What is personal mastery?

You have an exceptional person among your employees.

Successful people strive to constantly develop their skills and learn everything new in their field of specialization and even touch on other related areas, where a person becomes a professional if he can master all the details of his job, deal with problems efficiently, and find effective solutions. The individual’s value and efficiency increase with the number of years he spends practicing his work, and the many and varied situations he is exposed to, to raise his rating from professional to expert.

More professionals better performance:

These people are considered a valuable treasure for any organization if it can provide the appropriate environment for them or attract them to get on board. The greater the number of experts and professionals in the organization, the greater its market value and its capacity for innovation and creativity.

What is greater than professionalism and experience?

However, there is another type above the professional and expert classification (which has gone beyond what experts and professionals have reached). Peter Senge mentioned this character in his remarkable book (The fifth discipline: The art and practice of learning organization) in 1990, which is considered a cornerstone of building a learning organization, and he called it (personal mastery). Some people comprehended it as “individual personal capabilities”. Despite the quality of the expression, it does not fulfill the denominator, as this case is much larger and greater. Whereas Singe says: “Although individual abilities and potential are the basis for reaching that state, it requires intellectual and spiritual transcendence. A person moves from a state of quality work to transforming his life journey into good work, living for creativity and not doing the work that is only assigned to it.” And I prefer calling it a state of “self-excellence.”

Who is the person who has “Personal Mastery”?

That person does not feel satisfied and satiated in the never-ending learning journey for him/her, no matter how efficient and capable he/she is. That person always strives to learn more, perform better, create ideas, and develop methods, which makes him/her simply feel alive and oriented.

The role of management in promoting and creating the state of “Personal Mastery”:

Senge put all managers in a difficult situation, as this situation does not have tangible specifications by which we can identify such exceptional person, nor are there fixed standards that organizations can apply to ensure the production of such characters. However, there are some principles and values ​​that can be disseminated among managers at all levels to support the creativity and innovation energies of employees. First of all, new ideas are a guarantee for the continuity of the organization in the future, and that there is room for any idea or suggestion, no matter how exceptional it is. Also, managers must understand the culture of difference and variety, and that difference is an advantage and a strong point contrary to what some think is a weak point, the secret here is the harmony of the work team, not its similarity. Finally, managers must be flexible in applying rules and regulations because those rules may kill the employees’ creativity and innovation unlike flexibility may create the required momentum.

Conclusion:

Finally, every individual in the organization must realize that there is no end to learning and always ask themselves (what if?) and go to the maximum extent with their thoughts to find solutions and ideas that may one day be a new theory in management.