The How
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer

Last week I shared with you that my values have shifted and why. I also shared that my annual growth plan is built around my values. This week I would like to share with you how this all comes together. For a growth plan to be effective, it needs to be easy. You need to structure it in such a way that it almost works by itself without you thinking about it.

Growth needs to occur daily. It’s not an event that you schedule sporadically throughout the year. What I’ve found works best for me is to build daily, weekly, monthly, and annual or semi-annual activities into my plan.

Daily. The best tools I have found for daily growth are podcasts and daily reflection. I select podcasts that align with my values. Podcasts on marriage, faith, leadership, etc. Once I subscribe to the podcast, they automatically show up on my phone as they are released. Whenever I am in the car or doing chores around the yard, podcasts are playing. My daily reflection allows me to glean nuggets of gold from the podcasts and experiences I had that day. Anyone who has attended my classes can attest to the fact that often I will share something I had just learned from a podcast while driving to the class.

Weekly. To be honest, the podcast fits into the daily and weekly categories because most of them come out once a week. Each day a different podcast shows up on my phone. Other weekly activities would be attending my local church. A new growth opportunity I’m leveraging is a twice monthly meeting with a small group of fellow Maxwell Leadership members from across the country. We use our meeting time to share new things we are learning and challenges we need help with. We are a lot like the Inklings who helped each other improve in their writing.

Monthly. My goal is to read or listen to one book per month. The tool I use to keep me on track is an Audible subscription. If I pay for the book, I am sure to listen to it. I choose books that feed into my value areas.

Annual/Semi-Annual. Events are the best way to build this piece of your plan. I attend the International Maxwell Certification event which occurs twice a year. I am required to attend it once per year to maintain my certification, however I have found that I grow so much from the experience that I attend twice each year. Thankfully they offer a virtual and in-person experience. Live2Lead, held each November, is my annual leadership event that I never miss. These events are scheduled on my calendar well before I fill in the classes I teach and coaching sessions I facilitate.

Another key component of my growth plan is accountability partners. My wife is my accountability partner for my personal life, and I meet with my coach, Jack, twice a month. Growth is always accelerated in an accountability environment.

Last week was the why and what, this week was the how. How will you choose to grow in 2024?