Self Development Vs. Team Development – Or Can They Be Combined?

Self development – or personal development, if you like – has become extremely popular and is considered to be a whole industry nowadays. Some people, however, have declared that people involved with self development are self centered and do not submit to the common good of all people. Is it really so?

First of all, like I point out in my SelfGrowth.com article “Why Do We Need Personal Development to Be Successful?”, being involved with personal development does not mean that you are self centered. On the contrary, it means that you are developing yourself for the greater good of all human kind.

But the fact of the matter is that self development and team development can be combined and, to be honest, team development cannot be complete if it does not include self development.

Two key components of an efficient team are the shared team purpose and team goals. Before a team member can commit to the team’s purpose or goals, he or she must make sure that his/her individual purpose and goals are in line with the ones of the team. That means that a team member who has not made the effort to find out what his/her own purpose and goals are – meaning, has not put an effort on self development – will not be able to commit fully on the team’s objectives.

Further on, a person who is better aware of his/her own values, talents and potentials, who is constantly developing his/her own skills and abilities, and who has developed his/her own personal qualities like discipline, determination, consistency, patience, courage and forgiveness, is for certain more able to endow to the benefit of the team.

A person who is clear with his/her own needs and abilities and who sees fit with the ones of a team, is definitely a more committed team member than someone who is unsure of him-/herself and who is “just” a member of the team. A committed team member does not count the hours. He/she measures the results.

Therefore, team development is not complete without sufficient amount of self development of the individual team members. They do go hand in hand and they must be combined in order to form a team that enjoys working together, has less unproductive confrontations and goes out and produces great results. Come to think of it – isn’t that the kind of a team that is called The Winning Team?