Episode 14 Are you fulfilling your potential at work

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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: 5571

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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.