The Colour Works Challenge is back and this time we’ve teamed up with Bond Williams Recruitment to bring you five days of personal development. So, grab your coffee, close your other tabs and minimise all distractions. It’s time to learn something new!
Personal development isn’t as scary as it sounds. In fact, a lot of you have probably taken part in activities like this before. Whether you’re searching for your next role, looking to bring in new talent or trying to find a way to work better as a team, this challenge was created to future-proof your success.
During the course of the week, The Personal Development Challenge will:
- Help you identify your CV-worthy skills
- Help you become more appreciative of your weaknesses
- Boost your confidence so you’re ready for that job interview
- Work on your soft skills to become an effective communicator
- Learn how to learn (it’s not as easy as it sounds)
- Manage your time to improve productivity and personal gain
It’s only five days and we’ve made sure each activity is bite size so it will slot nicely into your busy day. As usual, make sure you share this challenge with your colleagues. Tag The Colour Works and Bond Williams so we can see how you’re getting on. Don’t forget to use the hashtag: #colourworkschallenge.
Why Personal Development is Essential
Are you recruiting an IT specialist to take care of all your tech? Looking to land your dream role in a FTSE 500 company? Or trying to find a way to take your team to the next level to support business growth?
Most of us will have answered yes to at least one of these questions. And guess what - it means personal development is important to you!
We’re no strangers to learning. Enrolling in online courses, attending webinars or getting back into your studies has become the norm. But it’s not about getting your name on a certificate to bolster up your Linkedin profile. Personal development is about you. It’s about becoming the best version of yourself by identifying strengths and weaknesses. Once you’ve done that, the ball is in your court.
Do you want to work on your weaknesses and become an unbeatable all-rounder? Or focus on your strengths to make sure you’re ahead of the curve? Don’t be afraid to own your weaknesses! They make us who we are and sometimes provide the greatest insight to what makes us happy.
The Personal Development Challenge
Over the next five days, we’ll be coaching you through five short activities that have been hand-picked to get you started on your personal development journey. Everyone is different and you may feel you already excel at some of these skills. That’s great! Why not use any of the free resources available on Bond Williams Recruitment or The Colour Works to build on your current awareness and unleash your true potential.
Without further ado, let’s get stuck in to the #colourworkschallenge!
Day One
Know thyself
Today is about getting to know yourself, and identifying where your strengths, weaknesses and blind spots lie. It’s a great place to start, so you know what you can put aside, and what needs more attention.
Read through this blog and see what you find yourself smiling and nodding along with. This task will help you focus on the areas that matter most to you during the course of the personal development challenge.
Maybe you enjoy hosting and facilitating meetings, or you feel frustrated when trying to raise your hand on Zoom to voice your ideas. You could be a data wizard and love analysing numbers, or prefer to get creative and spend time brainstorming. After reading the blog for guidance and ideas, write down some of your strengths and weaknesses.
Day Two
Confidence
Day two is about building confidence. Often we rely on our confidence to get us through a situation at work. Imagine presenting to your team or attending a group interview - both situations that you might feel nervous about.
Being able to communicate effectively and express yourself well in professional situations can improve your workplace environment. That’s why confidence building should be prioritised in your personal development journey.
Confidence is a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it. So, today is about taking a moment to list 5 things you're good at, achieved against adversity, or have been told by a friend or colleague.
Oh, and you can stop that inner voice saying, ‘I can’t do that, it’s so self-indulgent!’ – it’s not, this is about brain training and building confidence! Once identified, allow yourself some time to reflect on each and bring to life how that attitude, behaviour, or skill could be useful to you right now if directed appropriately
Day Three
Decision Making
Whether you’re a team leader, or you’re someone looking to switch careers, you’re in a position to make decisions. It’s important to be confident in those! Today, your task is to watch this 15-minute TED Talk, all about how to make hard choices, and stand by them.
The average human makes up to 35,000 decisions every day. Whether or not to take this challenge, watch the TED talk or even read this sentence - all choices your brain is making! All of those decisions influence our mood, health, feelings and even success.
If you prefer reading over watching, take a look at our blog, Six Ways to Make Better Decisions.
Day Four
Learnability
How is your personal development challenge going so far? Have you learnt any new skills or are you struggling to absorb all the information? Learnability is a great skill to have in both your personal and professional life. As the world changes around us, there’s always a need to learn something new.
Today’s task is to take a short questionnaire to identify your learning style. Finding your own personal style can help you get information into your long-term memory more effectively, giving you a better chance of that vital recall when information is needed. The VARK questionnaire is a great place to start.As a bonus task, we’ve found some brain games designed to keep your mind active and healthy!
Day Five
Productivity
By now, you will have developed new skills in learning and whether you know it or not, you will have built confidence, both of which add to the interpersonal toolkit you need in a variety of workplace settings. Now let’s take a look at how you can work more effectively independently.
Being more productive offers many benefits. Your time management will improve, and you’ll find the work you produce is of a better quality. Not only that, but you’ll be able to better divide your work and personal time, helping you to achieve a healthy work life balance.
Productivity is such an essential skill that it'd be a crime to leave it out of this week's challenge. Today, we’ve got a blog to help you get better at goal setting (and achieving!):
Bond Williams Professional Recruitment
We collaborated with the team at Bond Williams to bring you an opportunity to develop your skills.
If you’re looking for a new opportunity, Bond Williams provides excellent candidate and employer advice, and has a team of recruitment experts on hand. Personal development is a great step to take when searching for a new role. If you want to brush up on your CV, or improve your interview skills, working on your skills in this 5-day challenge is a great start!
Connect with them on social media here:
Ready to take on the #colourworkschallenge?
It’s time we all worked on ourselves, and this personal development challenge was designed to help you do just that. So, grab your coffee and close down all your other tabs. We don’t need any distractions while we’re working on our personal development.
Over the course of the week, you’ve identified your strengths and weaknesses. Using this information, you’ve been able to pinpoint areas that you could improve.
We’ve curated the resources to help you master productivity, become a better learner and embrace daily activities with confidence. You’ve also learned how to make better decisions. Now it’s complete, you’ll be able to walk into a new week with your personal development hat on.
If you have a friend or colleague that would benefit from taking part in this personal development challenge, don’t forget to pass it on! And, if you’re brave enough to share your journey on social media be sure to tag The Colour Works and Bond Williams Recruitment and use the hashtag #colourworkschallenge.
