Chapter 6
CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO STRETCH
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
To launch yourself forward and live a rich life of talent expression, you need to be willing to stretch beyond your present comfort zone. When we say stretch, we are talking about healthy stretches. To get going, we’ll help you to see yourself through a new lens and give you tools that will power up your talent under every circumstance—not in some ideal world but right where you are today.
With today’s hectic pace, many of us already feel stretched to capacity. We’ve been there ourselves and have helped thousands of people to overcome these obstacles and move ahead. We’ve also discovered that having powerful support in place is an absolute necessity. Thus, we’ll show you how to pull together your own Talent Fulfillment Team to cheer you on and catch you when you fall, making sure that you have what you need from beginning to end.
MAKE A HEALTHY STRETCH
Have you noticed how your brain comes alive when faced with just the right amount of challenge? We like to call that a healthy stretch. A stretch helps us pay attention to what we are doing. When we feel ourselves stretching, we know that we are growing. What’s the right amount of stretch for you to stay focused on fulfilling your talent and growing sustainably?
Dr. Carol Scott describes this dynamic in her book, Optimal Stress: Living in Your Best Stress Zone. She notes that some stress creates a dynamic tension that attracts our brain’s attention. It pulls us out of autopilot and engages our faculties. She describes the concept of flow as “a state of being in which you are fully engaged and challenged and able to apply your skills in a positive, productive way.”1
A simple metaphor that we use is how a rubber band stretches. With little or no stretch, the rubber band doesn’t fulfill its task. When stretched too far, the rubber band breaks. The same holds true for us. As illustrated in figure 5, with little or no stretch, we become disengaged or cruise along on autopilot. With too much stretch, we become frazzled and overloaded. The healthy stretch lies somewhere between autopilot and frazzled. Exactly where it occurs for you may vary according to the circumstances. When you are taking on something new, you may pause to consider what’s at stake, the risks, the rewards, and your personal style of dealing with challenges. What have been healthy stretches for you?
Talent-wise, where are you on the stretch continuum? At this moment, do you need more or less stretch to make the most of your talent?
Figure 5. Finding a healthy stretch
DO YOU NEED A BIGGER STRETCH?
Sometimes we get a little too comfortable and complacent, settling into a scenario that serves us superficially but doesn’t inspire or engage us. That’s where Dan found himself.
Dan saw that he was on autopilot. For more than ten years, Dan had worked in production. He was one of the unsung heroes who figured out how to make the products that the hotshot designers developed. When he thought about making a healthy stretch, he realized that he was almost totally disengaged from his work. “The pay’s OK, but I feel like I’m just a cog in the wheel.” Through his Talent Catalyst Conversation, he determined that he wanted his career to be invigorating rather than draining. Dan wanted more than a paycheck.
What stretch could get Dan cooking again? He thought about how to refocus on what he enjoyed about his work and making a bigger contribution to how his company developed and produced new products. He decided to challenge himself to formulate a state-of-the art document that would track how to make effective products from the sometimes less-than-useful plans that the designers developed. He figured that if he worked with his peers to detail their creative process, coworkers and supervisors would understand and possibly value their work more highly. He would gain the recognition that he missed, and the business would benefit from a clearer and more effective process.
What if Dan’s innovation and initiative went unnoticed? Even if he wasn’t recognized, Dan figured that it would be worth rising to the challenge and feeling better about himself along the way. As it turned out, he not only documented the process but also ended up improving it.
If you feel disengaged or stuck on autopilot, you need a healthy stretch. As you’re reading this, what ideas about healthy stretches come to mind? If, at this point in the book, you haven’t yet had a Talent Catalyst Conversation, we highly recommend it. The open-ended questions will help you to see fresh ways to move toward your hopes.
It behooves you to take charge of your talent and get engaged in your career, whether or not your organization encourages it. Disengagement not only stifles your talent but also undermines your health. A Gallup study of 9,561 employed adults from February 2008 through April 2009 concluded that “actively disengaged employees were 1.7 times as likely as engaged employees to report being diagnosed with anxiety for the first time in the next year. And actively disengaged employees were almost twice as likely as engaged employees to report being diagnosed with depression for the first time in the next year.”2 You’ve undoubtedly seen this pattern for yourself. When people become disengaged, they find outlets elsewhere to stimulate their brains or even numb their frustration. It might be alcohol, drugs, gambling, excessive personal risk taking, or something else. In contrast, when you are putting your talent to its best use, other parts of your life benefit as well.
GOING BEYOND A STRETCH—DO YOU NEED A BIG LEAP?
You’ve probably seen it in the movies: a rooftop chase where our hero runs at top speed, attempting to escape the pursuit. Then suddenly there is no place to go. The only choices are to surrender or attempt to leap across an alleyway to the next rooftop. That’s the way life is sometimes, metaphorically speaking. A person has stretched as far as he can go and has found himself in an uncomfortable place. He can either go back or take a big leap forward.
When Fran decided to step outside the confines of her staff role and find a path to become a supervisor, she took a big leap by inviting the CEO of her company to become part of her personal Talent Fulfillment Team. When Dan decided to document an effective process for his company, he stretched beyond the status quo and got engaged. What kind of big leap might you need to take to fulfill your hopes? Depending on your circumstances, your big leap could involve something as simple as requesting help when you need it or moving in a fresh direction at work.
ARE YOU A CANDIDATE FOR A BIG LEAP?
How can you tell if it’s time to consider a big leap? There is an old story about a man on a journey who one night found himself clinging desperately to the edge of a cliff. All he could do was concentrate on holding on and not falling into the gaping chasm he imagined was below. As the sun came up, he began to see other people walking around him. Strangely, they appeared to be almost at eye level. When he summoned the courage to look down, he realized that his feet were only inches from the ground at the base of the cliff. He let go of the thing he had held on to and continued on his journey.
Funny thing about these old stories—sometimes they have lasted a long time because there is truth to them. Is there something you’ve held on to because of an unfounded fear that letting go would be too dangerous—for example, looking into changing departments or asking to shadow an expert in your field once a month? What’s your leap? Would letting go allow you to continue on your journey?
A leap forward is worth taking even if you might fall. Chad learned this at the end of the ropes course he tried in a midcareer challenge workshop. Chad had proudly succeeded in all the other sections of the course and felt pretty confident about himself until he came to the section they called the “Heebie-Jeebies.” The setup was a single thin steel cable strung sixty feet above hard-packed earth. Several other cables crisscrossed the single cable at sharp angles. He didn’t see how he could get his body to the other end of the hundred-foot stretch without a hitch.
Confronted with the “Heebie-Jeebies,” Chad faced a choice: “Will I go forward to finish the ropes course knowing that I will likely fall, or will I turn back?” Turning back didn’t appeal to him at all. Therefore, even though he couldn’t figure out in advance how he could make it all the way across, Chad decided to move forward.
Chad did step out on the steel cable … and he did fall. Had he been reckless or careless? Absolutely not. He knew that hundreds of others had done the “Heebie-Jeebies” before him and none of them had died or been injured. He also knew that he was on belay with two people on the ground who agreed to spot him and keep the tension tight on the ropes and pulleys holding his harness so that if he did fall, he might get a few bruises from the cables but wouldn’t crash to the ground.
Chad’s experience of a “big leap” was literal. He and his companions on this career course learned in their bones, and with a few bruises, that no matter how much success you’ve enjoyed, there will be times when you have to take a big leap to move forward. Just be sure you have the support you need to manage the risks.
OVERLOADED? TOOLS TO CARE FOR YOURSELF
Let’s move back to the other end of the spectrum, the realm of being frazzled and overloaded. If you are at that place, you need to take immediate steps to make your situation more manageable and create the potential for solid growth.
It is not that unusual for people to reside in the frazzled-to-overwhelmed region of the stress scale, for a myriad of reasons—kids, career, health issues, financial struggles, relationship problems, family conflicts, a lawsuit, accident, or a family member being deployed overseas, to name a few.
Even if you’ve stretched yourself way beyond what’s healthy, how can you pull back so that you rely more on your talent than on willpower? It is possible to evolve from surviving to thriving. To do so, we suggest a great focus on self-care and a reexamination of your story. Taking charge of your talent first requires taking care of yourself. Part of taking care of yourself may involve changing your story from “I have to do this all myself” to “It’s time to bring in the reinforcements and have a better quality of life right here and right now.”
If you’re overwhelmed, there are things you can do today to ease back toward the healthy stretch zone.
1. Reexamine your story. What is your story? Are you doing it all alone? Has the pressure built up to an overwhelming crescendo? If so, how could you tweak your story, even slightly, to allow yourself to begin to be in balance and enjoy using your talent?
2. Do more of what you like (and have something to look forward to). Make a list of everything you like and even love to do, and begin adding items from that list to your daily schedule. Are there simple activities you could add to your daily life, or friends you could get together with, that would help you to feel more balanced?
3. Create or enlist a team of support people. Identify two or three people in your life who support you and are interested in your well-being. Can you ask them if they would be interested in being there for you in whatever way served you best? Many times, people are hesitant to ask for support at first and are relieved to find out that when they do, those around them often want to chip in.
4. Delegate, delegate, delegate. How could you delegate responsibilities in your own life—either at work, at home, or both? Are there members of your family who could support you on a regular basis? Do you have friends who would love to help you out?
Self-care may seem indulgent on the surface, but if you think of yourself as being like a car, you will realize just how important it is to take care of yourself so that you don’t run on fumes and end up stranded and broken down. Sometimes we zoom ahead and don’t notice the little warning signs along the road that guide us to slow down for just a moment and recharge. The more you take care of yourself, the better you will feel in everything you do and about everyone with whom you do it.
ENLIST YOUR TALENT FULFILLMENT TEAM
Nobody accomplishes anything important on his or her own. Even though you are the hero of your own talent story, or in the process of becoming the hero, remember that heroes have a strong supporting cast. The people around you can provide tremendous support—and the possibility of receiving that support can easily go unnoticed unless you take a moment to look through a new lens.
In the Talent Catalyst Conversation, your Catalyst asked you whom you would like to have on your personal Talent Fulfillment Team. Do you have a team in place? If you don’t — and even if you do—you will benefit from the following exercise. The right team makes a critical difference between experiencing just a burst of talent and talent with staying power.
From the people you listed as resources, we will show you how to pull your Talent Fulfillment Team together just as a manager would pull together a team for a new project: with a staffing plan, job requirements, and goals to meet. Who would be the star players on your team? How do you recruit them? Here are some of the kinds of support roles we’ve seen people include in their plans: coworkers, mentors, subject matter experts, friends and family, coaches, advisors, cheerleaders, Hope Holders, champions, researchers, assistants, writers, referral sources, managers, and partners — to name a few.
So, what does your Talent Fulfillment Team roster look like? Take some time to sketch out the kinds of support you need, and for each of them identify potential players, the requests you’d like to make, and the results you hope to achieve.
Now, what if you identify people for your Talent Fulfillment Team, but you worry about whether they will be willing and available? Or perhaps you just don’t like asking people for help. This is understandable. Asking for help requires a certain degree of vulnerability, which isn’t always comfortable. In fact, many people make up stories to protect themselves from situations like this: “I don’t want to take advantage of anyone.” “I ought to be able to do this myself.” “I don’t want to be in anyone’s debt.”
One great inner quality to employ when thinking about asking for support is generosity. Asking for and receiving help is a way to prime the pump of generosity. When you make a request, you are giving another person a chance to contribute to your well-being. If the person is unable or unwilling to say yes to your request, you might try asking the person what he or she would be willing to do or if he or she could recommend other people who might be interested in the role. In any event, maintain a high regard for whatever response the person gives you.
Many people choke when it comes to asking others for help. Maybe you have your own self-limiting comments, like “He’s probably too busy. Why would he want to help me?” Yes, helpful, well-connected people are busy, and yes, you need to make your case for them to help you. Making effective requests of others is critical to helping us all learn how to work together in a way that benefits everyone.
There are four important elements to making effective requests. Let’s look at how you can put intention, observation, request, and confirmation into action to secure your Talent Fulfillment Team.
Express your intention. Before making your request, state clearly what you hope to accomplish and why it is of value. This lets people know what you envision. If possible, link something of value to the person you are making the request of in order to create an everyone-wins situation.
Provide a clarifying observation. Describe what you see that sets the context for your request. Use “I” statements. For example, “I notice …” Include just the facts, no editorial comments or judgments.
Make a request. Make a simple, direct statement of what you want, and ask whether the person is willing to provide it. Be brief and direct. Otherwise, people may feel crowded and pressured. Deliver the request and wait for the other person to respond. Give the person permission to accept, reject, or modify the request to work for both of you.
Close with a confirmation. The last step in a healthy request process is to restate and confirm whatever you have agreed upon. For instance, if the person has promised to supply you with some material by the end of the week, confirm by asking if he or she would like a reminder or a follow-up call. The purpose here is twofold: to make sure you get what you need and to keep the relationship from becoming clouded by differing expectations.
Remember Fran’s interest in getting the CEO of her organization to be on her Talent Fulfillment Team? For a staff member, that’s quite a reach. Here’s an illustration of Fran making a bold request.
Intention: “I enjoy guiding and supporting people, and would like to become a manager and support our organization’s continued success.” Notice how Fran has made a link between her intention and something of value to the CEO.
Observation: “I see that supervisory positions require experience in leading teams and giving performance feedback.” Notice how the observation provides a context that links the intention with the request that follows.
Request: “I would like very much to join the Hudson River Project, if I could serve in a leadership role so that I can get more supervisory experience.” Notice the simple, short request. Tom, the CEO, appreciated the clarity of Fran’s request and agreed to help. The project she requested was already fully staffed, but he offered to open up thirty minutes on his schedule to discuss other possibilities coming up where Fran could lead teams and provide performance feedback.
Confirmation: “OK, I’ll contact your assistant today and make a thirty-minute appointment.” Notice how the confirmation makes clear who, what, and when for the action.
This process works because it is personal and direct. People will clearly know your intent and understand both the context and your request. You’ll enjoy success if you have no expectations about a specific outcome. Whether or not someone accepts a particular request is entirely his or her choice. This perspective will free you to request what you really want.
Is there a request that you’d like to make of someone? Think of something meaningful that will help expand your opportunities around fulfilling your hopes. Take a few minutes to write out your request and practice it with someone before you make the request of the person you want to engage. Remember, an effective request follows the simple format of intention, observation, request, and confirmation. If you feel uncomfortable approaching this action, try practicing with smaller requests first. However, don’t be afraid to reach further than you have in the past. Tapping into the abundant resources that people in your life possess and can share may reveal unexpected opportunities for realizing your hopes.
DEVELOP YOUR TALENT ACTION PLAN (TAP IT!)
Now it’s time to create a game plan that will consolidate all your efforts and empower you to move forward. This is where all the dreams you’ve had about bringing your talent to life come solidly down to earth. Your Talent Action Plan is your own personal road map, and you are in the driver’s seat for this journey.
Your Talent Catalyst Conversation gave you a starting point for moving forward. The Talent Action Plan guides you to nail down the details involved in taking action, such as accessing resources, allotting time, and gaining the support you need. It’s also something you can share with your supervisor and members of your Talent Fulfillment Team so that they can quickly see where you are headed and how they can help. When you get your plan down on paper and share it with others, you will have declared your intentions and will gain an added rush of interest and energy from your own commitment.
Remember Sheila, the manager who wanted to clear some of the tasks off her very full plate? In her Talent Catalyst Conversation, she expressed a hope to work on bigger, more critical projects. She headed up a highly valued accounting group and wanted to broaden her impact but already felt swamped. She thought her team was filled to the brim as well. Thus, she was afraid to take on more or put more on anyone else. Sheila wanted to make room to pursue her aspirations, but she felt stuck. She decided to see if putting everyone’s brains to work on the problem might bring fresh solutions. When she did a Talent Catalyst Conversation with each of her team members, she discovered that they also wanted to grow. Some of the responsibilities she wanted to let go of were things others wanted to learn.
Sheila definitely encountered many obstacles in her quest to work on bigger projects and to find more personal fulfillment from her work. But her Talent Action Plan helped set her and her team on the right track. It gave her a clear path that she could return to in order to keep making progress. See her responses to the TAP It! below.
Sheila’s Talent Action Plan (TAP It!)
Your hopes: Broaden my perspectives and enhance my contributions to critical issues facing our organization.
1. What needs to be learned or developed for you to realize your hopes?
Gain a better understanding of critical issues, concerns, and priorities for the organization and the challenges faced by departments and the impact on their operations.
2. Why does it need to be done?
Broaden my perspectives and prepare for possible promotional opportunities within the organization.
3. How will it occur?
Continue to participate in cross-departmental projects, seek out new projects, and participate in conferences.
4. Who needs to be involved?
Experts from other divisions and departments.
5. When will it be completed?
Ongoing, with one project completed within three months.
6. Projected resources (number of hours, cost, coaching support, etc.) to complete it?
Five to ten hours per week, depending on items due.
7. Impact on other priorities?
May need to delegate some routine tasks to others.
8. Reporting needs and coaching support to track progress and sustain results?
Meet all due dates set by lead staff. Check in monthly with members of my Talent Fulfillment Team.
Sheila discovered that her Talent Action Plan also provided an excellent template for delegating work to her team members. Much to Sheila’s delight, her team members came to her after their Talent Catalyst Conversations with an eagerness to take on new tasks and develop new skills. For this to work, however, Sheila and her staff needed to define and agree upon the tasks clearly enough that her staff knew what to do and that Sheila didn’t become a “helicopter” manager—hovering over them to make sure that they did everything correctly.
Could the same questions help you to move forward and make a plan? Even if you aren’t sure about the specifics, you will benefit from completing a draft so that others can help you to develop it further. If you have trouble getting started, ask someone to interview you with the TAP It! outline. As the person hears your answers, he or she can write down your responses. Within about twenty minutes, you’ll have a Talent Action Plan and someone who can cheer you onward.
Your Talent Action Plan (TAP It!)
Your hopes: [brief statement of your aspirations that the Plan will address]
1. What needs to be learned or developed for you to realize your hopes?
2. Why does it need to be done?
3. How will it occur?
4. Who needs to be involved?
5. When will it be completed?
6. Projected resources (number of hours, cost, coaching support, etc.) to complete it?
7. Impact on other priorities?
8. Reporting needs and coaching support to track progress and sustain results?
Look for opportunities to brainstorm your plan with other people who have similar objectives. For example, after more than 150 managers and professional staff members in a Silicon Valley organization completed their Talent Catalyst Conversations, they gathered for a follow-up workshop to turn their intentions into action. With their draft Talent Action Plans in hand, they formed small TAP It! groups around shared topics. They organized themselves by topic, including becoming a manager, leading projects, and leaving a legacy. The room was abuzz with people comparing their Talent Action Plans—brainstorming ways to expedite their progress and encouraging one another. With this exercise to support them, as well as their teamwork and camaraderie, they spurred each other on to stretch and deliver. In the process, they also brought a bubble-up culture of talent development to life.
TAKE CONSISTENT ACTION WITH A DAILY TALENT ACTION PACK
The Daily Talent Action Pack is a creative way to break bigger projects into bite-sized actions. Using the Daily Action Pack will provide you with a form of accountability, give you helpful reminders, and help you to develop attainable ways of staying connected to your hopes. You can use the Daily Talent Action Pack with the Talent Action Plan or as a standalone exercise.
The Daily Talent Action Pack is a group of actions you take each day, at least five days a week, that when completed add up to realizing your hope. It establishes the consistent actions you need to accomplish what’s truly important to you. It also gives you a way of completing your work each day with a sense of progress and pride.
You can employ the Daily Talent Action Pack in two different ways:
By time, number of actions, or results. For example, thirty minutes exercising, send fifteen e-mails to support your plan, close one sale of a new service you’ve developed.
As an exercise of daily points earned. (Play for a number of points per day or total for the week.) For example, thirty minutes exercising (3 points), fifteen e-mails (10 points), close one sale (25 points), with a target of 30 points a day or 100 points per week.
Let’s revisit Fran’s story. Here is an example of what a Daily Talent Action Pack might look like for Fran. Since she likes games and quick rewards, the daily-points-earned format appealed to her.
A Daily Talent Action Pack for Fran
Target: 10 points per day
Spend twenty minutes researching performance feedback online (3 points).
Have one conversation with a coworker about his or her experiences of receiving performance feedback (4 points).
Sit in on a performance feedback session (10 points).
Interview a manager about his or her knowledge about performance feedback (10 points).
Read a chapter in a book about performance feedback (3 points).
No matter which style suits you better, feel free to adapt or change your lists to meet your needs. If you find that you consistently avoid one action item, simply take it off the list and see if you can find a better one to replace it. The Daily Talent Action Pack is a tool to assist you, not wear you down. Tweak it until it feels right, and adjust it as needed. A manager found it helpful to create Daily Talent Action Pack cards and write the points on them. It reminded him of collecting baseball trading cards. He liked how it encouraged him not only to collect points for smaller steps, which were easy and immediately rewarding, but also to complete some tougher items worth more points.
SLICE THROUGH OVERWHELMING WORKLOADS
Many people feel overwhelmed these days, with workloads that exceed the time available. In fact, these individuals never get caught up. As a result, even thinking about what they might do to make a stretch seems like a pipe dream.
In the wake of downsizing and flatter organizations, people work more feverishly. What’s more, mobile phones, pagers, and e-mail have created instant communications, and with them the expectation of instant response. No wonder so many people feel that their lives are flying out of control!
Abe, a talented manager, found himself in exactly this bind. His personal workload was about double what he was completing, and new tasks kept stacking up, which added to his frustration. Not surprisingly, Abe’s hopes and plans for making better use of his talent and gaining greater satisfaction kept drifting out of reach.
The solution came when he learned about how successful surgeons managed their workloads. The first step involved prioritizing his tasks and clarifying which tasks he absolutely needed to do and which he could drop, delegate, or delay. With this approach at the ready, Abe soon became like a doctor in an emergency room and triaged his tasks. He gave primary attention to critical tasks that required immediate attention, stabilized other tasks until he could get to them, and left the remainder to wait.
The second step for Abe was to delegate projects and responsibilities to others. These included people reporting to him as well as outside resources hired on a contract basis. Fortunately, like Sheila, Abe found through Talent Catalyst Conversations with these players that they welcomed the opportunity to learn and grow—when it came from their own initiative.
Even though the first two steps reduced Abe’s workload, the critical tasks that required his attention still exceeded the time available in his day. He typically started each day logging on to e-mail and responding to phone calls. Often, this absorbed his entire morning. It was late in the day before he got to the most important projects. Even then, he continued to take phone calls and respond to coworkers and people reporting to him. His schedule served everyone else’s immediate needs, but it didn’t serve him or his priorities.
The essential third step in getting this manager’s work under control was attention management. Attention management applies the approach that successful surgeons use to manage their work. Surgeons identify their most productive time of day to do surgeries, usually the morning, and block it out. They complete their surgeries and then handle office visits and phone consultations later in the day. As you can imagine, it doesn’t work to have office visits interrupt surgeries or surgeries interrupt office visits!
Here’s how to use attention management to slice through an overwhelming workload in your business.
1. Identify your most productive time of day. When are you best at doing creative work or completing major projects? For most people, this is at the start of the day when they are fresh. Others may not get going until late in the day. Focus on when you are at your best, not when you have time available.
2. Block out times for the most important projects. Figure out how much time you need in a week to complete your high-priority tasks, especially those that will boost your talent. Schedule them in your most productive time slots.
3. Set up a system to handle other demands during this time frame. Transfer your phone to voice mail. Set your e-mail so that each new one doesn’t distract your attention. Put your pager in a drawer. Place a sign on your door to discourage interruptions and to let people know when you will be available.
4. Train others to honor your schedule. Tell your coworkers and assistants what you want to accomplish. Have them screen phone calls and other requests so that only critical demands interrupt your project time. Indicate that you will be available to answer all calls before the day is over or at defined intervals during the business day.
When Abe analyzed his schedule and the people he needed to serve and support, he realized that he didn’t have to be constantly on call. He could be much more in control of his time by making himself available to others at certain times during the day and remaining committed to his own priorities during other time blocks.
5. Sustain the practice for at least three weeks. When you practice a new habit for three weeks or more, you dramatically increase your chances of long-term success. It takes time to shift from an adrenaline-driven pattern of immediate response to one of focused performance.
6. Enjoy the results.
Organizing your time and eliminating distractions can yield dramatic improvements in your results and personal satisfaction. After two weeks on his new schedule, Abe caught up with his workload and had time to spare to make rewarding progress on his Talent Action Plan. Both he and his business benefited.
Igniting your talent can begin with a single conversation; realizing the power of your talent involves engaging in action every day.
Enjoy healthy stretches and deliver on your potential!
TALENT TAKEAWAY
Forward progress and rewarding growth require healthy stretches. A Talent Action Plan, a supportive Talent Fulfillment Team, and a Daily Talent Action Pack support stepwise results. The sharp focus of a surgeon’s schedule slices through even overwhelming workloads. Apply the intense focus of a surgery to pursue your hopes.
TAKE CHARGE
Determine what a healthy stretch is for you. Is it a set of small actions, or do you need a bigger leap to get where you want to be? Take a few minutes to outline your Talent Action Plan and brainstorm about it with other people. Enlist your Talent Fulfillment Team members to review your plan, and engage their support. Decide how you can translate your plan into daily progress. Identify, claim, and use your most productive times in your day or week to create space for your hopes to flourish.