DENNISWRIGHT
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personal_mastery_.0.pptxPersonal Mastery
The first of the Five Disciplines
1
Personal Mastery is one of the 5 Learning Disciplines first promulgated by Peter Senge.
It is perhaps the most elusive of the Disciplines.
It’s centrally to do with ‘self-awareness’ – doing inner-work on ourselves and seeing the impact our patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving have on the people and situations around us and the results we get from these encounters.
What’s Personal Mastery?
It’s “the discipline of personal growth and learning” says Senge, but it entails more than just learning new skills.
With personal mastery, personal purpose and vision come first – it starts by clarifying what really matters most to us.
It’s about creating a desired future and moving toward it.
What’s Personal Mastery?
1. Personal Vision.
Many leaders have goals but far fewer have a real sense of personal vision: an ability to picture clearly the best leader we can be and work towards that with focus, determination and diligence.
Personal vision provides energy and impetus to change. It’s like a point on the horizon you set to guide the path you take.
Without it, you wander around aimlessly.
So how do we get there…
2. Personal Purpose in many ways precedes Personal Vision.
We all crave meaning in our lives. We want to feel our lives matter and know how we make a difference, what our special gifts, talents and contributions are and why we do what you do.
Purpose fuels passion.
It’s energizing.
So how do we get there…
3. Personal Values,
The things that matter most to us, form the foundation for personal vision.
Leaders who practice Personal Mastery are guided by, and driven to act out of, a clear set of values in all arenas of their lives.
Being clear on values you consciously choose to hold – and changing them if they ill-match – is at the heart of attributes like integrity and authenticity.
So how do we get there…
4. Personal Alignment
The degree to which our personal vision, purpose, values and behaviors are congruent with each other.
When these things match-up closely, huge amounts of positive power and energy can be unleashed. And we find the creative capacity to re-shape and re-new ourselves.
Leaders who are out-of-touch or out-of-synch with these things, often pursue courses of action that create inner-conflict; delimit their power or potential and lead them to adopt adverse behaviors.
So how do we get there…
5. Personal Perception is being aware of the particular ways you tend to perceive things – the frames of reference you use to see other people, events and situations.
It’s also about your self identity and self concept, which is the source of your self esteem, and the degree to which you learn to perceive yourself accurately.
So how do we get there…
5. Personal Perception cont.
As we focus outwards another question comes into focus: “Is how I see myself and what I stand for the same as others see me?”
This relates to how accurately leaders see themselves, which also extends to how you see other people, events and situations too.
Our way of seeing impacts our way of being, which links to personal awareness.
So how do we get there…
6. Personal Awareness
How much you know (or are willing to know) about yourself – what makes you the way you are, your wants, drives, needs, desires and preferences.
It’s being able to step back and become an observer of what you’re really like:
Your patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving; seeing how those patterns impact on others and affect the quality of your interactions; strengthening those that get you good results and changing those that don’t.
So how do we get there…
6. Personal Awareness cont.
What we’re not aware of often controls us.
Without knowing themselves, leaders can’t help teams to develop skills to think and work better together, engender a sense of purpose or build positive emotional climates.
They also remain unaware of the personal patterns shaping their thoughts, emotions, actions and approach to challenging situations.
They blame others and rarely look at their contribution.
So how do we get there…
7. Personal Transformation
The creative capacity we all have to re-shape, re-new or reinvent ourselves to be more in harmony with our personal vision, values and purpose.
The ability to bridge those unavoidable gaps between personal vision and present reality is a key action-element of Personal Mastery.
Remember “Creative Tension”?
So how do we get there…
Your turn.
Let’s be clear here.
No really…. What matters to you?
Step 2: Elimination and Prioritization:
Now that you have identified the ten most important, imagine that you are allowed to identify only five values.
Which five would you give up?
Cross them off.
Now imagine you are allowed only four.
Which one would you give up?
Cross it off.
Now cross off another to bring your list of values down to three…
And another to bring your list to two.
Finally, cross off one of your two values.
No really…. What matters to you?
Step 3: Reflection
What’s most important to you?
Consider the top three values on your list.
Can you think of two to three examples where these values did/could guide your actions and decisions in a team environment?
As leader of that team?
Can you think of situations where you had to compromise your values? Why?
You’re done….
No really…. What matters to you?
Leaders who practice the discipline of Personal Mastery use it as a personal framework to make meaning for themselves and others out of what happens.
Personal Mastery is:
The Practice of Personal Mastery
Personal Mastery is:
A way to put work situations in a broader context and keep things in perspective.
The basis on which to build shared team visions, common values and agreed priorities about what’s really important.
An energy source of motivation, commitment, consistency, conviction, coherence, integrity.
A foundation for making daily decisions as well as major life-directing ones.
The Practice of Personal Mastery
Personal Mastery is:
Like an anchor, providing a sense of direction that attaches leaders to their purpose and prevents them drifting away from what really matters by prevailing organizational tides.
A mechanism to help decide priorities, relieve the pressure many of us of feel of being caught in the continuous spiral of ‘the activity trap’ and being able to tell how personally effective we are in moving towards goals.
The Practice of Personal Mastery
Dedicated to creating and leading out of a personal vision. They can accurately assess the gap between current reality and this vision too, that propels them forward.
They are mindful, present and they practice regular self-reflection and inquiry.
They understand their feelings, behaviors, mental models and embrace self-management.
They develop ‘thinking literacy’ skills and change mindsets and behavior patterns to achieve greater levels of self-awareness.
Attributes and Practices
They ensure clear values and principles inform all aspects of their life and use these to determine decisions and take directions.
They have a special sense of purpose; a vision that is more of a calling – not just goals.
They can step back from a situation, see it from many different angles and make many different connections.
Attributes and Practices
They are curious, inquisitive and place a high value on learning as both a way to create change and as an important cultural element.
They seek constant feedback on how they come across, accurately assess themselves and are open to changing their patterns.
They foster challenging prevailing modes of thinking and display mental agility in terms of seeing mental models and assumptions.
They are systems-thinkers – can see bigger pictures, subtle interconnections and also their contribution as a part in a larger system.
Attributes and Practices
They are brave.
Each of us has a level of achievement in each of these areas.
Each of us can foster continued growth in each of these areas.
Most of us wont…Why?
It’s “soft”. You can’t measure it’s effectiveness
Cynicism
It can threaten the order of a well-managed company
So what?
