Individual, But Never Solo: Why Your Professional Growth Needs a Community

In today’s workplace, personal development has increasingly become a self-service experience. We hand employees access to on demand learning platforms, personalized coaching apps, and dashboards filled with individual KPIs. We encourage people to think of themselves as the “CEO of their own career.” 

On the surface, this mindset seems empowering. Your leadership style is yours to define. Your emotional intelligence is yours to sharpen. Your career path is yours to walk. In many ways, growth is, indeed, personal. But here’s the trap: too many leaders have come to believe that “individual” means “solo.” 

We see managers quietly struggling through tough personnel issues. Executives burning out as they try to manage their way through a strategic change. New leaders attempting to master skills through YouTube clips instead of seeking feedback from a trusted mentor who has seen the same challenges before. 

At TMA Performance, we believe that while the work of personal growth is an individually focused process, getting there should be communal. Thriving in today’s complex organizations requires a new mantra: 

Development may be individual, but it should never be solo. 

Why DIY Leadership Falls Short 

The solo mindset often stems from a misplaced sense of professional stoicism. 

“If I’m a director, shouldn’t I already know how to lead a remote team?” 

“If I’m a VP, shouldn’t I be able to figure out the new strategic framework on my own?” 

When leaders treat their development like a do-it-yourself project, three predictable consequences happen: 

1. The Echo Chamber Effect

Without external input, you operate within the limits of your own biases and blind spots. You keep applying old tools to new problems and remain puzzled when results don’t improve. This is why we strongly encourage the of use of effective 360-degree feedback tools.  

2. The Velocity Cap

Learning alone is slow because you must personally experience every mistake. Learning within a community collapses the timeline. You absorb lessons from others’ wins and failures, not just your own. We can vicariously learn so much through mentorship, books, sharing experiences, classes, simulations, etc.  

3. The Resilience Gap

Leadership can feel lonely. When you stumble while in “solo mode,” it feels like a personal shortcoming. But when you’re supported by a community, setbacks can start to feel like shared experiences rather than personal flaws. 

The Power of “Individual, but Connected” 

When we reframe growth as an individual effort supported by a collective, the entire culture of development shifts. Here’s what that looks like inside a healthy organization. 

1. Your Professional Pit Crew

Think of a Formula 1 driver. Only one person is behind the wheel, yet no one wins without a pit crew. In organizations, your pit crew includes peers, mentors, coaches, HR teams, and even direct reports. You still do the driving, steering through decisions, accelerating through challenge, but your crew provides the data, perspective, and support you cannot see from behind the steering wheel.  

2. Social Learning and Peer Coaching

Learning sticks when it’s social. When managers experience development as a cohort, the real value isn’t only in the content — it’s in the shared experience. A simple statement like, “I’m dealing with that delegation issue too,” does two important things: 

• Normalizes the struggle 

• Enables collaborative problem-solving 

Growth still happens individually, but the spark comes from the group. 

3. Vulnerability as a Strategic Advantage

When leaders drop the “solo” mentality, curiosity takes its place. A leader who says, “I’m working on becoming a better listener, can you help hold me accountable?” is doing individual work while simultaneously building an environment of transparency and psychological safety. 

How Organizations Can Bridge the Gap 

If you’re responsible for leadership development, employee experience, or organizational culture, here’s how to make sure individual development is never solo.  

• Move from Training to Cohorts: Giving someone a login is not development.
  Create structured cohorts where people learn individually but reflect and share collectively. 
• Normalize Shadowing at All Levels: Shadowing shouldn’t be reserved for interns.
  A VP shadowing a frontline employee creates empathy, dismantles silos, and accelerates shared understanding. 
• Reward Growth Partnerships: Incorporate collaborative learning into performance expectations: “Who have you helped grow this quarter?” “Who has helped you grow?” If you want better employee growth and leadership development, design for it. Reward it. Measure it. 

The Individual’s Responsibility 

Even in a community-driven development culture, growth still requires individual initiative. Leaders must be willing to: 

• Audit Your Network: Ensure you have a people who will tell you the truth, not just what’s comfortable. 
• Narrate the Work: Don’t present only final products. Share drafts, struggles, and early thinking. This invites collaboration, not judgment. 
• Ask for Help Early: Looking for a 10-minute conversation early in the process to quickly gain perspective, can help prevent a small issue from becoming a major problem. 

Conclusion: Growth is Individual in Focus, but never Solo in Implementation 

Yes, your development work is personal. Only you can do the reps. Only you can have the difficult conversations, make the tough calls, and do the internal reflection. But you should never have to do any of it alone. When you invite others into your growth journey, you gain speed, depth, clarity, and resilience. A solo climb becomes a shared expedition. Your individual progress is accelerated by collective strength.