Parents have many hopes and dreams for their children, but one of the most common is that their children get what they value in life. In addition, they hope that their offspring will make conscious decisions and stay in control of their lives rather than having life “process” them. But this goal can only be achieved through a lifelong process called self-growth; one in which a person learns to improve his or her performances and values through effective self-assessment of his or her behavior. Table 1 outlines the ideal characteristics of such an individual and illustrates how they all relate to five essential life goals: life vision, self-assessment, control, growth, and servant leadership. The sequence or ordering of these behaviors is meaningful, but individuals frequently vary in their actual “way of being” in regard to the growth process. The goal of this module is to assist faculty who are mentoring students by describing the kinds of behaviors related to each life goal, identifying common barriers to achieving those goals, and suggesting appropriate strategies and tools to help students address their difficulties. Table 2 presents an analytical view of typical impediments to goal achievement, and the resources and tools one can use to overcome them. An applied case example suggests how the self-growth model may be used in a mentoring relationship.

Behaviors that Support Self-Growth

1. Life Vision

Self-growth occurs only if a “critical mass” of developmentally relevant self-knowledge is learned over a period of time. An important resource that can support such self-analysis is found in the Life Vision Portfolio (Mettauer, 2002). Individuals must test new insights for consistency against the values they have articulated in their portfolio. Individuals need to know about the variables that influence their abilities, motives, opportunities, and personal development. The Life Vision Portfolio is designed to help individuals gain some perspective about their lives. However, assistance from a mentor will also significantly enhance this process (4.2.1 Overview of Mentoring).

2. Self-Assessment

In their quest for self-growth, students often work interactively with mentors to learn how to use assessment skills. The mentor needs to use a consistent strategy (4.2.3 Personal Development Methodology) over a sufficiently long period of time to influence self-growers, not only in the realm of values, but in terms of their specific life goals. If individuals are to learn the skills of self-assessment and self-mentoring in a manner that influences growth, they must have a clear life vision, one that includes commitment to realistic goals. And if the self-growth is to continue, it must be rooted in the individual’s ability to sustain the process (4.1.4 Assessment Methodology).

3. Control

Those individuals who show strong “control” behaviors are most likely to demonstrate assertiveness in the face of challenge. They are likely to use assessment to gain valuable information for themselves, which they then use to maintain, improve, or control their performance. Research in positive psychology (e.g., Seligman, 1998), cognitive development (e.g., Baxter Magolda, 2000), and social learning theory (e.g., Bandura, 1997) indicates that early experiences involving performance mastery and effective coping skills greatly enhance an individual’s sense of control. Growth occurs when individuals learn how to maintain conscious control of their lives at increasingly mature and effective levels by using all available resources and abilities to fully “process” significant life experiences.

4. Growth

Individuals who focus on growth find it to be the most compelling motive in their lives. As they gain in maturity and wisdom, they learn to set priorities for themselves. They find that focusing excessively on externally imposed values, such as social status, can distract them from more important tasks. By contrast, when they learn how to stay motivated to improve in high-priority performance areas, such as servant leadership, they find balance in their lives. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) discusses “flow,” the satisfying experience that comes from a deep sense of involvement in a task, without conscious concern for the superficial definitions of success. He sees it as a key indicator of exceptional growth. Self-growers experience this state of flow as they self-assess their behavior and values. Doing so on a regular basis helps them establish clear “benchmarks” for their growth across all domains of performance.

5. Servant Leadership

Servant leadership can be thought of as the culmination of adult developmental processes. It results from increasing self-awareness and growth throughout life from conscious, empathic engagement with others. Maslow’s (1971) theory of self-actualization, one model for examining maturity and wisdom, emphasizes individuals’ movement from focusing on personal needs and goals to focusing on community or world concerns. Servant leaders focus on enhancing quality of life for others through creative change. They put a high value on enhancing others' empowerment as they measure whether change was successful. Mentoring and other helpful relationships have an increasingly important priority for those who fully internalize servant leadership.

Contextual Variables that Strongly Influence Self-Growth

This section addresses some of the cultural, familial, and other contextual factors that create or increase barriers to self-growth. These contextual factors exist or occur on a continuum from “external” (influences from the outside world) to “internal” (influences within a person). Mentors must keep in mind that, typically, the external barriers to growth must be dealt with before a person can manage to internalize the self-growth processes.

1. Effects on Life Vision

To persist in the self-growth process, a person must commit to a full and deep understanding of his or her own preferences, personality, values, goals, and commitments. It is useful to create a life vision portfolio to examine how well one’s behaviors, attitudes, relationship skills, and decisions correspond to one’s deeper values and ideals. In order to be successful, an individual must continue this development process into adulthood as he or she develops not only performance skills but also growth-related competencies, such as wisdom.

2. Effects on Self-Assessment

In order to set priorities that are consistent with self-growth, individuals need to employ self-assessment skills of many kinds. Among these, it is critical to discover how one’s own cognitive and emotional dissonance relates to cultural norms and expectancies. La Fromboise and Low (1989), for example, describe the difficulties Native Americans often experience in learning to negotiate between the individualism found in “majority culture” and the interdependence typical of tribal culture. Mussweiler (2000) found that two powerful behaviors can inhibit an individual’s developmental progress into adulthood: a reliance on impulsive emotional reactions (i.e., use of information in short-term memory that is associated with negative feelings), and a dependence on negative comparisons with others. To break out of these patterns of thinking and behavior, an individual often needs a supportive mentor for the key role of sustaining motivation and focus for the complex self-assessment aspect of the growth process.

3. Effects on Control

An individual’s ability to control his or her destiny can be heavily influenced by one or more conditions or life experiences such as being a member of an oppressed group, being imprisoned for taking a political stand, experiencing severe family disruptions and dysfunctional parenting, having a mental illness, being addicted, being unenlightened about coping with a disability, developing an antisocial or impulsive personal style, and many other life conditions or states. Self-growth for individuals with these backgrounds frequently requires external assistance, such as counseling, support groups, work skills programs, medical services, and advocacy assistance. Fortunately, even individuals who have faced significant life challenges exhibit “resilience” (e.g., Masten, 2001) that enables them to return to a positive path of growth, despite the negative experiences and conditions they have had to confront.

4. Effects on Growth

Individuals who are caught up in negative emotions like anxiety, fear, and depression tend to seek instant gratification in order to feel better. As a result, they assume that luck or fate controls their destiny; they do not see the part their decisions play in keeping them stuck in a non-productive mode. These attitudes significantly interfere with growth potential and are difficult to change, at least, until the person is motivated by some life challenge or crisis.

Prochaska, DiClemente, and Norcross (1992) found that individuals typically progress through a series of stages before they attain a sense of commitment to self-change goals. Individuals who are stuck in non-growth life paths are likely to need experience, time, and external support before they will make a conscious commitment to overcoming barriers to their self-growth. Once they have begun moving toward self-change, they can work with mentors to develop specific “growth plans” to help them become more conscious of how to overcome or manage impediments and of how to enhance their skills in achieving goals in a positive, proactive manner that is consistent with their values.

5. Effects on Servant Leadership

Many people who have experienced severe problems or setbacks in life emerge with a stronger sense of their own identity, filled with resolve to help others like themselves, such as the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1930s. But more often, stereotyping or prejudice create a sense of victimization or at least of “stereotype vulnerability” (Steele, 1997), an anxiety about being unable to compete in the dominant culture or context. This stigmatizing can make people feel rejected, thereby eroding their sense of inclusion in the larger social order and even encouraging a sense of irresponsibility toward it. These and other serious barriers mean that servant leadership is likely to emerge only after progress has been made with the other four self-growth components: life vision, self-assessment, control, and growth. As suggested in the previous section, even with effective mentoring on barriers to growth behaviors, a predictable pattern of change takes time.

Application of the Self-Growth Model

Concluding Thoughts

This module provides faculty mentors with concepts, processes, and tools for working with students on their self-growth. The behaviors related to five types of life goals most predictive of self-growth are examined in Table 2. This table provides a systematic outline featuring several dimensions of the self-growth process. A brief scenario focusing on a hypothetical student’s experience suggests how personal, cultural, and contextual issues can be integrated into the self-growth process. Using this model and the tools associated with it will help mentors to become more skillful and will also increase their ability to enhance their own personal growth.

References

Table 1  Profile of a Self-Grower
 

Table 2  Self-Growth Behavior, Barriers, and Resources