for the day or week.

As a manager, there are many ways you can support and encourage personal and professional growth opportunities for your staff but the one I want to focus on is knowledge sharing. As a manager, share your story with your staff. Encourage opportunities where you talk about goals and the status of each goal. These discussions should not occur once a year during strategic planning, they should be a weekly discussion to ensure your team has the tools and encouragement they need to overcome barriers such as time management and stay on track to succeed. After errors or mistakes, take a moment to reflect with your staff on opportunities for change. These times of self-reflection help to advance critical thinking and provide an outlet to relieve stress or frustration.

The Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce will be rolling out additional professional development opportunities. I encourage you to reach out to our members who are experts in this area and stay tuned for educational opportunities coming from the Chamber in 2021.