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Brain booster

Everything we do demands some level of energy and attention. The newer the task, the more challenging
the task, the more brain fuel is required. When your brain is busy putting forth tremendous effort on one
activity, there is less capacity for other things. And you become depleted and need to recharge. Improving
your skill diminishes the energy required to do a particular task. Make an up-front investment to hone a
skill, then once you’ve mastered something, take the most economical approach to it. This frees up your
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brain to pay attention to more things at once. Take on more complex problems. Learn new skills.

Tips to develop Self-development
1. See yourself as not being able to develop? Change your mindset. Some people are natural
learners. They always look to learn something new from every situation. Some people are not natural
learners. They are more performance oriented—get the job done and move on. Performance-oriented
people tend to avoid new situations in which they may fail. Why? Because failing at a task translates
to judgment, in their mind. Natural learners are more willing to take the risk because they are less
worried about how they may be perceived by others. To them, the learning is the outcome. It is less
about confidence in their ability and more about growing. Did you know you can shift your mindset?
You can train yourself to be a learner. But you must be willing to expand your horizon. Be curious.
Continuously look for opportunities to stretch yourself. See each situation as a learning opportunity.

2. Not sure where to start? Do a skills audit. First, get a good multi-source assessment, a 360
questionnaire, or poll 10 people who know you well to give you detailed feedback. What are you
doing well? Not so well? What should you keep doing? Stop doing? You don’t want to waste time on
developing things that turn out not to be needs. At the same time, rate yourself. What do you see as
your strengths? What areas do you need to develop? Where do you suspect you have strengths but
you haven’t had the opportunity to try? Group your skills into categories. Clear strengths—me at my
best. Overdone strengths—I do too much of a good thing. So much so that it is limiting my success.
Hidden strengths—others rate me higher than I rate myself. These are untapped resources. Blind
spots—I rate myself higher than others rate me. These are behaviors that get in the way of your
success without your awareness. Weaknesses—I don’t do it well. Obvious areas that you know you
need to improve upon. Untested areas—I’ve never been involved in that area. Don’t knows—I need
more feedback. Once you have your skills grouped into categories, create a plan of attack. What is
most important for you to work on now? Where can you have the biggest impact now and for the
future? Figure out a plan for how to grow in this area.

3. Wondering what to focus on? Identify your values and organizational priorities. Feedback is
helpful, but you need to place it in context to determine priorities. First, ask yourself a few questions.
What matters to you? What motivates you? What is most interesting to you? What do you want to
accomplish in your career? What is important for success in your current role? What would help you
be more successful here? Leveraging strengths? Overcoming certain weaknesses? Also consider
your future. Where do you want to go? What are the skills that are needed in your next position?
When you compare your current capabilities with where you want to go, you can identify areas for
development that are most essential. Second, identify what matters to others. What do other

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