I spent a lot of time slowly figuring out the best practices to produce the best returns for my businesses. I wanted to not only have a business but to be a leader — and beyond that — lead in my life. I was like a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs. I had a job in my business, I wore a lot of different hats, I was beyond stressed, and hungry for a change. But when I began truly investing in personal development, a huge shift happened. As I grew, so did my employees, my business, and the quality of care for my clients. When I made the commitment to growth, beyond money or success, I grew in every way possible, professionally and personally. At 4 Level Coach, I teach others how to avoid huge mistakes in business and earn massive returns, eventually removing themselves from the operations of their business and truly being able to own their business, not have a job in it. My friend Jim Kaloutas and I are going to give you our best tips on Personal Development to help you achieve similar successes as my coaching clients experience through 4 Level Coach.

First and Foremost It Starts With YOU

I speak to my clients a lot about how to build great teams. It begins with great leaders. In your business, you are the first leader . . . or you are not. As the first leader of your business, it is important to focus on personal and professional development.

Think about some of the greatest athletes of all time, they had coaches. They practiced, they put in the time and work for the success they gained. Why would business be any different? It really isn’t. For team athletes and coaches, the benefit of watching game films is to learn from other people’s mistakes, in an effort to not make them yourself. Additionally, it is to recreate the magic of successful plays to experience the same result. That is what personal development can be for business owners and entrepreneurs if they allow it to be that way.

Let’s think about this article for example. I’m giving you this information, so you can experience similar results, without hitting so many bumps along the way. Ultimately, it is up to you to make a choice, or not make a choice to continue to follow through, not just with reading but with action. Truly being committed to growth means action, which will return positive results. Once you have begun the path to personal and professional development, you will need to shift your focus to the other leaders in your organization.

Invite Others to Follow Your Lead

I teach business owners and entrepreneurs how to reduce their stress, increase the worth of their business, and eventually phase themselves out of their day-to-day operations. I do all of this through the 4 Level Coach systems. But how can you take advantage of these tools, if there is no one to fill your role? Every business needs leaders under the owner and entrepreneur. People who are committed to growth and committed to the mission of the company.

Jim told me how in the beginning he was spending a lot of time, effort, and money on his own personal development. He told me how he realized after a while that he would need to invest in his employees as well. He needed employees who were committed to the company and committed to growth. Both Jim and I believed it was our responsibility, as owners of our companies, to encourage and help finance personal growth efforts for our employees. Some employees will take the opportunity seriously and rise to the occasion, others may not.

Those few employees who want personal and professional growth will rise as leaders among their peers. These leaders will help shoulder some of the load you are probably carrying around in your business right now. Again, if your goal is to reduce your day-to-day responsibilities, you need to be thinking like a chess player (three moves ahead) and prepare your leaders to take on more of our responsibilities.

Your leaders will lead your teams — and help the teams themselves grow — and weed out those employees who are not committed to the cause of continued growth. Creating this culture will yield positive benefits for your business, beyond helping to remove you, as the owner, from the day-to-day operations. Jim explained this well when he told me the story of his COO short for Chief Operating Officer.

For example. At one point in his growth, Jim’s company was facing a “work” problem. The COO of Jim’s company happened to be in a personal development workgroup. This was encouraged by Jim because he knew how much it would benefit the business if his key personnel shared the same transformative experiences he had himself.

Because the COO was part of a workgroup, she began bouncing ideas and solutions among people outside of the company and came back to Jim with some great ideas to solve the problem. The point is, her growth, led to her seeking alternative means to solve key issues in her role.

How to Stimulate Growth in All Employees

So now you understand the basics of how to grow yourself and the leaders in your organization through personal and professional development. But, how do you stimulate growth for all employees? It is actually much easier than you think. Jim and I both agree, setting clear expectations is the best way to help all of your employees grow positively. Let me explain.

If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, there are a few numbers that you know indicate whether the business is doing well or not. We call these numbers Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. At first, these numbers may only relate to cash-flow in, cash-flow out, and credit lines.

However, when you take the time to set up the KPIs for all positions, departments, and the organization itself, you get a much clearer picture of those employees who are performing up to company standards, and those who are falling short. Jim invites employees to create their own goals and standards to reach in addition to those he and his upper-level management have set forth.

How does creating numbers for performance help stimulate growth in all employees? Because it sets a clear standard that needs to be met. If the employee doesn’t meet those standards, it is clear why they are being let go or repurposed. Additionally, when the new hire comes in to fill the position, the expectations are clear, the organization can take the time to train up to these standards.

The individual has the opportunity to rise to the performance level needed for optimal personal growth (continued employment, higher salary, promotion), company growth (if our employees are all hitting their KPIs, the business is growing), and growth of the entrepreneur or owner (as more employees step into leadership roles, the business begins to almost run itself).

Determining what these KPIs are, how to measure them, what is achievable can at times seem like a huge undertaking. This practice is something 4 Level Coach would be happy to help you with.

Jim and I uncover a lot more gems that can give you the freedom you are looking for in your professional and personal life. The ones detailed in this article are only a few of them.

If these steps left you wanting more, Then head over to The Building Freedom Podcast and listen to the entire podcast where Jim and I share even more tips and tactics than those summarized in this article — and detail how anyone can follow these steps and obtain the freedom in their business they never thought was possible.

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