There Is No One "Thing"

What continues to be interesting to observe in our high velocity, unpredictable world is that how critical areas of personal development are often portrayed as “just do this”. People write books about it. You hear it in the news. Clients ask in team or coaching sessions “please tell me what is that one thing”.

Reality is that there is NO ONE THING. It’s tempting to try and find one, but they really don’t exist. Think about it for a moment. If there was “one thing”, wouldn’t everyone be using it? Wouldn’t we have less behavioral issues? Wouldn’t everyone be an exceptional leader? How about equality and equity-wouldn’t there be far less bias and prejudice?

Some facts. There are 24 true strengths of character (as per VIA), well over 60 well-defined leadership competencies (Lominger) and over 50 proven resiliency building strategies to better cope with stress and adversity. Putting it in context, it would be a very rare, even weird condition to just apply “just one” of any one of those.

What does make sense experientially, is that leaders in all roles and ages, need to be situationally aware (mindset, emotional IQ), and act with agility and adaptability to determine how to best portray themselves in the moment, to motivate, persuade and influence. Agility to be position to contrast multiple choices mentally. Adaptability to know when to pivot in the moment when the path we are on is not as effective as we need it to be.

Don’t be mislead by the “one thing” messaging you hear. DO have a development plan that continues to identify what that best version of you needs to be and be committed to continuous personal development and improvement. Ask yourself “how must I best portray myself” in the situation(s) I am facing.