From Insight to Impact
Turning Leadership Assessments into Actionable Goals
You have bravely assessed your strengths and identified areas for growth. You have looked in the mirror and built a new level of self-awareness. But what comes next?
How do you bridge the gap between that self-awareness and actual, measurable progress?
I believe the true power of self-coaching lies in transforming those insights into tangible, actionable goals. As a senior leader, I have learned that the real work lies in setting clear, actionable goals that guide your progress. This next phase is all about charting a clear path forward.
The Power of Purposeful Goal Setting
The transition from understanding your current state to actively shaping your future is where leadership development truly happens. This is about translating your insights into a dynamic plan.
Holistic Growth: This process ensures your leadership aspirations are integrated into a sustainable, well-rounded life, which helps prevent burnout and maintains long-term motivation.
An Actionable Roadmap: It translates abstract insights from your self-assessment into specific, measurable steps that guide your progress.
Continuous Improvement: It establishes a framework for regular review and adjustment, creating an iterative loop of self-reflection, feedback, action, and review.
Key Concepts for Turning Awareness into Action
In Part One, we focused on the what (your strengths). Now, in Part Two, we focus on the how: making this transition from awareness to action. Here are the key concepts we explore.
1. Start with a Balanced Life Approach
One of the first principles I advocate for is a balanced life approach. While our focus here is on leadership, it is vital to consider all aspects of your life: your career, personal learning, family, health, social, and even financial goals. This holistic perspective ensures your professional growth does not come at the expense of your overall well-being.
2. Define Your Top Leadership Goals
Once you have those broader headlines, you can zoom in. Based on your self-assessment from Part One, identify your top three leadership development priorities. These should emerge directly from your assessment and be the areas where focused effort will yield the most significant results.
For example, if “Communication” was an area for focus, a goal might be to “improve clarity and impact in team communications over the next quarter”.
3. Embrace ‘Critical Friends’
This is a game-changer. You must identify individuals who can provide honest, unbiased feedback on your starting point and your progress. These are your “critical friends.”
Who are they? The guide suggests one internal colleague and one external stakeholder.
Internal Colleague: This could be a peer you respect, a senior colleague (but not your line manager, to avoid conflicts), or a trusted, experienced member of your team.
External Stakeholder: Think about a customer, a counterpart in a strategic partnership, or even a representative from an evaluation body. Ideally, it is someone whose outcomes are directly affected by your performance as a leader.
The key is to not ask people who will be “too nice”. You need those who understand that honest feedback is an invaluable gift. Being bold and vulnerable in seeking this feedback is a sign of strength, not weakness.
4. Make Your Goals SMART
To make these goals actionable, I strongly advocate for the SMART framework. This will be well-known to many, but here is what it means to me:
Specific: Be crystal clear on the attribute or behaviour you want to improve. Instead of “be a better communicator,” try “ensure all team meeting action points are clearly understood and reiterated by team members before concluding meetings”.
Measurable: How will you and others know if you are making progress? This is where your critical friends come in. You might ask them to score you regularly.
Ambitious: For me, the ‘A’ means ambitious. The goal needs to be new and stretch you; do not just record a path you are already on. True growth requires stepping out of your comfort zone.
Realistic: Do you have the support and resources to succeed? Focus on the next small step up; do not try to do everything all at once.
Time-bound: When will you achieve this? Set exact dates for reviews and stick to them.
5. Commit to Regular Review
This goal-setting process is not a one-off event. It is an ongoing template for reviews. At each review, you score yourself, and crucially, you ask your critical friends to score you and provide feedback. This continuous loop of self-reflection, feedback, action, and review is the essence of effective self-coaching.
Your Leadership Evolution
This entire self-coaching manual, from self-assessment to goal-setting, is a commitment you are making to your leadership journey. The real work begins now. I encourage you to commit to this process, revisit your goals regularly, and be brave enough to adjust as you learn and grow.
As I explore in the podcast and the accompanying self-coaching guide, this framework empowers you to take decisive action, continuously improve, and ultimately become the best leader you can be.
What is one specific, measurable leadership goal you are now considering for the next three months? And who would be your most impactful critical friend?
Let’s inspire others. Share your thoughts in the comments on LinkedIn.
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