Episode 14

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Published on:

14th Feb 2025

Episode 14 Are you fulfilling your potential at work

In this episode, Sarah dives into the concept of fulfilling your potential at work. She explores what "potential" really means, why timing matters, and how to overcome the challenges of feeling stuck. With practical strategies and real-life examples, Sarah shares four actionable ways to unlock your potential, build confidence, and achieve sustainable career success.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  1. Defining Potential: How to identify growth opportunities that align with your energy and timing.
  2. Four Ways to Unlock Your Potential:
  • Explore and enhance your strengths.
  • Develop risk resilience and step outside your comfort zone.
  • Create a strategic plan for career development.
  • Increase opportunities through curiosity and connections.

3. Practical Strategies: Real-world advice, from mentorship tips to creating a risk recovery plan.

Show Notes:

[00:00:00] Welcome and Intro to Unstuck and Unstoppable

[00:02:00] Understanding Potential: What it Means and Why Timing Matters

[00:03:00] Feeling Stuck at Work: Identifying the Signs and Challenges

[00:04:00] Sarah’s HR Career Example: Choosing Growth Over Stagnation

[00:05:00] Strategy 1: Exploring and Enhancing Your Strengths

[00:07:00] Learning from the Best: Mentorship and Observational Techniques

[00:08:00] Strategy 2: Building Risk Resilience and Mindset Preparation

[00:09:00] Overcoming Fear: Tools to Reframe Challenges and Take Action

[00:10:00] Strategy 3: Creating a Career Development Plan

[00:11:00] Learning Styles and Realistic Time Management for Growth

[00:12:00] Strategy 4: Increasing Opportunities Through Curiosity and Networking

[00:13:00] Recap: Four Steps to Fulfilling Your Potential

Useful Links

Watch this episode on LinkedIn Live

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your feedback helps us reach more ambitious leaders looking to unlock their potential.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 14.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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And before we dive into today's episode, I

just want to say a quick thank you to the

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people who've so far left me a review on

Apple Podcasts, which is so, so helpful.

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And they are fellow travellers, Meadsey,

Hey Jude:

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you know who you are, I'm sure.

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And if you've left me a rating

over on one of the other podcast

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platforms, thank you for that too.

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It does make a huge difference

to my podcast reaching

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more people, so thank you.

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And now, let's dive into today's

topic where we're talking about

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potential and how you can

fulfill your potential at work.

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I thought we'd start off to

think a little bit about what is

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potential, because it's one of

those words that we probably all

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have our own interpretations of it.

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These are my thoughts and I'd love

to know if you've got different ones,

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that it's how you feel about your

personal and professional growth, and

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what opportunities do you see for you?

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the thing I would also say about

potential is that it's choosing to

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focus on fulfilling your potential

at the time that is right for you.

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We can't in a busy life be focusing

on fulfilling our potential.

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All the time, because it's

not feasible to do that.

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And also, if you think about your energy

for fulfilling your potential, it's

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probably hard to do it all the time.

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You think about seasons, the trees

and plants need autumn and winter in

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order to recharge and get ready for

growth periods in spring and summer.

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And it's the same with your career.

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It's thinking about when do I

want this kind of growth period?

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When do I want to focus on growth and

development and stretch and challenge?

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And when do I just want to embed

things and build my energy and,

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embrace what I'm currently doing

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If you're feeling like you're stuck and you're not fulfilling your potential.

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then that can be really stifling.

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It can feel like you're suffocating, that

you're bored, maybe you're plateauing

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and obviously then you do want to think

about how do I fulfill my potential

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because there's nothing worse than

having that sense of being stuck.

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And certainly my HR career

I made a conscious decision

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to take a sideways move.

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I moved to the Red Cross to

get into the voluntary sector,

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which is where I wanted to be.

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And in that role, the team

was quite hierarchical.

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There was ceilings to what you

could do because I'd moved sideways.

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I was bumping up against that ceiling

and there wasn't really any way I could

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develop my potential there and add value.

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And I felt quite stuck.

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And not hugely motivated.

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And I didn't stay too long.

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It served its purpose, but I couldn't

see myself staying there because

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I couldn't fulfill my potential.

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I thought it'd be really useful to

share around four different ways

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you could think about to get that

sense of fulfilling your potential.

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And like I say, you want to not

necessarily feel like you've got

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to do all of these straight away.

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It's about choosing when the time's

right and planning it strategically.

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The first one is to explore your strengths

because it's an easy place to start

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because strengths are something that

we're naturally good at and that we enjoy.

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And, enhancing them is going to

be much easier than trying to

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focus on something that you feel

that you're not very good at.

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Obviously strengths can be

character strengths or they

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could be technical strengths.

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So skills that you've developed that

you're really good at and that you enjoy.

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So maybe project management or direct

marketing or, something else that's linked

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to your function or your specialism.

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And then I've got a few ideas about

how you could think about enhancing

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your strengths in order to fill.

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You could find new ways

to use your strengths.

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We get stuck in a rut.

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We do the same things over and over again.

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Our brains like habits.

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So pushing yourself to think about

how could I use this strength

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differently or with a different group

of people can be really powerful.

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Or you could look at ways to teach

or train, guide, mentor, coach

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people in your team or your function.

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in an area that you are strong in.

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They're probably going to be really

grateful that you're spending

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time helping them to develop that

particular strength, and it's going

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to force you to think about, okay,

how do I really use this strength?

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How can I communicate ways you

could use this effectively?

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You might want to run a session

on strategic development or

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coaching or something that you

know you're very strong in.

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And, you could do it in a wider

context in your organization.

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You could offer to run a webinar

or maybe a lunch and learn.

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And again, that will push you to think

about how you use your strength and how

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you can communicate that effectively.

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Another way to think about strengths is

thinking about learning from the best.

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Who do you know in your industry

or in your organization, who

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you feel has real mastery of the

strength or the skill that you have?

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And thinking about how

you could learn from them.

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Maybe that's observing them in a meeting.

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Maybe it's it's about interviewing

them and asking them how they've

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developed that strength over time.

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Maybe it's even asking them if

they would mentor you around

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that particular strength.

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I was working with a client and

we were focusing on gravitas, she

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really felt she wanted to have

more gravitas, to have more impact.

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And when we were talking about it,

she could identify somebody that

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she knew who she felt just had real

gravitas that they walked into a

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room and they just owned that room.

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And so she started to have

this observational technique

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whenever she was with them.

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And then she did eventually start to talk

to them about how to develop that strength

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and found a great way of reflecting on

her own and what she could take from that

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and build authentically into her own.

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So that's one area you could think

about in terms of exploring your

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potential is focusing on your strengths.

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The second one is to think about

developing your risk resilience.

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When you're going to be thinking

about fulfilling your potential,

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you're probably going to be embracing

activities that are going to make

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you step out of your comfort zone.

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And we all know that we

find it challenging to step

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out of our comfort zone.

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So by developing your mindset now,

it's going to set you up for success

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in terms of developing your potential.

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Preparing that mindset will make

it easier then to take on ways

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that are going to stretch you.

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You could start by reframing things.

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If there's a challenge, you can

reframe it as a learning opportunity.

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If you get some negative or critical

feedback or constructive feedback,

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thinking about it as a chance to

learn, not taking it personally.

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And you could focus on enjoying

the process rather than focusing

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on getting to the end result.

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Being more mindful, more present when

you are Developing your potential or

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an area of your potential and just

recognizing the risk of the opportunity

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and focusing on the benefit from the

activity or the experience can help

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you get more ready to take that risk.

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For example, if you are going to

ask someone to mentor you around

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a particular strength, recognizing

that there's a chance they could say

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no, that there's a rejection there

because they might just be too busy.

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Or have something else on, but focusing

on the benefit that it will give

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you will help you be brave enough

to go and ask for that opportunity.

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And if fear does kick in, and it's

likely to, just asking yourself a

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great coaching question, which is,

what's the worst that could happen?

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And that often takes away that fear

because you recognize actually, in the

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grand scheme of things, it doesn't really

matter if they say no, or I can't do

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it, or I fail or whatever it might be.

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And then have a risk recovery plan.

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So recognizing, okay, if something goes

wrong, I know I've got a backup plan.

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There's another way I can get

that experience or that activity.

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And asking yourself, will I

remember this in a year's time?

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The likelihood is no, just helps you

get that perspective on what's actually

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happening, even though in the moment,

it might feel big and important.

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Okay, so we've thought about

exploring your strengths.

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We've thought about developing

your risk resilience.

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And then the third thing

is to create your own plan.

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You don't want to wait for opportunities

because they might not come along, or they

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might come along when you're not ready.

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So actually having a career development

strategy is going to be useful at.

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Helping you to be focused about your

fulfillment of your potential and within

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that being really clear about your goals.

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What do you want to

fulfill your potential in?

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Is it your sector?

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Do you want to be seen more

as an expert in your field?

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Or is it in your job?

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Perhaps you want to be a better leader.

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You want to refine your

leadership skills and abilities.

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Or is it a particular strength

that you really want to focus on?

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So is it, I want to enhance my emotional

intelligence and I want to focus on that.

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Because by being focused, you're

not going to spread yourself too

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thinly or feel overwhelmed with it.

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You're clear about what

you're heading towards and why.

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Then thinking about how you learn best.

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Are you a visual learner?

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Are you an audio learner?

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Do you like to have the theory?

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Do you like to be in a group?

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Do you like to learn on your own?

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Do you like it live?

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Do you like, time to reflect?

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What's your best approach to learning?

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And building that into your plan.

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And finally, and probably most

importantly, is to think about how you

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are, within your plan, how you are going

to create time to focus on your potential.

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Because you will need to prioritize

ring fence some specific time.

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So thinking practically and

realistically, how can I build this in?

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And when's the best time for me?

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If you know your job role is

super, super busy at year end.

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You're not going to be prioritizing

any professional development or

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personal development during that time.

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If you know you have a a quieter

period in the summer, that might

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be the time you want to prioritize

your potential development.

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Because you're going to achieve

it more if you're being realistic

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about when you can focus on it.

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Okay, so we thought about exploring

your strengths, developing your

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risk resilience, creating a plan.

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And the final thing is just

focusing on how you can increase

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opportunities that are going to

allow you to fulfill your potential.

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Two things here to think about.

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One is to be open and tell people

that you trust about what you're

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trying to achieve so that they

can also help and support you.

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They can look out for opportunities,

they can signpost you, they can

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connect you, they can help you

get to where you want to be.

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And the second thing is just to be curious

, curiosity is a brilliant strength to

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be engaging when you're thinking about

developing your potential, talking to

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people looking at different projects

that are happening, thinking about

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possibilities, asking questions, building

connections, offering support to other

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people, and just seeing what's emerged.

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You're going to have your plan

with certain activities highlighted,

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but being curious and open to

what might appear is also a great

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way to explore your potential.

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I know there's a lot in

there to think about.

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I'm just going to quickly recap.

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We've got exploring your

strengths, thinking about ways

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you can do that differently.

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You can teach or share your expertise.

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You can learn from the best.

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Then we've got developing

your risk resilience.

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Thinking about preparing your

mindset to be open to stepping

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out of your comfort zone.

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Then we've got creating a plan.

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So you're clear about.

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What area of your potential you want to

fulfill, whether it's in your sector,

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in your job, or a particular strength

or skill that you want to develop.

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And we've got increasing opportunities

and being really curious and being open to

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telling people what you want to achieve.

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I would love to know how you get on

what you decide is going to be, on

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your list of things that you want

to try out to fill your potential.

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This episode is also available to

watch on LinkedIn Live and I'll put

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a link for you in the show notes.

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And while you're over there on

LinkedIn, do send me a connection

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request if we're not already connected.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.

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About the Podcast

Unstuck & Unstoppable
Career Talk For Ambitious Women
Unstuck & Unstoppable is the go-to podcast for ambitious female leaders ready to amplify their impact, boost their income, and achieve career success on their own terms—without burning out or compromising their values. Hosted by Sarah Archer, a leadership coach and career strategist dedicated to empowering women in leadership, this show provides the tools, strategies, and inspiration you need to thrive in your career.
Whether you’re looking to overcome imposter syndrome, enhance your leadership skills, or create a sustainable path to success, each episode will offer actionable insights, expert interviews, and real-life stories to help you take your career to the next level.
It’s time to stop playing small, unlock your full potential, and create the impact you’re destined for. Tune in weekly to discover how you can lead boldly, live fully, and succeed with confidence and integrity.

About your host

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Sarah Archer