Personal Effectiveness is the constant ‘golden thread’ that runs through all aspects of the way in which we work with people at Roffey Park. It touches upon all the topics that are core to our offering: leadership, management, organisational development, HR business partnering, talent management and coaching. And yet it is the most elusive of areas to define and describe, partly because it encompasses so much and will mean different things to different people.
In working with some of my colleagues to develop a definition that is broad enough to have meaning to most people, yet specific enough to bring clarity to our understanding, we have chosen the following simple statement: personal effectiveness is ‘Being the best I can be, for myself and others.’
This definition encompasses both the central importance of acknowledging that we all need to continuously strive to achieve our potential and live fulfilled lives, for our own sense of self-worth and satisfaction. As consequence, we improve our ability to reach out and touch the lives of others whilst being open and responsive to their needs and wants. Underlying this is the assumption that our actions are conducted with positive intent, so that in meeting our own needs and wants we behave with integrity and generosity of spirit.
But why should this emphasis on personal growth and development matter in a business context? From Roffey Park’s perspective, it matters because if we are not fully effective as individuals, we are unlikely to be effective as leaders and managers, our relationships may be wanting, our ability to influence reduced and our performance and contribution to our organisations diminished. There is an inevitable link between personal and organisational success. When individual effectiveness and integrity is lacking it can result in disastrous consequences, as the collapse of companies like Enron and WorldCom amply demonstrate.
So what is there to gain for you in becoming personally effective? Our approach at Roffey Park is one of discovery: for everyone personal development is a journey and a life-time’s work. Our role is to open the door into raised self-awareness and then encourage you to take action to change what you don’t like and work on what you do really well, so that you become distinctive and strong in your own self-belief. These are core qualities for leadership at all levels and for success in any role
You will want to attend a personal effectiveness programme at Roffey Park if you want to:
- Improve and extend your influencing capability, beyond the authority invested in you by your role and position
- Increase your confidence and self-esteem, from which will grow positive beliefs and appreciation of the value of your abilities and strengths
- Develop your presence and the impact you have on others
- Become aware of your personal power and how to use it effectively
- Be assertive: state your own wants and needs and the consequences of not getting them met
- Become more self-aware, so that you can increase the choices open to you and manage self-limiting beliefs
- Take responsibility for yourself, for your own development and learning
- Be comfortable in your own skin, allow yourself to be different and acknowledge and welcome the difference in others
The development programmes we offer for individuals under Personal Effectiveness include Personal Effectiveness and Power, Mastering Self Management and Interpersonal Relationships in Organisations. Our bespoke leadership programmes, OD and Masters programme, business partnering and core consulting skills programmes all have elements of personal effectiveness built into their design.
If others start to question the impact of what we do at Roffey Park, I like to recall a recent conversation I had with a very successful CEO, who had just commissioned Roffey Park to undertake a leadership development programme for his senior managers. He told me how as a younger man he had attended a week-long influencing programme at Roffey Park and that the outcomes for him had changed his life, so that he took his courage in his own hands and strove to be the best he could be, and became the inspirational leader he is today.
Sharon Brockway - Principal Consultant for Personal Effectiveness