Embracing Growth at Our Edges

Jennifer Abrams
Leadership
10 Minute Read
May 3, 2021

Inward, Upward, Outward, Onward

That’s my catch phrase to describe the essence of my new book, Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing (Up) at Work. The book is available for purchase here and you can read more about it here and learn more about the workshop I am facilitating around the content here. And, you can see me talk about the ideas here. So many links.

This new work and sheltering in place have both asked me to go inward reflectively and inside literally. In the last 14 months I have been asked to grow (up) emotionally, socially, and psychologically. And now, God willing, with the vaccine we will be together again – going outward and onward. We are stretching back into the world.

I wrote the book to be a contribution to the conversation of how we can move forward with more self-regulation, maturity, and strength. We will need to manage both our inner and outer tensions to do so. It isn’t easy work, but it is essential.

My colleague, Jennie, gently asked me if there was an appetite why for this book at this time. I respectfully said I wasn’t sure people had a hunger to do add anything else their plate as many feel they are full up. Yet here we are, needing to move forward with focus and grace into the upcoming school year. So an appetite for the book? Maybe. A need for it? Absolutely.

A need for:

  • being more capable and prepared to work towards increased equity, inclusion and belonging in our workplaces
  • being able to suspend our certainty and work toward more inquiry in our conversations and discussions
  • being able to live as an even more stable, rooted person and not as a stressed out and reactive one
  • being an empathic and skillful colleague who is a value add in each group she joins
  • being one who understands what it can look like and sound like to increase psychological safety in a team by one’s actions and language
  • being able to express concerns not complaints, and to ask for clarification and help with more agility and purpose
  • being happier and more grounded in our interactions and our workplaces

So in the spirit of moving outward and onward in our work, ask yourself:

  • What are my learning edges – where can I grow (up)?
  • What might be the next ‘stretch’ learnings for my team?
  • What’s next for me in my development and on my learning journey?
  • What is it time for me to unlearn in order to move forward?

To stretch and to engage with our edges should be a consistent practice – we must always be learning and unlearning. I write books that are at least one size too big for me and this is yet another one of those books. I look forward to stretching at our learning edges together.

If you have any questions, comments or topic suggestions, please feel free to email me at jennifer@jenniferabrams.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

*Jennifer Abrams, “Embracing Growth at Our Edges",May 3, 2021,https://jenniferabrams.com/embracing-growth-at-our-edges/

Photo by Ashley Knedler on Unsplash

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