Change happens. Change, in fact, is constant. Sometimes a person initiates the change; other times, change requires a response from an individual. One can, of course, refuse to change, but things around them — people, circumstances, their industry — will change. And in the movement of others’ change, the immobile person (or company) will find themselves left behind, perhaps irrelevant, even obsolete.
When we started Farragut, we aspired to build a company that would last 100 years. Understanding that change is constant and inevitable, we committed to invest in the practices and people for longevity. With a mantra of “full potential ahead,” we established three core values: courage, synergy, and purposeful progress.
Like courage and synergy, purposeful progress is an investment and a practice at Farragut. We strive for continuous learning, intentional evolution, ongoing improvement. This growth is essential for reaching one’s full potential, both as individuals and as a company. The pursuit comes with risks and failures, but the lessons learned about discovering, accepting, and expressing our unique selves — about living up to our individual promise — outweigh them. Here are three ways we work to promote purposeful progress at Farragut.
#1 Create a Culture That Values Personal Growth
Because the most meaningful growth starts from within, we begin by encouraging team members to pursue an honest examination of themselves and a willingness to subsequently change their mindset, habits, and daily actions and activities. While we espouse this broadly, we acknowledge our own non-linear growth and our status as fellow travelers on the growth journey.
We regularly provide outside resources and other sources of inspiration for our employees — and ourselves. For example, we incorporated Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into our company culture. In addition to working through the materials, a few Farragut employees became certified as 7 Habits trainers, so they can assist their colleagues. We hope to encourage greater self-awareness and increased interest in self-improvement, which we believe leads to richer internal and external lives, both personally and professionally.
#2 Provide Opportunities for Education and Professional Learning
We also encourage leaders and managers to pursue continuous learning, to stay abreast of new and effective tools and techniques that enhance their ability to bring out the best in their teams. We offer consultants and provide outside coaches to share tips and conduct training on current and proven leadership and management methodologies. Helping leaders and managers grow in these ways benefits them, certainly, but also benefits all those both inside and outside the company with whom they work.
#3 Invest in Professional Development
We facilitate growth by supporting ongoing learning efforts of Farragut employees across the board, understanding that their development is essential to the company’s adaptability and longevity. Most obviously for a software company, we champion employees’ efforts to stay abreast of the near-constant technological changes in the software industry. To this end, we endorse — and provide financial assistance for — the pursuit of education and training designed to help employees grow and change as the field grows and changes.
Farragut’s success starts with our employees and expands beyond them to our customers and the company as an entity. With the investment each of us makes — putting time, energy, effort, and resources into the pursuit of personal growth — we move closer toward reaching our full-potential goals and helping secure Farragut’s very future. That’s an investment we know will pay dividends for a long time — maybe even for 100 years.
Share Your Story
Do you have a personal or professional story of growth? Please share it in the comments below. Let’s inspire one another to grow into our best selves.
