Career & Personal Planning for Leaders

I live with ADHD. It's not something that I discuss often because I'm still understanding it. And I find it ironic because planning is my superpower. As I reflect on living with ADHD as a teenager without any interventions, I remember being drawn to making lists and project plans. These planning practices significantly DECREASED my anxiety.

A strong planning practice helps you tap into executive functioning, which is the highest level of thinking in the brain. Specifically, planning practices help you sequence activities and time in way that brings deep clarity. January is a perfect time to plan.

In this newsletter, I'm sharing parts of my own planning practice. And it feels quite relevant to me, too, as I move from emergency mode post-hurricane and into long-term recovery for the food pantry that I'm currently leading. Over the next few paragraphs, you will learn about growth maps, visioning exercises, bridges of action and support plans. You ready?

Growth happens when we reflect. Where have we been? Where are we going? What have we learned along the way? I’ve always known that reflection was an important practice; however, I learned the power of reflection while writing my graduate school thesis. Our research books recommended writing weekly memos about our progress. I found that reflecting on my work, even in 2-3 sentences, opened up my mind to hidden thoughts and biases. I was shocked.

The first step in a planning practice is reflecting on your growth. For now, let's focus on the last 12 months. You can use simple questions like these. If you want to go deeper, then use this framework.

• Roles: Identify the 4-6 roles that you most often fill. This can range from teammate to sibling to volunteer to citizen. Where did you find joy in these roles? What observations do you have about these roles?
• Risks: What risks did you take in the last 12 months? How would assess those - worth it, not a big deal, or a total failure? Risks are necessary for growth.
• Reflection: What kind of growth have you experienced in the last 12 months? Reflect with other people. Self-reflection is a powerful practice, and group reflection brings a new level of self-awareness. What feedback have you received in the last 12 months?

Take this information and place it on a piece of paper or virtual whiteboard. You will need these notes as we move through the following steps.

This is where I run into issues. I can't always see where I want to go. How about you? This is where you need to get really clear about your goal and the impacts. It sounds cheesy, but the SMART approach is still valuable here - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Don't get caught up in the business language of SMART.

Knowing where to go takes a bit of visioning. Visioning is simply the development of a goal. I liken visioning to dreaming because my dreams are vivid and memorable images. Take a few minutes to dream about where you want to be in 12 months. What do you see? Who do you see in this dream? How do you feel? Where are you? You don't have to know how you got there; just dream.

Take some time to meditate on this dream. Get a complete picture. Then write a letter to yourself after you have accomplished this dream. Nobody has to see the letter. Writing the letter cements the dream and the success feelings in your body. You can even assign an image that represents your dream. Then use the image as a reminder to yourself.

I've used the same picture in these sections to help with visualization. The picture contains a person standing on a ledge on top of a rocky mountain. You are the person in this image. Your reflection is the ledge, and your goal is the nearest rocky top. Now you've got to build the bridge to achieving this goal.

I use a blank sheet of paper to generate ideas with these questions:

1. What are the steps I need to take toward this goal?
2. What is the sequence of activities?
3. How much time will this take?
4. When and where do I do my best work? (Ex. time of day, at the office)
5. What challenges might you experience?

Now, use your answers to build a bridge of action. Everyone has their own organizing system. I use a spreadsheet to record the activities and assign due dates. Then I estimate how much time I need to complete the activities and put these in my calendar. Why? Because I'm ADHD. I have a hard time keeping up with details (if not captured somewhere) and staying focused on the most important task (versus doing other things).

Every bridge requires support. The support looks different for every bridge based on its design. Growth and success require personal support and care. Your support will look different from a friend's support because you are different people. I use the SPINE model from The SyncUp Leadership Group to assess my needs around support and care.

• Spiritual
• Physical
• Intellectual
• Intuition
• Emotional

These dimensions in the SPINE model identify where we need support and care on a regular basis. Support and care are more than a vacation or annual phone chat with a friend. You need daily, weekly, and monthly doses to keep your bridge supported for the entire year. Extraordinary work requires extraordinary self-care. Step four is just as important, if not more important, than the other three steps. Otherwise, you will face on your face from exhaustion.

That was a quick review of my planning practice. Looking for more? See below.

Leaders who strategically implement a plan based on their core values not only live more fulfilling lives, but they also deepen employee/volunteer trust, increase the quality of job candidates, and expand their career horizons.

I'm excited to spend 90 minutes with a group of leaders on Wednesday, January 29th at 12:00pm ET. Plus, one lucky attendee will win...a $50 Amazon gift card!

Sign up today at www.loftispartners.com to claim your spot.

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