Think of someone you interact with on a regular basis who could give you feedback on your integrity. Ask them to give you their honest opinion of your current skill set in this area, and one or two specific things you could do to improve.
Generate a list of three leaders you admire. They could be people you work with or who are in the world spotlight (current or historic). Rate each of these leaders on humility, with “1” being “not at all humble” and “5” being “very humble.” A humble leader acknowledges their own weaknesses, is eager to improve themselves, appreciates the strengths of others, and places others’ needs ahead of their own. How do you rate yourself on this same scale?
Find the LinkedIn page of someone you admire who is late in their career. Look at every position they’ve held over their working life—how varied were these jobs? Are there any that surprised you?
List the job titles you’ve held throughout your career. How are these positions similar or different? Can you identify patterns where you built on a skill set over several positions? Or have you used different skills to change career paths altogether?
List your top three strengths. These should be skills that come easily for you—perhaps more easily than for others—and/or that you frequently get feedback from other about how well you perform them. From this list, identify what you consider to be your “superpower.”
Set your phone’s alarm to go off in five minutes. During that time, close your eyes, breathe slowly and steadily, and let your mind clear. If you find your thoughts wandering, don’t berate yourself—just acknowledge the thought and bring your focus back to your breath.
The next time you schedule a meeting, make it shorter than you normally would by 15 minutes. If you’d normally set it for an hour, schedule 45 minutes instead. It’s no big secret that people will spend however much time is allotted on a particular task. Due to the rise of online calendar scheduling systems, the average length of meetings is one hour, but there’s often no real reason for this.
Think about a time when a conflict you had resulted in a better outcome. This may be personal—an argument you had with a friend or spouse—or professional—a time you disagreed with a peer about the way you wanted to accomplish a task, for example.
Think ahead to the next meeting you’ve scheduled—that is, the next one that you personally called people together and set the agenda for. Look at the agenda and challenge yourself to answer a few questions: Is this meeting truly necessary? Could the same goal be accomplished in a shorter amount of time, or over email? What, if anything, will be different as a result of this meeting?
Think about a recent project you successfully completed. Many players contributed to the success of this project, so focus on how you interacted with others to influence its outcome. List the actions you took to influence others in ways that increased the chances of success.
