Hey Reader --

You are right, and I am about to prove it.

This week's #ShowUpPositive Spark is GROWTH.

You may be one of the many corporate workers currently going through an annual performance review or writing your personal development plan for 2024.

Perhaps you were given an assessment to identify your strengths and deficits.

Consider this parable as you think about your future and the growth you want to achieve.

The Animal School (a retelling from the original by George Reavis)

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world,” so they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming, but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn, and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that, except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing. However, he developed frustration in the flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceeding well and also run, climb, and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.

The wisdom of this story is undeniable and smacks you in the face: trying to become something you aren't designed to be is not only doomed to fail but detrimental to your ability to leverage your natural gifts.

I was responsible for building leadership programs and performance management systems, and this insight challenged all the beliefs and systems underpinning my work.

The practices adopted and taught throughout the business world identified a uniform avatar of who people needed to be to advance in their careers. Then, the systems and resources were aligned to create a version of the animal school.

So let me ask you, Reader, are you caught in the animal school trap?

Here are a series of questions I encourage you to use to determine your growth plans for 2024 that will leave you stronger instead of mediocre and depleted:

What are my natural gifts and talents? (Perhaps you need to have some conversations to uncover what others see as those gifts and talents.)
What would be possible if you were to access those gifts more fully in how you show up in your life and work?
How aligned are your strengths with your current role?
Which animal best describes your current effort to improve a weakness?
What are you gaining versus what is it costing you?
If you were leveraging your strengths to the fullest, what could you achieve that would be mutually beneficial to you and your employer?

Don't accept systems and roles that push you into mediocrity. Know your strengths and carve your path to utilize them.

I'm Celebrating

I premiered one of my new signature talks for 2024 at the Kentucky Public Health Association annual conference last week. Check out this feedback and then speak my name into the ear of someone you know who is hosting an event that needs a powerful speaker