Lead Yourself Forward

What's next on your career path? Are you dissatisfied with your work but are unclear on how to move on? You're not alone. There's no doubt that COVID-19 has changed many things about living and working. According to Bankrate's August 2021 Job Seeker Survey, over 55% of what economists describe as the immediate workforce plan to re-evaluate their current work and find a better fit over 12 months. But, even if you plan to stay put, how are you reaching out to your direct reports or mentees to give them the support they need in their decision. When considering your next steps, it is sometimes helpful to consider using assessments to grow personal leadership skills and skills for potential leaders, either in your workplace or as a mentor.

The truth is that we can all continue to improve and develop. The better our leaders become, the better their team, which significantly impacts the overall business. When we partner with clients, leaders often say, "I've worked on so much over the years, I'm not sure what to work on now." Our response is always simple– "You need to take an assessment." It's more challenging to decide the next steps of your development without data to drive it. An assessment will give you that data for drafting a plan. 

Leaders have often taken assessments over the years and are apprehensive about returning to that route. They feel they've already gained all the information they can from that process, but assessments remain a valuable tool. Assessments give us information about a person at a particular time. Yes, you may have taken an assessment as part of employee development protocol several years ago– but you've likely changed a lot since then. You've most likely developed your skills, and perhaps you're not even in the same position, or you have a completely different work environment. There is value in going back to complete an assessment for all these reasons.

There are many different assessments on the market that you can consider for informing your developmental path. Each serves different purposes, and some are better than others when considering specific needs. We recommend three assessments to our clients beginning this process: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0, and the Global Leadership Assessment 360. These assessments provide an array of information, as outlined here:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is perhaps the world's most well-known personality assessment. The participant completes the tool online or in person, placing you into one of 16 different personality types. The evaluation results provide:

•          Insights into how you interact with others

•          Increased self-awareness of each personality type's strengths and challenges

•          Ideas for adapting your behavior in response to other personalities in the room

Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 (EQ-i 2.0) is the world's leading assessment tool for evaluating emotional and social intelligence. The assessment contains 133 items that converge to provide insight into 15 competencies and five composite areas. In addition, the EQ-i 2.0 provides you with a picture of how you operate emotionally– something that research now demonstrates is a more significant predictor of success than traditional intelligence. The client and their manager, peers, and customers complete the assessment. The assessment result provides clients with holistic insight into their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is a set of emotional and social skills that influence how we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information effectively and meaningfully.

Global Leadership Assessment 360 is a leadership assessment rooted in groundbreaking research conducted by Marshall Goldsmith (#1 Leadership Thinker and Executive Coach.) The study involved CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, global thought leaders, and international business executives of organizations on six continents. The GLA360 articulates and measures the top 15 most pressing competencies for today's global leader. In addition, it shows leaders the areas they need to develop to succeed in a competitive business environment. 

Don't stop at just completing the assessments. Once you have this data, it's time to put the information to work for you. You can incorporate these findings in a detailed personal or professional development plan. Partnering with a coach through this process can prove helpful. A coach can assist you with interpreting your assessment results, locating areas of opportunity, and guiding goal setting related to your development. Coaches also act as accountability partners and personal cheerleaders for clarifying your purpose and problem-solving in a confidential environment. Working with a coach, especially during a challenging time, can be the catalyst for change that you may need for lasting positive results.

Please find more information about Bauman Consulting Group and the coaching services and assessment tools we provide on our website, www.baumanconsultinggroup.com/coaching. In addition, all readers are eligible for a free 45-minute consultation.

The Importance of Continuous Learning

Lifelong learning is the concept of pursuing reasoning and skills beyond an individual's formal education. It is a continuous pursuit of knowledge and is often voluntary, self-motivated, and based on an individual's desire to learn more. Examples could be learning to play an instrument, taking part in a continuing education course, or attending a conference. There are many reasons to seek learning throughout our lives, but here we will consider three: staying connected, growing your passion, and the availability of online education.

Continuous Learning Helps You Stay Connected

From participating in continued education at local colleges to attending community art classes, many forms of adult education allow you to meet new people and connect with today's ideas. Look for continued interests if you want to set up new relationships and avoid losing touch with the changing world. Learning opportunities help us open our minds and give us more wisdom to engage in the world, possibly through social change and other life-affirming endeavors.

Continuous Learning Can Help You Grow Your Passion

When you look to master new skills and gain knowledge, it can help you discover interests and set new personal and professional goals. In addition, flexibility and comprehensive development ensure individual and business success. Continued education can help form part of your personal and professional development to avoid stagnation and reach your full potential. Acquiring new skills will unveil new opportunities and help you find innovative solutions to problems.

It is Easier Than Ever to Engage in Continuous Learning

The rise of online education through the pandemic and increased efforts for social distancing has made lifelong learning a real possibility for everyone, no matter where or how you live. That is because online learning lets you learn from home and is often provided at a discounted rate. Plus, you can take online classes at whatever time of day works best for you, keeping you in control of your schedule.

By its definition, lifelong learning includes both personal and professional growth. Thus, the goal of self-education is to get new skills and implement existing knowledge. If you want to find further education but are unsure of where to start, you may wish to seek the aid of a life coach and partner. The consultants at Bauman Consulting Group help individuals find their purpose, grow their passion, and achieve their goals. Please email us at info@baumanconsultinggroup.com for a free 30-minute session to discuss how coaching could help you.

Time to Check-In With Intentions

We are more than halfway through the 2021 year — how are you doing with your intentions or what goals you set out for this year? So far, the year has included many hardships and highlights, but we have also experienced growth from these shared experiences. 

At the same time, these things affected our lives, plans, and schedules and put us through a range of indescribable emotions. They have put new challenges and roadblocks on our unique journeys; some of us may have learned to navigate these while others may feel overcome entirely. Maybe you feel a constant mix of both. 

It is okay if you are not aligning your intentions, goals, and practices for this year. We are human, but with four months left of 2021 (and with the start of school for many), it is a beautiful time to realign. 

Here are few questions to reflect on:   

• What do you want to accomplish in the next four months, or how do you want to feel or act daily? 

• What actions are you currently practicing that are not aligning with this? 

• What actions can you add that will help you find success? 

• What support do you need to make this happen? 

Consider accepting help or finding a support system to strengthen your resilience and ability to manage the stress caused by the unpredictable, including the unique conditions of 2021. If you feel overwhelmed or unable to meet your goals independently, consider seeking professional help. Depending on your needs, therapists and personal coaches are trained to help you.  

Bauman Consulting Groups provides personal coaching to individuals and can create an individualized plan to help you achieve your goals. In addition, we offer complete online services tailored to your needs, and one of our certified coaches would appreciate an opportunity to discuss your needs one-on-one. Contact us at info@baumanconsultinggroup.com or find more information on our website at www.baumanconsultinggroup.com/coaching.  

Remember, it is not about being perfect; it is about being consistent! This check-in is just an opportunity to reflect on the first six months of the year and to continue setting intentions for positive change. 

Start Your Year Off Right - Plan the Strategies (Part 6)

In our last post we discussed how to develop SMART goals - goals which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. Now we have to break those goals down into actionable steps. We call these strategies. 

A strategy is just like a goal in that the strategy must meet the SMART criteria, but there are a couple of clear differences. First, a goal is a big picture idea. Something that may take a lot of work to accomplish. A strategy on the other hand is a small step towards accomplishing that goal.  These are the baby steps that we take. The things that we do each day or each week to chip away at that big goal. These are the items on our "To Do" list. Second, a goal is something that you want to accomplish. It's the what. But a strategy tells you what's involved in accomplishing that goal. It's the how. 

Let's return to the example we used in the post about goals: "I will pay off my credit card debt so that the total of my credit card balance at the end of year does not equal more than $7,500." That's a pretty commendable goal. As you can see, paying down the credit card is a big goal - something that we'd like to accomplish over the course of the year. It tells us what we want to do. But it doesn't tell us anything about how that credit card debt will be paid off. Time for the strategies to come into play.

I like to begin strategy development by simply brainstorming. You can do this in a variety of ways such as:

• Make a list

• Write ideas on post-it notes and cover your wall

• Write ideas on index cards and put them in a large stack

• Draw a mind map

• Locate ways others have accomplished this goal

• Solicit ideas from friends, family, or advisors

Don't limit yourself as you brainstorm. Any idea you have or come across - write it down. Even if you think it's a bad idea. Why would you write down a bad idea? Because it may be the idea that inspires the right idea. Keep generating strategies until you can't come up with anymore options.

Now it's time to prioritize the strategies. Sort through them all. You may want to rank order them, sort them into categories, or evaluate their practicality. Create a discard pile. These are the strategies that you've decided aren't right for you. Before discarding a strategy, first evaluate to decide if you could alter the strategy to make it a better fit. If not, send it packing.

Once you've narrowed down the strategies, it's time to ask yourself the key question. If I implement these strategies, will I accomplish my goal? If the answer is yes, it's time to add these strategies to your plan. Repeat this process for each goal that you've set for yourself. 

Before you hit "print" on your document, take a moment to review the entire plan carefully. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does my plan help me to fulfill my mission statement?

2. Are my values reflected in this plan?

3. Did I utilize the assessment results (if I have them) in my plan?

4. Are my priorities reflected here?

5. Will my goals help me accomplish my priorities and my mission?

6. Do the strategies I identified lead me to accomplish my goals?

7. How do I feel when I read this plan? Am I energized? Excited? Overwhelmed? Sad?

Always keep in mind that this plan is a living document. You can make modifications! Maybe you get laid off, find out you are having a baby, or you get a promotion! Life isn't a streamlined document. It twists and turns and has ups and downs. You can adapt the plan to fit you and your life along the way.

Periodically you'll want to evaluate your progress. I like to sit down with my plan quarterly and take stock through a focusing session with myself. That's the time where I determine if I've made as much progress as I'd like to, if I need to change any strategies, or if I need to speed up or slow down the pace. I find that it helps me to refocus and recommit to my goals over the next three months. It also helps keep me engaged so I don't pick up my plan in September and try to knock out the whole thing in a couple of months! It can be very helpful to have a coach help you through those sessions. A coach can be your accountability partner - someone to keep you on track and follow up on all the things you wanted to accomplish. A coach can problem solve with you, encourage you, and motivate you to stay on track. 

Congratulations! Your plan is complete. Now it's time to get out there and put it in action. Best of luck as you have the most productive "resolution" ever. 

This post is the sixth and last in a series of posts about personal strategic plans.

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Ashley Bauman, M.S., M.B.A., B.C.C. is the president of Bauman Consulting Group in Loveland, Ohio. She provides training, consulting, and coaching to criminal justice and social service professionals.

Start Your Year Off Right - Setting Goals (Part 5)

You've done so much work setting the foundation for your personal strategic plan! While it may seem like you've done quite a bit of work, it's all about to pay off. Now is the time to get to the heart of the work.

Take a look at the priorities that you've set. In each area that you've prioritized, you want to create at least one goal for the year. What is it that you want to be able to accomplish in this area? 

You've probably heard of the concept of SMART goals at some point in your life. It's used in so many different fields that it's hard not to have heard this acronym used somewhere. But if you haven't heard of it, don't worry - I'll give you a quick primer!

As you can see in the graphic above, SMART goals refer to those which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. As you look through the priorities that you've identified, you'll want to create a goal (or goals) that is specific - you'll know what you meant when you look at this goal in 6 months. It's so clear that there is no question what you are supposed to do. And it will be very apparent whether you've accomplished this goal or not because the terms are so well defined. Perhaps one of your focus areas is around improving your personal finances. That's pretty vague. So as you think about setting a goal, you'll want to get specific. Perhaps your goal could be, "I will get out of debt." What kind of debt are you talking about? All debt? Student loan debt? Paying off your mortgage? After thinking it through, you've decided that you really just want to have your credit card debt paid off, so you revise your goal to say, "I will pay off all my credit card debt."

You'll also want the goal to be measurable. In other words, how will you know that you've accomplished your goal? Returning to our example of credit card debt, you may decide to change the goal to say, "I will pay off my credit card debt so that all of my credit cards have a zero balance." That gives you a very clear finishing point. When your credit card statements all read "0" you've accomplished your goal.

Goals must also be attainable. You don't want to set yourself up for failure. Is it feasible for you to pay off all your credit card debt this year? After evaluating this a bit, you might decide that it's something that will take more than a year to accomplish. Perhaps you'll decide to make your goal something less ambitious - but still something to strive for: I will pay off my credit card debt so that the total of my credit card balances does not equal more than $7,500. 

Surprisingly one of the common things that we see with strategic planning are goals that aren't relevant. How could this be possible, you ask? Often it's the result of not connecting goals to overall priorities - not doing the early work that we did first. Sometimes people will list a goal that is easy to accomplish. Or they will list a goal that sounds good, rather than what they really should be prioritizing. If financial status is a problem for you, then paying off credit card debt may be a perfect way to help with that problem. It's an incredibly relevant goal! However, if you're goal to address your financial status was about reducing stress at the office, that may not be the most relevant goal. Accomplishing that goal won't help your financial status.

The final piece of the puzzle is to make sure that your goals are time-based. Simply put, you need a deadline. Otherwise, you could be working on that goal for a long-time to come. By using an annual personal strategic plan, you've already essentially committed to accomplishing this goal in a year. But you may want this goal to be something you'll accomplish in 6 months. Or maybe this goal will take a year, but your next goal (to address something like the amount of time you spend with friends and family) is something you could accomplish much sooner. The key is to have a time stamp on it. This way you won't put things off too long and you'll have some motivation to work towards that goal. To bring our example full circle, let's see where our goal ended up: "I will pay off my credit card debt so that the total of my credit card balance at the end of year does not equal more than $7,500."

That's a solid goal. It meets all of the SMART criteria and sets you on a path towards success. Keep in mind that you may have multiple goals toward improving your financial status. Or you may decide that is sufficient for this year, and you'd rather focus on other areas more intensively. 

Return now to the priorities that you've established. Determine what you want to do to focus on each of these areas. Write out a goal or two for each area, keeping in mind the SMART criteria. Once you've written out the goals, take a look at them as a whole. Can you accomplish ALL of these goals? Or should you pare the list down a bit? Write out a list of goals that you feel comfortable with. You may wish to challenge yourself a bit, but don't overwhelm yourself with so many goals that you can't possibly keep up. 

Next time we'll explore how you can put those goals into action!

This post is the fifth in a series of posts about personal strategic plans.

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Ashley Bauman, M.S., M.B.A., B.C.C. is the president of Bauman Consulting Group in Loveland, Ohio. She provides training, consulting, and coaching to criminal justice and social service professionals.

Start Your Year Off Right - Setting Priorities (Part 4)

Now is the time in the personal strategic planning process to take all the individual pieces and begin to put them together. Schedule some time to review your mission statement, your values, and your assessment results. Evaluate those items. What are your strengths? Where can you grow and improve? What would you like to change? What would you like to accomplish? What areas of your life need the most attention (i.e., finances, friends/family, intimate relationships, career, health, social/fun, personal development, home/work environment)? Be sure not to limit yourself as you answer these questions. Write your thoughts down in your notebook. Spend as much time as you need to flesh out each of these areas. We'll pare these ideas down soon enough, but you want to start by tapping into your ambition and creativity. There's no bad idea here.

Take your time and don't rush yourself. You may want to pick this task up multiple times over the course of a week. Try looking at it in the morning. Again in another afternoon. Try again in the evening and before you go to sleep. Give yourself as many opportunities to change your perspective and mood as possible. Give yourself the freedom to dream and stretch outside of your comfort zone. Work on it until you have exhausted yourself. 

Now, go back through your notebook. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Which ideas are in line with my mission statement? (Highlight those ideas in your notebook!)

• Which of these are in conflict with the key values I identified? (Cross these ideas out!)

• Which of these utilize strengths that I have? (Underline these ideas!)

• Which ideas do you feel excited about pursuing? (Star those ideas!)

You may find that there are certain ideas that generate energy in you. For instance, you might be interested in obtaining additional schooling or training. Just thinking about learning something new may ignite something in you. You find yourself imagining the fun you'll have expanding your knowledge base. You might be catching yourself browsing programs online or exploring ways you'll be able to incorporate this new skill in your work. This is your energy building. It's an energizer.

Other ideas may have the opposite effect. For instance, you may recognize that you've outgrown your existing office space. You need to move, but the idea of moving just overwhelms you. The thought of finding another place, packing everything up, changing your address with all of your clients, etc. makes you want to run away - or at least push it to the back of the list. This idea is an energy drainer.

Evaluate your ideas in terms of how they impact your energy. This doesn't mean that you can't add an item to your plan that is an energy drainer - it just means that you'll have to figure out how to make that a task you will actually accomplish. For some clients, that means they will put that item at the top of their priority list. For others, it means they will need to build a good reward in it for them or find a way to reframe the idea so it is more appealing.

Now that you've studied your ideas through all of these different lenses, it's time to pick your priorities. What do you want to accomplish this year? Make a list. Ensure that whatever you put on your list is able to be accomplished within this year. If it's on your list, it should fit with your values and your mission statement. Pick things that are important to you. Things you are motivated to accomplish. Things that will give you joy. When you've finished this list, review your list as a whole. Could you accomplish all of this in a year? If not, pare it down a bit. You may need to only tackle parts of a task. Or you may want to wait and put something on your list for the following year. Try to be as specific and detailed as you can be in your list. Make it very clear what you want to accomplish. We'll be using this list to write your strategic plan. 

You're only two steps away! And the great news is that the hard work is already done. Now you just have to organize the information and get to work on it. Reward yourself for being more than halfway through the personal strategic planning process. The investment you are putting into yourself is priceless.

This post is the fourth in a series of posts about personal strategic plans.

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Ashley Bauman, M.S., M.B.A., B.C.C. is the president of Bauman Consulting Group in Loveland, Ohio. She provides training, consulting, and coaching to criminal justice and social service professionals.

Start Your Year Off Right - Knowing Yourself (Part 3)

Whether your personal strategic plan is focused on helping you grow personally, professionally, or both, it's important to take a good look at yourself before proceeding further. Taking some time to be introspective can help you to determine the what, why, and how of the changes you want to make. 

For instance, one woman I know felt like she was always struggling to balance work and home. Work seemed to always dominate her life. She was convinced there was nothing she could do about this situation. She just had to work and meet her deadlines. When she took some time to examine herself she realized that her assumptions weren't true. Rather, she found that she was driven by accomplishment and recognition. At work, it was easy for her to feel successful. She could complete projects, sign contracts, and acquire new clients. She received bonuses, promotions, and praise frequently. At home, these sort of accolades were harder to come by, and she found that this part of her personality was being swept aside. She rarely felt as if she accomplished anything at home and often didn't feel appreciated or valued. It's no wonder she found herself "stuck" at the office so often. If she wasn't working so hard at the office, no one would appreciate her!

Imagine if we'd just tried to work on strategies to help her balance work and home without that critical insight. Knowing this information gave us the much needed information to develop meaningful strategies that would really work for her. Balancing her time wasn't really the problem at all. Learning how to recreate her home environment made all the difference. We focused not on ways to spend more time at home, but on how to gain a sense of accomplishment and reward in her home life.

But how do you gain that insight? There are many ways to take a look at the inner workings of yourself, but my favorite method is through the use of assessments. There are two that I rely on the most that translate powerfully into personal strategic plans: the Myers Briggs Typology Indicator (MBTI) and the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 (EQ-i 2.0). 

The MBTI is a personality inventory based upon the work of Carl Jung. The tool examines the ways that you utilize perception and judgement to assign you to one of 16 personality types. It's important to know that no type is better than the other - they are all equal. Knowing your personality type helps bring to light your innate preferences and allows you to learn about yourself. Once you understand yourself through this lens, you can grow and develop in ways that help you accomplish your larger goals. 

The second tool, the EQ-i 2.0, measures your emotional intelligence. Essentially, emotional intelligence is a person's ability to recognize and manage her own emotions and the emotions of others through successful interactions. In other words, how well do you understand, empathize, and connect with the people around you? The EQ-i 2.0 evaluates your abilities on five composite scales and fifteen subscales to give you an in-depth look at yourself across a variety of situations. While you may have little control over your level of traditional intelligence, you can work to develop your emotional intelligence. And research has demonstrated that emotional intelligence is a better indicator of success in the workplace than traditional intelligence. All the more reason to work on it!

So which test should you take? It depends. With clients who haven't done a lot of introspection, I like to begin with the MBTI. With the MBTI results the client can focus on how to stretch and balance their personality. EQ is a bit more complex, so I use that with clients who have already spent a good deal of time working on self improvement. For the clients that really want to make growth and change in their lives, I use both. While that may seem like a lot to some individuals, I like as much information to go on as possible. You may try the MBTI now, and the EQ-i 2.0 a little later in the coaching process. Clients rarely find that they didn't gain anything from the assessment process. 

You can take these assessments online, but working with a coach to interpret and apply these results gives you a whole other level of value from those tools. A coach can help you to apply this information to your personal strategic plan to help you live your life with purpose. With introspective work, it's helpful to have someone "outside" to process the results with.

BCG offers these assessments in the context of coaching or just for your own informational purposes. Visit our marketplace to set up your personal assessment today: http://baumanconsultinggroup.com/marketplace.

This post is the third in a series of posts about personal strategic plans.

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Ashley Bauman, M.S., M.B.A., B.C.C. is the president of Bauman Consulting Group in Loveland, Ohio. She provides training, consulting, and coaching to criminal justice and social service professionals.

Start Your Year Off Right - Living Your Values (Part 2)

Once you've developed your personal mission statement, it's time to move on to identifying your core values.

First, let's talk about why identifying your core values is so important. Many of us have a general sense of what we value in life - what we think is most important to us. But how many of us have made decisions that are in conflict with their values?

One of my clients was a busy professional with a husband and two children. She was adamant that she valued family more than anything, but when she began looking at the decisions she was making in the context of her values, she found she that she didn't seem to really "walk the walk." She was working 60+ hours a week, never took vacation time, missed most of her children's activities, and rarely spoke to her husband for more than a few moments each day. It seemed to me that her primary value was actually work. Now does that mean she didn't love her family? Not at all! It meant that she was pushing her values aside and wasn't being intentional about how she was living her life. She wasn't living a life in accordance with her personal mission and values. You may be in that trap too. So let's get looking at your values.

There are a lot of great ways to identify your values. Coaches have a number of ways they can do this with clients - and they can really help you to flesh out those values. One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply create a list. It can be difficult to list your values off the top of your head, so I like to begin with a list of common values and select ones that resonate with you. You can add to this list, search the internet for other common value lists, and brainstorm with others to complete your list. Take out your trusty notebook. Begin with the list below and write down any value that speaks to you. Remember to only write down values that truly are important to you, not values that you think should be important to you. It's important to be honest with yourself. (Click on the list to enlarge it!)

Adapted from W.R. Miller, J. C'de Baca, D.B. Matthews, and P.I. Wilbourne (2001) Personal Values Card Sort.

Are there other values that are important to you that are missing? Search the web. Talk to a trusted friend or family member. Examine your life. If there are missing values, add them to your list! Once you are finished, begin paring the list down until you've identified your top 10 values. You may even try to rank order those values. How do you feel about that list? How does it feel to see those values in writing? Does it reflect who you are? Adjust the list until you're really satisfied with it.

Now return to your personal mission statement. Does your personal mission statement fit with the values you identified? Is it in conflict with those values? Do you need to revise the mission statement or the values in order to have them align with each other? Spend some time reflecting on those questions and make sure that the two work together in a clear way. You may continue to revise and refine these as we work through the personal strategic planning process. That's ok! Completing your plan is a process, and the end product is going to be so helpful to you. You'll never go back to resolutions again!

This post is the second in a series of posts about personal strategic plans.

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Ashley Bauman, M.S., M.B.A., B.C.C. is the president of Bauman Consulting Group in Loveland, Ohio. She provides training, consulting, and coaching to criminal justice and social service professionals.

Start Your Year Off Right - Don't Make Resolutions! (Part 1)

As 2019 comes to a close, many of us will engage in the time honored tradition of making New Year's resolutions. We'll promise that this is the year to stop smoking, lose weight, exercise more, spend more time with family and friends, find a new job, get a promotion, tackle a new hobby, or finally engage in all those home improvement projects. Sadly, only 8% of us (according to Statistics Brain) will be successful in those resolutions.

Don't be a statistic. Don't make resolutions.

Wait. Did I just tell you to give up? Did I just say that you should live an unfulfilled life? No! I said don't make resolutions. This year, make a plan that will work - a personal strategic plan.

Most people want to change something in their lives, but they don't often think through how to go about making those changes. Making a life change as big as a career move or a lifestyle adjustment requires a thoughtful approach. It's a time consuming endeavor, but you'll get lasting results. And there is no better investment than investing in yourself and your happiness.

The first thing you have to do is identify what is most important to you - not the changes that you want to make, but what you hold most dear. This is your life's purpose, your hopes and dreams. It's about what you value most. You can't make a plan to go forward until you know where you want to be. 

Just as a company has a mission statement to guide its short- and long-term plans, creating a personal mission statement can help you to provide direction in your life. So grab a notebook, take out a pencil, and write down your answers to the following questions:

• Where do you want to see yourself in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?

• What does that look like personally? Professionally? Spiritually?

• What do you want to accomplish? How do you want to make a difference?

• What do you need to be happy - truly happy?

Spend some time wrestling with these questions. Really mull them over. Sleep on it, and then mull them over some more. When you feel happy with your answers, try to take your answers and put them into a single statement. One sentence that sums it all up clearly and concisely. You want it to be simple enough that it can be flexible to grow with you and that it can be applied to all areas of your life.

You may find the template below useful to get you started.

"My purpose is to utilize ________ to accomplish/contribute to ________ in order to achieve _________."

You may also wish to see how some women leaders have crafted their own personal mission statements.

• Denise Morrison, CEO of the Campbell Soup Company - "To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference."

• Katie Arnold, CEO of Talk Less, Say More - "To constantly be striving to be the best version of myself - in my job, with my health and fitness, with my relationships with family and friends, and with my emotional well-being."

• Amy Ziari, CEO of Pasta - "To live life with integrity and empathy, and be a positive force in the lives of others."

Take some time to reflect on the statement that you've written. Does it inspire you? Can you envision yourself leading a life that reflects your mission? Revise it until you are truly happy with it. It's going to be very important to you this year. This is the year you begin living your mission!

This post is the first in a series of posts about personal strategic plans.

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Ashley Bauman, M.S., M.B.A., B.C.C. is the president of Bauman Consulting Group in Loveland, Ohio. She provides training, consulting, and coaching to criminal justice and social service professionals.