Tag Archives: Face

How Do You Balance Career and Personal Goals? Three Guides

Situation: After two challenging two years, a CEO has observed that to keep the company afloat he has had do set aside his personal goals. As the economy has recovered business conditions have improved and he wants to devote more time to personal goals and objectives. Where should he focus, and how have others faced this challenge? How do you balance career and personal goals?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Take the time to think about and quantify a long-term solution. This should be in detail with specific and measurable objectives, and, ideally, timelines.
    • Talk to peers. Ask them about their experience and how they defined both professional and personal goals.
    • Seek a mentor. Evaluate several before selecting one
    • Use introspection and identify the real issues and factors – both those that must be tackled and those that are aspirational.
  • Document your dreams and pursue them.
    • Define your goals and objectives.
    • Define what makes you happiest and assure that the goals objectives align with this.
    • Create a reward structure. Assure that you are in charge of each reward.
  • Pursue fulfilling outside activities.
    • Look at organizations or courses that are inspirational and aspirational and which align with what was documented in the first two steps. These could be formal organizations like Toastmasters or evening academic or online courses that appeal to the documented aspirations.
    • Get a copy of Don Clifton’s “Now, Discover Your Strengths.” It includes a link to the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment that helps to identify strengths and fulfilling talents.

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How Do You Have a Fierce Conversation? Six Factors

Situation: A valuable tool for CEOs is Susan Scott’s book Fierce Conversations. This includes challenging conversations with staff. Scott characterizes Fierce Conversations as being robust, intense, strong, powerful and passionate. These are the traits that a leader must bring to challenging conversations instead of avoiding them. How do you have a fierce conversation?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The first step is to master the courage to interrogate reality. This means confronting the difference between “ground truth” or reality and official truth or what we or others wish to believe. There is often a difference between the truth that we want others to see and reality. Jim Collins calls this confronting the brutal facts of our situation without losing faith in our ability to deal with it.
  • Be here, prepared to be nowhere else. The conversation must be your only point of focus when you are having it. Choose a location where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by texts, phone calls or anything else.
  • Tackle your toughest challenge today – you gain little by putting it off for another day. Prioritize your challenges, and tackle the most difficult ones first. Handling these will make the most difference.
  • Obey your instincts – but remember that instincts are subjective and must be verified through reality checks. Trust your gut, but verify it objectively with evidence.
  • Take responsibility for your emotional wake – what he or she will remember after the conversation. Keep the focus on factors that the other party can control, and offer to assist. But be sensitive to how you deliver the message and how the other party responds. Don’t leave more of a mess than you had before the conversation.
  • Harness the power of silence – silence slows a conversation and increases your chances of making it meaningful.

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