Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Someone said to me recently that although they knew we delivered leadership and management training as well as commercial courses at Maguire Training and it was clear at to what these are, they were less clear about, ‘What exactly does personal development mean?’ and it prompted me to think carefully about the answer because I had previously thought it to be obvious.

Hitherto, my answer typically would have been to explain that this part of our offering as a training provider would be to address those specific skills that serve to increase confidence and personal levels of competency is various skills such areas as presentation, communication or inter-personal skills.

Whilst that is certainly valid, it occurred to me that we also do so much more within the scope of what we call personal development as by default our offering also addresses what one may term self-improvement. Although we tend to use the all-encompassing title of categorising these topics under personal development it’s not unreasonable to suggest that there is also a great deal of ‘self-improvement’ development in the programmes and courses that we offer.

Whilst they are inextricably linked there is a clear distinction between the two. We recognise personal development in terms of the training we deliver as addressing those personal skills that may not be classified as management, leadership or commercial in nature but can actually aid and improve any or all of them.

Helping someone to become a better presenter or public speaker is where the personal level of development comes into play and that in turn will improve their confidence and ability to engage with their team in a meeting where a thoroughly professional presentation is required.

However, we see self-improvement as more about how one grows as an individual and what you know of yourself and your capabilities. Being a better presenter may not may you happy, just better at your job. However, finding a way to cope with stress or outside influences such as conflict with colleagues will result in improving your resilience and certainly improve your wellbeing.

Some of the courses we offer are able to overlap both of these areas which is why simply categorising them as personal development is to sell them a little short on how powerful and effective the content is and how much of a life-changing experience attending one of these course can be.

By clicking on our course finder you will see a number of courses that address personal skills improvement such as presentation skills, communication skills as well as influencing & assertiveness and resilience all of which fall very much into the personal development arena. But take the time to look at those courses that will help the ‘inner you’ such as unlocking your potential, self-expression and human factors. Whilst these sit in our personal development section the content of these courses address the question of what makes you ‘you’ and so could be said to demand their own category of self-improvement category as the very nature of what they do serves to compliment the traditional personal development type courses on offer.

Have a look here and let us know how we can help by calling us on 0333 5777144:

http://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/personal-development/presentation-skills/

http://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/personal-development/powerful-communication-skills/

http://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/personal-development/influencing-assertiveness/

http://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/management-leadership/human-factors/

http://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/personal-development/self-expression/

http://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/personal-development/unlocking-your-potential/