Camden, NJ – On Thursday, June 8, 2023, Fonda Wynn, owner of Wynn Development Consultants, presented to a group of LAEDA’s alumni at an online seminar hosted by the LAEDA Women’s Business Center team. The workshop provided entrepreneurs with an opportunity to network, ask and talk about leadership experiences and practices and learned about ways to improve leadership skills, moving beyond mistakes, and about personal growth and highlighting John C. Maxwell’s 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. Fonda Wynn has been working with LAEDA for over ten years now and we learn a lot from her valuable experience and knowledge. She is a consultant, trainer and coach-an independent consultant for twelve years and passionate about creating high performing people and teams. In addition, Fonda helps people love what they do every day. Personal growth is important in not just the business aspect, but also in our personal lives. It helps us to look inward at our own thoughts, reactions and much more. We can look at oneself in the present and how to reach our future potential. Fonda explained that one of the best ways we learn is when we share with each other the interactivity and the conversation is what helps people to learn and grow. In addition, Fonda also taught us that in leading a team: You can teach technical skills, but those soft skills really help build those strong teams and people should enjoy coming to work and working together.
The room opened up to the discussion question of: “Why are people here today?”
Below were just some of the responses that filled the virtual room of this evening:
- Get business to next level
- Feeling stuck
- Empowering social media and marketing
- Owning your skills and building new ones
- To think about team and learning to handle new teams
- Company is growing and bringing on more employees
- Tap into what everyone else is growing through and see what you can learn and take from it
- Make your mind ready and just be a good leader to always make sure that our teams are heard and valued and want to be seen. Looking at different perspectives to birth leaders and doing it right
- Growth is a continuous process that you always have to invest in
The book that was highlighted tonight was, “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth,” by John C. Maxwell, which is about true principles for maximum personal growth.
The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth:
- Continual learning and growing is part of the process
- Look to other successful people as examples
- There will be trials and errors. The key is not to make the same mistake twice.
- Your ability to grow depends on your response
Fonda illustrated the following: “Understanding that there will be trial and errors, you will make mistakes and hit roadblocks, but your ability to grow depends on your response…what is your mindset?”
Some of the valuable insights on how to come back from challenges or roadblocks is to look for other successful people in the industry, study other people, and find a mentor.
The 15 Laws of Growth: (1) Intentionality (2) Awareness (3) Mirror (4) Reflection (5) Consistency (6) Environment (7) Design (8) Pain (9) The Ladder (10) The Rubber Band (11) Trade Offs (12) Curiosity (13) Modeling (14) Expansion (15) Contribution.
Growth Gap Traps: (1) Assumption (2) Knowledge (3) Timing (4) Mistake (5) Perfection (6) Inspiration (7) Comparison (8) Expectation.
Some takeaways from the virtual event for these topics are listed below:
- You have to meet people where they are
- Try to find resources and always add to your skills and development
- I have done so much analysis and I thought about this thoroughly I know that I am correct
- Assuming that other people are going to grow
- Make the decision that we want to grow and better in our career and personal lives
- Write your process down
- Embrace and develop creativity
- Make good changes after learning from bad experiences
- Once we do something over and over again then it becomes a habit and we automatically start doing those things.
- Areas of life: Career, Faith, Family, Health, Relationship, Hobby, and Free Time. How do you plan each of these areas and what do you work on each single day for these areas to be successful and keep on growing toward their full potential.
Fonda added: “You are assuming that just because people are here that they grew, which might not be the case.”
Now came the time to really focus on some of the growth laws mentioned in the book:
(1) Intentionality Growth: If you focus on goals, you may hit goals, but that doesn’t guarantee growth. If you focus on growth, you will grow and always hit growth.
-“How do you interpret this statement?” Asked Fonda.
-You can hit the goal, but still not grow. So in this case you can hit the numbers, but you need to keep on growing on a daily basis.
-Everything is within reason, nothing on the list will be unrealistic or unattainable. Looking at the steps from how to get from here to there. Therefore, interpreting on a daily basis and reaching toward the destination by working on goals every day are vital.
Next Steps: Intentionality Growth
-Growing is not a goal, but a lifelong process that MUST start with being intentional.
-Consider the Growth Gap Traps, Fears, and Accidental Growth Traps and include a plan to address them.
– (A) To grow yourself, you must know the following: Your Strengths (It helps us and recognize I have these skills and abilities and these will help me get to know I need to be), Your Weaknesses (what might hold me back and what do I need to do to put this into place and help me get to where I need to be), Your Interests, Your Opportunities (where can you pull from to help build where you need to be).
– (B) How do you reach your full potential? Answer: By knowing where you are and what you want to be.
– (C) Three kinds of people when it comes to finding direction: (1) People who are frustrated and who know what they want to do, but do not know how to do it. (2) People who are confused people who do not know what to do and what comfort looks like (3) People who are fulfilled people who know what they want to do and how it is. This is how I will do it and start acting on it.
Law of Awareness
-What now?
-Awareness: Becoming conscious of every choice you make.
-Action: Do it
-Accountability: Share accountability with yourself, friend or coach.
Law of Design
-To Maximize Growth, Develop Strategies
-Remember the following quote: “Designing your life is more important than designing your career.”
-Creating an Effective System for Design: (1) Consider the big picture: Have the end result in mind (2) Make use of priorities: What is the highest and best use of your time right now (3) Establish measures for the outcome: How do you know if you are succeeding (4) Application: Where and when can use this? (5) Promote consistency: Daily practice of doing the right things over and over again.
“Are our behaviors and activities that we do on a daily basis or each and every day helping up on our growth goals?” Fonda put this question in the room for everyone to think about.
Law of Pain:
-Every problem introduces a person to themselves.
-What is the truth about bad experiences: Everyone has them and no one likes them.
-Turn Pain Into Gain: (1) Define the problem (2) Understand your emotion (3) Articulate the lesson (4) Identify the desired change (5) Brainstorm numerous pathways (6) Receive other’s input (7) Implement a course of action.
Law of Rubber Band:
-Growth Stops when you lose the tension between where you are and where you could be. To illustrate, remember a rubber band is only useful when it is stretched.
-What is your stretch goal? Make it SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed).
What holds us back?
Sometimes with fear people might stop and go around it or not go near it, but fear can be hidden opportunities or hidden success if dealt with in the right way.
The Fear Factor: (1) Fear of Failure (2) Fear of trading security for the unknown (3) Fear of being overextended on resources; time, money, energy (4) Fear of what others think (5) Fear that success will push others away
Action!
What will you start doing today? Are you ready to reach your full potential and to work on those growth goals personal and professional every single day with guidance and resources?
To view LAEDA’s calendar of upcoming events, visit the following link: http://laeda.com/Events.aspx and if you would like to give us a call you can reach us at 856-338-1177.